An Employee's Guide to Staying Relevant & Vital Inside their Company

For employees across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has created uncertainty at an unprecedented speed. Unlike global financial crises of the past, very few people saw this coming and even fewer predicted the magnitude and impact of the virus on economies around the world. As a consequence, many businesses have suffered with millions of people either relieved of their duties or placed on furlough. For those still in work, precautionary measures such as social distancing have increased the challenges.

A Quick Introduction by Amit Vyas

Working from home is new to most people, so how can employees overcome the lack of face to face interaction with business stakeholders to stay both relevant and vital to the business now and in the future?

As an employer of people across continents, I understand the role and responsibilities that me and my partners at Nexa have. We also understand the challenges that employees are facing at this time perhaps with even greater uncertainty ahead.  To help reduce the impact of this, I believe it's important for employers to set expectations of their staff in order to give a company and its employees every possible chance of survival through this crisis and others that may follow.

While I have experience managing people within the confines of my business, I believe it's important to help others with content that has value outside of my industry and so I recruited the help Liz Capants, the Founder & President of EBC Associates, one of New York's most experienced Global Recruitment & Staffing Solutions companies, to provide greater insights using the experience of others, that will hopefully provide inspiration to those requiring assistance at this time.

EBC Associates work with a variety of people, across industries helping them to  successfully develop their careers.  For the purpose of this article, they provided access to three of their high-achieving clients, who provided insights into their experiences, highlighting key moments that helped them to be successful:

• Frederick Brimberg - Award Winning, International Equity Portfolio Manager
• James Camacho - Professional Standup Comedian
• Elisa Chrysanthis - President & CEO, Shore Consulting, LLC

Tell us something about yourself that is not on your resume.

James Camacho: "I am a big fan of Major League Baseball. When I was child I memorized every single baseball stat from 2001 and on. I collected baseball cards. I read newspapers only to study the sports sections. I even used to create my own fantasy baseball statistics in notebooks. I played 2nd base as a teenager. This love for the game is still with me. One of my perks of being a professional comedian is that I get to travel the country.

Every time I work in a city with a MLB baseball team I got to a game. A goal of mine is to visit all 30 major league baseball stadiums. I do this entirely for myself. I’ll go to games even if it means I have to go alone. Honestly I might prefer it that way. Along with being on stage the only other thing that makes me feel perfect and at home is sitting in the stands at a ball game with a bag of peanuts. My parents never traveled and could never take me to games so in a weird way taking myself out to the ballgame makes me feel like I’m finally able to support myself by doing the things I always wanted to do." 

Frederick Brimberg: "It is said that, “If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.”  That is me.  I get up early, I go to bed early, and I love to read research.  My hobbies are relative trivialities in my life. I dabble in tennis, playing with my wife, and we own a 14’ zodiac we scoot around on occasionally, but my home life is important to me."

Elisa Chrysanthis: "I truly believe that the clients’ needs come first.  Clients are looking for a partner that can help them solve their current challenges and will work with them to plan for the future as well.  Clients care less about the system you are using or products that you present to them; they are more interested in if you can help them solve their problems and the benefits that can be reaped from the solution that is implemented.

So many organizations want to market their products and services when instead they should be highlighting the benefits their solutions offer and the challenges that they solve for today and in the future.   From the client perspective this makes much more sense and gets a lot more traction as they see that the organization really does understand their challenges and can provide a solution that will benefit them by saving time, automating processes, reducing costs, reducing days sales outstanding, etc.

When marketing to clients the focus should be on their challenges and needs and the benefits that a solution can provide them with not only now, but also well into the future."

Tell us about your proudest professional accomplishment.

James Camacho: "My proudest professional accomplishment is becoming a paid weekend act at The Comic Strip Live. The Comic Strip Live is a legendary comedy club in New York City.  Jerry Seinfeld, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, and many other famous comedians got their start there. To be in this amazing company and to earn the trust of the bookers and owners to deliver for weekend crowds is my most humbling achievement.  2nd place is getting invited to join SAG-AFTRA"

Frederick Brimberg:  "Three items stand out: (1) Outperforming by 15 percentage points in 2008 without going to cash. (2) Being one of the few equity portfolio managers to make the turn in 2009 and outperform in both years.  (3) Being named a Top Gun by PSN Informa for the 10 years ended 2016 in the EAFE/International Equity category. "

Elisa Chrysanthis: "I would have to say one of my proudest professional moments has to do with my ability to take in a situation and adapt to the environment in a very short period of time – essentially shifting on a dime. I was at a major conference in charge of all of the event marketing as well as the content and content strategy.  One of our colleagues had a keynote speaking session scheduled on global liquidity and what the future holds. Three hours before his session, I was notified that he would be unable to make it.  I quickly put my thinking cap on to figure out how to salvage this session and its contents.  I knew that no-one at our organization could speak to the whole presentation, so I contacted the Global Head of Product Management and the Global Head of Sales, whom were both at the conference; I told them what was going on and pitched the idea of having a panel discussion instead, with not only the institution I was working for, but with other institutions as panel participants.  These were folks that were in attendance at the conference and were already familiar with the subject matter. 

Within an hour, the Global Head of Product Management and the Global Head of Sales were able to contact these folks and get buy-in from three individuals to be on a panel discussing global liquidity.  We then had a short meeting where the presentation was given to each participant.  We changed the format to a three-minute speech keying up the specific liquidity topics and then had the Head of Product Management from our organization, moderate a question and answer session, where each participant would answer two questions and others could chime in.  Not only was the session a success; it got the highest session rating of the entire conference!"

Describe a time when you faced a problem and took the initiative to correct it rather than waiting for someone else to do it.

James Camacho: "The Coronavirus has been one of the biggest problems I have faced in my life. The virus shut down the entertainment industry effectively putting me out of a job, and preventing me from doing what I love. But I haven’t been waiting around for things to get better, and I haven’t been depending on the phone to ring.

Since the Coronavirus, I have been resilient and productive acquiring two writing jobs, beefing up my social media content, filming sizzles reels to pitch to networks, and reopening my sneaker selling business. From comedy, I have learned that you can’t rely on others. I do everything I can do. I learned it isn’t successful to put yourself in a situation where you have to depend too much on others."

Frederick Brimberg:  "Early in my career, as a lead portfolio manager, I was behind my benchmark (EAFE, the standard benchmark for developed international equities) by several hundred basis points.  I thought I was right about the investment landscape, but I decided I was too early, so I reversed course temporarily (for about 6 months) before I went back to my original thesis, when we were closer to the relevant facts on the ground unfolding with resounding results."

Elisa Chrysanthis:  "The financial services industry is heavily regulated so every time marketing content is created it needs to be approved by legal and compliance in every country that you will be marketing it in and if it’s on the web then it needs to be approved globally.

One organization I worked with required legal and compliance approval from regional teams and sometimes depending on the content, from local legal and compliance teams.  As you can imagine, just keeping track of the approvals and answering questions can take up a lot of time.  To alleviate having so many people involved and being in charge of the back and forth, I contacted the Global Head of Compliance and the Global Head of Legal to see if we could come up with a better solution.  For legal, it was agreed that I would send an email to the US legal person and they would forward on and coordinate with their colleagues in the appropriate regions/countries and come back to me with consolidated comments. Compliance was a bit trickier.  For global products, they were happy to spearhead the same way that legal had agreed however, for smaller offerings that were available in a few countries, those legal and compliance contacts still needed to be reached out to individually. 

All in all, it was a big win for me as most of the offerings I was marketing were global and this new process improved turnaround time by 2 -3 business days and I would receive one set of consolidated global comments from legal and one set from compliance." 

Give us an example of a time you were able to be creative with your work. What was exciting or difficult about it?

James Camacho: "My work in itself is all about being creative. However, even with creative fields there are guidelines that most people follow. Most comics just write jokes and tell jokes. A creative thing I did was I incorporating the Meisner acting technique into my stand-up.  At one point, I felt that my stand-up was too monotone and still. After watching video and simultaneously taking a Meisner acting class, I realized that performance is a big part of stand-up comedy, not solely telling jokes. Doing this helped me tremendously. I am now getting more laughs onstage, while feeling like my real natural self.

What was exciting about it this was the difficulty. The first couple weeks of trying this new method onstage felt uncomfortable and I bombed a lot, but after some time, I began to see the positive results and get more comfortable. One thing about a true stand-up is that we live for feelings of excitement and uncertainty when trying new things onstage."

Frederick Brimberg: "Learning new, more sophisticated valuation techniques using cash flow return on investment was very exciting. There were barriers to entry, others did not seem to be interested, and it worked!  Finding a better quantimental (quant plus fundamental) mouse trap for equity investing is exciting."

Elisa Chrysanthis:  "In one position I held, I was Head of Marketing for the US and was in charge of product marketing, content, content strategy and events.  At this point in time, no one really knew who our company was in the U.S., so I wanted to make a bold statement at a very high profile industry event to attract traffic to the booth. The theme was “Taking the Americas to New Heights.”  We hired Olympic gold medalists and Olympic hopefuls to do a seven-minute trampoline routine every half hour at our booth. 

While performing the trampoline routine, these athletes had either snowboards or skis on with the organization’s logo on the bottom of them so the logo could be seen throughout the convention center.  The difficult part was senior management buy-in.  All was approved up until two weeks before the conference.  Folks started to get nervous that this might be too far outside the box.  After making a business case and staking my reputation on it, we were approved to move forward. 

The conference was a success. We had more foot traffic than ever before and created awareness by strategically timing product launches/announcements, right before a trampoline routine, giving folks information about our organization that they otherwise wouldn’t have known. Clients were saying, “I didn’t know you provided these services in the U.S.” This gave our sales people an “in” to meet with clients and discuss what their challenges were and how our organization might be able to help."

Tell me about a time you were dissatisfied with your work. What could have been done to make it better?

James Camacho: "I am often dissatisfied with my work. This sounds bad but I strive for excellence, or whatever is closest to perfection. Whenever a set doesn’t go well, or I didn’t feel it was a 10 out of 10, I feel like I could have done better. Recently I was opening for Damon Wayans Jr. for 10 shows. There was one show that, even though it went well, I was still not totally happy with it because I felt I was a little in my head. What I could have done to make it better was to do more prep for the show, write out my jokes, watch more tape of past sets and study the crowd better. And you better believe that I did that and the rest of the shows were great.

Even when 9 out of 10 shows are great it doesn’t mean I am totally satisfied. I don’t know if I ever will be."

Frederick Brimberg: "Sometimes investment climates go through fundamental changes that are difficult to perceive at the time.  Being more attuned to that change without changing my basic underlying investment principles would have been helpful.   There is no short cut to being better attuned. It simply takes minding my craft on a daily basis and being efficient in the choices I make of what to read."

Elisa Chrysanthis:  "We were promoting a global product to a finite audience of 250 clients whom sales felt would benefit from this offering.  Like most products this solution was multi-faceted and could solve for more than one challenge.  We made the decision to create a video series for this solution set and send a monthly email out to clients (for a period of three months) with a link to a video, which was hosted on our web site where there was additional information on this solution set. 

For the first email communication, we received an open-rate and click-through-rate that was higher than the industry benchmarks, which by all indications is good. However, both the sales and product organization were disappointed as they felt the click-through-rate should be close to 100% as the list was curated and these clients were already interested in the solution.  For the next two months, we sent out a different email with a different video on the same solution set.  Open rates declined, however there were a handful of organizations that opened the email, clicked on each video, watched it in its entirety and forwarded the email to colleagues.  These clients were clearly interested and we reported back to sales so they could follow up to ask for a meeting, make a presentation or close the sale. 

Although I think this campaign served its purpose, looking back I could have done a better job of managing expectations with email campaigns, open-rates, click-through-rates, etc.  Every campaign I conducted after this I made sure that all involved understood what a successful campaign would look like, what the ROI might be, etc.  It was a learning experience and I think that internal communication and knowing what to expect at each phase of the campaign is key for all stakeholders so that everyone is on the same page."

Key takeaways:

(1) Don't be satisfied with average performance

Top quality work always stands out from the others and employers are normally quick to identify this. Now more than ever, it's important that your work and performance in general, stands out. With social distancing and work from home policies, employees should have more time to focus on their work without the distractions of a daily commute or other travel. Use this extra time to conduct more research, apply this into your work and the results will undoubtedly be clear to see.

Tips to help you increase performance:

• Set yourself personal challenges related to your work.
• Collaborate with others - Take advice from colleagues or team members that don't necessarily think the same way you do.  Getting other perspectives may help you generate new ideas that could be applied to your business.
• Communicate your ideas and thoughts with line managers and senior management (if possible). This increases personal accountability and should inspire you to strive for more.

(2) Be innovative and think on the fly

Ask any business owner and they'll tell you that at times of uncertainty or recession, there are many new opportunities that arise and can be explored.  Proactive employees can not only help the opportunity ideation process but also take the lead on researching its viability for the business.  Whether it's a new product, a service add-on or an entirely new business idea, employees that think with an entrepreneurial mindset will stand out from others and potentially, create greater value for the company. When times are tough, business owners are more inclined to work closer with team members who can innovate, ideate, think quickly and execute rather than those who need constant supervision.

Tips to help you be more innovative at work:

• Educate yourself on areas of the business that complement what you do in your current role. By increasing your learning and understanding of the business, you may see synergies and opportunities that you otherwise wouldn't.
• Look at what's happening elsewhere. Maybe start with local competitors, or perhaps those located internationally. What are they doing? Does it makes sense? If you see some merit in exploring further, ask yourself if the idea could work for your company and if so, what would the potential revenue model look like?
• Sometimes the craziest ideas are the best. Elon Musk is famous for stating that he actually believed that his two companies SpaceX and Tesla would fail in their early days of operation as they were so 'out there' but he persevered and made these highly successful.
• Ignore fear. You may have the best idea that can take your company to new levels but are afraid to share this. Don't be. Even if your idea doesn't get adopted, your employers will value your input, recognize your entrepreneurial spirit and think differently of you.

(3) Stand by what you believe but be prepared to make temporary strategy changes

We live in a far from ideal world right now and the reality is that your business is operating on a month to month or week by week basis rather than on typical, long-term planning and projections. That can have a direct impact on your role and it's therefore important that you stay flexible to the needs of the business and your clients.

If you've created a fantastic, long-term strategy, ask yourself if this needs to be revised due to the current business climate. What's changed? What is the impact on demand? Are there new opportunities for your business or your clients that need to be explored?

Tips to help you be more agile at work:

• Listen. Increase communication with internal stakeholders and with clients and customers. What are their needs? What help do they need?
• Collaborate. Do your clients and customers need a product or service that you don't offer? Do you know other businesses that can help? Start having conversations with those that can and work on a commercial deal that makes sense for all parties.
• Be proactive. As strange as it sounds, your clients and customers may be unsure of what they need right now. If you proactively encourage thought-provoking conversations, you may help to unearth new opportunities for them and for your business.
• Be resilient. It's tough out there and your best laid plans and strategies may need to be put on hold. Don't worry about it. Do what you need to do in this moment to help your business or the business of your clients survive and re-introduce your plans when the time is right.

(4) Don't play it safe / be brave and put your neck on the line

Sadly, we live in a culture of fear with constant reminders of why we need to play it safe. But at times like these, playing it safe may not be your best policy. If you have an opportunity to speak up, do so and try to eliminate any negativity that stops you from doing so. The worst emotional feeling is one of regret driven by 'what-if' questions. 'What if I'd have said this?' or 'What if I had done that?' are two consequential questions that people ask themselves when an opportunity has been lost.

Tips on how to be braver at work

• Know your why.  It would be foolish to stick your neck out unless you had the facts and information to back this up. So engage in some research and be prepared to back up your hunch.
• Look at risk v reward. We're often guilty of letting doubts of a small risk overcome potential, larger rewards but now isn't the time to let this happen. Measure the risk of your actions carefully, use data wherever possible and use this as the basis to follow your instinct.
• Make friends with your inner critic. We all have one; the little voice inside your head that wakes up whenever we think about a decision that needs to be made. Often, this inner critic is helping you to assess risks and help you to overcome fear. Fear as a concept, is designed to keep you safe. If we didn't experience fear, we'd be much more prone to making extreme decisions, without perhaps thinking the consequences through. But fear can also discourage us from making the right decisions. Think about this the next time you have an urge to suggest something that may positively impact your business.

(5) Manage expectations but be real with the benchmarks you set

Managing expectations is a big part of an employee's role whether it be to manage those of internal stakeholders or with clients or customers and being a master of this practise can save you immense amounts of stress and pain! But managing expectations isn't as easy as it may seem and requires skill in determining a suitable outcome and confidence in your ability to stand by it.

It's important to stress that managing expectations should also not be construed as a fail-safe to perform at a sub-standard or simply adequate level, irrespective of the business climate we are in.

Tips on how to better manage internal or client expectations

• Educate those who are impacted. Make no assumptions about what people know and use this as an opportunity to educate them about your field, your work and why you expect the outcomes to be as they are. Educated stakeholders who fully understand what you are trying to achieve are more likely to agree to your forecasted outcomes.
• Communicate frequently. The best way to manage expectations is to engage in regular communication with your stakeholders. This doesn't just mean informing them if something changes along the way that might impact the outcomes.  Schedule periodic updates so that both parties are privy to the latest information that can improve or influence performance. Whatever you do, don't wait until the end of project report to start your communication, especially if the actual outcomes are lower than what was projected.
• Don't be afraid to push back. You have to be comfortable that the expectations of stakeholders are both achievable and realistic. If they are not, it's important that you can demonstrate why and suggest more achievable goals. If additional resources are required to meet the expectations, provide reasons why, pointing to data metrics whenever possible.

In conclusion

The insights provided in the article offer very different perspectives with the common goal being to succeed in whatever you do.  The current COVID-19 crisis and possible future recession will present many challenges for employees across the globe.  The examples taken from the professionals above as well as the tips provided should help employees focus on what's important, how they can positively support the needs of business and in doing so, stay relevant and vital to the business.

Thank you to the contributors

Elisa Chrysanthis is a Strategic Global Marketing Executive and the President & CEO of Shore Consulting.  Shore Consulting provides next generation marketing advice, strategy and execution services to multi-national, regional and local organizations.

We offer an “outside the box” perspective, strategically targeting clients' needs and the benefits specific solutions will bring them, fostering awareness, consideration and engagement of the brand. Our scope of work spans from specific projects to all-inclusive, end-to-end, marketing strategies.

Frederick Brimberg’s career spans activities in investment management, trading, and capital markets. Prior to joining Duff & Phelps Investment Management in 2016, Mr. Brimberg was a senior managing director and senior portfolio manager at Euclid Advisors, another affiliate of Virtus Investment Partners, beginning in 2012.

Mr. Brimberg was a senior vice president and international equity portfolio manager at Avatar Associates where he started the international equity strategy in 2006. Earlier, he was vice president and portfolio manager for ING Investment Management with a focus on the developed international equity products. 

From 1990 to 2000, Mr. Brimberg held several positions at Lexington Management, including as a research analyst specializing in cyclical sectors within the domestic, developed international, and emerging markets. Earlier in his financial career, he was a partner at Brimberg & Co., a New York Stock Exchange member firm, and he worked in institutional equity sales at Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb Inc.

Mr. Brimberg earned a B.A. in psychology from Washington & Lee University, and an M.B.A., with a concentration in finance, from New York University.

James Camacho is a NYC based comedian via NJ. James is an only child that grew up with a Chinese mom and Puerto Rican dad. He has a great uniqueness, likability, and boyish charm that make him one of the most hilarious and polished young comedians out there! 

James has been seen on "Kevin Can Wait" on CBS, "A Crime to Remember" on the ID channel, & on commercials for Parker Waichman, Dunkin Donuts, ESPN & Vice. He just filmed a role in the upcoming movie "God the Worm" with Willie Garson & Annabelle Sciorra & was in the movie "What Happened Last Night" with Amber Rose, & the movie "The Golden Phoenix. 

He also appeared in Jay-Z's music video for "I Got the Keys" with DJ Khaled & in a viral video for Cosmopolitan.com.  He has a podcast centered around high school called, "I'm Just A Kid!".  He opens for Netflix's, Lynne Koplitz.  His home club is The Comic Strip Live in NYC, where Jerry Seinfeld & Adam Sandler shot their Netflix specials. 

In a time of political turmoil and social unrest James' point of view & comedic tellings of his mixed heritage, and personal and dating life is enjoyable and relaxing for everyone. Follow him @CAMACHBRO Instagram for funny videos and Twitter for daily jokes!  You can find him on Instagram, Twitter & TikTok: @camachbro or Facebook.com/Jamesycamacho 

The Authors

Amit Vyas is the CEO at Nexa, a Growth Agency with offices in Dubai, New York and Manchester.  Amit Co-founded the business in 2005 and has worked and strategized with leading global businesses helping them to digitally transform their sales, CRM and marketing operations.  Amit's a keen golfer, avid football fan and passionate entrepreneur.

Liz Capants founded EBC Associates, LLC in 2006, and has grown the business from a boutique start-up venture to a business network of affiliate partnerships to drive growth.
In her work, Liz supports emerging growth, midsize enterprises, as well as Fortune 500
companies.  Liz consults with businesses in areas such as staffing plans identifying key hires, employee retention strategies, marketing and curated events and organizational strategy.  Liz's home and business are located in New York City.

About Nexa

At Nexa, we pride ourselves on being forward thinking, rational and objective, while understanding our responsibility when it comes to the needs of our employees and clients.  This article is therefore different to the type of content we normally produce but having spoken to friends, clients and colleagues - all of whom can relate to the feelings and emotions highlighted above, we sincerely hope that others find this as useful as we have and can fast-track their emotions to their most rational and productive state of mind.

We'd also love your feedback.  Please feel free to contact Amit Vyas, Nexa's CEO via email or comment below.