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Managers should always have an exit strategy. Because if you receive a promotion or new position, you’ll need to have a plan in place for your departure including a suggestion for someone to fill your role. And that means you need to be preparing your employees for leadership now.
But being a manager isn’t all about you and your goals either. It’s important to instill leadership skills in your employees for the good of their careers, too. When they’re equipped with management skills, they’ll be able to make informed decisions, guide their peers, and be better qualified for opportunities that come their way. And it will make your job as a manager more fulfilling. As a business owner, you’re looking at it a little differently. You are not necessarily preparing them to take over for you (but that may be the case someday); what you’re really doing is preparing them to help you succeed in whatever business you own. This will make you more efficient and a better boss. 1. Teach Them to Network This is so important. I have been networking for a long time (too long!) and this essential skill has helped me to grow many businesses including my own. Even if you dread the events, even if you find them terribly awkward, force yourself to attend. You will learn how to make connections with strangers, confidently initiate conversations, and ask for something you need or want. And these are key skills for leaders at any level. That is why, as a manager, you must teach your employees how to effectively network as soon as possible. When they progress into leadership roles, they’ll already have valuable contacts, plus the people skills needed to succeed. If you struggle with this as a manager, or you need a company-wide networking lesson, click here. 2. Give Them the Right Experience As you give out projects and assignments, give some thought to the unique duties you have as a manager. These are the skills that your employees may not know but should if they want to move up within the organization. Then, find ways for your employees to start gaining experience in these areas. 3. Allow Them to Struggle a Little When an employee needs help with a task, he or she typically comes to you, so you can either take over or provide the information that they need to accomplish the task. But when you’re coaching your employees to become leaders, I’ve found that it’s more beneficial to push them to figure out how to get what they need on their own. This doesn’t mean you leave them alone; it just means that little by little you allow your employees to take on more responsibility in figuring it out by asking them questions that will make them think and hopefully solve it by themselves. 4. Be a Mentor As you’re helping your employees gain leadership skills, you’ll likely take on a mentor-mentee relationship with them. And this natural progression is a very beneficial tool to continue honing their leadership skills. Seek out opportunities to meet with your employees one-on-one to talk about their goals, ideas they want to implement, or any struggles they’re facing. Your advice will provide valuable insight and encouragement. 5. Create an Ownership Mentality Most importantly, you can coach people in leadership day after day, but they won’t actually use those skills unless they feel like a trusted, valued part of the company. Think about it: If you teach your employees how to make smart, informed decisions, but still require that they run every idea by you before they’re allowed to make a move, how empowered will they feel? Creating an ownership mentality starts with trusting your employees and giving them the authority to make certain decisions. This can also mean listening to and implementing some of their ideas. As you create these five skills as part of your normal routine, and you make your employees feel like integral parts of the company, you will see who naturally rises to the occasion and emerges as leaders.
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A good company reputation doesn’t happen by accident and it’s a valuable commodity. A good reputation can promote referrals. Let’s say you heard from half a dozen people about how great the food is at a local Italian restaurant. Even if you never ate there, you’d probably recommend it to someone looking for an Italian restaurant.
Why? It’s got a good reputation. That said, creating that reputation requires sustained work overtime. You must deliver on multiple fronts again and again. What are some specific things you can do to build that good company reputation? Offer Excellent Customer Service Excellent customer service is something that many companies claim to offer and most fail to deliver. This failure comes at a cost. Most people consider quality customer service as simple respect. Never forget that the customer is the one spending money with your business. Listen when they give you feedback and respond accordingly. If you can, fix things when they go wrong. If you can’t, immediately find someone who can. After all, we live in a time when customers can spend 10 minutes just trying to navigate a phone menu before getting put on hold. A little respect and some good faith efforts can leave you looking like a rock star. Know When You Should Say No Sooner or later, almost every successful business faces a dilemma. The company gets offered work that everyone knows it shouldn’t take on. Sometimes, the business just can’t muster the resources to do the job well. If you’re already working at close to capacity, taking on more work is a recipe for failure. Even if you somehow finish the job, it won’t prove to be the best quality. You end up with an unhappy customer who will almost certainly complain. And when someone is dissatisfied, they are more likely to tell people and post on social media than when they are pleased. Other times, the work just isn’t the right fit for the business. Maybe the client works in an area that the business doesn’t understand well, or there could be a difference in values and practices. Saying no isn’t natural for most businesses. It certainly looks bad from a financial perspective. Yet, you risk doing substantial reputation damage when you take on work you know you shouldn’t. Watch Out for Online Reputation Killers If you’re in business today, you cannot escape the internet and social media. At a minimum, you’re running a website and a couple of social media profiles. Starting with your website, make sure your hosting service guarantees 99 percent uptime. A website that goes down all the time alienates your customers and damages your search engine rank. It also makes your business look unprofessional. There are other, more damaging online threats to your company's reputation. One of those is bad reviews. You can’t stop people from posting bad reviews, but you can comment on them. Take advantage of that option and explain the steps you took to resolve the issue. Always be apologetic. Most people won’t hold the review against you if you respond accordingly. Some people will take things one step further and get into online defamation. That happens when someone specifically says false things about you or your company. Examples: Bad review: “They overcooked my steak and the potatoes were cold. Also, my waiter seemed more interested in his phone than doing his job.” Online defamation: “The staff at this restaurant sits at the tables playing online games and the owners are sitting somewhere stuffing their mouths with bonbons while we eat their old, stale food.” Obviously, you must deny these allegations, but depending on the severity of the comment, it may also provide grounds for legal action on your part. Develop Quality Content Putting out quality content is another way of cementing a good company reputation. What is quality content? Quality content must hit three essential points:
Maybe even more importantly, it’s all those things for your intended audience. An article about new technology being used in virtual reality might prove interesting, but it’s not useful or relevant if you run a bakery. On the flip side, someone working in robotic prosthetics probably shouldn’t offer advice on making cheesecake. Assuming your content does hit all those points and it’s for the right audience, you get some real benefits. It demonstrates your mastery of the topic. Customers and peers will start trusting your opinion. This increases the odds they’ll think of you when someone asks for a recommendation. Quality content can draw in customers from unexpected sources: Let’s say that Larry reads my article about good company reputation because someone shared it on social media. He passes the link along to Jane, who currently received a negative review online and didn’t know what to do. She needs someone to maintain and market on her social media platforms. Ta-da… maybe she hires me. Stranger things happen every day. Establishing a good company reputation isn’t a fluke or an overnight process. You must work at it over time. You must deliver excellent customer service. Businesses that fail at customer service damage their own reputations and cost themselves money. It means saying no when work comes your way that you can’t do well. If you lack the resources or it’s a bad fit for any reason, recommend a company you think can do it well. You’ll end up looking good for not wasting someone’s time and money. Having great partnerships with complementary services can go a long way. Don’t passively accept online reputation killers like downtime or bad reviews. They’ll just ruin your reputation if you let them. Produce solid content. Relevant, interesting, useful content proves your knowledge. That encourages referrals and can lead to unexpected opportunities.  If you’ve been delaying writing your business plan, or you need to update your plans for the new year, there is no better time than now. In addition to celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa this month, December is National Write a Business Plan Month!
Writing a business plan is an opportunity to carefully think through every step of starting your company or launching a new service or product, or even just a chance to reevaluate the original plan you had for your business. This is your chance to discover any weaknesses in your business idea, identify opportunities you may not have considered, and plan how you will deal with challenges that may arise. All business owners, entrepreneurs, and heads of marketing know that you must conduct a full industry analysis, research customer personas, and create marketing and financial plans. Most importantly, almost every business has changed due to COVID, and now is the opportune time to address that before we start 2022. The Executive Summary I suggest starting with your executive summary. List your company goals, your personal goals within the company, your mission statement, and your vision for the following year(s). If an existing company, list the successes and challenges your business experienced the previous year(s) and what areas you need to improve upon. Starting at the beginning and detailing every step of the way is the best strategy for a successful business plan. The Industry Analysis After you’ve detailed the executive summary, you’ll dig into the industry analysis. COVID has changed how each market performs and what customers have come to expect. So, during this phase, you’ll dig deeper into the changes your industry has seen, what COVID has changed, and how your customers have responded to those changes. The Mission Statement After you know what’s going on in your industry, you’ll flesh out your company’s goals for the following year. Write (or rewrite) your mission statement based on what you want to accomplish for your customers. Know everything about your customers: their likes, dislikes, shopping habits, favorite places to eat, etc. The more you know, the better you can dig into their true wants and desires in a way that can only help your company. Knowing everything about your customer personas will help you edge out your competitors. Remember, the more specific you address your audience, the better. The Budget Next, you need to work out your budget. You can’t start your marketing or plan any promotions until you have a full 2022 budget finalized. After The Business Plan Don’t forget to write your Marketing Plan - - Click HERE to learn more. With a full business plan, including promotions, budget, and knowing who is in charge of what, you will find the new year begins just a little easier. Yes, you can make small tweaks throughout the year as needed but having a starting point for the next 12 months will ensure you keep your business on the right track. If you need help creating a business or marketing plan, let us know. If the plan is finished but you need assistance with accomplishing the goals, we can assist with that too! We want to see you successful in 2022. Contact Info: Maria L. Novak Marketing Solutions & Business Development, www.Maria-L-Novak.com 610-405-0633, Maria@ Maria-L-Novak.com What are entrepreneurship characteristics? It’s an important question when you’re considering self-employment. It’s natural to want to know if you have what it takes before you move forward.
Ask yourself these important questions: Are You a Visionary? A primary difference between an employee and an entrepreneur is motivation. Some people are perfectly happy doing the same job or working in the same industry until retirement. They find the consistency comforting, but for others, it’s not enough. Entrepreneurs see new or better ways of doing things and won’t settle for the status quo if it ignores a gap in the marketplace or performs less than optimally. This drive for innovation and change can get them in trouble in a traditional job since their bosses may misinterpret their ideas as criticism. Entrepreneurs are often outspoken, opinionated, and demanding. Entrepreneurs can’t understand why others don’t see their vision and they crave success in many ways, including a better work/life balance.  Sports and business have a lot in common. It doesn’t matter what sport you play; the objective is to win. Similarly, it doesn’t matter what kind of business you operate, you want to win. Winning in sports could mean ending with the most points or arriving at a destination faster than the rest. In the business world, winning might be outselling a competitor or having world-class customer service. Parallels exist at the leadership level in sports and business. A great coach is often synonymous with a great team. Comparably, outstanding businesses are commonly led by exceptional leaders. What great leaders do differently
Although some leaders make success appear effortless, businesses don’t just become successful by accident. It’s the leader’s vision that not only puts the game in play but keeps the momentum going. Great leaders know how to scout talent. Sure, they may delegate the talent search to a member of their team (i.e., human resources), but they do so with a strong list of criteria they are looking for in each candidate. Leaders are looking to fill roles, but not just any ordinary person will do - - they want the “one.” Even after hiring the right person to fill a role, great leaders aim to fully develop those team members. They aren’t satisfied with the status quo; they know the success of the team is contingent upon the successful development of individuals. Positioning Filling roles is only part of the equation. After finding the right people, great leaders make sure to position their team members in a way that results in the best outcomes. Observing Like a coach watching a tactical play, great leaders are always observing the flow of business and keeping an eye out for opportunities for improvement or growth. They recognize areas of strength and areas in need of improvement. They are continuously analyzing whether the best strategy is a complete overhaul of a team or to simply swap out one aspect of the process. Communicating It’s one thing for a leader to be able to communicate with team members. It’s something else entirely to teach team members how to effectively communicate with each other. Clear communication is imperative in sports and business. However, communication doesn’t always come naturally. Therefore, great leaders will set expectations for communication by modeling good communication on their end. Great leaders know no one gets anywhere by expecting people to read minds. Motivating You’d be hard-pressed to hear a coach telling a team “This game is no big deal,” or a business leader saying: “This client doesn’t really matter.” Coaches and business leaders won’t disregard any role as unimportant or irrelevant; they will tell each player the expectation for performance. Motivation doesn’t always need to be a loud, inspirational pep talk. Many great leaders quietly motivate their team. Team members of great leaders know the walk is always more important than the talk. Becoming A Great Leader You don’t need to be the coach of a championship sports team to be an outstanding leader; you can be a great leader in business. In fact, all you really need is to keep your focus on the fact that great leaders are always surrounded by great teams who look up to them, trust them, and know trust is a two-way street. Great leaders scout talent to fill roles, position, and reposition, observe and analyze, communicate, and motivate. Think like a great leader, act like a great leader, and your team will see you as a great leader.  Printed marketing and sales materials play a crucial role in securing customers for your business. Unfortunately, too many businesses use the “set it and forget it” method of creating collateral. While some pieces can be used for a while without trouble, others might quickly become outdated. We rely so much on our websites and social media that sometimes those materials are forgotten, yet they are being passed around to potential customers all the time. It’s smart for businesses to get in the habit of auditing their printed materials and refreshing them regularly. Even something as simple as your business card may be due for an update! Why should you audit your collateral?
Using fresh, up-to-date marketing and sales collateral ensures that you accurately represent your brand to customers. These materials should speak to your brand, demonstrate what your business does, and showcase your current offerings. If your print materials are irrelevant, it can cause confusion or frustration among buyers. Depending on how much your branding or your business has changed (think Covid-19), the materials might not even be effective for your target market at all! If your goal is to persuade customers to make a purchase, you want to ensure your messaging is both accurate and fresh. When should you do a collateral audit? It’s a good idea to revisit these materials every three months, or once a season. Not only will this help your team catch necessary updates, but it also allows you to capitalize on seasonal promotions and align with seasonal trends in your industry. There are other times you may want to update, or better yet create seasonal materials you can stock and reuse. Change or add:
Twenty-twenty was a stressful year for many of us. With the arrival of 2021, everyone has seen the need and desire for empathy, compassion, and connection. Now is the time to project optimism and lead with compassion and approach our customers with empathy.
Your customers become your greatest assets and ambassadors when they see you genuinely care about them. Compassionate businesses grow a passionate and loyal community of partners. Here are some key positions for your business to introduce:
Remember, passionate customers are loyal customers. Loyal customers are consistent customers. And consistent customers get us through inconsistent times.
Well, here we are in 2020 and most people’s jobs have changed this year. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how many businesses operate. Some employers are shifting workers' job duties to adjust to a new normal. Most workers have little recourse if their job duties or hours have changed because of the pandemic, even if they're unhappy with their new job assignments.
Changing job roles Employers can fire an employee at any time for any reason. They can reduce hours and change pay. On the flip side, workers can leave a job at any time, usually without having to give notice. What employers must remember is that any change to a worker's job duties must be "reasonable." You cannot expect an employee to take on responsibilities for which they have no training or understanding of that job. Especially if the job is in a position higher than what they have now, and the employer is not offering a higher wage. But even if the employer is challenged legally, given COCID-19, it's likely that employers changing employee job descriptions to fit the new normal would prevail (unless there's discrimination based on race, gender, age, or another protected group.) The Americans with Disabilities Act also requires companies to make reasonable accommodations for workers if they have a medical condition or disability that affects their ability to perform certain job functions. Changing Descriptions Common sense assigns the writing of job descriptions to human resources but be realistic in realizing that HR should not be the only piece of this duty. It takes a team including owners and managers to understand the essential functions of each position. In reality, it depends on your company’s resources and subject matter experts. Sometimes it is prudent to bring in an outside party to assist as many times the owner is the sole responsible person and is too close to the business to truly see each jobs’ exact requirements. Many times, the owner feels if they are a “jack of all trades” than their employees are too. Keep in mind that employees fulfilling each position should compare the job description with their daily activities when preparing for their periodic review and to ensure that both they and the employer and correct in what the job requires. And managers should evaluate the description accuracy as part of the performance management process. |
Boost Your BusinessMaria NovakI have over 35 years' experience in Marketing Small Businesses. Categories
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