Making-Money-Month Is Now!

Success in the modern business environment depends to a great extent on effective people management skills. These skills can be acquired and studied. It may be an advantage to have a natural affinity for managing with people, nevertheless you can do some things that will facilitate the process.

Relationship Development: Begin by remembering the names of the workforce. Encourage conversation; get eye contact during a conversation. Have a respectful attitude, and be attentive to everything the other person says, regardless of whether you are in agreement or not. Paying attention to what others say is one of the best people management skills in your arsenal. Welcome any comments from team members. Keep your promises: Do not give promises you won’t fulfill. When your word is broken, it can damage trust, and if they can’t trust you your staff won’t give you their best. When you say something or make a promise about something, you are squandering your time and effort if you don’t keep your promises. You will discover, when you can’t be counted upon, you can be assured they will behave in the same way. Feedback is essential: Feedback must be a interactive process. Keeping an open mind with regard to other people’s opinions is very important in managing people. If you can prove that you are approachable and receptive, you prove that you respect other people’s opinions, and they will listen to yours. Frank discourse also encourages creative trouble-shooting, original ways of accomplishing goals, and develops the team. If your co-workers have a voice, every team member takes ownership of the outcome of the project.

Encourage communication: Communication is central to dealing with staff skilfully. Be accessible, listen closely to people, be open-minded, and give all your employees an equal voice. Encourage team members not just to communicate with you, but also with each other. The growth of any business relies heavily on the open exchange of opinions, and in listening to one another, it becomes much easier to discover issues before they present as a problem, permitting corrective action to be put in place to prevent further problems.

Some effort will be necessary, even so the payoff is worthwhile. Through encouraging a good team dynamic and developing good listening techniques, a successful business can be yours.

It’s opinion in numerous companies that, so long as each and every member of staff has decent health & safety education, they have all the knowledge they might need to prevent an incident. The truth is though, a basic education in health & safety regulatory affairs just is not adequate. You need to supply your staff with competent supervision, not to mention provide the right safety gear and give them the chance to practice. Your staff must have an excellent supervisor to watch over the shop floor, however this person must also fulfill a greater purpose on the floor. Your choice of supervisor must be a good communicator, they should also see health & safety education as fundamental.

On top of following any relevant legislation, the task of a supervisor also usually includes supervising staff performance. This is a hard task. In depth industry knowledge is essential for a supervisory role as well as a very high level of understanding of safety legislation, risk assessment, and CPR. It’s just not enough to offer your staff health & safety instruction. They have to practise risk assessment and the recognition of hazardous areas. They need to know how to eliminate safety hazards and also how best to act when disaster strikes. Your employees are only properly prepared when everything has become routine. Safety equipment is equally as critical to the your staff’s well being as any training. Without the proper apparatus or if workers see that items are damaged only after a crisis has occurred, even the most advanced training won’t help them. Frequent maintanence of your equipment is crucial. If you find your equipment is in less than perfect condition, have it repaired or serviced as a matter of urgency. The right health & safety instruction is essential for the well being of your workers, however they also require good quality gear, frequent practises, and a supervisor who can motivate your staff. And then complying with health & safety legislation will before long become part of your employee’s working habits instead of something challenging for the workforce to remember.

Succeeding in the modern business world depends on the effective management of staff. People management can be improved and studied. It may be a plus to have a innate affinity for people, but there are many things you can do to make this process simpler.

Build relationships: Start by memorizing the names of the staff. Encourage conversation; make eye contact during a conversation. Show respect, in addition listen to everything the other person says, irrespective of whether you agree with them. Acquiring the ability to listen is among the best things you can do to better your people management skills. Be sure to receive any input from your team members. Live up to your word: Keeping your word is crucial. When you don’t deliver on what you promise, the fragile bond of trust is fractured, and without trust employees certainly won’t offer their best. Everytime you give a commitment or give a promise, do be sure you can follow through or it would be better not to give your word at all. To be honest, if you can’t be counted upon, they can’t be relied on to be available if you actually need them.

Be open to any comments: Feedback must be a two-way process. Maintaining an open mind with regard to other’s ideas is an important skill in effective people management. Being approachable and open proves that you respect other’s views, and they will listen to yours. Encouraging open discussion in addition opens doors to fresh ways of thinking, original ways of fulfilling goals, and improves the team dynamic. By allowing the employees some input, each member takes an interest in the results of the project. Communicating is important: Good communication is central to managing staff with skill. Keeping an open door policy, apply listening skills, keep an open mind, and permit team members an equal voice. Inspire staff not only to communicate to you, but with each other. The growth of a business relies heavily on the open exchange of opinions, and if the employees communicate well, it becomes much simpler to discover any issues before they might become problems, and corrective measures can be applied before things get out of hand.

A little effort will be necessary, but the dividends achieved far outweigh the work. By inspiring a good team dynamic and by taking heed of your team’s opinions, a thriving business will be yours.

Have you ever been sailing on a beautiful summer’s day, the wind perfect, the water ideal? But when you look around, you notice there were a number of other sailboats, with their sails as full as yours, but some are much faster, and you feel like you are standing still!

You look around and find your anchor is running along the bottom of the marina. You were still moving forward, but no where near the speed as the other sailboats out that day.

Is this happening to your business? Are your sails full of great opportunities? Is your competition passing you by? Does your business lack the momentum to get you out to the open water?

Many businesses are dragging their anchor. What do I mean by “dragging their anchor”? This anchor can refer to employees who just don’t have what is takes to be successful in your business line or are the type of employee who brings down the rest of the team. The anchor stops or slows down your momentum in your company.

Having employees on your team who consistently challenge the corporation in a positive manner is a good thing! They keep your company competitive in the marketplace. However having an employee or group of employees who weigh down your company in a negative manner, is something you need to act upon.

Negative employees can knock the wind out of your company’s sails! The team members who fill your company’s sails daily, with great ideas and forward momentum will soon become tired and lack the energy, required to move your sailboat forward. Eventually these same employees will find an easier boat to blow their powerful wind into, while your anchors will continue to slow down your progress.

Many organizations continue to work on developing their anchors instead of harvesting the wind that blows into their sails. Anchors will always be anchors, and they may have moments of promise in transforming into a sail, BUT the trend is, they almost always revert back to being an anchor. A good read on this topic is a book titled “If You Don’t Make Waves, You’ll Drown” by Dave Anderson. One of the book’s lessons is, many of today’s leaders spend the majority of their time on the non-performers, instead of their performers. Again, continuing with this practice will have your performers looking for another stage to perform on.

Can you imagine a sailboat with no sails and all anchors? Business owners need to remove the anchors or at least secure your anchors onto your sailboat and focus on the sails in your organization. Sails do not need a lot of effort, however, they do need attention, regular support, and care.

Harvest the winds in your company so you can have full sails to allow you to compete in the marketplace and keep pace, ahead of your competition.

Stuart R. Crawford is the Director of Business Development, at IT Matters Inc. (http://www.itmatters.ca), a Microsoft Gold Partner, Small Business Specialist and Microsoft IMPACT Award Finalist 2005 - Network Infrastructure Solution of the Year. Stuart is also a certified coaching practioner with execuCoach International (http://www.execuCoach.net). He can be reached at scrawford@itmatters.ca.

Everyone has the opportunity to act in a management capacity in some aspect or event in life. You may be in the role of a manager or supervisor at work. You might manage the activities in your household, in your community, or temporarily manage activities at an event. What is your management style? What would it be if you could choose? What if the people reporting to you could choose for you?

The following are some common management styles. See if you can find characteristics of yourself, or your management, in one or more of the following categories.

1. Delegation
Delegation is often considered a necessary trait of management. It is the ability to assign responsibilities and tasks to a direct report. This implies that the individual on the receiving end of the delegation has the capability and the authority to complete the assigned task effectively. Delegation is a means to share the burden, get more done, and can be an educational process. This is effective provided the recipient of the delegation is supported and receives recognition for accomplishing the assigned goal.

If the recipient of the delegation does not receive the corresponding recognition, then it is not delegation, it is obligation.

2. Obligation
Management by obligation is the theory that assuming higher levels of authority is equivalent to obtaining greater proximity to status as deity. By separating authority from responsibility, the manager is able to easily gather personal accolades for achievement and can just as easily assign blame to others for failure. A trait of management by obligation is a lack of communication between management and direct reports. An unfortunate side effect of treating direct reports as if they are obligated to produce and have no other alternatives is that the people begin to believe it. As a result, performance steadily declines to mediocrity, “just doing what needs to be done, enough to get by’”.

3. Procrastination
As this style implies, it is to put off work and decisions indefinitely. As a management style this allows unresolved issues time to get worse. This style allows competitors time to catch-up, surpass or get a bigger advantage. Taking too long to make a decision can cause disarray, as people begin to make independent and unguided decisions for individual activities. We will get back to procrastination later.

4. Constipation
Just as dangerous as procrastination, a constipated management style is best described as what happens when stuff get backed up. Sometimes there are decisions and clear directives that are issued at an executive level, a clear course for the organization and essential goals for success. When constipation occurs, these directives, goals and instructions never make it through management. Sometimes there is a hidden layer of management that acts like a Bermuda Triangle of information, the communication goes in but never comes out. Like procrastination, people are left to make independent decisions that may or may not be aligned with the overall objectives of the group. The only relief for constipation is communication. Otherwise you are doomed to perspiration.

5. Perspiration
This style is the mad rush to accomplish everything individually. This is only associated with a management style because even people in management positions sometimes fall prey to this habit. It is the unfortunate belief that the only way to get something done right is to do it yourself. While this may be true in isolated cases, it should not be the standard practice. It is essential to the health and growth of any organization to teach and share skills, knowledge and information. Anyone that takes isolated responsibility for conducting tasks is limited the throughput of the organization to their individual capacity. The way to break out of this habit is to delegate, share, teach and educate.

6. Desperation
Quite often this style of management is either the result of poor planning, improper forecast, or lack of intestinal fortitude. Desperation is most frequently exhibited in management related to sales, and may result in a panicked pricing response to market conditions or inappropriate berating of sales associates. In some organizations desperation is continually perpetuated, even during profitable and successful periods, for the purpose of motivating employees. Like a great march across the desert, the most dedicated personnel will endeavor to persevere through hardship. However, the danger of perpetual desperation is that the most talented individuals will eventually pack up their knowledge and experience to take it to a more promising environment. If desperation and obligation proliferate in an organization, it is not loyalty but rather lack of ambition or marketable talent that remains. These are not qualities that can sustain an organization.

7. What in ‘tarnation?
This is the management style that results when the human capital is diluted of experienced and knowledgeable employees. This may occur after a large restructuring, known to the unemployed as a “lay off”, or through attrition resulting from desperation. If management is accustomed to having activities carried out, but is disconnected from the people who actually do the work, then the infrastructure can be subject to collapse when key personnel are removed. While this does not mean that the business will fail, it does mean that certain aspects of the business may stagnate. The repercussions may take months or years to redesign and rebuild. Sometimes the new design and new processes are better, sometimes not. It is a gamble, and the only way to improve your odds is to remove the mystery by getting close to the action and the people who make the magic happen. Cross-train, communicate and understand your business.

8. Education
One of the most powerful and progressive styles of management is based on the recognition that we never stop learning. Supporting education can come in many styles and methods. Some managers use formal training seminars. Some managers effectively use cross-training or encourage documentation and Intranets to perpetuate internal knowledge. For some trades, education can be enhanced with school or activities with associations. A basic and effective method of combining education and communication is by direct training and cooperative support between the manager and the individual. This can be accomplished by conducting projects or tasks together, discussing the goals and defining conclusions through the process.

9. Communication
An essential requirement for effective management, communication is a two way street. It includes passing along communications from executive objectives, share holders, or company directives. It is the dissemination of the strategic goals for the group, and explanations of assignments for delegation. Productive communication is also based on active listening techniques, recognizing the importance of the feedback and insight from the employees and customers. A successful manager knows that wisdom and understanding are gained by listening, not by speaking. Share direction, strategy, goals and experience, but listen for feedback, insight, effectiveness and status.

10. Liberation
If the environment and situation support this style, give people the freedom to manage their own performance and activities. Nobody is closer to the job at hand than the one who is doing it. Trust that the individual is the master of the task. Give support if it is called for, but otherwise allow the person the flexibility to experiment with improvements and processes. In this style, the manager is like the conductor of an orchestra. Each person contributes to the performance, the leader keeps entire group aligned in timing and melody. There are periods for each person or instrument to be highlighted, and periods for each to support and compliment the others. When conducted properly, the result is a magnificent symphony performance.

11. Motivation
Do you know what is most important to each person under your care and guidance? If the answer is ‘yes’, then you are a motivator. If you hesitate, then it is time to sit down with each person for an open and honest conversation. We all work for our own reasons. Some people desire promotion, some expect to be rewarded with pay, and others are happy with the current situation. Some people are working for their next job, others are just happy to live near work, and a few thrive on personal recognition. There is no right or wrong reason for motivation. The desire to satisfy other people is no nobler than the desire for a bigger paycheck. What does matter is that you know what is important to each individual and have a plan to help them achieve personal goals. Please also keep in mind that personal goals change, so it is necessary to keep this open dialogue.

12. Inspiration
Thomas Edison said that invention is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Keep in mind that he was talking about inventions, and management is about people. Inspiration in management is not the spark of a new idea, but rather it is the ability to inspire others. In a leadership capacity you must inspire not only the people who report to you, but it is also necessary to inspire the people to whom you report. Inspiration begins with learning to develop and exhibiting your characteristics that inspire others. Examples of character traits that inspire are consistency, reliability, honesty, integrity, strength and compassion. Regardless of your lasting or temporary leadership role, you have the ability to inspire others with your own activity. How you use this opportunity is up to you.

13. Direction
This trait is the ability to properly define goals. Goals and objective set the direction, communication makes is clear, and proper motivation will get everyone there together. It is important to note that goals are something to be obtained, not avoided. That very statement may seem self-evident, but it is often misunderstood. For example, achieving a milestone, a metric, a quota, a number or a destination are goals to be obtained. Hannibal, the great general of Carthage, marched men and elephants thousands of miles over the French Alps in winter on his quest from Spain to Rome. Rome was the goal for Hannibal, and his army was focused on obtaining victory. On the other hand, avoiding defeat or deficit is not an objective. Avoiding failure is a stalling tactic that may ultimately fail. You must aggressively seek to succeed, and the threat of failure will be a concern for your competitors. What are your clearly defined and measured objectives, and what is your path to achieve them?

We are all on a voyage of self-discovery and learning. By reviewing these methods of management, hopefully you have discovered some perspective about your method or your situation. If there is opportunity to improve, you are the better person for initiating it. If you are already maximizing your personal performance, then your organization is that much the better for it.

John Mehrmann is President of Executive Blueprints Inc., an organization devoted to improving business practices and developing human capital. http://www.ExecutiveBlueprints.com provides resource materials for trainers, sample Case Studies, educational articles and references to local affiliates for consulting and executive coaching.

Every person who succeeded at a high level, in any business venture, probably said goal setting played a big part of their success. But often the person speaking these words isn’t telling you the whole story. They forget to tell you the other half that made their goals a reality.

Your emotiona need to be considered. If your emotions don’t support your goals you will never achieve them.

Lets look at an example of what a typical small business owner would like to achieve as a goal. Lets imagine this person wanted to increase their revenue by 40% in 10 months. The next step is typically to break that goal down into smaller pieces. We could break it down even further to say we want to increase our sales by 4% every month from the existing monthly level.

We’ve now defined our goals. Now you may think I am going to say the person needs to write them out so they can say them every day out loud to themselves.

This is where the myth part comes in!

No matter how many times you say your goals out loud or read them your unconscious mind and emotions are really saying - ‘I don’t feel its achievable, I’m not sure I can do it’.

What’s missing is a PLAN of how to achieve the goals.

Let me give you a scenario to explain what I mean, in a simple way.

Let’s imagine you had a goal one day to cross a river where there was no bridge without getting wet, and without using a boat or water vehicle including floating objects. You could write that as a goal with the other side being the place you want to be and put a time frame on it (1 week). You now have a correctly written goal.

You could break this goal down into daily goals by saying you will drop rocks into the water to build up stepping stones and do this every day to try to achieve your goal. However, even with the stepping stones in place (consider them smaller goals) you still have an apprehension about getting wet as you need to hop, step or jump from rock to rock and you may fall in.

This is goal setting. We have broken the main goal into smaller goals, much like putting stepping stones into place. However like crossing the river, in real life you still have your doubts about achieving your goals.

What’s needed here is a bridge so you can simply and easily cross the river, without getting your feet wet. With a bridge you would have very little doubt of your achievement of your goal as you can “see” your way forward with clarity.

The bridge in this example relates to your business success, which is having a good PLAN of how you will achieve your goals.

So getting back to our example of growing the persons business, by increasing sales by 40% in 10 months, we need a PLAN that supports the achievement of the goals.

In this example to increase sales we need to break this into getting 4% more customers every month. How do we do that becomes the most important question and our PLAN.

First of all we need to understand that monthly revenue is made up of the number of new customers purchasing combined with existing customers coming back to purchase.

Let’s keep it simple and in this case we won’t rely on getting existing customers to come back more (even though you should be focussing on this in real life business practices).

That means we need to get our 4% increase from new customers. Now, we break down getting new customers into 2 steps. The first step is to increase our conversion rate (if we know what it is), to see if its possible to increase it by 4%.

The other way is to increase inquiries from potential customers by 4%. This step again breaks down into smaller steps where one step is to work on existing advertising or promotional material to improve on it with better advertising design concepts.

The second part of this breakdown is to find new ways to promote the business, that its currently not using. This could be by using a proactive referral system, a strategic alliance, a host beneficiary, direct mail letters, industry newsletter ad, piggy back invoice mailing or similar strategy that is relatively unknown and therefor greatly under utilized.

Now we have 3 major ways to achieve our 4% increase and when you look at the most likely area to work with, which is often conversion rates, you can quite easily achieve not just the 4% growth per month, but substantially higher rates of growth.

From experience an offline business can increase their conversion rates (percentage from inquiry to sale) by 20% quite easily, if the number if below 50%, and its possible (and readily achievalbe) to do it within 30 days.

You can increase your conversion rate by introducing written guarantees as part of your advertising as well. In fact there are dozens of ways to icnrease conversion rates!

So by following this planning process, achieving your goals becomes much like taking a stroll across a river on a bridge. It’s easy, straight forward, but it takes good planning. With the right planning (and sometimes expert assistance) any business goal can be attained in relatively short time frames.

By doing this exercise with dozens and dozens of small business owners over the previous 8 years I have been a Professional Business Builder I have seen over 8 of my clients double their revenue in just 30 days with this planning process!

Let me leave you with a quote from Napoleon Hill that explains what I have written, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve”.

The true power comes from “conceiving” of the idea, with expert planning that supports a well thought out goals. When you do this properly you “believe” you can achieve, and so you do!

Want to learn more about this article? Go to www.bbms.com.au

Tim Stokes is one of the best business coaches and business builders in the world. He was awarded “Worldwide Coach of the Year in 2000″ from hundreds of candidates both in USA, Australia and Asia.

Tim’s results speak volumes for his abilities and knowledge. He measures his clients growth results in double to triple digit percentages over months, not years. Tim’s most impressive result was helping a service business to grow by 1000% in just 5 months! This story was written up in “My Business Success” magazine in June 2002 in an article called, “Is Coaching the New Business Miracle?”

To learn for yourself how easy it is for Tim to grow your business go to http://www.bbms.com.au or read more of his articles at http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Tim_Stokes

Whenever I’ve worked on ‘de-cluttering’ my living or working space, I’ve always found that it’s the unfinished project - whatever I’m procrastinating about - that takes up the most room.

Physically, it’s a constant reminder of something I tell myself I SHOULD be doing.

Mentally, it consumes my thoughts and diverts my attention from the present moment.

Emotionally, it weighs down my heart and nicks away at my confidence.

In this article, I invite you to consider how procrastination, as a form of self-sabotage, shows up in the different areas of your life.

Understanding Procrastination - Why do you procrastinate?

Maybe your physical surroundings and your ’systems’ of organization are getting in your way. For example:

~ My workspace is too messy

~ I’m too busy

Maybe distracting or debilitating emotions or thoughts are getting in your way. For example:

~ I’m afraid - afraid to fail, afraid to succeed

~ I’m overwhelmed

Maybe your physical body and its level of well-being is getting in your way. For example:

~ I’m too tired

Maybe your thoughts about the other people in your life are getting in your way. For example:

~ They might not like it

~ It won’t be as good as _____, so why bother?

Procrastination is a habit like any other. If you can envision how you want to be instead and look honestly at what forms of self-sabotage you usually use, you CAN compensate for your procrastination.

Overcoming Procrastination: What type of procrastinator are you?

Are you a Do-er or a Stew-er?

Do-er

A “do-er” will do anything to avoid the task at hand - the dishes need washing, the dog needs walking, the mail needs sorting, the bills need paying, the files need organizing, etc.

Action Plan for Do-er’s

Set a timer for 15-minutes and tell yourself that as soon as it goes off you can do whatever else you want, but until it does, you must sit in that chair and work on the project in front of you.

• Train your self
• Keep it short
• Stay in your chair

Stew-er

A “stew-er” will sit and “stew” about the thing you’re not doing. Your mind will spin round and round about different possibilities, you will plan elaborate things for when you do get around to working, you’ll be thinking so far into the future that you’ll never catch up to yourself.

Action Plan for Stew-er’s

Focus and calm your mind with meditation, affirmations and mind-body work such as breathing.

• Clear your mind
• Ground your thoughts
• Pause and breathe

Whether you’re a “do-er” or a “stew-er”, when we can accomplish our creative goals IN SPITE of having so many reasons to put them off, the rewards are even sweeter.

When I’m feeling overwhelmed, I need to remember that all I have to do is the next thing. A few next things later and I’ve tackled quite a bit!

It’s important to consider the bigger picture of this “thing” that you’re trying to do. There’s always the possibility that you don’t really want to do it or that you’re not meant to be doing it. If this is the case, a part of you knows that and is trying to tell you, so listen up (just make sure it’s not fear or self-doubt in disguise).

Lastly, remember to celebrate what you HAVE accomplished, no matter how small. The more you focus on what you HAVE done, versus what you HAVEN’T, the more confidence you’ll have and the more momentum you’ll build towards the next thing you’re going to do.

Linda Dessau, the Self-Care Coach, helps artists enhance their creativity by addressing their unique self-care issues. To receive one of her free monthly newsletters, subscribe at http://www.genuinecoaching.com/newsletter.html