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Are You Properly Managing Your Business?

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Running a business is a full-time job and then some.

That said how are you doing when it comes to properly managing your business?

If things could be better, you want to be sure you act sooner than later.

Failing to take care of your business needs could well come back to haunt you if you are not careful.

So, where do improvements need to be made on your end of things?

Don’t Let Bad Management Ruin All You Have Worked for

In looking to make sure your business is getting the proper management, focus in on the following:

  1. Employees – Unless you are the company’s only employee, you have people working under you. As a result, make sure you have taken the time to hire the right individuals. If you did not, they could be hampering your company’s ability to succeed. Yes, it takes time when it comes to interviewing people for jobs. That said take whatever time is needed to get the right people in the right positions. Failure to do this can set you and your company back if not careful.
  2. Resources – As important as your workers are, don’t sleep on the resources needed to run your company. This means everything from tools your employees need in the office to when they are out on the road. As an example, do you have the right software for your team in-house? This can mean everything from sales software to analytics and much more. If you have not done so up to now, take the time to go online. Once there, you want to do reviews of various project management software. Such reviews will move you a step closer to finding the right providers for such needs. In today’s tech world, many consumers expect brands to be up to speed on technology. If you do not have the right resources for employees to work with, you could lose business.
  3. Promotions – How good of a job are you doing when it comes to promoting your business on a consistent basis? If you are not doing a very good job, this could hinder you in your ability to stay relevant in your industry. Do all you can to promote your brand in every conceivable way you can think of. For example, are you good at using social media to push your brand message? If the answer is no, this can be detrimental to your success. Take the time to make sure your message is getting out there via social networking. You also want to be sure you are active in your local community. Doing so gives you a chance to build up a good relationship with those in your community. The goal at the end of the day is to promote your brand and reap the rewards of more business in return.

Take the time to see where you could better your company’s management.

Chances are good you will find ways that you may have missed or not spent enough time on before.

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics on the web.

 

Is a Leader Emerging Within Your Company?

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Old New Life Future Past Goals Success Decision ChangeHow do you know if you have a budding leader or leaders within your company ranks?

In some cases, that individual or individuals will emerge from the ranks right before your eyes in no time at all. In other instances, the employee will take time (perhaps even years) to fully blossom.

No matter how leaders emerge under your guise, it is important that you give as many employees as possible the opportunity to work their way up the company ladder.

In doing so, you enable them to chart their courses for not only leadership opportunities within your company, but perhaps elsewhere.

So, as 2016 nears the halfway point, is a leader emerging within your company?

Why Leaders Are Important to Your Brand

Some employers may look at their rosters and feel like there is no one willing to step up to the plate and become the next leader within the ranks.

Others, meantime, see the talent they have onboard and note that any number of candidates could easily be a department manager in no time.

So, how do you encourage your staff to take their work games to the next level?

Among the ways to go about this:

  1. Encouragement – It is so easy at times to point out the wrong things that your employees do. Instead of taking a pessimistic view of things in the workplace, always do your best to be positive. Sure, constructive criticism is always necessary and should always be part of your company’s blueprint. That said don’t allow the criticism to take on negative tones. When you encourage your employees to strive for excellence, you will typically get more effort out of them than if you always pinpoint the bad stuff;
  2. Incentives – When employees are incentivized to strive for things in the workplace, they typically will provide you with even better efforts on a daily basis. Even though it is fine to offer a little friendly competition amongst employees, don’t turn it into a knockdown brawl. Encourage teamwork (see more below) and putting heads together to solve problems, especially as they relate to customers and their needs. One of the incentives you can offer is taking a customer problem, then bringing all company heads (in that related department) together to fix it. For example, if you have a customer feeling like the accounting team is not working with them on a payment issue, sit down as a team and figure out the best response. It could be someone lower down on the accounting totem pole that actually comes up with the best means to solve the problem. Make sure he or she is rewarded in doing just that. All voices in a select department should be heard, not just the individual who is wearing the title of manager or supervisor ;
  3. Speakers – Remember when you were in school and you would have guest speakers come in to speak to your class on a wide variety of topics? Business owners are best-served when they do the same. Whether it is someone like Michelle Stacy, a woman who has been focused on putting together first-rate cultures in companies, or Dana Perino, a woman who knows all about the importance of communication having served as a White House press secretary, make sure you tap some of the best minds out there. Bringing this kind of talent to speak to your employees can not only benefit them, but also allow them to hear from outsiders as to why their roles with your company are in fact so important;
  4. Unity – Finally, how much of an effort do you put into encouraging unity and teamwork in your business? If you’ve been a little lax in this department as of late, alter that thinking as you move forward. Your team is just that, a team. Yes, some individuals will shine more than others (there is nothing wrong with that). That said always do your best to stress unity in the office. This is not only true while everyone is working, but it can carry over outside the workplace too. From get-togethers after work to even an occasional weekend retreat, treating your employees as one big family can go a long way in making your brand the best it can be.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics on the web.

 

 

Do You Elicit Great Followers in the Business World?

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Young business man standing in front of his co-workers talkingWhen it comes to gaining followers, quality trumps quantity especially in the business world.

Thanks to social media, it’s easy to become fixated on the numbers whether that’s how many employees you have working for you or how many people attend an event you host.

But attracting great followers, the right followers, can pay dividends.

They include:

  1. Right followers make it happen.

If you’re a business owner, your followers are the people on the ground making your vision happen and helping you to realize your goals. Great followers are more than just foot soldiers or cogs in the wheel of your business machine.

Any qualified worker can complete the task they are assigned but loyal followers will fight the battles that go on behind closed doors. When you leave a meeting or log-off of a conference call, you want to know that the people you’ve hired will quash any toxic dissension.

  1. They’ll challenge you to be better.

Quality followers will feel empowered to hold leaders accountable. That sounds dramatic and maybe counterintuitive to the idea that bosses are superiors, but it’s a positive sign of leadership.

Great followers respect your expertise and therefore hold you to a high standard. If they see you or your business slipping down the slope of complacency, they’ll challenge you to be better.

If for example, say you’re a thought leader in your industry with a considerable Twitter following. If you’ve attracted quality fans that care about your brand and reputation, they’re going to tweet at you with constructive criticism and not just blind praise.

  1. They can help you get out ahead of conflict.

As the article “All Engineering Leaders Need Great Followers” points out, followers can teach leaders as much as leaders can teach followers. One of the primary roles of a follower is a responsibility to listen, take stock of situations, and learn from that input.

In a business environment, great employees will communicate to you problems as they happen rather than letting conflict fester.

They’re professional adults that know there’s a difference between “being a snitch” and proactive problem solving.

  1. Passion is the best PR.

As Forbes explains, there’s a difference between a follower and a subordinate.

A passionate follower may not have authority in the form of a fancy title, but they hold a great deal of actual power.

When you are an innovative leader in the business world, you likely won’t need to take out a billboard announcing your talent because your passionate employees or men-tees will be spreading the positive word for you.

  1. Today’s followers may be tomorrow’s leaders.

This isn’t hyperbole.

Industries like technology and media are in a constant state of change thanks to new mechanical innovations and strategic disruption.

Your intern today could be your peer at another company in a year. Taking the long view, that assistant could be your boss at some point. You want to have great followers because your future employment could depend on it.

Great followers can help you save money with positive PR, challenge you to be better, and help prevent future conflict or unemployment.

For these reasons it’s just as important that leaders consider the quality, not quantity of their followers.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Kristin Livingstone writes on a variety of topics including leadership and business.

4 Fundamental Workplace Changes of the Last 20 Years

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By Teddy Hunt

Renovated, repurposed, and re-engineered. Today’s workplace has clearly changed over the past two decades. As people and politics evolve, it’s important to remember that, for better or worse, change happens. Here are four fundamental workplace changes that transpired over the last 20 years.

Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y

Baby Boomers, born roughly between the years of 1947-1966, still play an active role in today’s work force. Two younger generations now share center stage with them in the world of gainful employment: Generation X and Generation Y.

Gen X members were born roughly between 1965-1983; Gen Y members hail from the years 1984-2002. Although the two cohorts might share a workplace, they don’t necessarily share the same attitude toward work itself. Maureen Hoch of the Harvard Business Review reports that Gen X employees tend to focus more on their home life, shirking work responsibilities in favor of family time more often than their Gen Y counterparts. Gen Y folks tend to “merge their work and home lives” more than any other age group.

Members of Gen Y, sometimes labeled the “Me Generation,” are also more prone to “job hop” than members of Gen X. While this might be an inconvenience for HR departments, fickle Gen Y folks are more likely to settle down in the long run with a job that truly fulfills them.

Education: Higher and Higher

Graduation rates
Image via Flickr by Thirty30 Photography

Now more than ever, society views high school graduation as an essential step toward employment. Approximately 83 percent of Americans age 25 and up have graduated from high school. College grads account for nearly 25 percent of all people.

A person’s education directly impacts the amount of money they can expect to earn. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, a person with a doctoral degree brings home a weekly income of $1,600 or more. A person with a Bachelor’s degree earns around $1,000 per week, while a person with a high school diploma receives a check for about $600 per week.

The demographics of employment landscape are making a shift in the recent years due to technological advancements in most work fields. Analysts predict the slow decline of manufacturing jobs and the rise of the service-oriented careers, including IT and finance jobs, but with all change comes evolution as well. New career fields are popping up, and whether you’re wanting to invest in a financial career or looking for a brand new career field, the time for change is now.

Policy Changes: FMLA

The Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 brought job security to new mothers, people with long-term illnesses, and family members of those deployed by the military. Employers must continue a person’s health coverage during job-protected medical leave, according to FMLA law. The benefits last for up to 12 weeks.

A caveat: The law applies only to companies that employ 50 people or more. According to a 2012 Labor Department survey, 17 percent of all workplaces in the U.S. fall into this category.

More than half of all FMLA leaves occur for personal health reasons, while about 20 percent result from maternity leave. Military FMLA is rare, accounting for only about 2 percent of all FMLA absences.

Lean Enterprise

In the late 1980s, Toyota unveiled a concept of business efficiency called “Lean Enterprise.” Today, the quest for efficiency, or “lean thinking,” drives business operations like never before.

In a nutshell, a lean enterprise strives to simultaneously maximize customer satisfaction and minimize waste.

A lean enterprise asks itself the following questions:

• How can we help customers in a way that grows our business?

• How can we streamline and optimize all processes used by our organization?

• How can we engage our employees for maximum product quality and efficiency?

• How can we work as a team to buoy our company to a higher level?

The surge in “lean thinking” over recent years is attributed, at least in part, to increased competition and fickle customer demand. Consumers today want a low-cost, high-quality product that provides immediate gratification. Companies seek to supply that product so their customers stay satisfied in today’s highly competitive business world.

The face of the modern workplace is changing. Employees hail from younger, more educated generations. They expect more from their employers, and their employers expect more from them. As education and innovation continue to blossom, more interesting changes surely await today’s working population.

Staying abreast of shifts and trends in the workplace, generational differences (and similarities), and regulatory changes is just one crucial component of being an informed leader.

Author’s Bio: Teddy Hunt is a freelance content writer with a focus on technology. When not behind a computer, Teddy spends the majority of his free time outdoors and resides in Tampa, Florida.

5 Reasons Temp Employees Will Replace One of Your Workers

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It is true that people seek temporary employment mainly to earn some income, but some temp employees may also hope that their temporary jobs may lead to permanent employment.

A permanent job is desirable to temps, because it gives them a steady flow of income, a sense of security and an opportunity to develop a certain set of skills.

So, when your small business is hiring temp employees, you should also be open to the possibility that they may one day work for you on a permanent basis.

Here are 5 reasons why temp employees may replace your current employees:

Eligibility
Many people were laid off during the recent economic crisis, and some of them have extensive work experience and strong academic backgrounds. As such, you should not be surprised that some of the temp employees you hire may be more qualified and skilled in handling certain duties than some of your current employees. These temps can be a valuable asset to your company.

Performance
The abilities, industriousness and work ethics of temp employees can vary greatly. If you are fortunate, you may get temps who are committed to delivering competent performance. It is a good idea to offer high-performing temps permanent positions if some of your current employees are under-performing.

Motivation
The opportunity to get a permanent job can be a big motivational factor for temp employees. As such, they may be more willing to go the extra mile than your current employees. This can truly make them stand out in the workplace.

Employee Relations
Temp employees are less likely to develop a negative attitude towards their colleagues because they are less exposed to workplace politics. So, they are able to establish amiable relationships with their colleagues, which can contribute to a more harmonious work environment if they become permanent employees.

Safe Hiring Option
Another reason why you may consider replacing your current employees with temp employees is because you already know the work performance of your temps. If you have permanent employees who are underperforming, offering their jobs to your temp employees may be the safest solution.

Should Current Employees Fear that They Will Be Replaced?

Your current employees have a good reason to worry that they will be replaced by temp employees if they are lacking motivation and not performing according to expectations.

As long as they maintain a high level of competence, they will most likely be able to keep their jobs, unless you are planning to reduce your workforce. Temp employees who are really capable and hardworking can be a big threat to your current employees, but in the end, it comes down to who is more valuable to your company.

Whether they are hired on a temporary or permanent basis, all employees are essential to the success of your company.

If you are unsure whether or not to replace a permanent employee with a temp employee, just make a decision based on the best interest of why is small business management important, most notably for your company.

Photo credit: blog.intuit.com

About the author: John McMalcolm is a freelance writer who provides useful information and tips on small business management.

6 Ways to Credit Your Team

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By Ben Morton

Recently I was reading an article on INC entitled ‘The Difference Between Managers and Leaders‘ by Ilya Pozin where he provided some fantastic insights. Ilya’s fifth point was this:

‘Managers want credit, leaders credit their teams’

This is a brilliant point. When it’s acted upon the impact that it has on the leader’s connection with their team, the trust that it engenders, and the respect it earns the leader is huge.

What was really interesting to me though was one of the comments from a reader.

‘How do I give credit when I answer to the MD without my staff present; how will my staff know?’

This is actually a great question which prompted me to stop and reflect on how I have actually gone about this during my leadership career. So, here are my personal and very practical tips to do this.

1. They will just know…

Here’s the key thing. If you start from a position of genuinely wanting to support your people and ‘give credit where credit is due’ then you will naturally credit you team whenever you can. By consistently crediting your team to your boss, your peers, your customers or whoever it may be, these people will eventually come back to your team and say something like this…

‘Hi John. Ben told me about all the work you put into that proposal – great job and thanks’

So you see – they will just know.

2. Reactive email

When you get that email from your boss saying ‘thank you’ or ‘great job’ why not respond, cc’ing your team or the individual, saying something like…

“Thanks Nigel but it was actually Gemma who did all of the hard work on that project so she really needs the praise. Well done again Gemma and thanks.’

3. Proactive email

Instead of waiting to redirect the credit to your team why not be proactive by sending a thank you email to your team and cc’ing your boss.

4. Ask your boss to thank them

Next time you are in a meeting with your boss and you tell him or her that it was your team that put in all of the hard work why not say something like this…

‘The team worked really hard on that project Nigel and it would be great if you could stop by and say well done or drop them a really short email.’

It would take a pretty cold boss to refuse such a request.

5. Pass on credit in public

During a team meeting or company event look for the opportunities to publicly pass on the credit, praise and thank your team or individuals for all of their hard work.

6. Use the intranet

If your company has an intranet site why not post a very short news article celebrating the team or individual’s success and attributing the credit to them.

Hopefully you’ve found this list useful and there are some things in here that you will go and apply to help move you from a good manager to an exceptional leader. I know that there are lots more ways to give credit to your team and I’d love to hear what you are doing…

Author’s Bio: BEN MORTON is a Consultant at TwentyOne Leadership specialising in the provision of high quality leadership training, mentoring and coaching. He has approaching two decades experience in leadership, learning and management along with a wealth of expertise in strategic Human Resource management drawn from experience as a Board Member in small entrepreneurial organizations and working in large multi-nationals such as Tesco and TUI Travel. Having led expeditions around the globe from the Alps of Europe to the Steppe Country of Mongolia and served two operational tours of Iraq as an Officer in the British Army, Ben understands what it takes to lead people in the most difficult of conditions. He’s passionate about sharing his knowledge, experience and expertise.