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Six Ways To Help Your Employees To Develop

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Help Employees to Develop|Six Ways To Help Your Employees To DevelopWhen was the last time you looked into the activities that foster happiness for your employees? One of the most important things that you can do for your employees is make sure that they are happy with the way you are running things and managing them. Those in management shouldn’t be in management at all if they are unable to look after their staff, and that’s on you to do that.

The way you run your business is important but it’s so much more important to make sure that the people who work within it are able to feel confident and calm in their roles. From using techniques to improve your performance management skills to ensuring that the people working for you are growing in their careers, you need to do all that you can to help your employees to develop well. So, how can you do it? Below, we’ve got six ways to ensure that you can do just that!

  1. Put your money where your mouth is. If you want to do more for your employees, you need to think about funding performance growth. Personal development funds will help you to ensure that you can help each individual person working for you to grow into their role. You could push that money to training, education and classes, but you can also push it into pottery classes and gym memberships, too!
  2. Always be flexible. Your business is important, and your employees are important for your business to continue working. If you want your employees to be happy, flexibility will really help you with that. Be the employer who says yes to flexibility and working from home. Trust that your employees can get their job done and that you are behind them 100% of the time. The more flexible you are, the happier your staff will be and the more loyal they are as a result.
  3. Add more incentives. Do you have staff members straddling giant student loans? You could add tuition reimbursement as an incentive to the salary program that you offer, and you’ll be able to see that your employees will be bringing new knowledge and skills to the workforce because they will be happy to be reimbursed.
  4. Offer training. Offering the right opportunities to educate your employees will make a big difference to their future. Performance management is much easier when you are helping your employees with a step up from time to time. Staying up to date on the best possible training is vital for their wellbeing, and it’s going to advance their careers at the same time.
  5. Give people choices. If you offer your employees their own participation in their learning and growth with your company, you can do better for them. Taking different learning styles into consideration is vital, and you can provide many different options while you allow your staff to work at their own pace.
  6. Ask what they need. One of the best things that you can do to help your employees to develop is to ask them what you can give them to make their working life easier.

3 Reasons to Not Let Your Doubts Keep You from Pursuing Your Dream Career

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Pursue your Dream Career|3 Reasons to Not Let Your Doubts Keep You from Pursuing Your Dream CareerMany people out there have a “dream career” in mind. Something that they would really love to do, and would find deeply meaningful.

Far too often, though, doubt ends up getting in the way and we end up settling for “safer” options, instead of putting ourselves out there and earnestly pursuing our dream careers. This is in spite of the fact that there are now many platforms and services out there which can streamline the process of getting started in your dream career, such as Preceptor Tree.

Here are just a few reasons not to let your doubts keep you from pursuing your dream career.

Because your thoughts about things may be deeply mistaken, and direct experience gives real perspective

Although you may feel as though you have a pretty clear insight into the potential obstacles that stand in the way of you achieving your dream career, the fact of the matter is that your thoughts may be a lot less accurate than you may think – even when you feel as though you’re being very logical.

In order to make predictions about how things are going to turn out, and in order to create “logical projections” as well, we all need to make certain assumptions on the basis of our past experiences and biases, and on the basis of the mental maps that we have constructed.

In many cases, though, direct experience ends up proving to be very different than what we had thought about a given situation.

This is a pretty clear reason why it’s important not to let your own self-defeating thoughts prevent you from taking steps to pursue your dream career. There’s a good chance that those self-defeating thoughts are mistaken, or are in any case not providing the full picture.

Because striving to achieve something that you find meaningful can enrich your life in all sorts of other ways.

Even if you don’t necessarily succeed in achieving your dream career, simply striving to achieve something that you find genuinely meaningful can enrich your life in all sorts of other ways, ranging from granting you a great deal more motivation and enthusiasm each day, to showing you all sorts of options that you had never considered.

The momentum that pursuing your dream career can give you, and the process of discovery that comes from working honestly towards a dream in this way, can be fundamentally rewarding, and can be game changers in and of themselves.

And, at the end of the day, you won’t have to sit around thinking “what would’ve happened if I had just tried?”

Because the more proactive and engaged you are, the more opportunities will arise.

Being proactive and engaged, in general, tends to generate a lot of opportunities along the way – whereas simply going through the motions and remaining in your comfort zone, at a day job that you don’t much enjoy, doesn’t tend to generate many opportunities at all.

Pursuing your dream career– like all other proactive endeavours – has the potential to open many doors.

A Guide For Creating A Happier Workplace For Your Business

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A happy workplace is one that will improve the satisfaction of staff, increase productivity, and ultimately help your business achieve greater success.

If you are a business looking to create a happier workplace, use this guide for all of the best and effective tips.

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | A Guide For Creating A Happier Workplace For Your Business

Offer more engagement

Offering more engagement in the workplace will help employees interact more, which will help create better workplace relationships. If your employees do not have a great relationship it could cause tension or delay problems getting fixed. When a problem arises, it is much easier solved when staff is friendly with one another. They will be able to talk through the issue and find a resolution.

Increased employee engagement is important as it will encourage a happier workplace environment, make every member of the team feel involved, and create better relationships.

Show staff your recognition

When staff does something above and beyond or expectations or achieves their work goals, it is good to show them recognition and praise them.

Praising employees will only make them feel more appreciated, which will make them more confident and happy in their job. It could be as simple as giving them a bonus in their monthly paycheck or hosting a lunch to celebrate their success.

Make meaningful conversations

It is common for workplaces to create meaningless conversations to simply continue relationships. Yet, meaningful relationships are what create a happier workplace.

Therefore, it is crucial to create meaningful conversations so that relationships become meaningful. This means to talk about emotions and personal life as much as it does work. Although you might not want to get too personal with your colleagues and employees, it helps to create closer connections so that you can maintain happiness and create trusting friendships.

Reward staff

From time to time, it is a good idea to reward staff (but only those that have shown effort) to show them you appreciate them. It will encourage them to do better and maintain productivity, which will provide benefits for your business.

As much as you will want to reward them with financial benefits, it is a good idea to reward them in other ways. Besides, you will be offering them financial gains to show them recognition when they have achieved something (as mentioned above).

Rewarding staff with longer lunches, in-office parties, and social events is a great way to help them feel encouraged to create relationships and feel appreciated. Small rewards go a long way and will push staff to be productive, motivated, and maintain happiness.

Upgrade the workspace

Giving employees an upgraded workspace will not only help them feel a new sense of excitement to work, but a purposeful workspace will help them stay productive and comfortable.

For instance, adding standing desks and new comfortable chairs will enhance comfort and help people maintain focus for longer. It will also help employees avoid back pains, which will keep them happy.

Likewise, adding brighter lights, larger windows, and decor will make the office a more exciting place to be.

Offer social events

A social workspace is one that is bound to make employees feel happier. The less communication and fun that goes on, the fewer work relationships there will be.

You will want to encourage workplace relationships for the sake of staff’s mental health as well as the success of your business. Staff that communicates will one another can resolve and overcome issues as opposed to feeling tense when an issue arises. The friendly staff will work together to jump over hurdles and come out better on the other end, which will boost their efficiency and offer more success for your business.

Encourage better health

Healthier staff will equate to happier staff. Therefore, it is important to encourage better health in the office. For instance, standing desks is a great way to help people stretch and feel more encouraged to move around while working.

Furthemore, offering staff in-office lunches might help them make healthier lunch choices.

Encouraging staff to go for lunchtime walks or offering discounts on gym memberships will influence them to maintain regular exercise.

All of these things will contribute to better health and can make staff feel more energetic and happy while at work, as well as in their personal life.

Offer learning sessions

Some staff enjoys extra learning so that they can attain new skills to apply for job promotions or simply feel more capable of their everyday role. Therefore, it is a good idea to offer extra learning in the workplace so that your staff can attain more skills and knowledge.

You can do this by offering after-work learning or asking certain members of staff to take on a new responsibility that will help them learn on the job. The more equipped staff are with skills, the happier and more confident they will feel in the workplace.

Or, you could pay for them to take external courses that will benefit their skills and qualifications for their current job, or a role up that they want to apply for internally.

Identify weaknesses

Identifying your business’s weaknesses will help you improve your business, which will likely make the workplace much happier. For instance, you might not offer enough social support for your employees. You could identify this by asking your staff for feedback. Therefore, you can use the feedback to improve your business and offer more social support.

The more feedback you attain from your employees, the better you can make your business, which will make for a happier workplace.

Likewise, identifying the weaknesses of individual employees can help them improve. You could talk to them about their weaknesses and offer to help them improve. Make sure to be gentle with how you tell them and let them know the benefits of working on the weakness. You can let them know that you have your own weaknesses and tell them how you overcome them, which has helped you improve at work and therefore, helped you achieve greater success.

Praising Employees Pays Big Dividends

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Praising Employees|Praising Employees Pays Big DividendsYou’ve read the management books. You’ve heard more than enough about engagement, empowerment, teamwork, and so forth. But there’s just one problem: In the day-to-day rush of running your business, keeping your staff motivated takes a backseat to your daily work, management crises and making your numbers.

Sound familiar? If it does, you’re not alone. Too many business executives don’t make time for the one employee incentive that will never break the company budget: timely, honest thanks and praise of workers who do a good job. Research has shown that appreciation from managers is one of the incentives workers want most. For example, Gerald Graham, former dean of the business school at Wichita State University, found in one study that employees rated personal thanks from a manager for a job well done as the most motivating of 65 potential motivators considered. Unfortunately, 58 percent of the workers in Graham’s study said their managers didn’t typically give such thanks. Your employees don’t have to be like that 58 percent.

It is tricky to make time to recognize your staff during a hectic day. But I’ve seen even the busiest managers find ways to make praising employees part of their regular work habits. Here are some easy techniques you can try: one of them is bound to be a fit for you:

Make people a part of your “to do” list. This approach works particularly well for no-nonsense executive types who like to focus on getting things done. Just add the names of the people who report to you to your weekly to-do list. Then cross them off when you’re able to praise those employees, i.e., catch them “doing something right” in accordance with their performance goals. Hyler Bracey, president and CEO of the Atlanta Consulting Group, developed another, similar method that he used until praising became part of his routine. Bracey placed five coins in his pocket each day. During the day, he’d transfer a coin to another pocket every time he recognized an employee for good work. That technique helped Bracey make employee praise a habit.

Write notes at the end of the day. I learned this tip from Steve Wittert, president of Paragon Steakhouse Restaurants, based in San Diego. Wittert finds that his days are so busy that he seldom can take time out to recognize his staff. Instead, he keeps a stack of note cards on his desk, and when the pace slows at the end of the day, he takes a few minutes to jot personal notes to the individuals who made a difference that day. It became a highlight of the employees’ day to receive Steve’s simple notes.

Let technology help you. Instead of using voice mail just to assign or discuss work assignments for your employees, try leaving voice messages to praise them. You can do that from your car phone as you commute home after work, reflecting on the day’s events and the people who were especially helpful to you. You can go even further: I recently heard about one company that had created an “Applause” bulletin board on its electronic-mail system. On that public bulletin board anyone can post a thank-you to another person in the company.

Practice group recognition. Try starting your staff meetings by reading a letter of thanks or praise from a customer. Or do a “praise barrage” by going around the room in your staff meeting and asking everyone to say what they value in working with each person (this can also be written comments made on index cards by each member of your team). Create a “wall of fame” to show appreciation for top achievers — or to post any good news in the organization. Create a “successful projects” scrapbook that depicts employee teams and their accomplishments. Then exhibit the book prominently in your lobby.

How to Praise Effectively

Some managers recognize employees naturally and easily; others don’t. If you find giving praise awkward, remember these tips:

  • Be prompt. Positive reinforcement is much more effective when it comes soon after the desired behavior is displayed or result achieved.
  • Be sincere. Sure, praise is great – but if it’s not sincere, don’t bother. You’ll only sound manipulative.
  • Be specific. Avoid generalities in favor of the details of the achievement. Then employees know what specifically to do again.

Be positive. Sound obvious? Too many managers undercut praise with a concluding note of criticism. When you say something like, “You did a great job on this report, but there were quite a few typos,” the “but” becomes a verbal eraser that deletes all that came before. Save the corrective feedback for another time.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor |Bob NelsonBob Nelson, Ph.D., is an Opinion Columnist for CEO World and president of Nelson Motivation Inc. (www.drbobnelson.com). He’s a leading authority on employee recognition and engagement; a multi-million copy bestselling author of numerous books including 1501 Ways to Reward Employees, 1001 Ways to Engage Employees, and The Management Bible. He serves as a frequent presenter and consultant for companies, conferences and associations. You can contact him directly at [email protected] or (858) 673-0690.

Everything you want to know about shareholder management

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Shareholder Management|Everything you want to know about shareholder managementWant to improve your shareholder management strategies? This article explores everything business owners need to know about shareholder management.

Shareholders are an essential asset to a company. They are the ones that can help your business rise to new heights if they have a good reason to get on board with you. But managing these relationships can be a challenging task that is a corporate reality for many business founders.

Shareholders are, in essence, the owners of companies. While a small business can have just one shareholder, the founder, the story is different when it comes to a public company. Public companies can have tens, hundreds, or even thousands of individual and institutional shareholders, like mutual fund companies, pension funds, or hedge funds.

Now, these shareholders play a crucial role in the business’s financing, operations, governance, and control aspects. But, managing them can give business founders a tough time.

This article explains what it means to efficiently manage your shareholders and tips on how to do it!

Shareholder management explained

Capital is essential, making shareholders necessary for a company.

Shareholders are basically investors that give funding to a company in exchange for company shares.

Investment in the company also brings shareholders various rights, including:

  • The right to check the books and records of the company they invest in.
  • The right to vote on critical corporate matters, such as the board of directors.
  • The right to get dividends based on their investment.
  • The entitlement to take legal action against the company for misdeeds of its officers or directors.

Now, as the company grows and its capital needs increase as well, so does the number of shareholders.

This makes the equity in financial management in a company both crucial and challenging at times.

Shareholder management involves communicating with shareholders and keeping them updated on all ownership changes, documents, or other corporate decisions.

Tips on how to manage shareholders efficiently

Keeping shareholders informed about everything new about the company doesn’t sound that complicated. But this is only true if your business has a handful of shareholders. When you need to manage your relationships with a significant number of shareholders, this can turn into a time-consuming and overwhelming task.

Use these tips to manage shareholders efficiently:

Prepare well

The way you’ll manage your investors can be set right from the beginning, depending on how well you prepare to attract shareholders. More precisely, if you prepare well, you won’t struggle with disagreements caused by unrealistic expectations from your investors.

Selling your business plan well is also key to attracting the best investors out there. You may have the most innovative business idea. If you don’t sell it well, you may end up with a couple of shareholders that can prove to be very difficult to do business with. In contrast, if you present your idea perfectly, you may get an extensive list of investors to choose from, allowing you to select the ones you resonate well with.

Use a shareholder management software tool

Managing your shareholders shouldn’t take all your time and nerves. The good news is that you can stop wasting time and brainpower by managing your company investors with a shareholder management tool. Such a tool allows you to quickly onboard team members, import company data, and immediately benefit from having all the necessary information in just one place.

Build a communicative relationship

Besides using the right tool that simplifies your tasks in terms of managing shareholders, you also need to build a solid and open relationship with your investors. This way, shareholder engagement in corporate matters will indeed be beneficial and create a mutual understanding of the company objectives.

Be honest

When communicating with shareholders, you also need to be honest to leave no room for surprises. Like all businesses out there, yours will have its ups and downs. But even in those bad days, communicating openly and honestly will help you build confidence from your shareholders in the long term.

Good results will always satisfy investors, but even when there are troubles, an honest answer on why is that will help your shareholders see that you’re aware of the problem and have a plan to fix it, which will encourage them to trust you.

Add a personal touch

Building trust in the business world goes beyond offering honest data and statistics about your company. Sure, your investors aren’t there to make friends. They are there to make money. Yet, they will value a personal touch added to your relationship because it will help them build trust easier.

What’s more, when you make your investors trust you as a person, not just a company founder, they are more likely to also trust you with other project ideas you may come up with. For example, suppose you have an innovative business idea that you need financing for. In that case, if you’ve done well with gaining your shareholders’ trust so far, it’s very likely to find at least one interested person to follow you to your second business as well.

Stay silent when you’re down in the dumps

Every entrepreneur ever knows the emotional ups and downs of the” entrepreneurial roller coaster.” You probably do too. Now, while going through ups and downs is normal in the business world, it may affect your relationship with your investors if you’re not careful.

More precisely, investors expect you to be clear and level-headed when presenting your ideas and thoughts. And, this can be a bit hard when you’re down in the dumps, going through a business crisis.

So, to make sure that you don’t say the wrong thing or make the wrong choice, it’s always better to stay silent and find a way for you to gain some clarity over what to do and say next. Your investors will better appreciate a clearly formulated plan for a crisis than a chaotic meeting that only makes them wonder if they made the right investment choice with your business.