How To Ensure Your Business Remains Innovative As It Grows

As companies get larger, there is a tendency for them to lose some of the innovative edge and versatility that defined them as start-ups and young enterprises. Several factors common to larger firms contribute to this, including increased bureaucracy and more rigid, hierarchical command structures.

Accordingly, one of the challenges that growing businesses face involves keeping the company nimble, and ensuring that the workforce and leadership alike continue to adapt to technology and changing market conditions.

Encourage experimentation, with some margin for error.

All businesses strive to offer products and services that are commercially viable, and for larger firms in particular, a preoccupation with maximizing shareholder value can intensify those commercial pressures. Unfortunately, a drive for immediate windfalls can undermine more sophisticated forms of innovation that require time and capital investment to develop.

Major innovations cannot happen without experimentation, and experimentation is inherently risky. Many successful businesses have invested in products and technologies that never really took off. (Think of Google Glass, or QR codes, for example.) To genuinely innovate, managers must be willing to take risks on novel concepts that may not always pan out.

Consider the potential, and not just past achievements, of job candidates.

In applying for a position at your company, job candidates will typically emphasize their past experience and achievements that are relevant to the role—and well they should. But in looking to hire and promote, don’t get so fixated on the past successes of a candidate that you overlook the potential of applicants to grow as individuals and expand their skill sets.

In the recruitment stage, in interviews, and in personality surveys, try to incorporate questions that will reveal whether a candidate is curious, open to new approaches to old problems, and believes in h/er own potential to cultivate new skills.

One question that may reveal all of these attributes is: “What new skills or knowledge have you gained in the past year, and what did the learning process involve?” Alternatively, the common interview question “Do you have any questions for me?” can help bring out the curiosity, level of engagement, and preparedness of the candidate. Consider giving job candidates an assignment that will test their skills and approach to problem-solving.

Personal accountability matters.

One of the most important attributes of strong leaders is a capacity to assume responsibility when something goes wrong. In other words, they believe the locus of control is primarily internal rather than external. These are the types of individuals you should seek to hire and promote.

Personal responsibility is important from the perspective of organizational growth. Individuals who are willing to assume primary responsibility for their own shortcomings are more likely to learn from them and modify their approach. By contrast, those who convince themselves that their errors are entirely attributable to bad luck or circumstances beyond their control risk missing the lesson.

Reflect on your performance.

It’s not enough to merely work harder or put in longer hours when your business faces a challenge: you need a plan to help steer your efforts in a productive direction. Real learning requires not only hard work and persistence, but also active mental engagement.

One practice that can help is daily reflection—over the course of the work day, what did you do well, what would you have done differently if offered a second chance, and where do you see room for improvement? To facilitate this kind of reflection, you can encourage staff to keep a work journal, and set aside time (10-15 minutes of the workday) for entry-writing.

Fostering Team Creativity

Many extraordinary innovations are the product not of individual strokes of genius, but rather cooperation among highly skilled individuals working toward a common goal. As technology grows more advanced and intricate, and groundbreaking innovation requires an increasingly sophisticated skill set, the power of co-creation is only becoming more essential. Exemplary creative teams often benefit from a diversity of skills, passions, and expertise, and a work environment that allows each member of the collective to shine.

A leadership style conducive to innovation.

As management scholar and Harvard business professor Linda Hill explained in a 2014 TED talk, a top-down style of leadership is seldom consistent with the freedom of thought and expression that enables creative minds to flourish. But a total absence of structure isn’t helpful either.

Hill offers several examples of firms with work environments conducive to collective innovation, including computer animation studio Pixar, and search engine giant Google. Hill and her research partners have concluded that managers at these firms embrace an unconventional style of leadership—one which conceives of the boss as a connector and social architect, rather than a commander-in-chief. Or as Hill says, “Our role as leaders is to set the stage, not to perform on it.”

Development teams at Pixar typically include around 250 members, who spend between four and five years composing a single film. Once the team has established its overall objective (to produce an animated movie with a particular storyline, characters, and themes), the process and details are somewhat flexible. Importantly, effective managers of creative projects do not presume that their own vision is superior in all respects to the potentially conflicting ideas and expertise of the other team members. In any project of this magnitude, unanticipated challenges are also likely to arise, which may require improvised solutions.

The physical design and layout of the workplace is a crucial factor as well. The members of a creative team must have enough isolated space to pursue their own trains of thought, but enough common space to allow discussion and engagement. Instead of consensus and conformity, a manager who aims to promote creativity shouldn’t be afraid to allow constructive debate, and even constructive conflict. The leader’s role in these situations is to moderate the discussion, rather than attempt to influence the entire team toward a single point of view.

Creative abrasion, agility, and resolution.

Hill believes many organizations that display high levels of team creativity have mastered three over-arching abilities.

•  Creative abrasion is the frequent meeting of minds in the workspace, which may sometimes culminate in confrontation. The role of a manager at this stage is to amplify voices that might not otherwise receive a fair hearing, and engender a respectful marketplace of ideas.

•  Creative agility is the testing of ideas and concepts on a small scale in order to ascertain possible solutions to problems. The immediate goal of this is twofold—to examine the viability of those ideas in practice, and refine them by identifying practical shortcomings. This is an experimental, trial-and-error process, and team members should understand it as such.

•  Creative resolution is the decision-making process by which the members of a creative team collectively determine a path forward. This may require integration of conflictual or divergent ideas. However, Hill believes managers should discourage team members from “going along to get along”, accepting compromises they find unsatisfactory.

In sum, successful leaders of creative teams don’t necessarily “lead” in the conventional sense; instead, they aim to provide fertile soil for the emergence of ingenuity.

The Building Blocks of a Top-notch Presentation

At least as important as a general knack for public speaking, is the ability to deliver a persuasive presentation. Business leaders are regularly called upon to inform and enlighten (among others) employees, clients, and prospective investors, and the ability to convey one’s ideas successfully to a wide variety of stakeholders is a hallmark of exemplary leadership.

The most important guiding principle is to know your stuff; if you have done your research in advance and know the topic you’ll be discussing inside-out, you’ll be able to both cover the essentials, and readily respond to questions and comments from the audience. That said, it sure helps to know what sort of people you’ll be addressing.

Familiarize yourself with the audience.

The best presentations take shape well in advance of a speaker’s scheduled appearance. Ideally, not only should a presenter be physically ready (i.e. well rested, nourished, and properly equipped); s/he should also have conducted a reasonable amount of advance research into the audience. What are the wants and needs of the people who will be listening to you? What are their priorities? What are they optimistic/anxious about? What information will they be most interested to hear? If you’re a presenter who likes to sprinkle in the odd joke, what sort of humour do you think will elicit a favourable response from this crowd?

Start strong.

Some presenters like to begin with a short anecdote; others prefer a punchy opening statement, rhetorical question, or a description of a commonly held belief that, to channel 19th-century wordsmith Mark Twain, “just ain’t so.” (You could even open by laying out the aspects of the misconception, asking “How often have you all heard this story?”, and then explain why it is erroneous.)

Your immediate priority should be to grab your audience’s attention. If necessary, introduce yourself and establish your qualifications. But keep this preliminary step brief (one or two sentences), and then get right to the point.

Punctuate your presentation.

Once you have captured the attention of the audience, your next challenge is to maintain it until you’ve finished. Inexperienced presenters often make the mistake of bombarding viewers with information in large tranches, rather than breaking it down into digestible fragments that leave listeners a moment to process what they’re hearing, and try to reconcile it with their pre-existing views.

A strategy that works fairly well is to partition major concepts with quotes, either from inspirational figures, or from experts in a field of knowledge that is relevant to the content of the presentation. Quotes can also be used as evidence or testimony that reinforces the message you hope to convey.

Encourage participation.

The question is a valuable item in the toolkit of an effective presenter. Questions can be open-ended, require a yes-or-no response, or take the form of a multiple-choice poll. (“Raise your hand if you believe X? What about Y? What about Z?”)

However, not all questions are useful. Avoid loaded questions unless they contain a misconception you aim to dispel; for example, “How many of you think sports cars are fun to drive?” already suggests a reply. Queries with obvious answers will also tend to nullify the participatory effect, since few members of the audience will need to actually pause and reflect before responding.

Tell a story.

Cherokee novelist Thomas King wrote “The truth about stories, is that that’s all we are.” Indeed, human civilization is built on them. The bulk of the collective knowledge we have at our disposal—from scientific theories to news, history, literature, and the arts—take the form of stories, conveyed through a vast array of media and languages, that have evolved and been modified over time.

With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that one of the most effective ways to engage an audience is through narrative. Financial advisor Suze Orman, a denizen of the cable networks, likes to recount her personal rags-to-riches journey during her speeches, which has the added benefit of establishing her credibility as a surmounter of major financial obstacles. Alternatively, your story could offer a description of an experience you had, an account of a significant historical event, or the anticipated result of a policy change you advocate. In any case, choose a narrative that is relevant to the topic at hand, and that is likely to resonate with your audience.

Vulnerability and Self-interest: Qualities of Great Leaders

What is more important in a leader: the ability to project authority, or a knack for earning the trust of one’s cohort?

Surely both qualities are indispensable. But the latter is a precondition for the former. Unless they trust you, your team will be unwilling or unable to recognize your authority as a competent decision-maker. In other words, their confidence in you is a sine qua non of your effective leadership.

What is the source of this confidence?

There are many possible answers to that question—depending in part on the individual and the circumstances. However, two important but somewhat counter-intuitive leadership traits often go overlooked: vulnerability and self-interest.

Before I elaborate, allow me to define both terms.

Vulnerability in this context refers not to weakness, but rather to the capacity for empathy, humility, and accountability. In order to relate to the personal challenges faced by your employees, accept constructive criticism, and admit your own shortcomings, for instance, you must first let down your guard and accept that you are merely human.

Self-interest means the intellectual and moral steadfastness to pursue your own best interests, and the best interests of your business and your team, even in the face of counter-pressures.

Vulnerability and accountability

Occasionally, you will encounter people who attempt to mask their own vulnerability, presumably because they worry that others will try to exploit chinks in their emotional armour. But this is a false choice. It takes courage to acknowledge one’s vulnerability; on the other hand, many people associate a refusal to acknowledge vulnerability with a lack of authenticity, or even a deficiency of courage. Have you ever known someone who consistently refused to admit her own defects and attempted to mask problems—either personal or professional? Are you left with a favourable impression of that person?

Vulnerability is a prerequisite for developing meaningful personal connections with other people, including co-workers and employees. One of the most important ways this manifests itself is in the form of accountability and forgiveness. We all make mistakes, and the way we respond to them (both our own and those of our peers and employees) is crucial.

 A rigid, institutional intolerance of error has the effect of deterring even mundane risk-taking. A manager who refuses to countenance the missteps of her employees is somewhat like a vehicle without brakes. If we were all obliged to drive brake-less automobiles, motorists would putter along very slowly, avoid hills, and approach stop-signs and intersections at a snail’s pace. In other words, no one would get anywhere very quickly, and our society and economy would suffer the consequences. In the case of a business enterprise, this is analogous to reduced productivity and diminished willingness of employees to venture outside their comfort zone.

Nonetheless, forgiveness is not exactly the same as tolerance of error. Instead, the goal of a leader should be to identify miscues and point them out to the responsible party, allowing reasonable leeway while discouraging repetition of previous mistakes. Naturally, in order to build credibility for this purpose, leaders must be prepared to take ownership of their own failings too.

Self-interest versus selfishness

Through his magnum opus, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Scottish Enlightenment philosopher and political economist Adam Smith popularized the idea that self-interest on the part of individuals would ultimately enhance the general welfare of society. One of the examples he cites is that of a baker, who produces bread for his customers not purely out of benevolence, but also in order that the baker himself may earn a living.

Centuries after the publication of that work, debate still rages as to exactly what Smith had in mind, and about the extent to which “greed is good.” But self-interest and greed are not necessarily synonyms. Another interpretation of “self-interest” is “taking care of oneself in order to better one’s chances of helping others.”

Leaders nearly always face extraordinary demands on their time. On a personal level, it is crucial to appreciate the role of time management and the effect of stress with regard to your own health and well-being. If you aspire to a long and successful professional career, you need to ensure that you lead a healthy lifestyle which includes adequate down-time. At times, this will require you to delegate duties to others. It may also require you to turn some invitations and opportunities down.

This concept of self-interest can also apply to your business and your professional team. In order for your enterprise to thrive, you will need to make choices, some of which may be difficult. But by putting the rational interests of your business ahead of competing priorities, you will increase your chances of success over the long term.

Handling Conflict in The Workplace

In all long-term relationships, including professional ones, interpersonal friction is bound to arise. For many people, the natural (and comfortable) response to confrontation is to avoid it entirely, but this is not always the most sensible option. If you believe that a dispute may have an adverse impact on your workplace, it is generally wiser to intervene early and decisively, before the issue has time to fester.

That said, conflict is not necessarily a bad thing. The same qualities that contribute to individual professional success—like drive, ambition, creativity, and self-confidence—can cause members of a team to butt heads on occasion. Knowing how to manage this discord, and even channel it in a constructive direction, is an indispensable leadership skill.

Keep the following tips in mind:

Hear out all sides before drawing any conclusions. If a conversation is particularly heated, it may be useful to separate the parties involved, allow each to articulate her own position and objectives, and make a note of the key points each individual raises. Listen attentively, ask open-ended questions, and avoid taking sides during this process. Once all parties have had a chance to make their case, try to identify points of potential compromise, as well as areas that appear irreconcilable. This will allow you to map out workable solutions (and alternatives) that you can then discuss with each of the adversaries.

Identify the low-hanging fruit. Many conflicts are the product of trivial disagreements, inadvertent miscommunications, or misunderstandings. By listening carefully, you will be able to identify concerns that you can easily address.

Keep your eye on the ball. In emotionally potent situations, it’s easy to point fingers. During an impassioned argument, there is a common tendency to bring up the faults of one’s opponent, regardless of relevance to the matter at hand, purely in order to score points or inflict damage. But senseless bickering will only beget more of the same. In order to resolve a dispute favourably, maintain an assiduous focus on the source of the disagreement, avoiding distractions and ad hominem recriminations. If you find two or more members of your team engaged in an acrimonious exchange, you may find it useful to call a temporary ceasefire, and allow the contenders to cool off, before gently directing them back to the heart of the matter.

Maintain a sense of self-awareness if you become engaged in a conflict. This is another area in which emotional intelligence comes in handy, particularly an understanding of how your feelings affect you physically and psychically. Self-awareness is a precondition for keeping one’s passions in check at a stressful moment, which in turn is crucial for evaluating the facts and claims in a dispute, reasoning, problem-solving, and negotiation.

Conflicts can create opportunities, not just headaches. If approached calmly and rationally, disputes can yield novel perspectives, ideas, and solutions that may not have arisen in the absence of confrontation. When most people hear the saying, “Two heads are better than one,” they imagine a relationship that is largely collaborative and amicable. But real life tends to be messier than what we envision in our minds’ eye!

The key is to channel potentially antagonistic sentiments toward constructive goals. This can best be achieved by listening, keeping the conversation as respectful as possible, and focusing on concrete sources of disagreement and objectives, rather than personal failings.

This point is worthy of re-emphasis: if you believe an interpersonal issue is serious enough to generate animosity or discomfort in the workplace, it is almost always better to address it quickly and comprehensively, than to allow it to progress and harden.

How to Conduct a Meeting

Meetings, when properly directed, are a great way to get everyone on the same page, strategize, and brainstorm with the aim of moving the company in the right direction. If a meeting lacks the necessary focus, however, it can represent a colossal time-suck and a waste of everybody’s resources. It’s essential to have a clear picture of why a meeting is necessary and what needs to be accomplished. Below are a few “don’ts” and “dos” when it comes to taking the lead and conducting a great meeting.

DON’T conduct meetings every week for the sake of conducting a meeting – it can lead to so many annoying little problems like the anticipation of the dreaded weekly meeting, the didn’t-we-just-discuss-this-last-week feeling, or the incessant mulling over minutia. Not every decision in a company should be left to a democracy and it’s really only beneficial to call a meeting when one is deemed truly necessary.

DO include everyone - if you’ve decided that now is the time to have a meeting it should be because some kind of shift in direction is necessary. Sea changes can implicate the whole company and you might be surprised by who has big ideas. If wholesale changes are necessary, and you limit your company’s rebranding to the marketing team because you see it exclusively as a marketing issue, you’re effectively limiting your options moving forward.

DON’T make your meetings about one-on-ones – a meeting where everyone is gathered waiting for their turn to speak and explain what they do is likely to cause attendees to zone out. The key to a great meeting, and getting great ideas out, is to keep everyone engaged. Set aside time to have one-on-ones so that everyone can communicate what’s relevant about their particular position and then connect them with whoever they might need in other departments. Remember, meetings are about the big picture, not the details.

DO have a clear idea of what needs to be accomplished – a meeting’s focus can be lost so easily by getting bogged down in details. It’s imperative that, when leading a team meeting, you know exactly where your team is at and where they should be by the end. It’s possible to know the answers without having the means to articulate it, so cluing in to what’s being shared in a meeting should be what allows you to formulate an expression of what you know is already there.

DON’T get sidetracked by things that are irrelevant – although it’s important to keep things lighthearted and fun, maintaining control over the direction of the meeting is essential to make progress. Meetings can suffer from too many questions or too much fine-tuning. Ideas discussed at meetings should be global, not particular. It’s important not to just gloss over the details, but keep in mind that the grandeur of an issue should reflect the size and duration of a meeting.

DO allow everyone a chance to shine  - although you’re in control and you make the decisions, a meeting can never be about you. You can communicate company values in an email, but you get feedback in a meeting. Having an open mind, ceding the floor and jumping in only to direct traffic, should be the leader’s role in any meeting.

Summary

Meetings aren’t the kind of thing you want built into the framework of your company but it’s important to have systems in place that keep you in contact with the various branches of your business. A constant stream of meetings can devalue their importance and, as a team leader, it’s important to distinguish between when everyone needs to be brought together and when it’s time to meet one-on-one. Meetings represent an opportunity to shake things up, keep everyone on their toes, and pull them out of the doldrums of the regular routine. Suddenly throwing everyone into a collaborative environment of equals often has an effect of stimulating out-of-the-box thinking and it can be surprising where the next great idea can come from.

How to Conduct a Meeting

Meetings, when properly directed, are a great way to get everyone on the same page, strategize, and brainstorm with the aim of moving the company in the right direction. If a meeting lacks the necessary focus, however, it can represent a colossal time-suck and a waste of everybody’s resources. It’s essential to have a clear picture of why a meeting is necessary and what needs to be accomplished. Below are a few “don’ts” and “dos” when it comes to taking the lead and conducting a great meeting.

DON’T conduct meetings every week for the sake of conducting a meeting – it can lead to so many annoying little problems like the anticipation of the dreaded weekly meeting, the didn’t-we-just-discuss-this-last-week feeling, or the incessant mulling over minutia. Not every decision in a company should be left to a democracy and it’s really only beneficial to call a meeting when one is deemed truly necessary.

DO include everyone - if you’ve decided that now is the time to have a meeting it should be because some kind of shift in direction is necessary. Sea changes can implicate the whole company and you might be surprised by who has big ideas. If wholesale changes are necessary, and you limit your company’s rebranding to the marketing team because you see it exclusively as a marketing issue, you’re effectively limiting your options moving forward.

DON’T make your meetings about one-on-ones – a meeting where everyone is gathered waiting for their turn to speak and explain what they do is likely to cause attendees to zone out. The key to a great meeting, and getting great ideas out, is to keep everyone engaged. Set aside time to have one-on-ones so that everyone can communicate what’s relevant about their particular position and then connect them with whoever they might need in other departments. Remember, meetings are about the big picture, not the details.

DO have a clear idea of what needs to be accomplished – a meeting’s focus can be lost so easily by getting bogged down in details. It’s imperative that, when leading a team meeting, you know exactly where your team is at and where they should be by the end. It’s possible to know the answers without having the means to articulate it, so clueing in to what’s being shared in a meeting should be what allows you to formulate an expression of what you know is already there.

DON’T get sidetracked by things that are irrelevant – although it’s important to keep things lighthearted and fun, maintaining control over the direction of the meeting is essential to make progress. Meetings can suffer from too many questions or too much fine-tuning. Ideas discussed at meetings should be global, not particular. It’s important not to just gloss over the details, but keep in mind that the grandeur of an issue should reflect the size and duration of a meeting.

DO allow everyone a chance to shine  - although you’re in control and you make the decisions, a meeting can never be about you. You can communicate company values in an email, but you get feedback in a meeting. Having an open mind, ceding the floor and jumping in only to direct traffic, should be the leader’s role in any meeting.

Summary

Meetings aren’t the kind of thing you want built into the framework of your company but it’s important to have systems in place that keep you in contact with the various branches of your business. A constant stream of meetings can devalue their importance and, as a team leader, it’s important to distinguish between when everyone needs to be brought together and when it’s time to meet one-on-one. Meetings represent an opportunity to shake things up, keep everyone on their toes, and pull them out of the doldrums of the regular routine. Suddenly throwing everyone into a collaborative environment of equals often has an effect of stimulating out-of-the-box thinking and it can be surprising where the next great idea can come from.

How to Make Mistakes Intelligently

In the world of business, a mistake is usually a risk that didn't turn out so well. On the other end, if you take a risk and it pays off you'll be considered a bold visionary. A compelling argument can be made that you'll learn more from your mistakes than your successes. In entrepreneurship, making mistakes is a better way to grow than just doing things safely all the time. Here's why making mistakes can benefit your business:

Getting over the fear factor.

Starting up a new business is filled with a long list of "known unknowns." Will you turn a profit? Will you be able to expand? Will your employees embrace your leadership style? Those types of questions are important to ask from a planning perspective but they should become fear based. You're going to make mistakes. Hopefully, they won't be debilitating from your business but worrying about what could go wrong might just stop you from effectively moving forward. Let go of the fear and embrace the mistake when it happens.

We learn more from failure.

You might not remember when you took your first steps but it's a safe bet you took plenty of falls as well. Did you give up? Of course not! You figured out how to balance yourself and what coordination means. Same thing when it came to learning how to ride a bike. A mistake shouldn't be looked upon as a failure but as a lesson. What went wrong and how can you avoid that in the future? Understanding the answer to that question is going to improve your business by leaps and bounds.

Mistakes make us smarter.

You're simply going to have to learn by doing. When a mistake happens you'll be learning more about your business and probably from a different perspective. This would apply to everything from filing your tax forms to shipping orders around the world. Always think of mistakes as your "learning curve" and you can't go wrong.

Big mistakes can lead to big business.

This comes back to the issue of risk taking. If you're truly striving for a huge success in your business then you're going to have to take a huge risk. As it happens, you might also be making a huge mistake. You can't let a mistake cause you to crumble. Look at the biography of any successful entrepreneur and you're sure to find a history of "striking out" before they hit it out of the ballpark.

Mistakes make for a better manager.

We've all had those moments when we've been smarter than our bosses. When you become the boss you want to get out in front of the occasional mistakes that will be made. Don't make finding someone to blame the primary focus. You really have to figure out "why" something went wrong. Was it a breakdown in communication? Was it not having the right information? Ultimately, a business' mistake will be your own. Accept responsibility and move on. Your staff will respect you for your strong leadership.  

Ten Leadership Skills Every Entrepreneur Must Have

Being the boss means you’re the leader of your company. On many levels, the success or failure of your new startup will depend on your leadership skills. If you’ve started a business then it’s a safe bet you have some level of leadership abilities to tap into, but there is always room for improvement.

Consider these top 10 leadership skills that all business leaders must have to be successful in their businesses.

1.      Strong Mission Statement: Why did you start this business? It can’t just be about making money for yourself. Your mission statement defines the purpose of your company and will help inform every decision you and your team will make.

 

2.      Strong Vision: Unlike the specifics of the mission statement, the vision for your business paints the big picture. It tells your employees where you want to take your business and how your staff members can support you.

 

3.      Tangible Goals: As a leader you need to set the “bar” for your staff. You can do this by establishing goals foryour business. Whether its daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly sales figures, there should be a target to shoot for. You might have to adjust these goals to meet the practicalities of your business but without them you could find your company floundering without purpose.

 

4.      Strong Team: The major responsibility of a team leader is to actually pick that team. You need to strike a balance between the prospective employees resume, their interview and your own instincts to build that cohesive team. Just know that a good leader also knows when to make changes. If an employee isn’t working out, it’s better to sever the ties and move on than dwell on a mistake.

 

5.      Know-how: You need to present an image of competency to your employees, investors and customer base. This doesn’t mean you need a PhD in the particular business you are setting up, but all of those folks will be turning to you for answers. If you don’t have an immediate answer, don’t fake it. Take the time to get it right.

 

6.      Solid Communication: Building on the well written mission statement, vision and goals you need to keep those linesof communication open. Don’t just say, “My door is always open.” Seek out your staff to get their input. Challenge them to come up with solutions or new ideas by fostering a productive and open channel of communication. Be the model of how you want your employees to communicate with each other.

 

7.      Relate To Your Staff: This doesn’t mean becoming everybody’s friend. Although it might evolve to that you need to keep the boundary lines well drawn. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t find ways to relate to your staff and visa versa. The perfect example is with any company function that can involve families. The great “equalizer” among any group of people are the common bonds shared by families.

 

8.      Positive Attitude: “There are no problems; only solutions.” Projecting a positive attitude is infectious. Your staff will be looking for you to set the tone. Make it a positive one.

 

9.      Provide Inspiration: Providing inspiration isn’t just about coming in early and leaving late. A leader will often remind his team what they are “fighting for.” That type of affirmation can help drive up productivity in any company.

 

10.  Roll Up Your Sleeves: Every once in awhile you should step out from behind your desk and get into the trenches with your staff. Let them see you’re working as hard as they are and you’ll build extremely high levels of loyalty.

Strengthen Your Business Leadership Team

It doesn’t matter what type of business you’re in, strong leadership is essential to determine success. If you’re fortunate enough to have a great team working with you on your business goals then providing the model for leadership will become your responsibility. There are many effective “tools” you can use to strengthen the bond between the team and encourage your employees to step up as leaders. Consider the following:

Give credit where credit is due

Everyone loves praise! Don’t hesitate to tell others that they are doing a good job and you should acknowledge your team’s efforts when appropriate. But you should also be fostering an atmosphere of contribution from other staff members, those who are in the background and who might not yet be a “star.” When you encourage the free flow of ideas then you might discover a hidden gem among your leadership team.

Support the families

If your team members have family obligations, you should honor those by offering support. Is it really going to hurt business by letting a dad go watch his son’s soccer game or letting a mom attend a parent/teacher conference? Probably not. However, when you support the importance of your staff’s family then you’re acknowledging why they’re all working on the same team: to provide for that family. That is going to promote stronger loyalty and leadership.

Delegate responsibilities

As the saying goes, “Some men are born to greatness and others have greatness thrust upon them.” Translation: a leader can be born or made. You won’t have a chance to help your team strengthen their leadership skills unless you provide them with the opportunity to put them to the test. A strong leader often leads from behind and allows their staff to take charge.

Mentor

You might have a handful of strong leaders already working on your team. If so, then encourage them to seek out protégés they can mentor. Leadership skills work best when they are shared. Think of this is an on the job leadership training program, just a less formal one.

Formal leadership training

Speaking of leadership training, you could solicit outside help to strengthen your leadership team. That help can come in the form of qualified leadership trainers. These trainers will assess the needs of your company and set up a series of workshops and training exercises for your staff to participate in. This could mean a weekend retreat or a day lone seminar. In either case, you might be amazed at what can be revealed when your staff is taken out of their “comfort zone” and challenged to expand their own leadership qualities.

Use incentives

You might think that a weekly pay check for a job well done is enough incentive. In today’s tough job market that might be true. However, you shouldn’t discount offering some form of incentives for your staff if they can meet certain goals. Even something as simple as a paid company lunch away from the office can get employees fired up and working stronger as a team. When that happens, leaders will rise to the top and you’ll be able to cultivate them for future assignments.

Small Business: How to Create a Good Team

In order for a small business to thrive and survive, productive teamwork is the key. No matter what type of business you are starting up or investing in, building a great team requires strong leadership on your part. It’s not just about hiring the most qualified individual. You have to consider the bigger picture of how those individuals on your staff will work together as a team. In other words, you can’t always put together a group of workers and hope they’ll “figure things out” on their own. Some personalities simply work better together than others. You need to stay on top of your team to see how those dynamics are playing out.

 Here are some helpful hints that can lead you towards building that effective team.

1)      Establish the Goals: What is your definition of success for your business? That should be the goal that everyone on the team is striving for. It can’t just be about “getting through the day” but about expanding and growing. If that means adding to your customer base or your product catalog then your team should be focused on those goals. You should also set obtainable benchmarks to track the progress of achieving those goals. It all comes down to keeping your team’s “eye on the prize.”

2)      Fix Problems Fast: There is no guarantee that your “dream team” is going to get along all the time. Before any conflicts crop up, you should establish the ground rules for how they are to be resolved. This might mean clearly defining the management structure and who on the team will handle complaints. If an issue can’t be resolved quickly, then as the boss you need to step in and get the problem fixed fast. You don’t want a disagreement to be blown out of proportion and cause a distraction to everyone.

3)      Include the Team: This seems like a no-brainer but it’s often easy for one or two staff members in a small business to dominate discussions or meetings. You should strive to be as inclusive as possible of all your team members. A simple approach is to turn a question back onto the team members. Ask someone who doesn’t always speak up how they might handle a particular situation. This will empower everyone to be a more active participant in the business. Nobody should be working “under the radar.”

4)      Reward Hard Work: There are many businesses that use bonuses as a way of inspiring staff members to fulfill their goals. While this is a proven method it might also set up some unwanted competition and create bad feelings among the staff. This is especially true if someone gets a bonus on the back of somebody else’s hard work. Try to find a reward which benefits the entire team like a dinner or happy hour celebration.

5)      Be the Boss: A strong leader takes in the opinion of those around him but ultimately has the final word. You need to establish that in the end you’ll have that final word in your business. This doesn’t mean micromanagement but taking on the major decisions. Often a staff at a small business develops into deep friendships that extend outside of work hours. However, as the boss you need to maintain a certain distance when it comes to those personal relationships. There is no reason why you can’t have fun with your team but always remember they will be looking up to you for leadership. Keep your relationships with your team professional.   

"Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?" Entrepreneurship Lessons from Steve Jobs

The retirement of Steve Jobs from day-to-day operations at Apple caused such a furor from the business community that the price of Apple stock dropped by 7%, losing a value of almost $17.5 billion dollars in one day. Jobs’ popularity stems from the fact that in spite of facing some stiff opposition in one of the most competitive industries, he led his company to become one of the most innovative and profitable companies in the world. Having started Apple in the late 70's, he was forced out by the board in 1984 and was asked to come back to turn it around in 1996. From then on, his creative vision and leadership single-handedly transformed the computer industry and changed how the world communicates.


Many consider him to be the embodiment of entrepreneurship and a great role model for businesspeople and entrepreneurs alike. He not only started and grew Apple, but also has done the same for other companies such as Pixar and Next Technologies, making him one of the most admired billionaires in the world. Here are some of the lessons that he's learned in starting and growing a business.


1) Follow your heart


"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."


Being an entrepreneur is a tough job! So be very sure that you are passionate about the business that you’ve started. Never forget that the person that you truly must make happy is yourself – as you will face a lot of challenges in your journey as an entrepreneur. And when you’re up late at night fixing problems, you know that deep inside of you, you don’t want to be doing anything else. Being an entrepreneur means believing in your ideas and having faith and most importantly, you must have faith in yourself. It is this faith that will draw others to you; because that’s the passion and vision others that will allow you to lead.


2) Make a positive impact or change the world


“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?”


Those words challenged former Pepsi executive John Scully when Jobs tried to recruit him into Apple. Steve Jobs was obsessed with creating technology that would change the way people interact with it and make it an integral part of their everyday lives. To achieve his vision, he strove to push the limits of technical creativity, coming up with groundbreaking products that raised the bar in design and function. It was his vision that has made Apple the leader in innovation and the envy of many CEOs. But what does that mean for you? Ask yourself - does your business have a higher mission towards the world and your clients? Do you strive to make a difference in the world through your services and products? Because in the end, trying to change the world is just good business.


3) Don't follow the herd, be unique.


“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”


Stand out from the crowd, because that is what’s going to get you noticed. Progress in all things are made by people who stand strong in their ideas, are not swayed by public opinions and passionately care on how their actions benefit the world around them. Being unique in business may be just what your brand needs ... and should communicate. However, just being different isn't what you want to achieve. Instead, you want to be distinctive -- in the things your customers and clients value most.


Jobs’ achievements don't lie just only with Apple. However, it has been his crowning glory and by taking an almost bankrupt company to being the most admired, envied and emulated company in the world has left a legacy that will be hard to replicate by those who follow after him.

Keeping a Handle on Your Business

Operating a business successfully has often been compared to a high-speed train. When it runs at peak performance, it arrives at its destination on time. However, if it sits unused in the station, or is not maintained properly, it will cease running well and ultimately break down and fail completely.

Studies have shown that more than half of large business failures result from poorly designed business strategies. Many business leaders have the drive and desire but fail to properly assess the market or their abilities. It is not uncommon for a thriving business to adopt a new idea on the assumption that their notoriety alone will make it happen. "Biting off more than one can chew" has led to the downfall of many business giants.

Another common, and sometimes fatal, error is operating without any accountability. Even the boss has to answer to the board. When decisions are accountable, it makes them open to review by others and allows other sets of eyes to detect possible flaws. The smallest of companies – even one-person operations – should consult with someone else on major decisions. After all, none of us is perfect.

Sometimes change is necessary. Companies that have dominated certain markets have to change with the times or market conditions if they want to maintain their position. Failure to adapt can be suicidal, as there is always someone waiting in the wings to pick up the slack.

Leadership is a 24/7 position. Your employees look up to you and receive their inspiration from the top. A strong leader motivates by example. Failure to convey positive attitudes and emotions can lead to the downfall of your business. Even if your business takes a downturn, you need to continue inspiring your employees to work together with you to overcome. If you appear downtrodden, you can't expect your team to pick you up. The ship will go down with its captain.

Keep a handle on your business by charting your goals and progress. By maintaining control of a situation, rather than it’s controlling you, your train will speed forward to its next destination.

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