Turning Around Your Business Employee Development

December 17th, 2011

For business owners and managers there is a key question that should never be left unanswered. Focus is placed in different areas attempting to cultivate business relationships, improve products and services, hire and recruit talented employees, in addition to other tasks. For all types of business this question is something that should be the foundation, which every aspect of the organization is constructed. Often, its very easy to see companies that value this question and obvious when companies fail to realize the severity of consequence that can result.

I challenge you to ask yourself, “What is it that drives consumers to purchase my product or service”. Take a few minutes to write this question down and brainstorm possibilities. Get second opinions and ask employees for feedback. Get opinions from satisfied customers. What unique factors drive your sales, customer satisfaction, and ability to thrive in today’s economy. This should be your organizational focus. From here you can develop a clear plan to achieve your goals. Business success starts from the ability to create extremely satisfied customers. A happy customer will not only return to repurchase your product or service, but will spread positive goodwill about your organization within their circle of friends.

Having discovered what drives consumers to purchase your product or service you should then work backwards to develop an organizational vision. You can read more about an organizational vision elsewhere on the Internet, but in summary the purpose of an organizational vision is to motivate your employees to achieve what’s beyond their reach. Here are several tips and examples of effective company visions.

Set the bar high – If your company sells a product or service don’t just incorporate having great customer service and products. Include that you provide the absolute highest level of customer service and that your company is unmatched even by the largest companies in the industry. Once your employees can internalize this goal, it makes it that much more likely to be achieved.

Go beyond your service- Include how your company impacts the community that purchases or supports your business. Will your company give back to the community? Do your employees care about your company? What can you do to get everyone to buy into your set of organizational beliefs?

Now that you have a much clearer vision of how a few small changes can have a large impact within your organization I will dive right into the bread and butter of this article. This is where you should focus your efforts and is in my opinion the most important aspect of turning your company around – Empower your employees!

What can you teach your employees to make them feel that their jobs are specialized? How can you train your employees to adopt the core values of your organization? If you can motivate your employees, they will strive to accomplish your goals for you! There is a relationship between the ability for an employee to take control of their own projects, and the amount of motivation and effort that an employee will spend helping your organization to achieve its goals. Don’t forget this! Learn that employee development leads to employee motivation and this leads to higher productivity and profits.

Once your employees feel that they are empowered you can then focus on the next step, which is often the hardest for managers and owners to accept. Delegate tasks to your employees. Be able to dangle the carrot and spend time to train your employees to take up higher responsibility and harder tasks. Eventually your employees will have the ability to complete more and more vital tasks and will free up time for you to re-focus your efforts on further developing your business.

Turning a business around can sometimes be a serious challenge. Many times its companies who focus their efforts in the wrong places who end up needing help to turn them around. For all businesses it’s vital to realize that efforts should be spent increasing the customers value perception. After all its better to get it right the first time than deal with this problem down the road.

Posted in Business Management

Secrets to Effective Conflict Resolution

December 12th, 2011

We all have had to deal with conflict in the workplace. It can be a real energy drain as people within and around the conflict focus on the negative and not the positive. The result is decreased productivity and even worse, potential danger for other employees. As a leader, dealing with conflict is a key skill you must master. So here are some recommended steps to take to resolve conflicts in a timely and efficient manner.

First, you must be able to recognize the conflict. Some forms of conflict are subtle and not so blatant. These subtle forms can include repeated negative attitudes or behaviors such as inappropriate use of humor-sarcasm or cynicism, lack of care, empathy, and support of team members, interrupting others, appearing arrogant or a know it all, withholding of resources or information, etc. These are all subtle because they are interpreted by individuals who will interpret the behaviors based on their biases and experiences. Their interpretation will affect their relationship with the other person. As a leader, you need to understand each of your team members’ behavior preferences so you can be alert to potential subtle conflicts which can ultimately escalate into much larger ones. Then there are the more blatant behaviors such as yelling, intimidation, and continually not keeping commitments to others.

Second, research the situation by asking questions of those involved directly and indirectly. Your questions should be data driven because the focus of your discussion with the individuals will be on the problem, not the individuals in conflict. Listen carefully to filter out opinions from facts. And be careful when asking questions to not “lead the witness”. And finally, don’t share your opinions with those you are interviewing because of potential biases in their responses. Your job is to get all the necessary facts before facilitating a resolution.

Third, prior to a meeting with the team members in conflict establish meeting norms and guidelines with each member individually. Get individual commitments from them that they will abide to the following: express themselves in an unemotional manner, listen when another person is speaking- no interruptions, attempt to put themselves in the shoes of the other person, and commit to a certain date to make a final decision if you need to based on the meeting dialogue.

Fourth, facilitate a meeting between the parties in conflict. During this meeting acknowledge the problem you have identified during your research in a concise manner and communicate your role in the meeting as a facilitator. You are not there to solve the conflict but to facilitate the conversation so the conflicting parties can solve the problem themselves. Remind them of the meeting guidelines they each agreed to before the conversation begins. And, set a time frame for the meeting and let them know that if the conflict can’t be resolved then a specific time will be set aside to pick up the conversation. Be prepared to stop the meeting if someone isn’t abiding to their promise.

Coaching Tip: When reminding them of the guidelines they agreed to add the following communication guidelines:

  • Have them use “I” not “You” when making a declarative statement
  • The words “never” and “always” should not be used

Fifth and final, make your decision a timely one. Your credibility and reputation as a leader is partially based on your decision making skills. The inability to make a decisive decision during times of conflict can impact how you are viewed as a leader. Show your strength and you will build respect from those you lead. In the end it is up to the leader to be skilled in questioning, listening, facilitating, and decision making to resolve conflicts in the workplace and insure that employees are both productive and safe.

Posted in Business Management