Workplace Communication: Management's Responsibility

Workplace Communication: Management's Responsibility
How good is the workplace communication in your company or
organization? Do you get the information you need to do
your job, and does management listen to you? Workplace
communication refers to the (mostly formal) channels and
procedures for getting and giving information, and as I'll
explain here, is management's responsibility.

A few years ago the British Broadcasting Commission aired a
series of unique business documentaries titled Back to the
Floor. If you're not familiar with the series, it featured
real-life Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) who leave their
comfortable offices and go work on the front lines of their
organizations for a week. Cameras followed the CEOs and
recorded their interactions with staff, and their responses
to those interactions.

In one episode, the managing director of London's Heathrow
Airport took the plunge and worked in customer service for
five days. That meant facing customers and dealing with
their problems, including problems created by the airport's
own management team. Again in this episode, workplace
communication turned out to be a key issue, as it so often
does in business stories.

At Heathrow, we saw a CEO taken by surprise, over and over
again, as he learned about work life at the front lines.
The CEO was rebuked by employees on the front lines, as
well as customers. Employees tried to convey to him the
difficulties they experienced because no one at head office
was listening to them.

And, that gap in workplace communication was a fairly
constant refrain in all episodes, as one CEO after another
found out he or she doesn't know much about what happens
when the organization comes face-to-face with real
customers and their needs.

Heathrow is hardly an exception. When I published a
communication newsletter, the most frequent reader feedback
involved management's failure to listen. Many readers felt
management doesn't know what's going on in the real world,
and perhaps what's worse, feel that management doesn't care.

There was also a feeling that individual managers were to
blame. However, in my research and experience, it's not a
'moral' failure on the part of individual managers, but
rather an institutional failure. In other words, the
mechanisms that allow or facilitate workplace communication
simply don't exist.

The first step in establishing and maintaining those
mechanisms is for management to accept responsibility for
them. Unless management takes the initiative, there can be
no channels for workplace communication, whether up or down
the hierarchy, to flow.

After all, employees can -- and often do -- express their
ideas and emotions. But nothing can happen unless someone
in management allows it to happen.

For example, in the Heathrow program, the managing director
spots some trash in an out-of-the-way spot and calls in a
cleanup crew. The customer service manager, who supervised
the managing director for the week, chastised him for
incurring an expense that wasn't in the budget (an
appropriate response because the customer service manager
would be chastised by his immediate superior if he had done
that). The CEO responded by making an important policy
change on the spot (another no-no for management); yet what
he really needed were mechanisms to get and give
information about such problems, and a then policy that
stipulated when exceptions could be made.

By creating a mechanism that allowed workers at the front
lines to communicate about that kind of problem (trash), he
would get both better results and greater employee loyalty.

In summary, effective workplace communication is only
possible when mechanisms exist to move information both up
and down within the organization, and only management can
establish and maintain those mechanisms.

----------------------------------------------------
Robert F. Abbott writes extensively about business
communication, and his work includes the book, A Manager's
Guide to Newsletters: Communicating for Results. You can
more free workplace communication articles at:
http://www.communicate-with-confidence.com/workplace-communi
cation.html .

Make Your Business a Well-Oiled Machine (and You’ll Have More Clients)

I believe the key to more clients, more in-come, and more
time off, is making your business run like a well-oiled
machine. Right now, you may be handling everything
yourself, or perhaps delegating a little bit of it. The
problem with that is your business is probably running YOU,
as opposed to you running your business. And that probably
means lots of stuff is falling through the cracks, which
then means lost opportunities and fewer clients and less
mo-ney coming in.

In your business, Consistency is crucial; Chaos is costly
(both financially and time-wise). When things run like a
well-oiled machine, when everything's organized and proven,
there is much less room for chaos. The goal is to have
things run on their own, or by someone else, so you can
focus on growing your business even more, while having more
time off to enjoy yourself.

Even if you don't have a full staff of people helping you,
you can make your business run smoothly, with SYSTEMS. The
key to systems is to not re-invent the wheel each time you
do something in your business. Instead, when something
works, document it, and then do it again and again. Then,
it becomes a system, and if the system is good, it will
create results over and over again too.

You may be asking yourself, "OK, I get it. But HOW exactly
do I create a system for something? I'm not sure where to
start." It's actually really simple.

1. Notice what's falling through the cracks, takes up a
lot of your time unnecessarily each week or creates a
lot of stress for you.

2. Find a way to cluster, group, delegate or put these on
autopilot.

3. Then set it up so it works on its own, or can be
handled easily, efficiently, and without fail.

4. Create checks and balances so you're not abdicating,
but know that instead, you can breathe more easily, knowing
it's all handled.

Give it a try.

You can systematize many things in your business and in
your personal life. In your business, you can systematize
each slice of your marketing pie (every slice of the pie
represents a way you PULL clients in-we go in depth into
this in the home study system), also your schedule, your
client management, your calendar, and your email. In your
personal life, you can systematize your food shopping, your
doctors' appointments, your personal email, your
dry-cleaning, your errands, your banking. You name it, it
can probably be systematized.

The beauty of everything being on autopilot or handled
smoothly is that you set up the infrastructure for a FULL
practice, even before you fill your practice. What happens
is, when you DO hit full practice status, you will avoid
all the breakdowns that cause most businesses to fail. At
the same time, you make more time for marketing (the stuff
that brings in clients) and for more clients as well.

Your Assignment:

1. Make a long list of everything that's falling through
the cracks, takes up a lot of your time unnecessarily each
week, or creates a lot of stress for you.

2. Find a way to cluster, group, delegate, or put these on
autopilot.

3. Set it up so it works on its own or can be handled
easily, efficiently, and without fail.

4. Create checks and balances so you' re not abdicating,
but you can keep tabs on it regularly.

You'll be amazed to see how much of a "problem-free zone"
your business becomes. That will give you a lot more time
to focus on building the business, a lot more room for new
clients, and more time to simply enjoy yourself. You'll
have more time for vacation, for self-care, and for
spending yummy quality time with the people you love being
with. And that's what being self-employed is really about.

----------------------------------------------------
Now, you may have specific questions you want answered
about how to systematize your marketing. If so, I recommend
getting a copy of the Client Attraction Home Study System™.
It gives you the most important things to do to set up
simple, solid marketing systems, so that you consistently
fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. You
can get it at http://
http://www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com .

3 Tips for Hiring the Right People—and 2 Traps To Avoid

One of the most costly mistakes for small business owners
is making a bad hiring decision. Losing the money spent on
recruiting, the time to interview the candidates, and the
time and cost spent on employee training are a few of the
major profit-squeezers that result from hiring mistakes.

Some entrepreneurs attempt to reduce risk by hiring family
or friends-which in most cases proves to be the worst
hiring mistake of all. It is difficult for most people to
accept the relationship transition from family member to
employee. Most often, those friendships will end in
resentment and disappointment. When a veteran small
business owner tells you, "Never hire family!" you can bet
he's learned the hard way.

With a little skill and guidance, small business owners can
learn much about potential candidates by understanding
resumes. When reading resumes, there are three great
things to look for-and two traps to watch out for.

When reading a resume, the three things to look for are:

1. Industry experience

You'll make shortcuts in new employee training if your new
hire has previous experience in your industry. You will
see a faster return on investment with your new employee
when he or she already understands what your customers
want. Prior industry experience also means he or she may
have a business following that will result in added revenue
for your business.

2. Transferable skills

Very often transferable skills are as critical as industry
experience. Skills such as customer service, problem
solving, sales and/or crisis management are valuable in
almost every industry. Before interviewing candidates,
make sure you understand the five most important
transferable skills needed for the position you are hiring.
Keep those skills in mind when reviewing resumes.
Candidates whose resumes showcase those skills should be
considered whether they have industry experience or not.
An industry can be learned, but great customer service or
superb selling skills can only be acquired with time and
experience.

3. Accomplishments

When reading through resumes, look for applicants who write
about their accomplishments. These are candidates who
understand the bottom-line initiatives of an organization.
A resume that mentions saving time, cutting costs, and
solving customer disputes represents someone who can handle
your problems as well.

On the flip side, when reading resumes watch out for these
two traps:

1. Unstable work history

Pay attention to the dates on a resume. While the life
expectancy of a job isn't what it was a generation ago, a
string of short-term positions should be a concern.
Candidates with too many jobs in too short of a time
usually have excuses for all of them-sometimes even great
excuses. But good excuses aren't the same thing as good
reasons. If you see a consistent pattern of instability,
beware! This may be a candidate who (1) doesn't get along
with authority; (2) loses interest in his job after time;
or (3) is just plain inept. Beware also of unexplained
gaps in employment, which may indicate even more serious
problems.

2. Unfocused career path

While it's quite normal for one's career path to shift,
candidates whose resumes show opposing career directions
may indicate uncertainty about their career path. Look out
for candidates who have held contrasting positions like
"sales" and "accounting," or "account manager" and
"librarian." This may be a candidate who doesn't know what
he wants in his career. After working for you as customer
service rep, he may decide he really wants to be a dog
groomer!

With practice you'll gain expertise at reading between the
lines of a resume. Remember the three great things to look
for and the two traps to avoid, and you'll save yourself
valuable time, money and effort in hiring new employees.

----------------------------------------------------
Deborah Walker, Small Business Coach helps entrepreneurs
navigate the hiring maze with tips and suggestions on how
to recruit, interview and hire the best employees. Her
veteran experience as a former executive recruiter gives
her the unique perspective to help you avoid the pitfalls
of bad hiring decisions. Learn how Deborah can help your
business at:
http://www.RevenueQueen.com