Krista Neher

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Success in any industry, including technology, often depends on how well a company can keep up with the latest news and trends in its field. In today's rapidly evolving tech landscape, it's essential for organizations to stay up-to-date with the latest industry changes to remain competitive and relevant. Failure to keep pace with the latest trends and innovations can result in missed opportunities, loss of market share and ultimately, business failure. To stay ahead of the curve, organizations need to continuously educate themselves on the latest technological developments, anticipate emerging trends and be ready to adapt their business models accordingly. To help you do this, 15 Newsweek Expert Forum members shared some of the best ways for organizations to stay informed about industry changes in tech and explained why doing so is crucial for their long-term success.

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Reaching out to peers for support is a great way to work through negative feelings. The last few years have brought many changes across personal and professional lives across the globe. While some of the changes have been positive, such as the prioritization of work-life balance, other changes like persistent uncertainty are causing many professionals to feel overwhelmed.  As experts, the members of Newsweek Expert Forum are familiar with the toll professional life can have on a person. Below 14 of them offer coping tactics that can help reduce overwhelm and get professionals back on track.

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By providing ongoing support, leadership can ensure that a manager has the tool and resources to succeed. Great managers are critical to the success of an organization. These managers sometimes step into the role already possessing innate traits and experiences that will help them succeed as leaders, but management as a skill should also be taught. If an organization builds systems to develop and shape the skills of their talent on an ongoing basis, leadership decreases the chances of creating and perpetuating bad management behaviors that negatively impact the culture and operations of the business.  To help leaders ensure managers are performing at their best, 13 Newsweek Expert Forum members share specific actions they can take to increase the effectiveness of their managers.

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Having a deep understanding of yourself and your own goals can help prevent feelings of inadequacy. From Instagram and Twitter to now even LinkedIn, having a presence online today means constantly reading about what everyone has going on. This includes the life updates that people typically post but social media has also increased people’s tendency to primarily share the highlights rather than the entire picture. While this is not a bad thing on its own, constantly viewing the success of your peers can amplify your own feelings of inadequacy around personal and professional failures. Simply deciding to take a step back is one approach to consider, but it can negatively impact your relationships with peers over time. Below, 14 Newsweek Expert Forum members share recommendations for how professionals can connect and maintain healthy relationships with peers without comparing themselves to others’ success and accomplishments.

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To set first-time leaders up for success, organizations have to create processes that offer support and flexibility. Whether a first-time leader has been promoted or is newly hired into the organization, the systems a business has in place are critical for that leader to overcome the obstacles they will inevitably face. As experts, the members of Newsweek Expert Forum are familiar with business procedures that can help new leaders feel supported. Read on as 13 of them offer recommendations on what organizations should do to build systems that help first-time leaders succeed in their roles.

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Leveraging data from the past year as well as feedback from employees and customers can give businesses insight into what initiatives to explore next. With the end of 2022 fast approaching, many businesses are already deep into planning for 2023. And while a new year offers a chance to try something new, market instability and the looming threat of a potential recession are increasing the amount of pressure felt by business leaders. Luckily, they don't always have to start from scratch when it comes to finding fresh ideas. Looking back at the successes and failures of the current year can offer insight into what initiatives would be best to explore or where an organization can pivot if something isn't bringing in the desired results. However, it's also key for businesses to keep a close eye on markets and customers because they too can provide guidance. To offer further insights, 14 Newsweek Expert Forum members share additional tips for business leaders as they continue planning for Q1.

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Even the most experienced of leaders can struggle when it comes to managing several different priorities. Between catering to the needs of customers, ensuring employees are engaged, remaining true to the values of the organization and staying compliant on changing laws, running a business naturally requires entrepreneurs to balance several different priorities all at once. No matter how experienced a leader is or how top-notch their juggling skills are, any person would struggle with these responsibilities. Stepping outside of the mindset that they have to handle everything alone is a key first step for many leaders. Below, 12 Newsweek Expert Forum members each share one additional approach leaders can take when managing multiple projects and priorities.

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The goal of the audit is to understand your performance and the changes you can make to accelerate your success.

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Developing a process to manage your sales pipeline helps ensure the business is constantly operating at maximum efficiency. The management of a business’s sales pipeline is continuous work that never really finishes. From prospecting potential customers and closing deals to checking in with customers and generating new leads, sales is a process in which leaders must take care to ensure there is a set structure in place for both finding new prospects and retaining existing ones. Investing time and effort into improving sales process management is a great way to increase efficiency, but knowing where and how to implement changes that will make a difference isn’t a simple task. To help, 12 Newsweek Expert Forum members share strategies for how leaders can effectively approach managing a business's sales pipeline.

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Before taking on any additional work, it's best to ensure you and your team have the capacity to complete the work. An increase in workload is one indication that a business is doing well in a market. However, if the capacity of the current team is not considered alongside growing responsibilities, a business may end up with too much work and no ability to ensure it’ll be done in a timely manner.  To help dial back and shift focus before efficiency decreases, 14 Newsweek Expert Forum members each share one critical sign that a leader or business has too many projects going on at once. 

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Before addressing any activism in the workplace, leaders need to have a well-developed approach. With racial justice protests, labor shortages, a global pandemic and a budding “quiet quitting” movement, the workplace of the past few years has undergone many changes. While it may have been easier to draw distinctions between one’s professional and personal beliefs in years past, it is growing increasingly difficult for leaders to keep these boundaries in the work environment in place as employees now expect leadership to stand for their values and take a side.   If leaders do decide to take action, it’s best to prepare beforehand with a well-thought-out strategy. To help you determine the best approach, 14 Newsweek Expert Forum members offer recommendations on how leaders can respond to growing employee activism in the workplace.

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Rather than let the idea of change hold them back, business leaders can see change as a way to increase their chances of future success. When a habit shows success, it can be difficult to adopt different practices, even when success is limited or comes at a cost. This is a common occurrence in business when leaders become so dedicated to doing something the way it has always been done that they are unintentionally sabotaging their future success.  Knowing where to start when making changes isn’t easy, but one of the first steps leaders can take is simply committing to the act of making changes for the better. Below, 10 Newsweek Expert Forum members share further advice on what leaders should do to address and break their own bad habits.

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TikTok will likely continue to grow in the next year, so as you plan for the next year, it is important to consider if your business should be on the platform.

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Industry credibility and brand recognition are critical if you hope to optimize your business for its target market. With major competitors vying for the top spot in any industry, making a name for your business and improving the market can be a difficult journey. As a new business owner, this means you’ll need to dedicate plenty of time to learning and researching the industry to understand where your business can offer improvements.  As business leaders, the members of Newsweek Expert Forum have dealt with the challenge of breaking into the industry and gaining credibility and recognition. Below, they offer 15 tried-and-true tips for entrepreneurs attempting to optimize the market.