Spectrum Brands 2016 Year in Review!

2016 was a banner year for Spectrum Brands. Here are just ten highlights from the past 12 months:

1. Our Dayton, Ohio facility opens in January! Read more about it on our blog here and in the Dayton Business Journal. We’ve been hiring like crazy and can’t wait to get a running start on 2017.
2. Madison’s favorite newspaper The Isthmus went behind the scenes at our Remington Shave Lab at our world headquarters in Middleton, Wisconsin. Check out the feature here.
3. We held an amazing Community Volunteer Day in both Middleton and St. Louis, Missouri. We helped the Clean Lakes Alliance pull up invasive weeds and assisted Gateway Greening with their community gardens. Check out all the photos here.
4. Our Pet Home and Garden Lowe’s Team was recognized as 2016 Lawn and Garden Innovation Partner of the Year.
5. Spectrum Brands took on the Zika virus with Cutter Insect Repellent and Repel. We donated 55,000 units to areas and people most in need, including pregnant women in the USVI.
6. Our George Foreman brand was a big hit on QVC. We debuted the The George Foreman® Five Serving Grill & Broil™ with Five Nonstick Plates as a Today’s Special Value.
7. Cutter Insect Repellent was named the official sponsor of the men’s and women’s U.S. Soccer teams. Read more about the partnership in this news release.
8. Rayovac celebrated 110 years! The brand is still going strong after all this time with partnerships with major players like Walt Disney World.
9. Most importantly, we celebrated another banner year at Spectrum Brands! Our stock price has doubled in the past three years and this is the 7th consecutive year of financial growth.
10. With all this growth, it’s no wonder that we are expanding. The expansion of our world headquarters should be done next year!

What a year! We can’t wait to see what 2017 brings us.

How to Delegate Effectively at Work

Delegating isn’t always easy. If you’re a perfectionist, it’s hard to let go of even the most menial task. If you’re a little more unorganized, it’s hard to plan ahead and assign tasks to others. But think of delegating this way: it’s all about empowering others. And it frees up your time, allows you to focus on other tasks, and showcases your leadership skills.

The other key takeaway to remember when it comes to delegating is that you’re not just delegating a task. You’re delegating the “responsibility and authority” too. This article by Forbes does a fantastic job of outlining the necessary steps for successful delegation. It showcases advice from Jan Yager, in her book Work Less, Do More. Here’s a recap of how to delegate effectively at work:

1. Define what tasks can be delegated (What tasks don’t require your personal touch?)
2. Pick the best person to assign those tasks to and trust them completely. (Who’s a natural fit with the right skills?)
3. Create a clear assignment and deadline. (Build in a check-in point to ease your fears.)
4. Give credit to that person publicly. (Remember, this is a mentor relationship and you should aim inspire loyalty.)

Read the full article at Forbes.

Image via john.schultz/Flickr.

Why a Hobby is Good For Your Career

Hobbies can be simple like reading a new book, learning new recipes, or buying some art supplies. Or, it could be a bigger commitment like taking guitar lessons, training for a marathon, or learning a new language. Here are a few reasons why hobbies can make your personal life and work life even better.

1. You won’t dread Mondays.
   Life isn’t all about work, and you may start your work week on a more positive note if you have something exciting to look forward to. Those Sunday Scaries will be overshadowed by that awesome thing you have planned later this week.
2. You’ll be more productive.
   When your free time is already filled with something you love, they’ll be no time for work to creep into your personal life. It may be a lot easier to stay focused when you have no choice but to get the work done in the time allotted.
3. You’ll feel energized.
   Doing something you love is, well, energizing! It may make you happier and more confident. There’s nothing wrong with that!
4. You’ll have something (else) to talk about at work.
   We would go so far as to argue that hobbies make you more interesting. Not only are you learning new skills but you’re also likely meeting new people, which makes for good conversation.
5. You’ll feel less stressed.
   Hobbies are a good source of relaxation. It’s essentially a mandatory “me time” that’s scheduled somewhere consistently within your work week.

Image via Angela Quitoriano/Flickr.

10 Ways to Delegate at Work and at Home

Delegating your tasks is no easy feat. There are many reasons why: you may be a bit of a control freak and think you can do the task better. Or you may be so overwhelmed that you don’t even have time to explain the task to somebody else.

But there are many more reasons why delegating is good for you. For one, burnout is real. When your brain is frazzled, every task you perform thereafter will not be your best work. Secondly, you can’t do everything alone–and you don’t need to. Work life and home life blend into each other, and something has got to give.

Sometimes delegating costs a little bit more time up front. Sometimes it costs more money up front. Other times it costs a bit of your power, control, or recognition. You’ll have to analyze if these costs are worth the sanity and extra time you’ll get in the long run. Here are 10 ideas to get you started.

AT WORK:

1. Outsource specific portions of projects to trusted freelancers.
2. Redefine processes and responsibilities so the best and most appropriate people and team tackle each step.
3. Start an internship program so smaller projects that have previously been overlooked can get a jump start.
4. Hire part-time temporary help to overcome an especially stressful time of year.
5. Establish clear “assembly line”-type processes with specific step-by-step directions to, in a sense, “automate” projects where possible.

AT HOME:

1. Sign up for a laundry pick-up and delivery service.
2. Order your groceries online and have them delivered to your door.
3. Hire a weekly or monthly house cleaner.
4. Look into a meal delivery service.
5. Divide up chores evenly among your family.

Image via Mufidah Kassalias/Flickr.

5 Important Career Resolutions For 2017

Your list of personal goals for 2017 may be long, but how many of them are focused on your career? Just like in life, you career can be drastically improved with a few small changes. The following goals are manageable but not meager. Which one tops your list?

1. Update your resume and LinkedIn.
   The end of the year is a great time to add a bullet point to your resume, update your job title, or change your profile photo. If you don’t keep track of your achievements–annually at the very least!–it’s too easy for important details to slip through the cracks.
2. Make new connections.
   Expand your network in both the online and offline worlds. Add the folks you’ve met over the past year as LinkedIn connections and then research upcoming local events or conferences that can help you expand your network further in the new year. Here are some networking tips that will help you even if you can’t stand the word.
3. Expand your role.
   Make it a goal to take on a new project, join a new team, or raise your hand for something new. When you expand your role, you meet new people, learn new things, and potentially increase your chance for promotion.
4. Learn how to delegate better.
   Analyze both your work life and your personal life (think laundry, cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, etc.) and see how you can better manage your daily workload. While it may cost more to, for example, order your groceries online, the time it saves may be worth your money. At work, don’t be afraid to ask for help or trust others to do their part fully and completely if you have micromanager tendencies.
5. Get a career mentor.
   You’re never too experienced–or inexperienced–for a mentor. We’ve covered how to find a career mentor and the various reasons why it’s great for your career. You can also consider becoming a mentor for someone else.

Image via ||read||/Flickr.

The Top 5 Productivity Killers

In order to be more productive, you need to better understand yourself and your bad habits. Sure, we all have our little quirks but when it comes to workplace productivity, we can all agree on a few common distractions. According to a 2015 survey by CareerBuilder, these are the top five workplace attention destroyers. Memorize these productivity killers and then try to overcome them today at work. You can do it!

1. Cell phones/texting

2. Internet

 

3. Gossip

4. Social media

5. Email