Whether you run a business with a virtual team or you have a brick and mortar location, communication is key to a healthy workplace environment. As an entrepreneur who has virtual staff, I am highly cognizant of the need for effective communication, especially as the team typically “talks” via email and instant messaging. Without the body language to go along with the words, there is no tone or frame of reference and this can make virtual communication a murky water to tread. I believe my team and I understand each other well enough to know that if there is miscommunication, we will stop the conversation, ask for clarification and hash it out.
Here are my tips for good workplace communication:
Assess and define the problem. Without understanding the root cause of the misunderstanding, it is difficult to address it and communicate more clearly.
Work with the individuals involved in the miscommunication to get to the underlying issue and resolve it. Your managers may take this role on with their own staff, but if it cannot be resolved, you as the business owner, will want to step in.
Don’t design a solution to resolve the problem until you thoroughly understand what caused it originally. You will also want to get everyone involved as a mandate from management to “communicate better” will not be effective.
Evaluate the success of the solution you’re attempting to implement. Give it a time frame of, say 60 days, reconvene and see whether it’s been effective.
If the solution you tried originally is not achieving the desired results, you will want to sit down with all parties involved, open up a dialogue and not leave the room until it’s addressed. There are times you will find when personalities simply don’t mesh and there may not be a “fix” to the communication issue other than to reassign individuals — it is a drastic, last step measure to be sure, but one that shouldn’t be completely ruled out.
Business meetings can be the bane of an entrepreneur’s existence, am I right? Because I work with a virtual team, we have frequent Skype or Google Hangout chats. Prior to these meetings we have an agenda and we also have a drop-dead stop time so that we can all get back to work. A meeting that goes on and on tends to lose its impact and your attendees lose focus.
Here are my tips to running an effective business meeting, whether in person or online:
Don’t go into any meeting without an agenda. Ask those involved what they want to see on the agenda, add it to it and send it around to everyone prior to the meeting. This doesn’t mean there won’t be deviations from the agenda, but it will give you a roadmap to follow.
Have one person be responsible for the meeting. This team leader will start the meeting, move through the agenda, take notes and wrap the meeting up at the specified time. This format allows all in attendance to focus on the speaker and know they will receive notes on tasks that were assigned to them.
If a topic will be too long or involved or will only involve one or two of the team members, take it off line. There is not reason to hold “side meetings” on the team meeting and force all other parties to sit through a topic or a task list that doesn’t pertain to them.
Declare your meeting times as “device-free” times. Your staff should be paying attention to the meeting, not to their cell phones or email alerts.
Keep the meeting to seven or fewer people. More than that and the meeting will run long and not everyone will get a chance to speak. Smaller is better.
Keep the meeting to one hour or less, if possible.
Use the last ten minutes of the meeting to recap and to make certain that all parties know their marching orders.
How often does your team meet? Are the meetings effective?
Our team is in serious growth mode since the middle of last year. This means we have been in the process of bringing on new team members and getting them involved in our processes and procedures. Because our team is virtual and scattered across the globe I need to work with my assistant to keep everyone engaged and to keep projects moving along.
How do I do that? Here are a few steps that I take:
Empower them. Hire wisely and let them go do what they are skilled at. If you’re not comfortable allowing them to perform their tasks, perhaps you hadn’t defined their role clearly enough. Provide the tools they to perform their jobs. Have tracking and reporting mechanisms in place so you’ll know projects are moving along.
Communication is key. Put “team meeting” in your calendar and have a touch-base session. If the lines of communication are open and your staff knows you’re open to hearing from them, everyone benefits.
Feedback and constructive criticism should be employed. Every conversation is an opportunity for an educational conversation. Talking to your staff and offering feedback will help them better perform their jobs. Feedback keeps everyone engaged. When you’re on a one-on-one call ask, “Is there anything you need from me to help you more effectively do your job?”
You, as the business owner, need to be the one to initiate conversations and keep your workforce engaged because if they feel valued they will not only perform at higher levels, but will likely stay with you for the long term!
Is there a secret to success? The beginning entrepreneur would surely hope so, but it’s not quite the case. Actually, a study performed by the Harvard Business School — The Evergreen Project — found it “doesn’t matter what you do.” The study uncovered that successful companies all employed the same management practices.
These practices included (and I paraphrase):
The development and maintenance of flawless operational strategies
Clearly defined strategies and a thorough understanding of your ideal client
Nurturing employees and holding them to high standards of performance
Simplification of the business management levels aka bureaucracy
Hiring talented employees and helping them develop those talents even further
Being innovative and keeping up with trends
Being a great leader
Check this list and see how many of the practices you’re employing in your business.
Do you ever wonder how your competition “gets found”? Do you ever assume that in order to “get found” you need to have deep pockets and a major advertising and promotions budget? While having a large budget may help, if you’re not trying to be found in places that make sense for you and that are natural for your clients to seek you out you will be spinning your wheels and spending money needlessly.
Here are my three top tips for helping your business be front of mind and top of search:
Build a local search profile. Grab your Google location, add your business to Yelp or even Yahoo Local and Bing Places. Make sure the information is accurate and that your profile is complete. Use keywords for the goods and services you provide as well as your business summary, contact information, photos and business biography.
Ask current clients for reviews that they will post on your local profiles. Having reviews posted are extremely important to not only getting found, but to building the credibility of your business.
The more complete your profile, the more highly searchable your business will be. Add a photo of the business owners, make sure there is an address and a phone number. If you’re a virtual business there are many ways you can get a business address whether it’s a post office box or an office share situation. Search engines take notice if you have a complete business profile with your key words. Make certain you update the profile when changes are made.
What steps have you taken to help your business get found locally? Have they worked?
Without customers, you wouldn’t have a business. That’s the bottom line. What can you to do always make certain your customers are treated like royalty? What can you and your staff do to enhance the customer experience? Here are a few items to consider:
Make sure your employees are engaged. A bored or unhappy employee will radiate that negative energy to your customers and that won’t do anything to enhance the customer experience and may even drive your customers to find a provider whose employees are happier to help.
Ask for feedback. If you don’t ask your customers how their experience was, how will you know if they enjoyed it? You may believe things are moving along swimmingly, but in reality your customers are under-whelmed but you’re a habit and that’s why they stay. This is a recipe for disaster and for your customers leaving you for greener pastures.
Are your marketing and sales strategies staying current with today’s trends? What happened in the past, may not always be what will happen or be effective in the future. Take time to annually review your strategies and brainstorm with your sales staff to see if there are better ways to reach out to potential clients — you may be surprised at what you learn!
major advertising and promotions budget? While having a large budget may help, if you’re not trying to be found in places that make sense for you and that are natural for your clients to seek you out you will be spinning your wheels and spending money needlessly.