Business Management Skills

The success of your business depends on the people who work for you. By working hard and exhibiting all their talents, your employees play a critical part in keeping your customers satisfied. This is where employee motivation is critical. It is the “bosses” responsibility to motivate employees which in turn will give them an overall better outlook on their job and will help them to strive to do their jobs to the best of their ability. One of the hardest and most important things that a boss can do is to keep good employees, not just manage them. Motivation is a key aspect in keeping employees happy and to creating a positive work environment.
The ways to motivate your employees will differ depending on who you ask, since there are so many viewpoints that are all different and the majority of the answers are right ones. A manager should realize that there are many ways that one can be motivated and be open to suggestions about how to do this. Since each person is different, then it makes sense that the ways in which each person is motivated will also differ. One mistake that is commonly made when trying to increase employee motivation is to “over-do” it. Do you give unearned praise to employees since this can lead to other employees feeling badly about their performance?

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As a manager it is very important to understand what influences on your employees.
When your employees are satisfied and not bothered with work place environment issues, they will be more productive. By understanding your employees’ needs, you can take action to improve the employees’ productivity and loyalty.
There are two different scales that influence on employees.

Satisfaction - This scale starts from zero and goes up. This is a positive scale that expresses how much the employee likes the role and the level of self fulfillment with the role.
Non-Satisfaction - This is a negative scale that can reach in its highest value to zero. The non-satisfaction can be reduced to minimum and then the value is zero. Non-satisfaction represents issues related to work place environment and compensation package.

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Employee newsletters are an effective tool to communicate with your employees. Here are 7 employee newsletter ideas…

#1. Provide Information about Your Customers

The more familiar your employees are with your customers, the more successful your company will be. So it’s very important that you provide them with enough information about your prospects.

#2. Explain How to Sell Your Products

Share effective tips and techniques to sell your products and services. The more your employees know about selling techniques, the more sales you will make.

#3. Explain Your Company Goals

Every company has some important goals. You can explain your goals, why they are so important, and how your employees can help the company achieve them.

#4. Welcome New Employees

You might have new employees joining your company. Extending a warm welcome message to them makes them work more passionately and with more energy.

#5. Answer Frequently Asked Questions

Your employees might ask you some certain questions frequently. You can save a lot of time by answering them in your employee newsletter.

#6. Deal with Common Complaints

#7. Capture Employee Ideas

You can use surveys in your employee newsletter to capture their ideas. Your employees may have creative ideas that will help you increase your profits (e.g. how to improve your products or customer service).

By Ladan Lashkari

Ladan Lashkari is a respected Internet marketing expert, and the owner of http://www.FreeNewsletterIdeas.com/ where you’ll find free newsletter templates, creative newsletter ideas, honest reviews, and helpful resources to start your own highly profitable email marketing campaign.

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Apply the following eight leadership techniques to create
highly motivated, self-directed, and extremely productive
employees and teams:

1. Provide Clear Expectations

Winning organizations know where they are going and what
is required to get there. Employees constantly need to know
what they need to accomplish. Communicating expectations
in a clear, concise manner is important. It’s also important to
communicate your expectations on an individual,
department, and organizational level. Continue
communicating your expectations on an ongoing basis.
Whether one-on-one, through memos, or in a team meeting,
keep communicating your expectations.

2. Give Your Employees the Tools for Success

New computers are acquired, but no training is provided for
the computers; or worse, the training doesn’t meet the need
of the employees to be successful. The policies are not
implemented or followed, so employees are hindered by
barriers. Time and time again I hear from employees in my
workshops that management doesn’t give them the
necessary tools for success. Here’s the secret: Ask your
employees what they need, and then give it to them.

3. Recognize Good Work

Take the time to recognize good work. Recognize employees
for finding solutions, failing less, learning more, taking
initiative, working with others, creating outstanding
customer service solutions, sharing ideas; and the list goes
on. You get the idea. Take time to give a sincere compliment
for work well done and you, your organization, and your
employees will reap the rewards.

4. Get Interested in Your Employees

Take the time to find out what interests your employees.
Find out what their passions are in life. Is it their families? Is
it a sport or hobby? Is it a vintage car or boat? Is it that
they want to accomplish the next level in their education? Is
it a career goal? Whatever it is, the great leaders take the
time to find out how to help their employees accomplish their
goals. Leaders know that by helping their employees
succeed in life, the employees will have more passion about
helping their leaders accomplish their goals.

5. Value Their Opinions

Employees want to be involved in the process at work.
Giving their opinions is one way to accomplish this. Take
the time to really listen to what your employees are saying.
Take the time to ask questions. Take the time to
acknowledge their opinions. Will all employees give
opinions in a positive way? No. Our job as a leader is to set
the parameters for giving opinions in such a way that states
a positive outcome for all. You might say, “Mike, you have a
lot of valuable ideas and I appreciate that you take the time
to share them. So that everyone gets the most out of your
ideas, please communicate them with a positive outcome in
mind.” Now you have set the tone for giving opinions. Also
take the time to really listen for the “gold nuggets” of
information when an employee gives you an opinion. They
are sharing an idea, a concern, or an emotion that you may
be able to address to help take your organization to the next
level.

6. Grow Your Employees

Encourage your employees to develop themselves.
Encourage them to take classes, delegate tasks and
challenging assignments, and then provide support. I say
this because I run into employees who tell me the following:

“The company wants us to take additional classes and even
offers tuition reimbursement. However, when I ask my
manager to approve my request or when I actually take the
courses, he/she makes comments inferring that these classes
might interfere with work. That’s not fair.”

No, it’s not fair. If your employees want to develop
themselves, support them. Be the Captain of Progress and
remove the barriers to development. Don’t worry about
losing your employees. Once you do this, they will become
even more loyal to your goals and word will quickly spread
that you are the person to work for because you develop
your people for success.

7. Communicate the Progress

Many times I will ask the participants in our team building
program, “How often does your manager, supervisor, or vice
president sit down with you and give you a progress report,
informal evaluation, or job evaluation?” The majority of the
participants will say once or maybe twice a year during the
formal review progress.

This should never happen! Outstanding leaders realize that
ongoing communication is the key to outstanding
performance and that employees yearn for this feedback.
Outstanding leaders make sure their followers constantly
know where they stand. They are constantly communicating
with their employees in relationship to the overall goals.
They are constantly recognizing their employees’ stellar
performances and coaching them in “areas of improvement.”
Empathy, consistency, honesty, and a positive attitude when
giving employees feedback are important to the way the
employees receive the feedback.

8. Make Partners of Your Employees

Once we get past the money reason as to why people work
for you, we realize that one of the reasons why employees
work for your organization is the following: “I want to make
a difference.” Time and time again you will find people
working for organizations when they could easily be
compensated elsewhere far more than what they are actually
receiving; but they enjoy working for that organization
because they believe in the organization’s mission, values,
and goals and believe they are making a difference in that
organization.

Make your employees your partner in achieving your goals.
Communicate the mission, values, and goals and ask them
how they see themselves in relationship to these goals. Ask
your employees for feedback on how to better accomplish
these goals. Involve them in the decision-making process
and let them have a vested interest in the success for the
project.

Take these leadership steps today to take you, your
employees, and your teams to the next level of success.
By Ed Sykes

Ed Sykes is a professional speaker, author, and success
coach in the areas of leadership, motivation, stress
management, customer service, and team building. You can
e-mail him at mailto:esykes@thesykesgrp.com or call him at
(757) 427-7032. Go to his web site,
http://www.thesykesgrp.com, and signup for the newsletter and receive your free ebooks.

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“Don’t shoot”. We’re on the same side.”

Contrary to popular belief, a corporate coaching session with your employees is not the beginning of the change process. Our studies and consulting indicate that, 90% of the time, employees already have a clue that a problem or challenge is on the horizon. Furthermore, some employees have already resolved to take action and correct an existing problem or prevent or minimize impending problems. This start of pre-existing readiness is called the employee’s “own force” (self-motivation) for change. In corporate coaching, the trick for the manager is not to let employees feel too threatened, exposed, or vulnerable when they sit down with you. If employees believe that they won’t be tortured or tormented, they will begin to relax and share data and impressions. Employees will naturally feel some initial anxiety and be a bit defensive, even when they are in safe hands. The manager can achieve a lot of success if he/she can tap into, heighten, and acknowledge the employee’s “own force” or self-recognition of the situation.

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Don’t be fooled by the title of this article. There is nothing mystical about achieving internal communications nirvana. What it does require is a clear understanding of how to successfully commune with the three spheres of internal communications.

The First Sphere: Your Employees

All organizations — large and small, for-profit and not-for-profit — need to communicate consistently to their employees. Unfortunately, some organizations either neglect or mishandle this important task.

Successful organizations engage in regular communication to their employees. They recognize that successful and engaged employees have a clear understanding of the organization’s values, objectives and milestones. In addition, employees that understand where an organization is going are in a better position to help it get there.

The Second Sphere: Your External Stakeholders

External stakeholders like investors, industry experts and others are also critical to your internal communications effort. This is because employees pay close attention to what these stakeholders are saying about your organization. Any disconnect between what is being communicated internally and what outside observers are saying is a problem. At best, your employees may think they are misinformed. At worst they may question the veracity of the organization’s leadership.

A rule of thumb: Always ensure that your communications to stakeholders about the organization are consistent with what is being said internally.

The Third Sphere: Your Customers

Your customers can have a tremendous impact on your internal communications effort. Their opinion on the value of your organization’s products and services can positively or negatively affect employees’ perceptions.

Organizations should pay close attention to what messages customers are communicating to employees. If inaccurate perceptions exist, the organization should work to correct them. Doing so will ensure that employees feel good about the product or service they are delivering and that customers have appropriate expectations.

Successful internal communications requires that organizations pay close attention to what is being communicated to employees, stakeholders and customers. Be sure that the messages your organization delivers to all three spheres are cogent, credible and complementary.
By Fard Johnmar

Fard Johnmar is founder of Envision Solutions, L.L.C., a full-service healthcare marketing communications consulting firm. Envision Solutions provides innovative products and services to not-for-profit and for-profit
organizations. Envision Solutions’ goal is to make our clients more efficient
and successful.

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