In a cash-strapped economy, many business owners may be wondering how they can keep good employees and even attract new if they don’t have the cash to provide them with monetary bonuses.
There are other items that your staff will enjoy because remember, money isn’t always everything. Here are a few items I have found that employees — and even your independent contractors — may appreciate:
Offer flex time. The ability to work four 10-hour days or to come in late and leave early could be a very precious commodity.
A “thank you” goes a long way. Let your staff know you appreciate them. If someone goes above and beyond, send out a company wide email and let everyone know.
Listen to them. Make it a practice to reach out and ask their opinion. Don’t save your conversations until the annual review rolls around.
Foster cross-company communication and collaboration. Perhaps an employee in Department A could make an impact in a project that Department B is working on — be the bridge that makes it happen.
Don’t let boredom set in. If your staff is doing the same tasks day in and day out — and yes, we know there are those tasks that need to be done — but there are also likely items you could ask them to participate in to help alleviate boredom and shake up the workday.
There’s nothing that says you can’t have fun at work and with your employees, right? Plan a company wide picnic, offer an afternoon siesta where you provide some snacks and time to simply relax. What can you do to reward your employees that don’t involve cash?
I know, “exponentialism” is not a word, but maybe it should be.
We have entered a time in history that will be looked back upon as a great time of upheaval and transformation. It is a time of exponential growth in technology that is making obsolete entire industries at a pace that is mind-boggling.
But for every displaced industry, and every lost job, there are new opportunities as well. Not just a few, but many more than ever before. The challenge before us is just to see them.
You see, our minds are programmed to think in an incremental, progressive, and linear fashion, and the world no longer works that way. For some the angst of being left behind causes enormous stress, fear, and frustration, while for others these same conditions create new excitement. The difference between the two is the ability to open the mind and embrace a totally new paradigm.
You see, we want to “append” our existing paradigm and have that as a sufficient goal. But that can no longer work. We have reached the point — in fact passed i — where a complete paradigm shift is in order to make sense of the world as it now is. Our old thinking is broken, ineffective, and possibly even dangerous.
Many of the world’s challenges that our “old paradigm” embraces, will be solved completely by those who have made the “shift.”
The “shift” we now face is no longer how to get from one perspective to the next, but is now to embrace a perspective of ever increasing and accelerating change. A combination of infinite possibility combined with an assured accelerated obsolescence.The attempt to “hold on” to the past is painful, frustrating, and futile. The past is gone. Those who cling to the past, sadly will be left behind, and will echo mantras of the “way it used to be.” But we are not going back. In fact, it is impossible now to return as the old thinking will only increase pain, poverty, and violence.
But this is not a message of dispair, but a message of hope. The “shift” begins with a change of mind and that takes but a moment of time. Yes, new skills will be required and you may say, “it’s too late for me,” but we have all heard stories of men and women of advanced age, returning to college, or revitalizing their lives to create a personal renaissance, and enter a refreshed era of growth and excitement. That is what is needed now.
The difference is, before it was an option for those who wanted to renew life, vitality, and relevance. But not it is a necessity for survival itself. In fact, most people under the age of 65 to 70, living on this planet, have to ability and benefit to make the commitment to to embrace this change.
Change can be hard, but it does not have to be. You see what makes it hard is the attachment to, and nostalgic love of our past. The fact is, as great as it may have been, there are greater things ahead.
Long ago I embraced a life of youthful thinking and constant change. I have lived in an “unsettled” fashion to prevent attachments to points in time that are becoming irrelevant at an increasingly rapid pace. It is a great way to live. And until a future period of balance and stabilization arises, it may be the path to survival.
The solutions to tomorrow’s problems will not be solved by the same thinking that created them. It will be fresh minds and new ideas.
We are creatures of amazing resourcefulness, and creatures of survival. Fresh minds will build solutions even as many stand by and proclaim doom.
There will always be opposition, negativity, and stagnant thinking, but the future will not be built upon these. It will be built upon creativity, ingenuity, resourcefulness, advancing technology, and open minds that embrace accelerating and continual change as normal.
I am excited about tomorrow. I hope you are too and will join me in building it.
If you were asked, “What kind of manager are you?” Would you know the answer? Would you say, “I’m a great one!” If so, kudos, but what makes you a “great one?”
During my coaching sessions with business owners, I try to uncover their unique management aka leadership style. Why? Because their style can either add to, or detract from, the successes their company achieves.
Here are the three most prevalent styles I’ve come across. Do you fit into any of these?
Mr. Know It All and Has To Do It All. As a manager, chances are you either work with employees or outside vendors and if this is the case, do you let them do their jobs or do you have to be involved in and sign off on everything they do? If you are this type of manager, chances are you are not letting the people you’ve hired for their expertise do their jobs. If you’ve hired well, you don’t need to be the Know It All.
Mr. Micromanager. This is almost the same as the Know It All but even more controlling. You need to be involved in every single step and every single decision that is made. You don’t empower your people to do the tasks for which they were hired. Eventually they will start second guessing everything and eventually you will be overwhelmed by all you “have” to do simply because you took on the roll of micromanager.
Mr. We Can’t Find You When We Need Help. Just as there are those bosses that are overly involved there are those that are so laid back that employees can’t reach you when they need a decision or you simply say, “do what you think’s best.” Giving everyone free reign can lead to big issues.
Being an effective manager means not only knowing yourself but knowing your management style and changing it if necessary. Who are you?
I’ve been doing quite a bit of public speaking lately — in addition to attending many networking events and seminars. I find that some of the individuals are fantastic speakers while others are clearly nervous. What is the differentiator? I believe it’s in the preparation for the speaking gig.
Here are somethings I’ve discovered that help make me, and could help make you, a better, more poised public speaker:
Know the audience. While you won’t individually know who the audience members are, ask the organizers to let you know what the attendees are interested in. What are their fields of expertise. Once you know this nugget of information you can make sure your speech will have talking points that will speak to them.
Engage the audience. Ask questions. Make eye contact. Walk around the stage rather than stand behind a podium. Make sure you tell a story to help the audience know who you are, what you do and more importantly why you do it.
Make sure your slides or other visuals do not give all of the information you’re speaking about. You don’t want the audience spending their time taking notes rather than listening to you. Use your slides as talking points and build from the bullet point that you share with the audience.
Once the speech is over, take time to answer questions or expand upon something you’ve said that may have struck a chord with the audience. Take time to stop and shake some hands and “get to know” some of the people who have attended.
Don’t forget to thank the organizers that invited you to speak and follow up with them after the event to see how well received your information was and if they want to invite you back!
Do you have speaking as part of the services you offer? Do you feel confident as a speaker? If not, give me a call!
In an ideal world your clients would provide word of mouth referrals to their friends or business associates and your phone would ring non-stop and you’d be set for all of the business you can handle. In the real world though there are times when your phone just doesn’t ring and clients aren’t calling you back. Why is that? There are many reasons but it could be that you need to put in place a better system of following up and continually marketing your business.
Here are my steps to connecting with prospective clients and to having my phone ring:
Schedule time for follow ups. If you meet someone at a networking event, set a time right then and there to follow up with him. Make sure you keep that appointment. Also, make time in your weekly calendar for your follow up calls and contacts. If you don’t schedule it, it won’t happen.
Send a thank you note. I realize that “everything is on the internet” and that is part of the reason a follow up thank you note is powerful. When is the last time you received a piece of physical mail that thanked you for something? Probably not very recently. Send a post card with your business name or logo on it and viola you’ve not only thanked the customer, you’ve had your name “out there” with the delivery people.
Make sure your follow up goals are realistic. Can you honestly follow up with two dozen people in a day? Not likely unless you’re willing to sacrifice an entire day of running your business to do it. Aim for a half a dozen or set aside two hours a day to make follow up calls and do as many in that time as you can. Don’t make the task insurmountable.
What are your follow up methods? Do they get your phone ringing?
If you’re stuck in a rut from dealing with the same types of clients, offering the same types of services and working the same types of hours, you might be in a rut. How can you recapture the excitement you once felt for your business? There are ways to get yourself out of your business rut and prior to the new year moving in is the best time to do just that.
What can you do to energize yourself and breathe new life into the work you do? Here are my suggestions:
Sow new seeds. If you know what it is you do better than anyone else, then you need to sow those seeds and nurture that. Focus on your expertise and watch your enthusiasm grow.
Get rid of the weeds. All business owners can point to a client or two who truly drains them of their energy and makes them dread picking up the phone when that client’s number scrolls across. It may be difficult to imagine a time when it’s good to jettison a client, but one that saps your strength is truly not worth the money he or she brings in.
Cultivate and nurture your winning clients. You know you have clients in your garden that are a joy to work with, offer you referral business and who truly value what you do for them. Nurture them and never forget to reward their loyalty to you.
What can you do in 2014 to grow your garden and start off the new year refreshed?
