We're heading in a new direction with corporations, startups and businesses. Now more than ever, consumers are leaning toward more human companies and services. The old Corporate America wallstreet practices are fading. Now more than ever before, we are seeing a shift of interest to companies who pride themselves in being more human.

If you don't believe me, just think... What's more appealing? A company run by shareholders who think only about how to increase profit margins.
Or.
A company owned by a band of brothers who are willing to risk profit margins in order to deliver a product that's going to help their target audience?

At this point of history, the market has never been more saturated. That's why Companys, Startups, Buisiness owners have to start thinking out of the box for some inspiration.

Hey there, so what am I even on about?

Look to the Squirtle Squad.

What can a cartoon teach a very real Company or business? There's actually quite a lot. And through my experiences working at a large scale corporation and my years of working with startups and entreprenuers, I've noticed that these entities could improve themselves if they just looked at the Squirtle Squad.

But Malice, What is the Squirtle Squad? I don't even watch cartoons.

Well, The squirtle Squad is a fictional squad of pokemon called Squirtles. If you don't know what pokemon is, allow me to lift the rock off your head. Pokemon is a Anime that was popularized back in the 90s, and were based on their Nintendo counterparts. More importantly, the Squirtle Squad was a gang of Squirtles that, although loved do trouble making and pranks, had fundamental values that any team can take inspiration from.

In fact, one of the most popular and greatest animes of all time, took inspiration directly from the Squirtle Squad.
Gurren Laggan

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Alright. So. What can we learn from the Squirtle Squad?

LEADERSHIP

Now, when I say Leadership, I'm not talking about being the BOSS or having a high position in management. Or being the CEO or majority shareholder.

I'm talking about being a Leader, rallying people to follow you, inspiring people.

If you are the head of a company, startup, business or anything of that nature, you want to be a leader. Because being a Leader is how you truly get people who work with and under you inspired behind the things of what you say.

People naturally look up to leadership, and it has a big part to play in how motivated they are. No one wants to follow someone if they don't actually believe in that. By stepping up in your projects, and setting a good example and strong initiative, you're showing your project members that you are someone they can confide in.

When you aim to be a Leader, you need to be level headed and inspirational. You have to seriously empathize with your project members, and don't look at them as underlings. Look at them as equals, treat them with respect, weigh their words, concerns, and most of all, do not give up on them. Show them that you're human.

STYLE

The Squirtle Squad always had pride in their style, after pride in each other.

Your company, project or business can learn from this. Image is not just about how your logo looks. It's about your style. The feeling that people get when they look at your project's elements. Not only do you want style, but you want that style to be consistent with everything that has to do with your company. Whether it's your company's logo, to the shirts your employees wear, all the way to the interfaces that people use on your website. Your project or company's style, is very much the soul behind it.

Style, is why people like me get paid for work. Why there's even an industry in design. And one thing that the Squirtle Squad teaches us, is to put effort and take pride in your style.

NO SQUIRTLES LEFT BEHIND

No one, and I mean, no one is perfect. No matter what kind of mistake a member of the Squirtle Squad did, the gang was there to help them back up. It's not about emphasising that someone had made a mistake, or even if that team member isn't doing what they need to do, it's about getting them on the right path, and not abandoning them.

By showing your team members that you won't give up on them, and that you're prepared to do what it takes to get them on the right path, you're empowering that person by making them feel like a value'd asset to your project. And that inspires some serious loyalty!

Back when I worked for AT&T, I had a stack of contact logs bigger than my face. What's a contact log? You know when you went to elementary school and you did something wrong and you had to report to the Dean's office, and they'd give you paperwork and usually an inschool suspension? That's what a contact log was, and believe me, you could get a contact log for anything. Like showing up 1 minute, or my favorite, not offering on a call. I hated it! But my supervisor was an amazing leader.

Everytime I went to his office for something, he used to tell me all the time he wouldn't give up on me, and that as long as I put in the effort to follow the mandates, he would do anything in his power to help me. That meant alot to me! He showed faith in me, and more importantly, he showed me he was not going to leave me behind. That really racked up some loyalty points.

And you know what, I was inspired to do better. When I eventually had big wigs come into my office to personally congratulate me for being employee of the month, it felt good, and I can always trace back that success to my supervisor, for not giving up on me, and making me feel like I mattered, even in such a huge company like AT&T. I'm sure if I stayed with the company, I would be running and managing my own team. I would thank my supervisor every time as I am now.

ENCOURAGE & INSPIRE YOUR SQUIRTLES

This kind of goes hand and hand with being a leader. Encouragement goes a long way to a team of any kind. The Squirtle Squad had a leader to encourage them, and each Squirtle encouraged each other.

In times of toughness, and when the line starts dropping, and problems become apparent, it's when encouraging your team members matters the most. Encouragement can be the difference between having one of your members quit on you, or that member coming up with the next big bright idea.

It doesn't stop or end there, encouragement is appropriate at any time, and it only costs a few kind words. You never know what's going on in someone's life, those few kind words can literally be the things that make a difference in that person's life.

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These are just a few major points of what kind of things the Squirtle Squad can teach us. There are tons of other things that we can learn from the Squirtle Squad. Integrity, hardwork, team building, empathy. These are things that can really help your projects out. And I promise you, if you lay down the foundation of any of these principles, you're taking a step in the right direction.

I'm sorry if I wrote too much yet again, I'm trying to keep my posts short and sweet, but I really can't help it! It's too much fun!

Take a minute to absorb all this information.

What has the Squirtle Squad taught you?
Let me know what you think below.

Be sure to follow if you find any of this useful, I will be covering more content just like this in the near future!

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Logo Giveaway

Alrighty so, In my introduction post I mentioned that I would like to help contribute to the steemit community right?

Well, I came up with a very fair and awesome way I can do just that. I will like to announce that I will be doing a weekly logo design giveaway.

Under normal circumstances, I would advise no logo designer to give away their product for nothing. However, steemit has embraced me, and I'd like to keep good on my word and return the favor.

Once every week, on Monday, I will select 1 random follower to have a one totally free logo design from start to finish. All that follower has to do is provide me a brief, and I will take care of the rest. That will be started up on June 12th.

So perhaps you're a startup and are looking for a good mark for your company, be sure to follow me for a chance to get yours!

For more information, check out my post

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