A flourishing business depends heavily on efficient people management skills. You can succeed in improving in these techniques. It can be a plus to have a intuitive affinity for people, but there are some things you can do that will make this process easier.
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Developing relationships: Addressing co-workers by name is a great beginning. Speak to people; look individuals in the eye during a conversation. Have a respectful attitude, in addition be attentive to the other person’s opinion, irrespective of whether you are in agreement with them. The development of the ability to listen is among the greatest things you can do to better your talent management skills. Be sure to welcome any input from your co-workers. Exhibit integrity: Keeping your word is crucial. When your word is not kept, it will ruin trust, and no-one will offer you their best without trusting you. Each time you make a statement or make a promise about something, you are squandering your time and effort unless you keep your promises. To be frank, when your people can’t depend on your word, your employees can’t be trusted on to be available when you actually need them.
Feedback is essential: Feedback should be a two-way process. Human Resource management skills mean keeping an open mind to all feedback. Being accessible and receptive shows that you want to listen to other people’s views, and they will listen to your thoughts. Encouraging discourse also encourages development of fresh ways of thinking, innovative methods of achieving the mission of the company, and develops the bonds of an excellent team. If your team members are given a voice, every team member takes ownership of the outcome.
Communicating is important: Dealing with individuals comes down to one concept — good communication. Keeping an open door policy, listen intently to other people, retain an open mind, and give team members an equal voice. Inspire team members not just to communicate to you, but also with each other. The sharing of thoughts is important in the creative process, when the staff communicate well, you can identify any problems quickly, and corrections may be applied before things get out of hand. Some effort is necessary, however the payoff is worthwhile. Through inspiring a good team dynamic and demonstrating effective listening techniques, a thriving business will be achieved.
It’s thought in a lot of companies that, by supplying employees with training in health & safety, they are sufficiently equipped for an emergency. Realistically though, an education in health & safety regulatory affairs simply is not sufficient. You need to provide your staff with an enthusiastic supervisor, the proper equipment, and regular practice. Each team must have a professional supervisor to watch over the work area, but this person also needs to perform a greater purpose in the company. Your choice of supervisor is required to see the necessity of health & safety instruction and be able to get everyone feeling enthusiastic. On top of enforcing all of the rules and laws, the job of a supervisor also often includes supervising staff performance. Naturally it isn’t easy to accomplish all this at once. Good product knowledge is necessary in a supervisory role in addition to an in-depth familiarity with the safety laws, the identification of problem areas, and first aid.
It simply isn’t enough to supply your employees with health & safety education. They must practise risk assessment and the recognition of hazardous areas. They need to know the best way of eliminating hazards as well as how best to cope when the unexpected happens. Only when these processes have developed into a habit are workers completely protected. Proper safety apparatus is just as essential to the well-being of your staff as training. When staff find they don’t have gear they need, or find that they’re broken in a crisis, even the most advanced instruction won’t help them. Maintaining your equipment on a regular basis is crucial. If you have a fault with your safety equipment, be sure to have it mended as rapidly as possible and returned to the proper location.
Your workers have to have the right health and safety education, however they require the correct equipment, regular practises, and a supervisor with contagious enthusiasm. When you implement these steps you should find that health & safety legislation will before long become ingrained in your business culture instead of something troublesome that staff have to make an effort to remember.
In the current economy, minimising outgoings and optimizing your employees is the surest method of increase profitability. Which brings us to the many benefits of that great secret of efficient businesses, performance appraisal software.
Business optimization calls for an awareness of the abilities and weaknesses of its employees: in what areas do they do their best work? How can your system adjust to emphasize their strengths and cover their weaknesses? This is the crucial question. The chief difficulty has always been in finding and collating this data. Simply keeping track of employee evaluation and determining progress in their performance rapidly becomes a significant amount of work. First of all, you set up employee appraisal techniques to evaluate and track the work performed by each employee. The assessment of all of this data is next. Before it’s ready to use defining goals and identifying future development it’s key to know what the raw information actually tells you.
Employing performance appraisal software you’ll find that this assessment is taken care of and you only need to examine the different metrics to determine what the right goals for this employee would be. It also renders keeping track of the employee’s advancement much less effort. Thus you ease a significant time commitment and probably also find yourself with more useful information. Of course, you can also study the raw data yourself using the system simply to collate and record everything. And helping to make your employees more efficient is simply one of the achievements you can make using performance appraisal software. It’s often valuable to study suppliers and clients to be better able to pace your ordering and conserve money. For example, when looking at suppliers you can pinpoint the weak points such as slow delivery times, high rates of damage, and so forth. When it comes to clients - retailers, affiliates, or similar - this kind of software can still provide a better picture there, too, showing you just who your best seller is, their loss percentage and similar fallout, and serving as a reminder of outstanding payments. Then, you can adapt your ordering and move products around to maximize your income while reducing expenses. As well as this, the better understanding of your market will allow easier planning of your marketing.
You can study your sources to minimize costs and stay aware of your market to make more money employing performance management software. It also makes employee performance management quick, simple, and far more effective as well as helping you encourage employees by determining definitive goals. In summary, the potential of this system is endless and depends solely on your creativity and ability to use what you learn…
A significant number of companies believe that, by giving each member of staff some instruction in safety in the workplace, they are sufficiently equipped to cope with any situation. Realistically however, training in safety legislation and risk asessment just isn’t sufficient. You must supply your staff with an enthusiastic supervisor, the appropriate equipment, and last but not least the chance to practice. A team supervisor has a larger role to play than just overseeing the floor. The supervisor you choose requires good communication skills, they should also see health and safety instruction as great.
On top of insuring conformity with health and safety legislation, the role of a supervisor also includes checking up on employee efficiency. This isn’t a easy undertaking. A skilled supervisor is expected to possess comprehensive knowledge of both the industry best practice and the product in addition to a very high level of experience with up-to-date regulations involving safety, risk appraisal and first aid.
Providing basic training in health and safety isn’t enough for your workers. Your employees must get practical experience of risk assessment and the identification of hazards. Employees need to understand the best method of dealing with problems as well as how best to act when something unexpected happens. Not until these procedures have become automatic are employees properly educated.
Education is in reality not enough if you don’t have safety apparatus. If they are missing items they require, or even learn that some of the supplies are damaged only after something has occurred, then all the training your staff have completed will have been in vain. It is important to perform conscientious checks regularly to ensure that all the essential gear is there and also that it is all in a good state of repair. If something is in less than perfect condition, be certain to have it mended ASAP and put it back in the proper location.
Your workforce have to get good health & safety education, however they require decent apparatus, the chance to practise, and a supervisor with infectious enthusiasm. Only then will complying with health and safety legislation will become part of everyone’s working habits and no longer something challenging everyone has to attempt to remember all the time.
Talent management is crucial in order to achieve the best in your business success. These skills may be developed and studied. It may be a plus to have a innate affinity for people, however there are some things you can learn to simplify the process.
Relationship Development: Start by memorizing staff’s names. Talk to employees; look individuals in the eye during a conversation. Show respect, also listen to the other person’s point of view, even if you do not agree or have another viewpoint. Acquiring listening skills is among the best things you may do to develop your human resource management skills. Welcome any comments from your team members. Exhibit integrity: Do not make promises you can not fulfill. If a promise is broken, it will damage trust, and without trust employees certainly won’t perform at their best. Everytime you make a commitment or give your word on something, ensure that you can deliver or don’t bother giving your word at all. The truth is, if you can’t be counted upon, they won’t be committed when it’s really important.
Feedback is important: It’s a two way street. Having an open mind with regard to other’s opinions is very important in managing individuals. Being accessible and open demonstrates that you respect other people’s opinions, and they should appreciate your opinions. Welcoming discussion in addition opens doors to original ways of doing business, innovative methods of fulfilling goals, and improves the team dynamic. By giving the employees some input, every member takes ownership of the outcome of the project. Encourage communication: Your people management skills boil down to the same thing — good communication. Keeping an open door policy, listen closely to other people, welcome feedback , and allow team members an equal voice. Encourage staff not just to speak with you, but to speak to each other. The growth of any business relies to a great extent on the interchange of opinions, and in communicating with one another, you can discover any problems at an early stage, allowing corrective action to be put in place early to prevent any further problems.
This will take time, yet the rewards are worth it. By establishing the bonds of a good team and developing effective listening skills, you can achieve the best in business success.
If you are called for an interview, then it is likely that you will be asked to give a presentation as well.
You need to prepare for your presentation as well as your consultant NHS interview
Here are some hints to help you train for your interview presentations
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presentation titles are provided to shortlisted candidates with the interview invitation details. It is advisable to use powerpoint for your talk. |
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Expect to deliver your display to a bigger group than will be at your interview. There is unlikely to be an advanced announcement of the display audience. |
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You may be given between 3-15 minutes for your talk. |
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You have to adhere to the time limits, keep focussed to the topic and don’t get too detailed. |
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Definitely take the chance to rehearse your talk. This is one part of the recruitment process that you can fully control and it is often what forms first impressions. |
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If the presentation is in an unit where you have antecedently been employed in or where you are acquainted, you are likely to feel more nervous than in an organization where most of the audience is unknown. Acknowledge this beforehand and practice the presentation. |
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Use language that will allow lay members of the display audience to understand your messages. |
Delivering humorous speeches involves a lot more than simply having good material. Take some time to incorporate these tips into your presentations and watch the fun and laughter factors rise.
In Fun
Sigmund Freud wrote: “The most favorable condition for comic pleasure is a generally happy disposition in which one is in the mood for laughter.”
This concept is called “in fun.” If you want your audience to laugh, they must be in fun. You, the speaker, must be in fun. The emcee or program coordinator must be in fun. The whole program should be designed in fun. Do anything you can to be sure your audience knows that it’s OK to laugh.
Time Of Day
The first speaker of the day for an early morning program should not expect hearty laughter. People are not conditioned to laugh a great deal in the early morning. Many won’t even be awake yet. Use more information and less humor. It’s important for you to know when not to expect hearty laughter. It would be a waste of time to use your best material at a time when laughter normally wouldn’t be expected. The poor response also brings your energy level down. Many consider brunch and lunch to be the best times of day to expect a responsive audience. In the afternoon people are starting to get tired so don’t expect laughter to be as intense.
Male/Female Makeup of Audience
All-female audiences tend to laugh more easily and louder than all-male audiences. Audiences that consist of more than 50 percent women are good too. The presence of the females provides a good buffer and makes it OK for the “big-ego” men to laugh.
Size
No, I’m not talking about how much you weigh today. I’m saying that the size of your audience has a direct effect on the types of humor which are most appropriate. Members of small business groups tend to be too self-conscious to laugh much. Use short one-liners. Don’t use any long stories or jokes. In larger groups it’s OK to stretch to jokes and short stories.
Pre-Program Research
The more you know about your audience, the better able you will be to pick the humor that will get the greatest response. Your research before the program will also allow you to uncover the group’s inside humor.
Seating
The best seating arrangement for laughter is semicircular theater style. When audience members are seated close together on a curve, they can look to their left or right and see the faces of each person in the row. This togetherness allows laughter to pass immediately from one person to the other. Contact NSA member and seating expert Paul Radde for advanced seating information.
Choose Funnier Words
Your word choice can be the key to creating a successful witty line or a dud. In particular, words with the “K” sound in them are funny. Cucumber is funnier than mushroom. Cupcake is funnier than pastry. Turkey is a funnier word than loser.
Deliver The Punch
Some humorists will disagree, but I say deliver your punch line to one person and make sure that person is going to laugh. You must punch the line out a little harder and with a slightly different voice than the rest of the joke. Lean into the microphone and say it louder and more clearly than you said the setup lines. If the audience does not hear the punch line, they aren’t going to laugh.
Deliver the punch line to a person you know will laugh, so that others will be positively influenced to laugh. How do you know if a person will laugh or not? Pay attention to those who have been laughing, those nodding their heads in agreement with you during the program, and those you identified before the program.
Pause
Pausing just before and just after your punch line gives the audience a chance to “get” the humor and laugh. Absolutely do not continue to talk when laughter is expected. If you do, you will “step on” your laughter and squelch it quickly.
Make It Relevant
If you make all your attempts at humor relevant to your presentation, you get an automatic excuse from your mother if your humor is not all that funny. If your humor is received as funny, so much the better; but if it isn’t, at least you made your point. Audiences will be much more tolerant if the humor ties into the subject at hand. Use this formula:
A. Make your point.
B. Illustrate your point with something funny.
C. Restate your point.
Vary The Types
The above formula would get boring and redundant rather quickly if you used the exact same type of humor every time for part B. By varying the type of humor in B, you can go on virtually forever, and no one will recognize that you are using a formula. I have identified more than 34 different types of humor to plug into the formula. You could use one liners, jokes, humorous props, funny stories, magic, cartoons or other funny visuals.
Rule Of Three
One of the most pervasive principles in the construction of humorous situations is the “Rule of Three.” You will see it used over and over because it’s simple, it’s powerful, and it works. (See, I just used it there in a non-funny situation.) Most of the time in humor the Rule of Three is used in the following fashion: The first comment names the topic, the second sets a pattern, and the third unexpectedly switches the pattern, making it funny. Here’s an example from a brochure advertising my seminars:
In the “How to Get There” section
From Washington, D.C., take Route 50.
From Baltimore, Md., take Route 95.
From Bangkok, Thailand, board Thai Airways.
Look Funnier
I have been accused of being too “corporate-looking to be funny. When I’m being funny, I use facial expressions, odd body angles and bizarre comments and props to make up for my “normal” look. Those of you that have obvious physical characteristics that can be used in teasing yourself have an advantage. People love characters who are not afraid of teasing themselves. You can enhance the funny look with fun patterns and colors on ties and dresses, hats and funny glasses.
Bombproof Your Talks
Are you afraid of bombing when you get up in front of a group? You don’t have to be. With proper material selection, a few prepared comments in case of unexpected problems and attention to time, worries about bombing can be virtually eliminated. As in tip above, make sure your material is relevant to your topic, and keep it short. The longer a piece of humor is, the funnier it better be.
A. Saver Lines
Saver Lines are what you say when your supposedly humorous statement does not get a laugh. You shouldn’t be ashamed to use saver lines. The top comedians in the world need them and some purposely make mistakes so they can get a laugh from the saver line. Johnny Carson was an expert at this. After a poor response to a joke, he would say a comically insulting line like, “This is the kind of crowd that would watch Bambi through a sniper scope.” Don’t overdo the saver lines. If you have to use too many, your material must be pretty bad.
B. Pre-Planned Ad-Libs
Another way to keep from bombing is to “expect the unexpected.” Canned or pre-planned ad-libs are pre-written responses to unexpected happenings or mistakes that occur during a presentation, i.e., the microphone squeals, the projection bulb burns out, you say the wrong thing, etc. Prepared ad-libs actually do more than just save you. They make you look tremendously polished. Here’s the continuum: A bad presenter will stammer around when a problem occurs. A ZZZZZs presenter will say nothing and try to ignore the problem. A great Wake ‘em Up presenter will make a witty comment that appears to be spontaneous. The audience believes you are originating humor on the spot. You are just quickly recalling pre-planned responses.
Microphone Squeals
This is the portion of my presentation where I do my elephant impression.
Projector Light Burns Out
This is the first time I have been brighter than my equipment.
Highlighter Runs Out Of Ink I’m out of ink. I’ll be back in a wink. (remember . . . “k” words are funny)
Think Diversity
Our audiences are more ethnically diverse than ever before, so it’s crucial to watch your political correctness and eliminate sexist language from your presentation. Not only is it easy to offend, which will turn your audience off completely, easily understandable word choice is more critical than ever to ensure that your audience members “get” the humor. When speaking across cultural lines, especially, visual humor such as magic, cartoons and comic strips are the most readily understood.
http://www.netaim.info/bios/tom.htm
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by e-mail? Have you ever spent more of your day wading through your e-mail than managing your work? Are you looking for ways to spend less time creating, managing and answering messages? Discover how to overcome e-mail overload and be more productive by writing more effective e-mail messages and reducing the volume of e-mail.
Write Effective E-Mail Messages
Start improving your e-mail effectiveness by creating and formatting easy to follow content, and by using pre-written responses.
Create Clear Content
Consider these strategies to upgrade your communications with understandable, e-mail messages:
• Help others prioritize how to act on your e-mail by including a clear, specific subject line and repeating important subject information in the body of the message.
• Define your expectations in the body of the message. Do you want your recipients to act, respond, read, or is the e-mail FYI only?
• Include only one topic per message. If that isn’t possible, then describe and number multiple topics as in 5 items to add to the Wednesday meeting agenda.
• When you type the addresses for your message, check who is getting your e-mail. Many programs attempt to auto-fill an e-mail address which may not be your intended recipient.
• Be careful with your tone and language. As with any other communication, match the message to your audience. Unless the reader understands your dry sense of humor, for instance, they may be confused or offended rather than amused.
• It may be tempting to use acronyms in the world of the Blackberry and IM (instant messaging), but only use extremely common abbreviations, such as FYI or ASAP, unless you are absolutely certain that the individual receiving your e-mail knows what they mean.
• Clearly identify yourself to strangers within your message and in the message signature.
Format Readable E-Mail Messages
Simplify the e-mail messages you send with clean, easy-to-read formatting:
• Get to the point. Shorten paragraphs to no more than five or six lines to reduce reading.
• Limit e-mail text to a single printed page. If you have more text, reduce the message or consider attaching a Word document. Delete previous responses that are no longer relevant to the current exchange.
• Use fonts between 10 and 12 points in size except for headlines and choose a font style that is easy to read. Apply colors sparingly.
• Add blank lines and white space to separate paragraphs and areas of detail.
• Run the spelling checker and re-read messages one last time for clarity and grammar before clicking Send.
Use Prewritten Responses
If you send a few basic messages over and over again, such as a reply to a request for product information, consider saving those responses as signatures that can be inserted into e-mail so that you don’t have to retype them.
For a majority of messages, create a default signature that includes your full name, position or title, phone, website, and other contact information.
Reduce the Volume of E-Mail
Some of the top ways to cut the amount of e-mail you receive is to manage the number of messages that you send, reduce unnecessary follow-up replies, and determine when person-to-person communication is a better choice.
Decrease the Number of Messages You Send
Before you write your next e-mail, seek to actively reduce how much e-mail you send:
• Read all replies on a topic before responding to the original message. Resist getting involved with e-mail threads that don’t impact your objectives.
• Don’t send, and discourage your staff from sending, “chime-in” messages that are simply unimportant responses such as “Thank you” and “You’re welcome.” Don’t respond to junk mail.
• Avoid Reply to All unless all recipients need to see your response. Otherwise you are contributing to their e-mail litter.
• Use the Cc (carbon copy) line only when the topic impacts the recipient’s work. Although it may seem easier to send a message to everyone in a department or your organization, first ask yourself, “Who needs to know? Why?” Most people who get a carbon copy assume there is something they are supposed to do.
• Use Bcc (blind carbon copy) to hide large distribution lists or to disguise the names of select recipients. All recipients can respond to a message but replies will not be received by anyone in the Bcc list which reduces the amount of e-mail they get.
Eliminate the Clutter in Your E-Mail
In addition to initiating fewer e-mail messages, look at other ways to reduce the messages in your Inbox:
• Publish frequently requested information on your company website and make sure that the website is quickly updated when changes occur.
• When you are sending out informational messages that do not require feedback, discourage unnecessary responses by using formal language and begin and end messages with No Reply Needed or FYI Only.
• Unsubscribe to electronic newsletters that you don’t read and move others out of your Inbox to folders for reading during travel or other down times. Don’t unsubscribe to mailings that you never initiated or you may further open the flow of junk mail.
• If it’s an available option, setup an out of office message that responds to incoming messages when you are not available to answer your e-mail. Clearly state your response time, when you will return, and who can be contacted during your absence.
Choose Voice Instead of E-Mail
There are often times when phone or face-to-face conversations are a superior choice to e-mail. Pick up the phone or arrange a meeting when:
• Building rapport is critical.
• The topic is emotionally charged.
• There are many intertwined issues to resolve or there is a need for lengthy interactive discussions.
Implementing these strategies for overcoming e-mail overload can help you become more productive and free you from your Inbox.
© 2005 by Dawn Bjork Buzbee
Dawn Bjork Buzbee is The Software Pro and a certified Microsoft Office Expert and Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor. Dawn shares smart and easy ways to effectively use software and technology through her work as a speaker, trainer, and consultant. Visit http://www.SoftwarePro.com for great Microsoft Office software tips and tricks or to contact Dawn.
The Critical Success Factors
Focusing on the things that make the biggest difference to your future prosperity.
(Note, although this article was written in early 2002, it is totally relevant. Right now.)
About three weeks ago I was surprised by this headline in the morning paper:
“Fed says September 11th hurt economy.”
Wow!
“What did I miss here?” Was this news? USA Today thought it was. I was shocked the Fed saw fit to announce it.
And this week, another one: “NBER Confirms Recession.”
Hey, Greenspan! Get out and talk to people. All over the country people tell me that if they break even this year, they’ll consider it a win. If that’s not a “recession”…
But have you ever wondered what it takes to end a recession? Not the textbook answer: two consecutive quarters of growth. Have you ever wondered what causes those consecutive growth quarters in the first place?
The economy turns up when enough people get tired of the economy being turned down.
Companies need things. They need new people or new services like marketing and sales. Some need new premises or new equipment. You might be saying something like “We really need this or that but we’re not spending another dime until the economy gets better.”
So we suffer from a cascade effect where you are waiting for someone else to make the first move — and the economy spirals downward — getting worse and worse — until…
Until people begin to say, “I’m tired of this,” or “I can’t wait anymore,” or “Let’s get going.” And as if by magic people start spending money again, and poof — the recession’s over.
I’m a growth strategist — I help people figure out the best way to build their businesses and make more money. I’d like to know when this recession will end, but I’m not an economist and that’s to difficult a question. Instead, I ask know how much longer can people sit on their duffs before they finally get so tired they have to act again.
I expect early next year people are going to reach that point. Although The Fed just made it official, many businesses turned down in the third quarter of 2000, and haven’t picked up since.
Aren’t you bored with all the do-nothing? Don’t you want to start building your business again? Of course you do. What do you think everybody else thinks?
(Side note: This forecast is right in line with the “professionals” who say the recession will end mid- to late 2002. That will only happen if entrepreneurs and consumers start spending early in the year.)
So what are you going to do about it? What are you personally going to do to end the recession?
What are you going to do to start making money again? (I agree with President Bush. You don’t have to put that flag away, but the most patriotic thing you can do right now is start spending money. If enough people take that leap of faith, the global economy will take off like a rocket.)
Are you going to be ready?
Now is a good time to prepare yourself for the next time when people decide to start “doing business” again.
Last month I outlined a way to polish and even rethink your business strategy. Here I will quickly review the critical factors which will insure your success.
A plan designed as a platform for growth and profits must consider each of the following critical success factors:
Money factors: positive cash flow, revenue growth, and profit margins.
Acquiring new customers and/or distributors — your future.
Customer satisfaction — how happy are they?
Quality — how good is your product and service?
Product / service development — what’s new that will increase business with existing customers and attract new ones?
Intellectual capital — increasing what you know that’s profitable.
Productivity — how efficient are you? How effective?
Strategic relationships — new sources of business, products and outside revenue.
Employee attraction and retention — your ability to do extend your reach.
Sustainability — your personal ability to keep it all going.
(To find out more about these critical factors, get a copy of my book, Faster Than the Speed of Change - bookblurb.html - it makes a great holiday gift for entrepreneurs as well.)
For each factor ask these three broad questions.
1. What can you learn from last year’s experience in this factor?
What did you do right? What worked? Always start with this question. Why? Because it’s positive. That’s why! It’s shocking how people naturally drift toward the negative. Even when I ask — verbatim — what did you do right, more than half the time people respond with something they did wrong.
How can you do more of those “right” things? How can you make them even better? How can you apply what you learned in this area to some other?
Only when you’ve exhausted this line of questioning ask, what did you do wrong? Not to beat yourself — to make sure you don’t repeat it and discover ways to repair or improve the process.
Next, ask what is missing. What could you add which will improve your effectiveness.
(Effectiveness can be stated as the ratio of OUTPUT to INPUT. Efficiency, on the other hand, is how many INPUT actions you take per unit of time. For instance, you can increase the number of calls you make per hour — that is an increased efficiency. You can increase the volume of sales for the same number of calls — that is increased effectiveness.)
Random examples of things that might be missing include consistency in marketing, new products or services, more sales people, a source of new leads, an employee (or a self-) development plan.
2. What are your goals related to this factor?
Setting new goals can, all by itself, transform your business. Your goals should be bold and dynamic — big enough to inspire you and everyone around you. Goals work best when they are objective and quantifiable. And you must believe they are achievable - regardless of how difficult or impossible they might seem.
Some examples of bold goals: dominate your market niche; double last year’s sales; top of the list in prospect mind- share; 100 percent customer repurchases; three new products developed and shipped by mid-year; customer problems solved in half the current time, a career path for each employee, sufficient cash to cover any business emergency.
3. How are you going to achieve these goals?
A successful plan to achieve your goals has several components:
Who will be accountable for each goal? Not you? then which executive? Which managers? What department?
Some factors map directly onto a specific department, like revenue is owned by sales and marketing. But factors like intellectual capital or customer satisfaction - they don’t fall clearly into one department.
Even so, someone still has to ‘own’ the factor. Figure out who. If no single person is accountable - guess what - it won’t happen.
Whoever accepts accountability for a specific goal should answer the remaining questions.
What strategies and tactics have a good chance to realize the goal?
If you’ve set bold objectives, you probably don’t yet know how to reach them. That’s what makes them bold in the first place. For now, you’re going to have to make up some answers and live with the uncertainty.
And while there are no guarantees of success, each target should have an identifiable path with a reasonable probability of getting you there. That path will define one or more initiatives and milestones you can put on a timeline.
What structural and procedural changes will you make relative to this factor?
Some examples are adding two salespeople, or a new assistant. Perhaps you will establish new reporting lines, eliminate paper memos, acquire a competitor, or having a monthly new business quota. Each structural and procedural change will spawn its own initiatives, which you will also time-line.
Does this initiative require new people? Do you need new job descriptions, or add managers? If you have to add people feed all the financial considerations back into your budget.
Taken together, all the factors, goals, accountable parties, initiatives, structural changes, timelines, measures and milestones add up to a strategic plan for the year.
Can you live without addressing every one of these factors?
Of course you can, but can you prosper?
Yes — you can do that too. But it will be harder.
Let’s face it: some companies sell the same product year after year without making any changes. Look at WD-40. They completely own the do-it-yourself lubricant niche –all they have to do is take orders and keep the shelves stocked. But their growth rate was negative 4.6% this past year. Obviously they are neglecting one or more critical factors.
So yes — you need to consider every critical success factor — even if you don’t do anything about it you have to think about it.
Increase sales but neglect service - what will happen to customer satisfaction? It will probably go down, which will affect repeat sales, your reputation in the market place, and ultimately new sales.
Improve product quality but neglect employee retention? What will happen to quality next year? Likely it will go down. And then what will happen to sales?
As you can see, each factor’s improvement synergistically contributes to your company’s survivability and prosperity.
Can you do everything at once?
Most businesses don’t have the resources for that, so something has to give — right…
Or you can create another breakthrough.
This time, create a breakthrough in planning — one which commits you to some level of advancement for every one of the critical factors.
This planning task is not as big as you might think from reading the above. Regardless, you may still think you can’t afford the time…
Look - any amateur can grow a business when the economy is going gangbusters, but it takes a purpose, inspiration, and attention to detail to increase profits while the rest of the world is in a recession. Having a strategic plan — one which considers all the critical success factors - is a sure way to improve the odds in your favor.
–PL
Paul Lemberg is the President of Quantum Growth Coaching, the world’s only business coaching franchise system built from the ground up to rapidly create more profits and more life for entrepreneurs. (http://qgcf.com) Paul is also Executive Director of the Stratamax Research Institute specializing in helping entrepreneurial companies quickly increase short term profits for sustainable long term growth. Of course, he is available for keynote speeches and workshops and can be reached via http://lemberg.com
Recently I saw an advertisement for a time management booklet: “Shorter deadlines, competing priorities, endless meetings, interruptions and even higher quality expectations are just some of today’s time challenges. And yet the number of hours in the day remains the same.”
As entrepreneurs we all struggle sometimes with managing our time effectively. I once heard an entrepreneur say that of the people he knows, his entrepreneur friends are the worst people when it comes to managing their time and priorities. Too often we fall prey to the misguided notion that being busy is the same as making progress.
There are many areas involved in effective time management:
• your attitude
• goal setting
• setting priorities
• planning
• scheduling
• analyzing your progress
• dealing with interruptions
• meetings
• paperwork
• delegation of tasks
• taming procrastination
• time teamwork
KEY PRINCIPLES
Here are some key principles I have found to help me manage my time more effectively:
1. Good habits are the key to good time management.
The essence of good time management is creating good habits. A good habit to develop is to focus on results. Setting goals and striving to reach them must become a habit. Before your next meeting, think to yourself-what is my goal in doing this or meeting with this person? What specific results would I like to see come from my time? You must learn to place a high value on your time. There are a million things, advertisements, books, media events and people vying for it. You must distinguish between what and who is important and what or who is not. This might sound a little harsh at first, but focusing on results in developing your habits will help you focus yourself and your time.
2. Good habits start with setting goals.
There are several points to remember when setting good goals.
First is to write your goals down. Studies have shown that you are much more likely to accomplish your goals if they are committed to paper. As someone once said, “A short pencil is better than a long memory.”
A second point is to break down your goals into three categories: short, intermediate and long term. I would advocate that you should have a separate list for your personal, professional and life goals. The personal goal list would cover areas like: personal relationships, use of free time, personal growth activities, reading up on a particular topic, taking continuing education classes or seminars, etc. Your professional goal list should be clearly focused on building your business, increasing revenues, cutting costs, strategic planning, marketing, employee management, creating partnerships and meeting beneficial business contacts. Your life goals would cover the broader picture of what you want to accomplish in life and what who you want to be remembered for.
3. Pursuing specific goals is the key to reaching success.
Setting good goals requires some planning and concentrated effort. Far too many entrepreneur have good intentions for their business, but lack goals that are specific enough to help them achieve success. Most entrepreneurs who fail to reach their goals do so because they fail to make specific, or S.M.A.R.T. goals.
S.M.A.R.T. goals are:
Specific. Your goal should be as detailed as possible. For example, “I will call all new prospective clients I met at the last networking event by this Wednesday at noon.” “I will take a vacation at least three weeks this next year.”
Measurable. Good goals allow you to quantify your efforts. “My company will increase top line sales to repeat customers by 2% this quarter by determining what their current needs are and developing a service to meet their needs before anyone else does. We will do this by surveying each of them and following up with a personalized phone call to clarify their answers.”
Achievable. It is good to set your goals high, but not impossibly high. “I will meet three new venture capitalists this month and begin building a relationship with them with the purpose of seeking funding from them in the next six months.” “I will re-write the three primary sections of my website by this next month to better reflect who my new targeted customer is and to help them find the solutions they are looking for more quickly on my site.”
Result-oriented. In order for your goals to be SMART, they must focus on what you DO want, not what you do NOT want. For example, a goal of “I do not want to fail in my business” focuses on what you do NOT want. An example of a SMART goal is, “I will increase my passive income by 15% this year by writing a “How To” manual on “10 Steps to Small Business Forward Financial Planning” and sell it on a website for $89.99.”
Time-limited. Put a specific time limit on your goals and have someone hold you accountable for reaching that goal. “I will finish researching my marketing strategy within the next six weeks and then spend two hours a day for three weeks until I finish developing my customized marketing plan.”
QUESTIONS TO ASK
Every one of us has 168 hours in a week. How we spend our time and prioritize our life says a lot about how successful we will be personally and professionally. There are many things that compete for our time: finances, future plans, family, fun, friends, present goals, pressing projects and pushy people. I heard someone once say, if you don’t control your time someone else will.
When thinking about how to successfully manage your time, here are a couple questions to ask yourself:
• Do I have specific things I want to accomplish each day?
• What percent of the time do I meet my daily goals?
• What specific things do I do to manage my time successfully?
• What are the priorities in my life?
• Does my schedule reflect those priorities?
• How successful do you feel in managing your time effectively?
Stephen Fairley, M.A., RCC is the President of Today’s Leadership Coaching, a premier executive coaching and training firm, and a Registered Corporate Coach (RCC). Today’s Leadership Coaching focuses on “Developing Leaders Who Deliver Results.” You can contact him at 630-588-0500 or at Stephen@TodaysLeadership.com
© 2001 by Stephen Fairley. All rights reserved. Please contact author for reprints.
