Year: 2013

Are you de-motivating your team?

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No one would de-motivate their team intentionally, right?  But we see it happen so often in owner managed businesses.  The latest research shows that entrepreneurs are currently so focussed on the bottom line; they don’t see what impact their personal actions are having on their team.  They are concentrating on getting their employees more motivated, rather than recognising and getting rid of their own de-motivating habits.

As the business owner/manager, ask yourself the following questions (and give truthful answers!) to find out if you’re de-motivating your team.

Does my team know what’s important to me? They won’t if you change your mind on an issue several times a day or give them directions which contradict previous ones.  Keeping your team guessing may keep them alert, but it is highly de-motivating.

Do I explain my actions? Just because you are the boss, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to explain your actions. Your team are watching you carefully, but they can’t see what’s going on in your mind.  Non-specific directions like “make it better” or “get it right next time” are not helpful or motivational.

Do I only hire people who will follow my instructions? Or reprimand team members for taking any initiative that I personally did not authorise? Your team may appreciate having a job in these tough economic times, but they won’t be motivated to show any initiative to help lead your business through the competitive minefield.

Do I keep people on their toes with the threat of consequences? Ensuring people understand consequences are one thing, making threats is another.  Even implied threats are de-motivating, yet the latest research shows that a majority of employees say their manager holds threats over them on a routine basis.

Do I talk more than listen at team meetings? Do you believe that team meetings are for delivering the latest decisions and that it’s more important that your team listens intently, than deliver input?  You may also ask them to bring you up to date on what they’ve been emailing you, but you’ve been too busy to read!

Do I agree to targets and then stretch them? Upon hearing the latest sales projections, you can’t resist adding a “stretch” objective, just to keep people challenged!  Changing the goalposts, for whatever reason, is highly de-motivating.

If you recognise yourself in any of these points, re-think your own behaviour NOW to root out any unintentional or intentional de-motivational habits.  Motivation is one of the most powerful driving forces toward entrepreneurial success.  From your team’s perspective, it’s time to move to the positive side of the motivation curve.  In these tough competitive times, you need all the help you can get, and you won’t get much from a de-motivated team.

Is your team fit for the Final Quarter?

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Earlier we talked about the importance of teamwork in achieving success and asked if you had the best team in place to get you to the December 31st finish line ahead of your competitors?

If your team needs some extra motivation as we enter the final strait of 2012 check out Gantley Business Development’s Top Tips to motivate your team.

Take these 3 steps with each member of your team – starting today!

1 – Spend some quality time

We said “quality time” not “quantity time”.  One or two minutes of quality time on a regular basis are far more productive than a one hour review every year.

This will help you build a positive relationship with each team member. You’ll gain a much better understanding of them and how they’re handling the job.  Spending quality time will also encourage opinions and ideas to flow from them, giving team members a feeling of being ”in on” things which is a huge motivator.  It will also help you build an “early warning system” of any problems both business and personal.

2 – Give feedback
Tell each member of your team when they’re doing well and not so well on a regular basis.  Recent research suggested that up to 65% of employees received no recognition at work in the past year.  Are you one of those managers who thinks “why should I praise people when they’re only doing what they’re paid to do?”.  If you want a happy and motivated team then you need to tell them when they’re doing well.  It’s equally important to say when they’re not performing well – ignoring poor behaviour or coming down on the person like a ton of bricks won’t help.

3 – Empower your team
The term “Empowerment” has suffered as a result of being overused and misunderstood as a management buzzword.  Empowerment is really about using the knowledge, skill, experience and motivation power that’s already within your people and finding ways to harness it for the good of your business.  The majority of people in teams are severely under utilised. Your team have probably much more to offer in terms of skill, knowledge and experience.  Why not put this to the test straight away?

Case Study: Pharmacists

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In this section we focus on a real life client challenge and show how dedicated teamwork between the client and Gantley Business Development is achieving real results.

Client : Pharmacist, South East Ireland

Challenges:

  • HSE Cuts majorly impacting on revenue
  • Lower front of shop sales
  • Low staff morale
  • Business owner fire fighting as opposed to leading

Solution:

  • Gantley Business Development’s strategies put in place to –
    • increase footfall
    • convert more store visitors into buyers
    • increase average sale value with customers
    • increase sale frequency with customers
  • Sales Plan focussed on selling generics puts in place to increase pharmacy profits while cutting prescription costs
  • Team training developed to increase skill, attitude and morale, to boost team sales performance and improve customer experience
  • Daily / Weekly measurement of performance against targets

Results (to date) :

  • Measureable increases in footfall, customer conversion and average sale values
  • Sales Plan ahead of target
  • More productive and cohesive team
  • Business owner focussed on leading the business

Is your business fit for the final quarter?

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This summer we were inspired by the hard work, dedication and phenomenal performance of some of the world’s best sportsmen and women at Olympics 2012 – perhaps none more than Usain Bolt.  Bolt focuses over 70% of his training regime on his finish, the final few metres of each race which make the difference between winning and losing.    With the final quarter of the 2012 business year upon us, Gantley Business Development asks what we can all learn from the likes of Usain Bolt to ensure our businesses surge ahead of the competition in the final few metres.

Planning: Meticulous planning and preparation are key components in achieving success for any Olympic medal winner.  Have you done your business plan outlining the key results you want the business to deliver in Q4 and how you are going to achieve them?  If the answer is no, do this TODAY!

Perseverance: We were all inspired by the Summer’s many stories of how Olympic and Paralympic champions never give up, in spite of hurdles and past failures.  In business, this philosophy  is never more important than in the final quarter.  Put the head down and keep going no matter how challenging your year to date has been.

Leadership: The world’s greatest sportsmen and women are each true leaders – self starters with a clear vision of what they want to achieve, inspiring those around them to achieve greatness.  Are you being the best leader you can be in your business, motivating yourself and your team to achieve the best performance possible in the final quarter?

Peaking: All worldclass athletes know that peaking at the right time is important.  Plan and conserve your resources for the main event – a record breaking Q4!

Coaching: Usain Bolt is widely quoted as crediting the role of his coach as crucial in helping him pass the finish line consistently in first place.  Do you have the business support team around you to help you pass the finish line on 31st December ahead of your competitors?  If you need the support of a dedicated business coach to get your business fit for Q4, contact us today to discuss your business challenges and needs in strictest confidence.

Principles for Business Leaders

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“Out of the Crisis”

Those of you who attended our recent seminars will have heard John refer to Kaizen – a Japanese word meaning change for the better. This management philosophy is defined as making “continuous improvement in your business” – slow, incremental but constant.

The Deming philosophy also focuses on continual improvements in product and service quality by reducing uncertainty and variability in design, manufacturing and service processes, driven by the leadership of owner managers/senior management. W. Edward Deming was a leader in the quality management revolution, widely recognised for his contributions to Japan’s industrial rebirth in the 1950’s.  He offered a number of key principles for management to transform business effectiveness. They were first presented in his book “Out of the Crisis” and are still used as a basis for those seeking to improve their business quality today.  We’ve taken the strongest and most relevant for today’s owner/managers and senior management – read them and let us know your thoughts?  Whether you agree with them or not, they certainly provide us all with food for thought!  These principles apply to every business, to small organisations as well as to large ones, to the service industry as well as to manufacturing.

1. Create a constant purpose toward improvement in your business – now commit to it.
2. Adopt the new philosophy and become a leader for change.
3. Stop depending on inspections to drive product quality- eliminates the need for massive inspection by building quality into your product or service from the beginning.
4. End business practices driven by price alone – minimise total cost instead. Move towards a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.
5. Constantly improve your systems and processes – forever!
6. Institute training on the job – train for consistency to help reduce variation.
7. Don’t supervise – teach and institute leadership, provide support and resources so that each staff member can do his or her best.
8. Drive out fear in your business and create trust so that people are not afraid to express ideas or concerns.
9. Optimise team and individual efforts – break down barriers between departments, people must work as one team.
10. Eliminate management by objective – look at how the process is carried out, not just numerical targets.
11. Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship – allow everyone to take pride in their work.
12. Implement education and self-improvement.
13. Take action to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody’s job, not just the business leaders, but the transformation must start with you.

The Power of Written Goals

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Does your business run you or do you run it? Are you frustrated with your business right now? Do you want to make more money? Do you want, and need more time? Do you want a winning team?

So, what are YOU currently doing about it? It is proven “What doesn’t get written, doesn’t get done”. Some years ago, at Harvard, a study was carried out which found

70% of students had no written or verbal goals
27% of students had verbal goals
3% of students had written goals

Very interestingly, 25 years later, the 3% who had written goals owned 98% of the total wealth of all the students. Do you want more success than you are currently getting? Then read on…

1. Decide what your 3-5 year goals are, both in life and in business and write them down. Your goals must be SMART. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time Bound)
2. Next make a detailed weekly plan of all the actions you need to take, which will help you achieve your goals.
3. Then you need to TAKE ACTION. As the Nike slogan says – Just Do It!

I challenge you to take these steps. They work for me, they work for our clients. It’s very simple and effective. I personally guarantee you, it works.