Posts Tagged ‘someone’

Teaching Leadership Skills For Business

October 26th, 2011

All Businesses will have a leader, or someone who passes on knowledge, trains people or leads people and sets an example. They will probably be in this position because they have many years’ experience, well-educated and confident in their ability. But does this mean that they cannot learn any more?

You will probably get many people who are in this position who probably feel that they have nothing to learn and they may be a bit reluctant to going on coaching or training courses. But if they overcome this barrier then the rewards for them can be endless. Everyone can learn something new every day for their whole life, especially in business. Sometime we can stick to what we know and what has worked before and without trying new fresh ideas that can have even better results for your organisation.

There are many areas of coaching that an Executive or leader of a business can enrol onto that can benefit them and their business such as:

Leadership Skills – Helping Executives build on their vast amount of experience and learn new techniques. With businesses changing constantly and technologies improving and competition stronger, it’s important you keep your business approach fresh and help motivate your business to get the full potential out of them.

Communication Skills – These are vital skills to have and important to keep them well tuned. Whether you’re holding a meeting with people internally in your business or whether you speaking to current or potential customers, it’s important that you do it with confidence. These courses are designed to teach you techniques from planning your message to actually delivering it successfully.

Influencing Skills – Again, if you’re an executive and are the main driving force behind your business, it’s important you have a strong, confident personality. Its likely if you are in the position of executive already then you will already have many strengths. But, courses in the area of influencing can really help you lead by example, build good relationships with internal and external people and make sure you remain a strong figure in your company, enabling you to lead effectively. You will learn new techniques on communication and confidence.

Negotiating Skills – This is a very important skill to possess and one that can be improved on. You will negotiate new employees’ salaries for instance, or more importantly you will be negotiating fees with suppliers or with another company. It’s a vital part of business success being able to control a situation.

These are just a few of the many coaching courses designed for leaders and executives in business. If you’re open to change and constant learning to keep you ahead of the competition, then these are for you. The successful results could be endless and you can learn so many new techniques in so many areas which is important in an ever changing, fast paced business world.

Posted in Management Skills

Considerations In Taking On A Business Partner

October 5th, 2011

When you take on a partner in the business, it is essential that you create a proper ‘road map’ that dictates the terms of your partnership. If you think a handshake will get you through the quagmire (I really love that word) of items that must be agreed upon, you are sadly and quite stupidly mistaken! Your agreements must be made in writing and encompass any foreseeable and unforeseeable problems.

There comes a day in every business when you must either shut down completely due to retirement or death, or you make a transition into an arrangement which involves a sale or partnership. Today’s discussion is strictly about bringing in a partner to take over the business and allow it to continue. In my mind, it would be a terrible shame to just shut down the business upon retirement – what a waste of what could be a wonderful legacy. Just imagine branding your business and developing a reputation for quality and caring….only to just shut it all down when you get too old to continue. Would it not make more sense to pass the business on to someone who feels similarly and let them continue your legacy? I believe it makes sense, but it must be well planned.

As the business owner, you will need to develop what is called an operating agreement that incorporates the concepts you and your new partner will ‘operate by’. This agreement will have a start date, an end date, vacation terms, hours worked, required production numbers, tax issues pre-determined, benefits, marketing responsibilities, nondisclosure restrictions, expulsion terms, death and disability terms, retirement terms, disputes resolution terms, and finally dissolution terms of the agreement. WHEW…that’s a lot of stuff to remember! But remember you will, or at least remember to get help on this operating agreement. The message here (dentists – remember this) is to NOT do this all by yourself. This is a headache you do NOT want. Get yourself a lawyer (Oh my goodness, did I actually say that? I do not like lawyers in general, but this is one time when you need one) and have him/her deal with all the issues. That way you can have your cup of coffee and relax!

Once you have that operating agreement in place, it will dictate the terms with your new partner so the two (or more) of you can live happily ever after. Without this agreement, the two of you could end up living in a nightmare movie – ever see Friday the 13th? Maybe that new partner’s name is Freddie? Who knows? But with an operating agreement in place, the moment he lifts an axe above his head, you can terminate his employment with the company. And that is a good feeling knowing that if you hired an axe murderer, you don’t have to live with him! (Hopefully a few of you caught the pun in that one!)

Posted in Business Management, Team Management