Business: 3 STEPS YOU CAN USE DEVELOPING LEADERS IN YOUR INDUSTRY

3 STEPS YOU CAN USE DEVELOPING LEADERS IN YOUR INDUSTRY

Written by Stephen Fairley

With repparttar

economy bordering on a recession, every company is looking for ways to increase revenues while decreasing costs. Some companies believe one of repparttar 104187

easiest ways to do this is to cut their employee training budget. However, businesses interested in long-term viability recognize that to be successful they must continually develop their people, especially their leaders.

According to recent research by repparttar 104188 American Society of Training and Development companies with regular employee training consistently outperform companies who do not train their people. In a recent survey we conducted of HR Directors at small, Chicago-based, start-up companies leadership development was reported as their number one professional challenge.

There are many books, seminars and prepackaged programs that claim to help you do this more effectively and efficiently. Most have varying success because they are not customized to meet your company's specific needs. Canned approaches have little lasting effect.

Leadership development is not about reading a book or attending a seminar. Sustained leadership development is a process. It must be tailored to meet your company's specific needs and goals to be successful. Our research indicates there are some common criteria among successful leadership development programs. The best ones promote leadership in three phases:

Plan for Leadership Development. The first part of planning a leadership program is to examine what you currently have in place. In order to gauge your efforts, answer repparttar 104189 following five questions: Does your company have a comprehensive plan for developing people? •What are repparttar 104190 benefits you would receive from having an effective leadership development program? •What are repparttar 104191 estimated costs in turnover, lower productivity, and lower morale to not having one now? •What would a successful leadership development program look like for your company? •How much time, energy, and money are you willing to invest to develop one? The next planning step is to begin identifying characteristics of people who are already successful leaders in your company. Every company has a unique corporate structure and culture that rewards particular characteristics. The key to building a successful program begins with looking at successful people. Think about repparttar 104192 people who are or have been most successful at your company and ask: •What kind of training experiences have they had? •What kind of educational background do your most successful people have? •How many years of experience in your line of work do they have? •How do they fit in with your corporate culture? •How would you describe their personality style? What best motivates them? Practice Leadership Development. Once you have formed an outline of how you want to develop your leaders and what "success" looks like, you must start implementing repparttar 104193 program. Start small, with one or two people. This will allow you to work out repparttar 104194 bugs inconspicuously. There are different ways to begin repparttar 104195 program, but nearly all successful ones have at least two clear parts: specific leadership training and coaching/mentoring. The training can include elements of: •Effective business communication •Conflict resolution skills •Team building •Relating to different personality styles •Time management •Delegation skills •Goal setting •Critical coaching skills •Other areas specific to your business The second part is coaching or mentoring. All of repparttar 104196 top professional and Olympic athletes recognize repparttar 104197 importance of a personal coach to help them reach peak performance. A mentor or coach can provide your leaders with repparttar 104198 one-on-one attention needed to help take them to repparttar 104199 next level quickly.

The Biggest Crime In Small Business

Written by Stephen Fairley

The biggest crime in small businesses today goes unnoticed by most outsiders. It is not reported in repparttar

media. There are no police reports filed and companies do not even mention it on their websites. People don't talk about it on repparttar 104186

street and employees often overlook it. Even though this crime is rampant among small businesses, it's presence is so subtle that many business owners fail to recognize when it is happening! Unfortunately, this crime is repparttar 104187

same one that is most likely to kill a small business. It is not stealing by employees, burglaries, trivial lawsuits, or industrial espionage.

The biggest crime in small business today is repparttar 104188 crime of being forgotten. Think about it-you can recover from most other crimes by installing an alarm system, filing patents, or buying insurance, but if your business falls victim to repparttar 104189 crime of being forgotten it is on repparttar 104190 fast track to failure. There are opportunities every day for your business to be forgotten by existing clients, potential clients, your best employees, surrounding businesses, your neighborhood, vendors, repparttar 104191 media, and your potential investors.

SIGNS OF THE CRIME

Have you fallen victim to repparttar 104192 crime of being forgotten? Here are some of repparttar 104193 signs of being forgotten:

• Lowered top line sales • Few people visiting your website • Less customer inquiries • Losing large accounts • Losing long-time accounts • High employee turnover • Inability to attract top candidates to help run your business • No "new" news • Fewer repeat buyers • Less revenue

STEPS TO SOLVE THE CRIME

There are many things you can do as a small business owner to help people remember you. I am not of repparttar 104194 opinion that hiring a big PR company is repparttar 104195 only solution. Here are some things you can implement today:

1. Focus on repparttar 104196 question that every customer and client wants to know: What's in it for me?

At repparttar 104197 end of repparttar 104198 day, every client is selfish. With so many things out there vying for their time, attention and money, they have become more and more cynical and self-centered. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but more a self-protective measure.

Your job as a small business owner is to tell them what your service can do for them personally and remember-they do not want to spend time looking for repparttar 104199 answer. The answer to this question must be one of repparttar 104200 first things your clients see on your website and in your company-wide communications. If your clients are going to remember you, you must first answer repparttar 104201 question "What's in it for them?"

ACTION STEP: List everything your client receives from your service or product. Closely examine all of your corporate communications with a critical eye. How accurately and consistent are they in answering this question to your clients and customers?

2. What differentiates your service or product from everyone else?

If you believe there is nothing new under repparttar 104202 sun then you must recognize that for every product or service you provide, chances are very good that someone, somewhere else does almost exactly what you do.

Then repparttar 104203 question becomes, not WHAT do you do, but HOW you do it. In other words, what is your U.S.P.-your "unique selling proposition"? What can a client get from you that they cannot get from anyone else? Perhaps it is your broad-based expertise or that every solution is completely customized to meet their needs or your company's 100% satisfaction guarantee. You must determine what differentiates your business from anyone else and market that point.

When defining your U.S.P., one of repparttar 104204 keys to being remembered is to not use either of these two characteristics: quality or service. The reason is that EVERY business says they provide quality and service (even though we know they don't). Therefore quality and service have become meaningless when it comes to differentiating your service because every customer EXPECTS quality and service and will not do business with any company that doesn't have both already. Your U.S.P must be creative, yet accurately reflect who you are and what you offer that no one else does.

ACTION STEP: Set aside a few hours this week to brainstorm with your partner and employees on what your company offers that other companies do not. Do some research to find out how other companies in your field are differentiating themselves. Be sure to develop a U.S.P that your clients will not confuse with your competition's.

3. All of your communication must be emotionally impactful.

Anyone can quote statistics or develop an advertisement on a cognitive level, but repparttar 104205 most effective way to ensure an impact on your clients is to communicate with them on an emotional level. You must find their "pain." What is it about their business, life, family, time, or environment that is causing pain? Are they not working or working too much? Is their business growing too fast or too slow? Is their family falling apart? Do they feel too old or overweight? Do they have a hard time tracking their projects or employees? Find their pain and communicate with them on an emotional level about how you can help heal their pain and make their business, life, family, time or environment pleasurable.

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