Small Business: Counting My Blessings

The recent news of the earthquake in Haiti has captured everyone’s attention. The suffering, pain and huge recovery efforts needed are beyond comprehension.

I reflected on my journeys to Haiti doing humanitarian work a lifetime ago and always come back to the same conclusion. We are so, so, so fortunate to be living here in America. I know we’ve got our problems, issues and differences of opinions. I know the economy has impacted most of us in some negative way over the course of the past year.

Yet in the midst of what happened recently in Haiti, we can go to bed tonight knowing that tomorrow is a new day. We can have seeds of hope coursing through our system believing that tomorrow can be better. For most of us, we’ve been dry, warm and fed today. Even with our healthcare system up for grabs within Congress, our health system is better than most.

So as I go to bed tonight, I am going to be counting my blessings. Those staffing problems maybe aren’t so bad after all. Those fiscal challenges will pass at some point and we will walk the road to financial stability. The business changes that we are implementing will soon become our new order of how we manage business.

Things could be lots worse. Let’s take on an attitude of celebrating what is right with our world. Maybe it will offer hope to others.

As a last thought, please remember the people of Haiti in your prayers tonight as you go to sleep. They really need them.

Peace and comfort to all….

My New Year’s “Business” Resolutions

I am quick to admit it- I am not very good at making New Year’s Resolutions, let alone keeping them beyond the first week of January.

Over the past several years, I’ve taken the last week of the year to reflect on how my previous year went and set new goals for the next year- both personally and professionally.  I found much greater success with that!

Then, during the course of the year, I would review my goals, monitor my progress, chart my successes and celebrate my good fortune.  On a typical year, I would hit about 80% of my goals.  I attributed my success to the fact that I am a knowledgeable (translation: ‘good’) goal setter.

And then “2009 Happened”!!!…

By the end of the first quarter, I was so out of whack with my goals that I gave up and quit measuring and monitoring my progress.  (This was a ‘first’ for the eternal optimist.)  The year quickly soured from a goal setting perspective.  I had to work at maintaining a positive attitude and focus on the things that I could control and ‘ride the wave’ of a very turbulent economic year.  The charting, measuring, and celebrating of hitting the goals never took place because I knew the outcome was not going to look pretty.

But I love the end of each year.  It is time to reflect and celebrate on the goodness of life, and dream again of a bright horizon of endless possibilities drawing near.

This year I am going to try something different.  I am only going to set goals for the next 90 days and evaluate my progress on a monthly basis and give myself permission to adjust my goals accordingly.  I am also focusing more of my goals on relationship-building since that is something that I can control versus program deliverables (i.e. revenue) which is still rather squishy at the moment.

I am curious what others are going to do from a business or professional stand-point.  What ideas do you have?  If there is enough interest, we can share ideas and progress together throughout the new year and perhaps discover some new innovative ways to make New Year’s Resolutions in this uncertain economic season we are experiencing.

GoRapids.com Small Business: The Impact of Social Networking

Zach Vruwink spoke at a Heart of Wisconsin Workshop on Social Networking earlier this week and some of the data he shared apprehended me.  We were in conversation about social networking sites like LinkedIn; Facebook; Twitter and referenced some web statistics that were mind-numbing:

• Facebook has over 350 million active users.
• It is the third most visited website.
• It has 600,000 new users daily.
• It ‘s fastest growing demographic is people over the age of 35.

While I struggle and contemplate how “viral and connected” I want to be with my outside world from a business and personal perspective, there is a massive movement toward greater social connectivity on a 24/7/365 basis.

An example of how this is playing out around us in our community… I was in conversation last night with a couple of parents with junior high and high school students.  We were talking about the way the parents and their children heard about the recent snow day at school.  The parents gathered their information from either the local television or radio announcements.  The children often received their information via texting one another and on some accounts were aware of the school closings before their parents were.

So what is this saying to us in a small business context?  I believe the answer is that we need to pay more attention to Social Networking.  It will require us to get more engaged in that arena out of necessity, even if it does not resonate within us personally as a ‘need’.

A decade ago, we would not think twice about should we have a business land-line, yellow page ads, regular print advertising campaigns through our familiar streams of communication like the newspaper or direct mail.  But that landscape continues to change rapidly, and will continue to evolve moving into the next decade.

Let’s not fossilize with a social networking medium for our business that is antiquated.  Let’s make a New Year’s commitment to utilize all the streams of communication that are currently available to us to encourage folks to continue doing business transactions within our great community as much as possible.  It is our responsibility to stay socially relevant and  connected to our client-base.  We will all benefit greatly from effective Social Networking on multiple levels.

GoRapids.com Small Business: Motivating Employees in 2010

Rumblings are all around us that the economic recovery will be slower than we desire, and could take well into 2011 before we feel confident in the economy again.  With that as our backdrop, how will you be motivating your employees in 2010?

Most small business owners feel somewhat vulnerable when it comes to keeping their most valuable employees.  These owners tend to look over their shoulders at their competitors or larger employers in the community because they oftentimes cannot offer their employees the pay and benefit packages that others can offer them.

So, a key question for us to ponder is this:  “If the economy is going to be recovering slowly this next year, what are we going to do to motivate our employees to be people of excellence in the delivery of their core competencies?”

When posed with this question, most business leaders go immediately to financial incentives.  If our economy stays on shaky ground, this may not be a viable option in the immediate future for many of us.  What else then can we do to motivate our staff in a time when business survival is a prime concern?

The Harvard Business Review reported on a recent McKinsey Survey that identified the top three non-financial motivators for employees.  These motivators made employees feel that their companies valued them, that the leader (and organization) took their personal well-being seriously, and that the company wanted them to continue developing professionally.

So here were the top three non-financial motivators and the correlating percentage relating to effectiveness as a motivator by the respondents:

1.    Praise and commendation from their immediate manager- 67%
2.    Attention from the organizational leaders- 63%
3.    Opportunity to lead projects or task forces- 62%

Our work as business owners and managers is to figure out how to measure current motivational effectiveness and to incorporate the right non-financial motivators into our workplace.  This can be extremely challenging especially if we do not have a current business culture that recognizes staff in that fashion.

Additionally, the handwriting is on the wall, our economic recovery is going to be slow going in the early stages of 2010 (and perhaps beyond).  It is going to require fresh and innovative ideas from the business owners and managers to keep our employees feeling good about coming to work at our establishments and giving their best efforts on a daily basis.

GoRapids.com Small Business: What Does Your Sales Force Need from You?

Last week I did a keynote address for a Sales Manager Networking Group in Minneapolis.  The topic of the evening was on having “Crucial Conversations”.  In preparation for the event, I did a rather informal survey of sales personnel to discover what were the top three things they needed from their boss.  Here are my findings in their proper order:

1.    Effective and Timely Communication.
Many organizations have gone through seismic shifts the past 12-18 months.  One of the “prices we paid” has been in the area of communication.  Personnel have changed.  Position descriptions and scopes of responsibility have been expanded.  Traditional organizational department ‘silos’ have become detrimental to organizational performance.  For our sales force in the field, these changes have resulted in communication gaps, both internal and external.

2.    Clearly Defined Expectations.
Projecting organizational performance goals has become as effective as throwing darts blind-folded.  Business owners and managers are uncertain as to how their industry niche will recover.  Business projections for the first quarter of next year have been reduced to a guessing game for many of us.  Yet, our sales force in the field is challenged to keep selling and getting the business order.  As difficult as this may be, our sales team needs their key leaders to establish clearly defined expectations for the sales team.  Perhaps if we cannot give them sales and revenues goals to hit because of uncertainty over next quarter, we can direct them instead with sales activity expectations.

3.    Managers and Owners Keep Building Business Relationships.
This one surprised me.  The desire of sales staff in the field is for their managers and the business owners to continue building business relationships with their key customer account peers.  There is a sense that successful relationship-selling in the future is going to require more people in your organization developing relationships with their counterparts in your key client’s organizations.  This will help in turn-around-times for responses from the field to a customer’s need.  This “being in touch” with the current reality of the business climate in your industry niche is critical for maintaining a motivated and highly performing sales force.

GoRapids.com Small Business: How’s Your Attitude?

I’ve been recently watching some of the online advertisements for business owners and managers.  Part of my research work is to watch and discover where the emerging trends in business are, set my business sail where appropriate, and be blown along by the winds of change.

With the changes over the past year around the economy and business down-sizing, many are concerned with employee morale, especially in companies that have experienced staff cuts and layoffs.  And if you are an organization that is on the cusp of new or additional cutbacks, you know first-hand that employees can be brutal to one another if they think their job is at risk.

So it was no surprise to find training opportunities for managers and owners on the area of employee motivation.  But my thought is “How can you motivate others in good times, let alone when the economy is gasping for air”?  Perhaps a deeper question is, “Can you motivate others at all”?

I come from the camp that does not think we can motivate anyone other than ourselves.  I can create a safe work environment.  I can compensate my employees well for their work.  I can attract competent professionals for the management team, but I do not believe that we can motivate our employees to have a great attitude.  I can create the environment that fosters employee success.  I can provide a career ladder where people can take advantage of growth opportunities to succeed.  But I do not believe that we can motivate people to have a better attitude for greater performance.

Which brings me full-circle back to looking inward to discover where is my motivation.  If I am nervous, anxious, complaining about business, clients, staff, etc. I should not be surprised if it is reflected back to me by my staff as if I was looking in a mirror.

When we think of staff attitudes and motivation, do you look at yourself first or are you always looking outward wishing your landscape would be different?  While employees do not say it to us, our attitude and motivation for doing a great job goes a long way in setting the bar for others.  The next time your frustrated with your staff, go quickly and look in a mirror and have a conversation with that person staring back at you about his/her motivational attitude.

Your thoughts…