Usually you find how a business is doing based upon how owner is doing. Is he or she happy? Can he or she get things done all by his or herself? It is a barometer of you. If you are not doing well, your business doesn’t do well. But a very simple place to start is by considering that you have very willing staff members who are completely on team, playing by same rules as everyone else, and when something just doesn’t seem right, that you go to that individual and talk to them about that concern that you have. You’ll find that your organization will run smoother and things will be easier.

I can not overstate importance of communication with your staff. Not with orders but with kindness and truly caring about what goes on. Listening and offering assistance to them will get your staff to do almost anything for you.

Each day go around to each staff member and ask, with sincere interest: What are you working on? Do you have any problems in getting it done? Do you need my help? Try it for a week and find out precisely how much this little action will improve staff morale and increase their overall productivity. Not to mention smile instead of a frown put on you face.

These three simple questions can restore a lot of communication in your office. If you have any staff members that you feel that you can’t pleasantly ask these questions, especially last one, then you need to communicate more, not less to them. Find out what really is going on, because that is part of responsibilities of being an executive.

Shaun Kirk is President and Co-Founder of Measurable Solutions Inc., a consulting firm engaged in all areas of business management. Measurable Solutions trains entrepreneurs and executives how to be consultants to their own businesses, so they not only can expand their own business but any business. With his partner, he has built the most rapidly expanding company of its kind in the world. Visit his website at www.measurablesolutions.com

The great manager mantra is don’t try to put in what was left out; instead draw out what was left in. You must hire for talent, and hone that talent into outstanding performance.

More wisdom in a nutshell from First, Break All Rules: 1. Know what can be taught, and what requires a natural talent. 2. Set right outcomes, not steps. Standardize end but not means. As long as means are within company’s legal boundaries and industry standards,let employee use his own style to deliver result or outcome you want. 3. Motivate by focusing on strengths, not weaknesses. 4. Casting is important, if an employee is not performing at excellence, maybe she is not cast in right role. 5. Every role is noble, respect it enough to hire for talent to match. 6. A manager must excel in art of interview. See if candidate’s recurring patterns of behavior match role he is to fulfill. Ask open-ended questions and let him talk. Listen for specifics. 7. Find ways to measure, count, and reward outcomes. 8. Spend time with your best people. Give constant feedback. If you can’t spend an hour every quarter talking to an employee, then you shouldn’t be a manager. 9. There are many ways of alleviating a problem or non-talent. Devise a support system, find a complementary partner for him, or an alternative role. 10. Do not promote someone until he reaches his level of incompetence; simply offer bigger rewards within same range of his work. It is better to have an excellent highly paid waitress or bartender on your team than promote him or her to a poor starting-level bar manager. 11. Some homework to do: Study best managers in company and revise training to incorporate what they know. Send your talented people to learn new skills or knowledge. Change recruiting practices to hire for talent, revise employee job descriptions and qualifications.

By: Regine P. Azurin and Yvette Pantilla http://www.bizsum.com "A Lot Of Great Books....Too Little Time To Read" Free Book Summaries Of Latest Bestsellers and More! Mailto: freenewsletter@bizsum.com

BusinessSummaries is a BusinessSummaries.com service. (c) Copyright 2001-2005, BusinessSummaries.com