Tracy Levine

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After the launch of the first iPhone in 2007, smartphones went from a novelty to an indispensable “must-have” for most people in less than a decade. Not only did consumers come to rely on the versatility of smartphones, but many companies also opted to provide them to staff members so they could easily communicate and even handle some work tasks when out of the office. Since then, the use of technology in homes and offices has exploded, and it’s expected that technology’s role in our personal and work lives will continue to expand in the next few years. Here, 16 members of Forbes Technology Council discuss some tech products and applications they believe will be in widespread use within the next five to 10 years, and why companies and consumers will find them so useful.

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As e-commerce continues to grow, so does the amount of personal data collected and stored by these companies. This puts many e-commerce businesses, especially smaller ones, at an increased risk of cyberattacks, data breaches and other security threats. To protect both their customers and their own reputations, e-commerce companies must implement strong cybersecurity protocols. Below, 15 members of Forbes Technology Council offer their recommendations. By taking these steps, e-commerce companies can better safeguard their customers’ personal information and prevent potentially devastating cyberattacks.

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With access to some of the most sensitive information that exists, lawyers are constantly at risk of being targeted by hackers who seek to exploit their data for personal gain.

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The second generation of the Web, now widely dubbed “Web2,” evolved to help users interact with data, leading to the rise of user-generated content, social media and easy peer-to-peer communication and collaboration. It allows businesses to reach and engage with new audiences and store, access and manage important data in the cloud, among other business-centric functions.  Now, many of us are hearing about the emergence of Web3, which is touted as “decentralized,” “transparent” and “user-controlled.” But what exactly does that mean for businesses and consumers? Below, 15 members of Forbes Technology Council explore and explain specific features that differentiate Web3 from Web2. Read on to discover how Web3 could change the way people and businesses interact with the world online.

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Technology has become an integral part of most businesses, and building new tech for internal purposes is a common occurrence. However, it is crucial to ensure that the tech meets the needs of all employees in the company. As the leader of a tech team, you'll need to find effective ways to collect feedback from the whole company, such as conducting surveys, focus groups and one-on-one interviews. To that end, a panel of Forbes Technology Council members recommended these 16 smart methods that can help you identify the features employees want and the problems they face.

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The growth of wearable technology has resulted in an increase in the development of wearable apps. However, developing a wearable app can be a costly undertaking. A wrong turn in development can lead to a subpar user experience, potentially dooming your app before it even gets off the ground. Here are the all-too-common mistakes that members of Forbes Technology Council urge steering clear of, so leaders can keep their projects on budget and headed for success.

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In recent years, the world has been inundated with stories about the growing use of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies in a variety of business and consumer applications. ChatGPT exploded into the marketplace’s consciousness in early 2023, with millions of users signing on to experiment with the AI-powered content generation tool. Before long, leaders and professionals from multiple industries were touting the benefits of adding the service to their own workflows. ChatGPT’s meteoric rise has only added fuel to the fire when it comes to speculation about how automation could soon transform the workplace. While it’s often predicted that workers will soon have fewer routine, repetitive tasks to do each day, tech experts are also speculating that certain tasks that many assumed would always require full human oversight might soon be handled, or at least helped, by AI tools. Below, 16 members of Forbes Technology Council share their predictions for jobs that might be fully or partially automated in the next 10 years, and why.

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With technology making it easier for hackers to save stolen assets cheaply in the cloud until quantum computing encryption-cracking solutions become available, organizations need a robust security strategy more than ever before if they hope to prevent irreparable damage.

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One of the most challenging aspects of being in a C-level position is having to constantly make choices that impact your company’s success. Needing to make quick decisions all the time can start to feel overwhelming, and people in such positions may find themselves doubting whether they have made the right calls. There are many effective ways for C-level executives to enhance their decision-making skills. Below, 16 members of Forbes Coaches Council discuss some of the best methods for doing so and explain how and why they work.

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Having the right qualifications and experience doesn’t always guarantee someone a leadership position in their company. While internal candidates are typically considered for such positions first, there are some mistakes one can unknowingly make that will boot them out of the running. From personality quirks to misaligned priorities, internal candidates for senior leadership positions are judged on it all. Here, 16 members of Forbes Coaches Council discuss the seemingly minor faux pas that could instantly put them out of the running for such positions.

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Job markets in every industry have faced drastic challenges and changes over the course of the last few years. People in the workforce have changed as well, putting more focus on the personal values that are important to them.  Because of all these changes, the job market in the United States is an exciting and expansive one to be a part of this year. Below, 10 members of Forbes Coaches Council share their best advice for professionals seeking employment in 2022.

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LinkedIn trends have a lot of influence on hiring and recruiting practices. The way businesses and job seekers use the platform can shape the way a company seeks out and onboards new employees, and this can have a big impact on how new roles are filled in the future. Experts expect many of these trends to affect recruiting and hiring in the coming year, and those in the market for new talent should learn how to effectively leverage them. Here, 10 Forbes Coaches Council members offer their predictions around this year’s hottest LinkedIn trends and share ways to prepare for their impact on your own hiring process.

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In the future of work, blockchain is not a technology that will be just part of the IT department; it will be an integral part of how work gets done.

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Not everyone thinks the same way. Rather than aim for conformity among their staff, business leaders should embrace more diverse approaches and thought processes. By offering unique perspectives and innovative solutions, neurodivergent employees can become key players at their companies. To effectively leverage the skills and talent of employees who are not neurotypical, company leaders may need to adopt new policies or adjust certain processes. Below, 13 experts from Forbes Coaches Council look at some of the most productive ways leaders can support neurodivergent employees.

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As companies prepare for the road ahead, there’s no better time to embrace the opportunity to reimagine and shape the future workforce.

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A company’s brand can make or break it. Your branding determines how your business is perceived by consumers; if it is compelling and reaches the right target audiences, it can boost awareness and drive sales. Through memorable visuals and strong storytelling, your brand helps consumers come to recognize both who you are and what kind of value you offer. Once you’ve developed a loyal following, it serves as an ongoing reminder for existing customers that your company is still thriving and there to serve their needs. Thankfully, if you feel in need of a refresh or just want to see better results, building upon or modifying your current branding strategy doesn’t have to be as complicated or expensive as you might think. Below, 13 associates of Forbes Coaches Council share straightforward methods of doing so.

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Marketing professionals agree, podcasting is one of the best ways to develop a following and establish yourself as a thought leader in an industry. However, creating content for a podcast isn’t as simple as other methods of outreach.  While there’s no “right” way to reach an audience through this medium, many approaches have led others to dead ends. Whatever your objectives with podcasting may be, a strong plan is the key to seeing good results. Below, 12 members of Forbes Coaches Council offer their best advice to first-time podcasters to help you figure out the best strategy for success for you.

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Treat your career like a business.

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This year offers the chance to reset your relationship with the future of work by thinking and acting differently.

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While smart professionals understand that a healthy morning routine is essential to success, they might not realize that developing a thoughtful evening routine is just as important to ensure that the next day will be a productive one. Done consistently, nightly preparation will save you time and reduce stress in the morning, providing a lasting boost that keeps you going strong throughout the day. Your evening routine doesn’t have to be complex; even simple actions can make a significant difference in your productivity levels the next day. Below, members of Forbes Coaches Council share 13 ways to improve your nightly routine and set yourself up for a successful tomorrow.

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While leaders aren't self-chosen, inherent charisma and decisiveness often help professionals land in roles where they are responsible for guiding others. There are many ways to position yourself as the go-to authority on a topic at work, but if your peers and colleagues don’t perceive your approach to proving yourself to be a leader in a positive light, your efforts will fall flat.  If you are working in a field dominated by people more experienced than you, though, how can you showcase your own leadership traits without stepping on any toes? Below, 16 contributors to Forbes Coaches Council explore some of the best ways to rise up and stand out as the kind of leader that even your more seasoned peers will respect and appreciate.

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The difference between a reactive and proactive management strategy comes down to workforce planning and using data to manage a new type of workforce. 

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Since its launch in 2003, LinkedIn has served as the premier online platform for professional networking. Over the years, the site has grown rapidly, constantly adjusting to changes in the business landscape. In the wake of a massive shift toward remote work and virtual events, the months and years to come will likely bring more changes for LinkedIn and its users. As successful business and career coaches, the members of Forbes Coaches Council keep their fingers on the pulse of current and emerging industry trends. Below, they share 12 changes and trends they expect to see on LinkedIn in the near future, and how your company can best prepare its branding strategy to leverage them.

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If you’re questioning your current career path and everything you’ve been working toward, you may be experiencing a life crisis. While this time can feel uncertain and defeating, you’re not alone. Many people go through crises at various points in their life and make it through the other side with a renewed sense of purpose and self-understanding. If you’re experiencing a life crisis and currently in doubt about your decisions, try these tips from the members of Forbes Coaches Council to successfully navigate this challenging, but potentially freeing phase in your career.

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Most of us have experienced a hit to our self-confidence at some point. Low self-esteem can come up for various personal and professional reasons, but regardless of origin, it can really take a toll on you in the workplace. Fortunately, just because you’re feeling less than stellar right now doesn’t mean you’ll always feel this way. If you’re feeling insecure in your work, try these 14 tips from Forbes Coaches Council members to boost your confidence, no matter what comes your way.

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Many humans are creatures of habit. They like their routine and feel uncomfortable or hesitant when that consistency is broken. However, change is often needed in the workplace, and it’s crucial to get your team onboard. There are many coaching techniques leaders can use to help overcome resistance to change from their staff. We asked 16 Forbes Coaches Council members to share their best approaches and why they’re so effective.

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The right social skills can help bosses become better leaders. From picking up on social cues to empathizing with their workers, managers must develop these skills to better accommodate their team. We asked members of Forbes Coaches Council which social skills they believe business leaders should master and why. If you want to become a better leader, focus on honing these 15 traits and behaviors.

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In the case of many young professionals, fall is often the time for finding a valuable internship that might lead them into full-time employment afterward. Fall internships can be a critical part of a professional's success. Getting one that acts as a segue into a professional environment is worth doing a bit of preparation. The business world has become quite competitive, especially in its hunt for new talent. Taking a few appropriate steps today can help you to prepare yourself for the inevitable scrutiny any potential employers will have for your past. To help, 16 associates of Forbes Coaches Council weigh in on the strategies that can help young professionals get that fall internship they’ve been looking for.

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In the realm of startups, it's commonplace to see clients as numbers and not individuals. For some companies, this is to their benefit. However, for the vast majority, it can be massively detrimental to the company's prospects and how it does business.  If any of those customers were to realize that they're seen as numbers and not as people, it could have an irreversible impact on the company's public persona. Thus, it's in the company's best interest to start treating its clientele as people, and not as numbers. To this end, 13 professionals from Forbes Coaches Council weigh in on how startups can seek to do this, both for existing clients and new ones.

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It's not ideal seeing a company's bottom line wear away as the business goes through a hard period. In some cases, business owners facing this issue panic and try to take measures they think will reverse the trend. Sadly, this usually has the opposite effect. The company loses its identity in the hunt for profits and eventually even loses the customers it counted as loyal. The first step in resolving this issue is a crucial one. Here, 15 business owners from Forbes Coaches Council detail the first step they would take when it comes to reversing plummeting profits and explain why these initial measures are so good at helping the business recover.

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One of the biggest challenges of being a leader is communicating effectively with a variety of stakeholders. Even the most competent leaders can sometimes have difficulties communicating with their clients, teams and supervisors. However, honing your communication skills and learning how to get your message across clearly is the key to successful leadership. To help, we asked members of Forbes Coaches Council what common communication problems they see among business leaders. Here are 15 issues they've spotted and how they recommend correcting and overcoming them.

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Personal brand safety is protecting the way people and algorithms feel about your brand.

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Based on our upbringing, the automatic response when we do something wrong is to apologize with the word "sorry." Unfortunately, while this is instinctual to many of us, sometimes "sorry" is the wrong word to use. Knowing when is an appropriate time to use that method of apology is a skill in itself. There are several situations where a different, and sometimes unique approach is necessary. Occasionally, saying nothing is a better tactic for keeping the peace. To help leaders understand when “sorry” is appropriate, 11 entrepreneurs from Forbes Coaches Council share several situations where the term should definitely not be used.

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As the world begins to recover from COVID-19, many companies plan to continue working remotely and may do so for the foreseeable future. Whether your team is remote or in-person (or a combination of both), proper management is key to your employees’ and your company’s success. While there are some similarities between managing an in-office and at-home workforce, you’ll need to mindful of the differences between the two setups. Below, the members of Forbes Coaches Council share 15 ways companies can embrace and better manage their remote workforce, and how these techniques compare to operating in-office.

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What you do today will have a direct impact on your level of attractiveness to future employers. This holds true regardless of whether the economic outcomes trend toward the worst-case or the best-case scenario.

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As a professional within a particular field, your influence can make or break your opportunities. Most of the professional areas have a very well-connected network. Earning prestige in a field like that requires much more effort than merely declaring oneself an expert. In such an interconnected space, influence spreads out among the major professionals and the others that contribute occasionally. How can a professional garner influence in such a competitive environment? To help, 16 contributors to Forbes Coaches Council explore some of the strategies an expert can employ to gain an edge within their chosen profession.

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There are numerous roadmaps about how to do branding effectively. In the case of a startup, the number of challenges to overcome may be quite diverse, and taking note of these potential problems and having contingency plans in place is crucial to a branding strategy's success. Startups are usually unique enough, so that typical branding strategies and case studies won't work the same for them, beat for beat. One possible solution is to compile broader, essential factors that could lead to a successful branding strategy. To help with this, 15 associates of Forbes Coaches Council discuss the vital factors that impact a branding strategy and why they're so important.

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With so many employees being productive from their own homes, businesses have adopted a standardized remote-work paradigm. Recent events have made it so that remote work is more important now than ever before. However, amid this change in how companies do business with their employees, a few vital considerations fall by the wayside. Formal remote work guidelines need to be adhered to when it comes to a job. The novelty of the setting means that no standard exists for outlining these procedures as yet. It's left to businesses to determine them on a per-case basis. Fifteen experts from Forbes Coaches Council weigh in on the remote work considerations they think all companies ought to be aware of when drafting these guidelines.

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Graduation means a change in lifestyle. No longer are you a student, but now you face the world as an appropriately qualified professional. There's a world of possibility out there, but unfortunately, a lot of graduates may lack a solid understanding of how the world outside academia works. While degree programs are great at preparing students for performing tasks, their graduates are unprepared for finding work and making contributions to society once they leave. What does a new graduate have to know about entering this new stage of life? These 15 professionals from Forbes Coaches Council offer their insight to graduates on how they should approach this brave, new world.

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Being a stay-at-home parent is a necessity in some households, but as an employable adult, it raises its own issues. Reentering the workforce after being away from it requires a change in attitude, as well as acceptance of the fact your job requirements or the industry as a whole may have changed drastically in your absence. As a stay-at-home parent, you can bring a valuable addition to a company because of your responsibility and the things you've learned about yourself. The key is being honest you’re your employer and in no way selling yourself short. Below, 12 professionals from Forbes Coaches Council discuss some of the things that a former stay-at-home parent should avoid doing when reentering the workforce and what they should be doing instead.

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Everyone has beliefs and experience that shape the way they view the world. No matter how objective we try to be, our deeply-ingrained, unconscious biases can leak into our work -- especially when it comes to hiring. It can be difficult to acknowledge and turn off these biases, but in order to ensure a fair hiring process, companies must try to seek neutrality. To help, we asked 15 Forbes Coaches Council members how companies can fight unconscious bias for a more objective and fair hiring process.

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Being invited to speak at a major conference is a great professional honor. This type of gig can do wonders for your career and personal brand. It allows you to introduce yourself as an industry expert to wide audience of potential professional connections. If you’re looking to take this step, you may not know where to begin. That's why we asked the members of Forbes Coaches Council for their "tricks of the trade" that can help you secure a speaking gig at a large business conference. Their best responses are below.

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Stakeholders are pivotal to the success of a project or business. Whether your stakeholders are internal or external, every good leader knows the importance of keeping them engaged and satisfied. But where do you start? To help you, we asked the members of Forbes Coaches Council how they recommend keeping your stakeholders happy. Below, they share 14 specific and concrete strategies you can take back to your leadership team.

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When you're changing careers, the ease of your transition all depends on your new industry. Sometimes you can seamlessly shift to a new role with your current experience -- and sometimes you need to learn a whole new set of skills, whether it's through a formal degree program or online education.As experienced coaching professionals, many Forbes Coaches Council members have helped their clients change careers across various sectors. If you’re thinking of switching fields, here are 10 fast-changing industries where you’ll need to go back to school before you make the leap.

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The first quarter of the year is always a great time to look for a new job. This is especially true in 2020, when job growth is high and unemployment is low. However, things have changed in the world of job hunting, and it's important to understand how to efficiently and effectively conduct your search in the current labor market. To help you, we asked the members of Forbes Coaches Council for their best advice for job seekers right now. Read on for their top tips.

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Professional social influencers move the needle in their industry and society, and they can also be a powerful marketing tool for winning the talent war.

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Choosing a career is a major decision. Even if you end up switching careers down the line, the first step you take into the working world will impact the entirety of your professional journey. But as someone with multiple interests, skills and passions, it can be difficult to narrow in on just one industry that best represents your goals and dreams. To help you find the right path, 15 members of Forbes Coaches Council shared advice for deciding on the best career for you. Follow their advice to learn about yourself and point yourself in an ideal professional direction.

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The business world is constantly changing based on emerging technologies and market demands. Jobs that didn’t exist just a decade or two ago, like social media manager and app developer, are now leading career paths. This year, we can anticipate even more shifts in market needs that will spur a new wave of talent demand. For job seekers and employers alike, it’s important to keep up with these shifts and keep an eye on areas with a lot of promise and opportunity. Below, a panel of Forbes Coaches Council members shared the job and career paths they think will experience the most growth and popularity in 2020 and beyond.

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The five-hour rule is a process for constant and deliberate learning.

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Finding a new job can be tedious and exhausting. Sometimes, even getting an interview can be a challenge. When you do have a successful interview, though, receiving an offer feels like you've made it to the finish line. However, you shouldn't accept an offer without thoroughly evaluating whether the job fits your values and career goals. Below, 12 members of Forbes Coaches Council each share the one thing a job seeker should do or ask to make sure a company is the right fit for them.

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