To be successful in business you should always look at things differently—you need to change how you think about yourself and what you are doing in order to make more money!
1. Leave Your Comfort Zone- Never accept the idea that this is the way you’ve always done it. Never accept that a new idea or technology could never work for you.
2. Smile- Throw out the reasons you think people buy from you-price, product quality or your warranty. They buy because they like you.
3. Fanatical Optimism- The glass must always be half full. Attitude will always win out in the end and infect all of those around you.
4. Cultivate Inner Networks-Practice the art of business success and know the power of networks including social networks. Then take the time to identify and build relationships with key peers, mentors, and advisors. This inner network provides support and direction. Having an inner network of five people who have a network of five more, who have—well, you get it!
5. Find a Niche. You are not all things to all people. Decide on your niche–narrow your focus and broaden your appeal. Concentrate your efforts on a fairly narrow market offering. This entails sticking to what you do best, and becoming an expert in that field. Realize that it is not possible to be good at everything. By concentrating on a fairly narrow market niche, you may be able to avoid head-on collision with bigger competitors.
6. First impression counts. Strive for accuracy and quality the first time around. You often do not have a second chance to make a good first impression. This entails a well-laid out store, courteous staff, and personable voice over the phone, etc. However, if you are a one-person business working in a home office, remember that you are the center of your business and marketing efforts. Everyone you come in touch with is potentially a client or a referral to another client because they are either impressed with you as a person, impressed with your skill at providing a certain service or product. Make sure that you are always presentable, professional in your ways and knowledgeable about your business.
7. Constant improvement. Entrepreneurs know that they should not be rigid in their ways of thinking in their quest to improve their best products and services. You risk being left behind by the fast-paced competition if you cling to the “this is how we’ve always done it” kind of thinking. The business environment today demands that you need to come up with new solutions fast! Problems are a regular part of business life. Staff issues, customer misunderstandings, cash crunches- the list is endless. To achieve business success, look at both sides of the coin. Every problem has an opportunity. Being opportunity focused makes the game of business fun and energizing.
8. Finding A Better Way. Productivity is the cornerstone of business success. Formulate the habit of finding a better way to make your business more productive. This will create more time to focus on the critical issues that drive sales and profit. Business productivity can be enhanced by technology, automation, outsourcing, and improving business processes. Don’t do it all yourself! Think “what is the best use of my time?”
9. Listen to your customers. Be market driven: listen and react to your customer’s needs. Customers need to feel that they are important to you because they are! When you focus on your customers and gain their trust, they will not only recommend you but they will also remain loyal to you. Remember, personal recommendation and word-of-mouth are the least costly yet most effective marketing strategy for your business. Business success requires an unwavering commitment to the customer. This commitment encompasses a mindset of understanding the customers’ world. Understanding the customers’ wants and needs provides the business with a greater opportunity to earn a loyal customer base. Focus away from business and profits, and toward what you can do to improve the life of your customers. Say Thank You- A lot. Tell your customers and employees how much you appreciate them. Better yet, do it the old fashioned way: take pen to paper and write them a note. Sell Soft- Don’t ever-hard sell. Solve problems. Satisfy wants. Do what is truly best for your customer.
10. Plan for success. Successful business people understand the power of planning. A good plan helps you increase your chances of succeeding and can help you define your business concepts, estimate costs, predict sales and control your risks. It tells you where you are going and how to get there. Going into business without a plan is like driving into a foreign land without a road map. Business success also requires the ability to know your strengths and weaknesses. Being open and honest about yourself and your business creates growth as an individual and as a company. Don’t spend time developing weaknesses. Find help for weak areas, enabling you to focus on strengths. In the book, “Now, Discover Your Strengths”, Gallup Organization reveals that building our strengths instead of fixing our weakness is the path to mastery and success. Take the time to know yourself and business.
11. Be innovative. Innovate your offerings constantly, keeping pace with technological changes. Use change as a springboard to improve your products, procedures or reputation. Innovation should also cover your operations from pricing, promotion, customer service, distribution, etc. Keep your eyes for new ways of doing things, and apply those that can improve the quality of your products and efficiency of your operations. Business success requires the ability to adapt to changing situations. Nothing ever goes as planned. The world of business is full of surprises and unforeseen events. Using the habit of adaptability allows business owners to respond to circumstances with the ability to change course and act without complete information. Being flexible allows us to respond to changes without being paralyzed with fear and uncertainty.
12. Work smart. As an entrepreneur, you need to possess self-confidence, plus a never-ending sense of urgency to develop your ideas. Studies have shown that the individuals who succeed in entrepreneurship are far-sighted and can accept things as they are and deal with them accordingly. They know how to manage their time, realizing the importance of leisure in as much as work. These people are oftentimes quick to change directions when they see their plans are not working. More importantly, they recognize their weak points and move on to nurture alliances and acquire the skills they need to put their business on the right track. They realize the importance of working smarter not harder, knowing that it is not the quantity of work you do, but what you do and how well you do it. WL Bateman: “ If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got.”
Balanced Lifestyle Management-Being in business can consume all of your time and energy. It’s easy to allow the business to take control of your life. Business success requires the habit of balancing all aspects of your life. Separating time for daily business tasks, profit driven tasks, and free time is a habit that will make your business and life more enjoyable. Take the time to plan each week. Learning and instilling new habits in your daily business life can have a dramatic effect on your level of success. Choose one habit to focus on for a month or until you achieve mastery. Gradually incorporate each habits of business success into your life and attain your business dreams.
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Or check my website at www.dynelinc.net and linkedin site at www.linkedin.com/in/dianlusher
DYNEL, Inc.-Dian Lusher–985-264-7967
Email Etiquette
Now that people are checking email remotely, over the Web, over cell phones and smart phones, their needs and expectations have changed. New technology and people’s comfort with email mean that the old etiquette rules need some updates.
For example, you used to hear that your Subject line should give as accurate a description as possible of the contents of the message; for example, you should never give an email the subject line, “Question”. Nowadays, while accuracy is still important, brevity is equally vital. If your recipient is reading your email off a BlackBerry, a long subject line will run off the screen and be useless.
Here are a few perennial tips as well as a few new ones that should keep you in your email correspondents’ good graces:
- If you’re sending an attachment, attach it FIRST before you write the message so that you remember to do it. A few years ago, it was hardly rare to see an attachment referred to in a message but not included. Nowadays it’s unusual enough that you could start to look like a flake.
- Check the To, CC and BCC fields, particularly if you’re about to Reply To All. Are you absolutely certain you want everybody on that list to read your response? Copy co-workers and bosses only when there’s a reason to do so.
- Nix the fancy backgrounds. They just add to the size of individual emails; many email programs won’t display them anyhow, and they can make your message difficult to read.
- Keep subject lines short, summarizing what your message is truly about. This helps get your message read and also helps if you have to search for a message later on. Keep the text short. In the new era of smartphones, more and more people are checking email over the phone. That means screen real estate and bandwidth are both scarce – so don’t make it difficult for people to download or view your messages by making them any longer than they need to be. Additionally, the email has evolved from something like a letter to something like a Post-It note. Nobody has the time or the patience for a multi-paragraph email; if it takes that much space to convey and idea, consider picking up the phone instead.
- Pause for a salutation. We are always grateful to be greeted with politeness and humanity. It’s more and more common to start with your recipient’s name and a dash or comma. This also signals that it is a personal communication and not spam or a broadcast to the group.
- Include pleasantries. In the elevator, we say, “Good morning.” At a co-worker’s office door we ask a greeting question. There are the lubricants of daily interaction. Some emails are more formal than others, but the vast majority move between two people who might just as easily be saying hello in the hall. In your email, consider the same pleasantry you might employ in a conversation: Before you launch into your three points of action from the previous meeting, consider saying “It was good to talk with the group today.” Or if it’s an individual, “It was good to hear about your trip to Cancun.” Why? It makes life more pleasant and your reader more apt to enjoy the message.
- NO SHOUTING! All caps in emails have the same effect as shouting in conversation. It’s considered rude. Even an all cap word here and there is iffy, since it takes the reader aback.
- Proof and spell-check. A poorly written message replete with run-on sentences, omitted punctuation, misused or misspelled words is difficult to read, easy to misunderstand – and reflects poorly on the sender. (And no one will ever tell you if you’ve made an embarrassing error.)
- Beware of the negative. Email is great for conveying information, instructions, and objective facts. But for some reason it slams harder in an email. It is rarely a good idea to send anything negative online. If the news is that bad, it should be delivered face to face, or at least by phone, so that your facial expression or the sound of your voice can soothe and explain tough news. A good rule is, “Never say anything in an email you wouldn’t say to the person’s face.”
- Remember, it’s public. Emails are forwarded from person to person, often multiple times, with forwarders often forgetting a nugget to “touchy” or classified information that appeared several messages below. Before you send an email ask yourself, “Am I willing to post this on my office door?” And emails can legitimately be perused by employers and often subpoenaed in legal cases, sometimes going back years.
- Be careful about humor. Always a two-edged sword, humor can be extremely touchy in email. Sarcasm is easily misunderstood and may come across as insulting. If you must make a light comment, it’s often a good idea to use a smiley-face or emotion – to make sure a recipient knows you’re kidding.
- Never respond in anger. First, if someone has insulted you, it may well be a miscommunication, a lame attempt to be funny, or it might be a response to a hasty email of yours. Pick up the phone and ask, “What was that about?” A double caution is, Never ‘Reply to All’ in anger. This is a good way to make an enemy for life.
- Multiple questions. If you ask a series of questions, most responders will answer only the last question asked. If you are posing a series of questions, number them. This is also a good idea for multiple pieces of information. It simply helps the reader order the information. If you are responding to a series of questions, number them in your reply and use a different color to set your replies off from the questions.
- The shorter the better. Something about a long email can make a reader say, “Oh, no.” Shorter ones are better read and more quickly responded to. If you find yourself responding to an emotional situation with a three-page, single-spaced rehashing of events, consider the possibility that email is not the best medium for working out the situation.
- If you are changing the subject, don’t continue an email thread. Start a new email.
- Kick the forwarding habit. Everyone get too much mail already. If you can’t resist broadcasting jokes, inspirational stories and political diatribes, consider saving them for friends and family – and realize that we’ve all seen most of them already.
- Sign-off: Consider the same pleasantry and sign off as you would use in a letter. “Please let me know if I can be of further assistance. Best regards, Brooks.”
- Say “please” and “thank you”. Your grandmother was right, “They’re the three most valuable words in the English language; they don’t cost you a thing, and they pay dividends your whole life long.” In email, as in life, a little courtesy goes a long way.
Dian Lusher-Interpersonal Communications Trainer and Coach
DYNEL, Inc. www.dynelinc.net
How Does Social Media Help Me to Make Money?
It doesn’t-at least not directly. Every site or business that wants to expand and become profitable, needs a core group of supporters who will be willing to make purchases or recommend the site to others. Your site needs to perpetuate itself.
The more supporters you have, the faster word spreads about your site. And remember it’s not all about selling, you should offer valuable information on your sites. Social media marketing is an excellent way to get people to come into your site to take a look at what you have to offer. FaceBook alone has 450 million users. You will grow when there are a group of loyal visitors ready to always act upon what you have to offer. Because social media websites can be leveraged for links and better search rankings, they can greatly increase your site’s income potential. Use social media to send people to your website. It is your main marketing tool.
Why Bloggers Should Learn How to Use Social Media
There are many ways to build a popular blog and many methods to promote your website. For example, you can start leaving comments regularly on many high traffic blogs in your niche or perhaps, consider guest posting on other bigger blogs.
My marketing strategy for blogs is very simple. I don’t comment actively, hold contests or write guest posts. Some people might enjoy doing it but it’s just a little too tedious for me and I don’t have the time.
What I do instead is strategic. I focus on creating just one excellent blog post, which I will then push through social media sites and email pitches to others. This is straightforward and I don’t have to run around many blogs putting up my URL and thinking of something insightful to say. That’s why I blog on Northshorelinks.com. Then I link this blog to my website, Facebook and Linkedin.
Think about it. Why write 50 guest posts for 50 different blogs when you can easily just write one article and get an equal amount of links and greater traffic through the use of social media? It isn’t just about creating articles and then promoting them on social sites as an afterthought. It’s about putting social media in the center of your marketing strategy, optimizing your site or content and making it an attention magnet.
Dian Lusher-DYNEL, Inc.
http://www.dynelinc.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dianlusher
http://www.Facebook.com/dian.lusher.
Lifelong learning From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Lifelong learning, also known as LLL, is the “lifelong, life-wide, voluntary, and self-motivated” pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. As such, it not only enhances social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development, but also competitiveness and enjoyability.
The term recognizes that learning is not confined to childhood or the classroom, but takes place throughout life and in a range of situations. During the last fifty years, constant scientific and technological innovation and change has had a profound effect on learning needs and styles. Learning can no longer be divided into a place and time to acquire knowledge (school) and a place and time to apply the knowledge acquired (the workplace). Instead, learning can be seen as something that takes place on an on-going basis from our daily interactions with others and with the world around us.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.”
– Marcel Proust
“I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.” – Abraham Lincoln
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” – Mark Twain
Assuming the public school system hasn’t crushed your soul, learning is a great activity. It expands your viewpoint. It gives you new knowledge you can use to improve your life. Even if you discount the worldly benefits, the act of learning can be a source of enjoyment.
But in a busy world, it can often be hard to fit in time to learn anything that isn’t essential. The only things learned are those that need to be. Everything beyond that is considered frivolous. Even those who do appreciate the practice of lifelong learning, can find it difficult to make the effort.
I believe that providing this context for our discussions about learning point to the fact that learning is a lifelong journey. It gives meaning to our lives and keeps us growing mentally, physically, and emotionally.
Here are some tips for installing the habit of lifelong learning:
1) Always have a book.
It doesn’t matter if it takes you a year or a week to read a book. Always strive to have a book that you are reading through, and take it with you so you can read it when you have time. Just by shaving off a few minutes in-between activities in my day I can read about a book per week. That’s at least fifty each year.
2) Keep a “To-Learn” List
We all have to-do lists. These are the tasks we need to accomplish. Try to also have a “to-learn” list. On it you can write ideas for new areas of study. Maybe you would like to take up a new language, learn a skill or read the collective works of Shakespeare. Whatever motivates you, write it down.
3) Get More Intellectual Friends
Start spending more time with people who think. Not just people who are smart. But people who actually invest much of their time in learning new skills. Their habits will rub off on you. Even better, they will probably share some of their knowledge with you.
4) Guided Thinking
Albert Einstein once said, “Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.” Simply studying the wisdom of others isn’t enough, you have to think through ideas yourself. Spend time journaling, meditating or contemplating over ideas you have learned.
5) Put it Into Practice
Skill based learning is useless if it isn’t applied. Reading a book on C++ isn’t the same thing as writing a program. Studying painting isn’t the same as picking up a brush. If your knowledge can be applied, put it into practice.
6) Teach Others
You learn what you teach. If you have an outlet of communicating ideas to others, you are more likely to solidify that learning. Start a blog, mentor someone or even discuss ideas with a friend.
7) Clean Your Input
Some forms of learning are easy to digest, but often lack substance. I make a point of regularly cleaning out my feed reader for blogs I subscribe to. Great blogs can be a powerful source of new ideas. But every few months I realize I’m collecting posts from blogs that I am simply skimming. Every few months, purify your input to save time and focus on what counts.
8 ) Learn in Groups
Lifelong learning doesn’t mean condemning yourself to a stack of dusty textbooks. Join organizations that teach skills. Workshops and group learning events can make educating yourself a fun, social experience.
9) Unlearn Assumptions
You can’t add water to a full cup. I always try to maintain a distance away from any idea. Too many convictions simply mean too few paths for new ideas. Actively seek out information that contradicts your worldview.
10) Find Jobs that Encourage Learning
Pick a career that encourages continual learning. If you are in a job that doesn’t have much intellectual freedom, consider switching to one that does. Don’t spend forty hours of your week in a job that doesn’t challenge you.
11) Start a Project
Set out to do something you don’t know how. Forced learning in this way can be fun and challenging. If you don’t know anything about computers, try building one. If you consider yourself a horrible artist, try a painting.
12) Follow Your Intuition
Lifelong learning is like wandering through the wilderness. You can’t be sure what to expect and there isn’t always an end goal in mind. Letting your intuition guide you can make self-education more enjoyable. Most of our lives have been broken down to completely logical decisions, that making choices on a whim has been stamped out.
13) The Morning Fifteen
Use the first fifteen minutes of your morning as a period for education. If you find yourself too groggy, you might want to wait a short time. Just don’t put it off later in the day where urgent activities will push it out of the way.
14) Reap the Rewards
Learn information you can use. Understanding the basics of programming allows me to handle projects that other people would require outside help. Meeting a situation that makes use of your educational efforts can be a source of pride.
15) Make it a Priority
Few external forces are going to persuade you to learn. The desire has to come from within. Once you decide you want to make lifelong learning a habit, it is up to you to make it a priority in your life.
Check Northshore Links for ongoing seminars, events, learning opportunities!
Dian Lusher-DYNEL, Inc.
Life Long Learner www.dynelinc.net 984-264-7967
This article was too good and had really good marketing points.
by Jim Lodico (reposted by DYNEL, Inc.)
One day my daughter, Sophia, announced that she wanted to set up a lemonade stand.
Seeing as how I didn’t really want to spend the better part of my weekend selling lemonade, I tried to talk her out of it by showing her how much she’d need to spend to buy the lemonade mix, get the cups, that sort of thing.
Regardless of my best efforts, there was no changing her mind. She wanted to go into business and there wasn’t anything I was going to do to stop her.
So as I succumbed to my role as venture capitalist in her first business startup. I decided that at the very least, this would be a great chance to teach my daughter about counting money, basic business principals, that sort of thing.
We sat down with a pad of paper and started writing the business plan.
It didn’t take long before Sophia, becoming completely exasperated with my efforts to teach her about price structure and ROI, looked up at me and said:
“But Daddy, I just want to give it away. Our neighbors are so nice, I just want to give them the lemonade.”
Wow! What do you say to that? She hit me with a complete game changer that I didn’t expect.
Suddenly, the lemonade stand had taken on an entirely different meaning.
So we put away the business plan, she drew up a sign and my wife helped her mix a pitcher of lemonade.
Just as we were about to open for business, Sophia came in from the back porch with a sprig of mint she had cut from a pot.
“Can we put mint in the lemonade?” she asked. “I want to make it extra special.”
And with that, on a Sunday afternoon in a quiet neighborhood, she was open for business.
Within a few minutes, one of our neighbors who had heard about the project came over with 50 cents to buy a glass of lemonade. Twice the price my daughter was originally planning to charge.
“But it’s free” Sophia told her.
“That’s OK. I want to pay you for the lemonade”, she replied.
Not knowing what to do with the money, Sophia put it in a cup and set the cup on the table (where everyone could see it).
Before long, more neighbors came by, each one giving her at least 50 cents. When a car would pass, she would jump up and down and scream, “Free lemonade” hoping they would stop.
For the most part they didn’t. However, at one point, one did and the driver handed her three dollars for his glass of lemonade – 1,100 percent more then if she’d gone with her father’s suggestion of 25 cents per cup.
By the end of the day, Sophia had made a whopping eight dollars at her “free” lemonade stand.
When it was all said and done, I realized that although my original business lessons didn’t stick with my daughter, I learned a lot about marketing.
Here are nine lemonade stand tips that you can use to market your services:
1. Give people something for free and they will feel obligated to return the favor. When you help someone, it creates a natural desire to return the favor. If you are a web designer, provide helpful tips on your blog, participate in forums offering advice and helping non-designers, share ideas on Twitter. In doing so, you’ll not only build trust, but also develop relationships with potential clients.
2. Give potential customers a taste of your offerings
Offer free themes or templates with an easy upgrade to “pro” versions. Provide free stock graphics that hint at potential identity or branding packages while demonstrating your creativity. Just be sure to make it good. When users are excited about the base product, they are much more likely to upgrade.
3. Make it “Extra Special”
Don’t just offer lemonade. Put in that extra sprig of mint. Make everything you do something “extra special” and clients will take notice. Not only will they come back for more, they’ll tell their friends.
4. Don’t Be Afraid to Tell Your “Neighbors” (Network!)
One of the first things my daughter did when she opened her stand was run next door and tell the neighbor. After getting his lemonade, he called two other neighbors to tell them about the lemonade stand – both of whom came right over with “donations”. Don’t be afraid to tell friends and colleagues about your services. You never know, they may talk to your next big client later that day.
5. Do What You Need to Do to Be Seen
It wasn’t enough to just put up a sign. My daughter’s advertising consisted of jumping up and down screaming “free lemonade” at passing cars. While it might seem extreme, it worked. How are you “screaming” about your business?
6. Be Persistent
Even though most of the cars passed by, my daughter didn’t give up. Finally, after many failed attempts, one of them did stop—doubling her income for the day.
7. Build Anticipation
My daughter’s first customer knew about her project and was there as soon as it opened. Don’t just launch your new web site, let people know it’s coming. Drop hints, show them screen shots, make them look forward to the big day.
8. Find Good Partners
My daughter’s little brother kept drinking the lemonade – not the best partner. However, her friend from down the street was out there with her jumping up and down screaming, doubling their advertising efforts.
9. Advertise Your Popularity
Once my daughter’s cup started filling with coins, people were more likely to “donate”. Don’t be afraid to advertise your popularity. Place download counters, comment counts and subscriber numbers in prominent places. Just make sure the stats are high enough to warrant a little bragging.
This article was too good and had really good marketing points. How’s your lemonade stand going?
Dian Lusher-DYNEL, Inc.
interpersonal skills training, business coach
http://www.dynelinc@earthlink.net
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Think Prosperity!
Self-promotion does not come naturally to many people, especially those who are shy. But during times of economic uncertainty and job cuts, you might need to promote yourself and your work to stay employed. Learn how to celebrate your successes with integrity.
Given all the layoffs that are happening these days I really want to be sure that my boss understands the value that my team and I provide but I’ve never been good at self promotion and I feel really uncomfortable tooting my own horn. So what can I do?
You’re not alone. Self promotion is a big challenge for a lot of people. It can feel like bragging or schmoozing even. Many people, especially those who have more understated or introverted personalities are really uncomfortable putting their accomplishments or their team success in the spotlight. But the trick is that you can learn to do this in a way that’s in line with your integrity. You just have to do it in a way that doesn’t conflict with your values.
How do I do that without playing politics?
You need to change your mind set about that. Politics, we all think of it as a dirty word but the reality is that understanding the political landscape of your organization is actually part of your job. You weren’t hired to play a role in a vacuum so understanding how to influence people, how decisions get made formally or informally, that’s actually gonna make you more effective in your role and as a leader overall and frankly that leads to higher morale in the team, and it keeps people motivated which is paramount in today’s economic climate.
So I understand the importance of it but how do I get started? Where do you begin?
There are a lot of ways to go about it. So anything that helps build your network, or create relationships, or gain visibility is worthwhile. The most basic thing is to make sure that you’re attaching yourself and your team to results. Send emails. Any win big or small is something that you should communicate. Tell your boss about your successes because your wins are their wins. Celebrate in really visible ways. I have a client who created a t-shirt after a big team success and they all wore it for a week. Share best practices. So if you’ve solved problems and you think your peers could benefit, get your name out there and offer up some of your resources to your peers.
In summary: Don’t make the mistake of thinking that self promotion is only for those who want to climb the ladder. You can promote yourself and your team successes with integrity. So it’s important to remember to attach yourself to results and gain visibility. Let people see you in action and they’ll realize what an asset you and your team are to the company.
Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies
Dian Lusher-DYNEL, Inc.
Coach, trainer, strategist, futurist
985-264-7967
www.dynelinc.net
TIP: If you don’t toot your horn, who will?
First impressions can make or break the image your customers have of your business whether it’s on the telephone or face to face!
So who’s creating this image for your business? Usually it’s the receptionist and the ones who replace the receptionist when they are out sick or on vacation.
Ensure that your business image is professionally represented by all of these employees and:
- train them on the telephone equipment
- advise them of the company image you want to project
- tell them what you what them to say when they answer the phone or greet someone
- give them the information on whatever else you want them to do (i.e. screen calls, place people on hold, offer a seat, offer a drink, take a message, offer VoiceMail, etc.)
- advise them on their dress image
- call in and monitor their voice image
- direct them on how to handle other employees who “hang around” the front desk
- assess how busy they are before you give them other work to do
- make sure all the back-up personnel are provided with the same information
- praise them often for the job they do creating and maintaining your company’s first impressions!
TIP: Seek professional Director of First Impressions training to set your business ahead of the rest!
Next Month: Who responds when to your customers and how FAST!
Dian Lusher-DYNEL, Inc. www.dynelinc.net 985-264-7967
There are those who believe that just because they are the ‘boss’ their employees respect them. After all, the employees do what they are told, don’t they? There is a huge difference between having employees who just follow orders and having employees who are engaged and involved in your business. If you are a leader that your employees respect, they will engage their minds and their efforts in your business as well as their hands.
How do you gain the respect of your employees? Try following this path: R E S P E C T
R = Responding, not reacting to people. Every time you listen and respond, you are sending a message your care.
E = Enthusiasm for what they are doing. People respond to encouragement. Recognize their efforts.
S = Sharing the success with all the people. You can’t succeed without your employees; let them know that.
P = Passion Show your employees that you care about the business and you care about them as employees and as people.
E = Expecting all to play by the same set of rules. Follow the rules as you expect your employees to do. Don’t play favorites and don’t take short cuts.
C = Consistency Don’t play games. Fairness and consistency in the way you manage people is critical for earning their respect.
T = Truth at all times. Be honest and be truthful just as you expect your employees to be.
You can’t buy respect but you can lose it and once it’s lost, it’s very difficult to get back. Set the direction and share that direction with your employees. Set the rules and follow them. Listen to your employees and provide feedback to them on their performance. Respect your employees and they will respect you.
Sandy Hughes
Hughes-Consulting – a Human Resource and Business Management consulting firm
www.hughes-consulting.org
It’s not too late to recognize those faithful customers who keep you in business. Offer them an on line discount, coffee or tea as they shop, door prizes, anything that shows that you appreciate and value them as a customer.
Remember existing customers are your best salespeople!
Next month: The Receptionist-Director of First Impressions
Have a prosperous day!
Dian Lusher-DYNEL, Inc.
http://www.dynelinc.net
How many of you business owners have gone into business without an idea of what it is you wanted to do or a plan to get it done? If you needed to borrow money from someone (bank, venture capitalist, or Great Uncle Harry), I’m sure that you had to have had your ideas well thought out and documented into a road map that would, at minimum, insure that your loan was paid back, and, at best, that your business flourished and became a resounding success. Why, then, do so many businesses not do as much for their employees? Where is the plan for them? Where’s the road map for them to help create that success?
A couple of weeks ago I found myself conducting a seminar for young professionals who were going through a training program to prepare them to become Board members for non-profit organizations. My job was to go through the major Human Resource systems found within organizations. I got on my soap box when we came to the Performance Management System as I am passionate about linking employees to the mission/vision and goals of an organization. It doesn’t matter whether the organization is a not-for-profit or a for-profit concern, employees can’t possibly be the greatest support to the organization if they are operating blind. They will do the best that they can do but this may not be the right thing at the right time or it may not be something even essential to the organization’s mission or success.
Every organization needs to have at least yearly goals and, if possible, a strategic plan that looks at the path for the next three to five years. Every position within your organization should be tied to those annual goals. If a position can’t be tied into at least a supporting role for those goals, it probably isn’t necessary. Once the organization’s goals have been established, the next step is to set metrics around those goals and then identify who needs to work on achieving/delivering the goal and by when. Metrics can be as straight forward as: Increase customer sales by 10%; or, Reduce office supply spending by 15%; or, Zero safety incidents/accidents; or, Reduce operating costs by 10%.
Tying employees to goals that are important to the organization’s success and goals that are measurable makes it easier to determine if your employees are performing as you need them to perform. Having goals that are very subjective or having goals that aren’t clear makes performance discussions difficult and often meaningless. I once had a supervisor who told me I wasn’t ‘there yet’ when it came to achieving my goals. My problem was that I hadn’t any idea where ‘there’ was or how I was to know when I got ‘there.’ As it turned out, his goal was to get me to leave the company and I did out of shear frustration. Organizational leaders spend too much time investing in finding and training employees to short-change both the employee and the organization by not linking the employee to clear and measurable organizational goals.
By starting at the top, i.e., setting the organizational goals first, and then moving down the organization with the goal connection, all within the organization are working on the ‘right stuff.’ This is something that can’t be achieved through the ‘bottom up’ approach of asking employees to identify their goals for the year. It’s like throwing darts at a dart board and hoping that the dart finds the center. Those employees who are closest to the top of the organization or know intuitively what needs to be done, will find the right things to work on. Other employees will only have the information or the person that they are closest to for guidance with goal identification.
Organizations where the employees know what’s going on and know that they make a difference to the organization’s success have been rated the best places to work. Even mundane jobs like picking up litter and keeping the place tidy can become an important employee job when seen as the difference between potential customers coming in the door because they believe that the care the business takes with its appearance will be reflected in the care with which they are treated or just driving off muttering ‘no way.’
So, start connecting your employees to your business – or re-connect them if it’s been a while since you communicated what’s important and needed for organizational success. Help your employees know what you need from them. Be clear about it. Determine ways that you can measure their contribution. Recognize and reward those employees who help you to be successful and clearly guide, coach, and monitor those who aren’t measuring up.
Sandy Hughes, Hughes-Consulting To learn more about performance management and linking employees to organizational goals, go to www.hughes-consulting.org
