|
|
| www.1001TopWords.com |
|
|
The Idol-Makers
The end of the television season in May included the usual array of cliffhangers on shows like "Alias," the departure of Noah Wylie from "ER" and the finale of the highly-rated "Everybody Loves Raymond" after 210 episodes. On the last day of "Sweeps," more than 29 million people tuned in to see the crowning of the fourth "American Idol." With a recording contract and the key to a private jet in hand, Carrie Underwood, a 22-year-old college student from Oklahoma, said her victory was "the best night of my life." Next week her first single debuts, most likely near the top of the charts. From there, she'll take her shot at stardom, hoping to match the multi-platinum album sales of the first "Idol" winner Kelly Clarkson and second-year runner-up Clay Aiken. In terms of total viewers, "American Idol" ranked first this season, and fans cast nearly 500 million votes during the competition. If your franchise business was like "American Idol," a celebrity panel and national television audience would soon be judging your employees "on stage." As an Idol-Maker, it is your role to give them the guidance they need to perform at their highest level, so you get the outcome you seek. Success Handler Action: If Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell called today and said they will be in town next month to review your employees, what steps would you need to take to get them ready for their big moment? Even if the phone doesn't ring, preparing your employees for being the best in their jobs will make your small business soar. After you finish reading this E-Newsletter, use these questions to identify your biggest employee training opportunities: ~ Who is having the most difficult time executing their jobs in the manner you would like? ~ What are some of the things that keep happening frequently without improvement? ~ Where are areas you find yourself saying, "If only someone would ________?" ~ When mistakes occur, which individuals struggle to take responsibility? ~ Why are some of you employees not achieving the growth you expected this year? "American Idol" had a big snafu this season when "pure human error" led to the wrong voting phone numbers appearing on the screen, and Fox had to throw out the results that night. While errors in your small business are not necessarily apparent to millions, they still impede your progress. Communicating the right way to do things and redirecting your employees' efforts when needed is essential to improving your results. Success Handler Action: Effective leadership begins in your recruiting and hiring, and continues through training and motivation. This means you have to regularly mold and polish your employees in order to prosper. Here are five ideas for turning them into outstanding performers: 1. Make sure your employees understand the vision you have for your small business. 2. Clarify your expectations, and how you will measure each person's role. 3. Act like a director?leading them back on track when they stray off script. 4. Use "The Oreo Cookie Approach" to feedback ? Compliment / Confront / Compliment. 5. Treat every day like an entertainer would: the joy is in the performance. Carrie Underwood is the survivor among more than 100,000 wannabes who auditioned for this season's "American Idol." The show is a cultural phenomenon that creates a celebrity and makes a lot of money for a lot of people. While your employees may never sing on national television or receive a million-dollar talent contract, if you dedicate time, energy and resources to helping them develop their skills and shoot for the stars, you will be the big winner. Copyright © 2005 by Success Handler, LLC. All rights reserved. The Coach, David Handler, is the founder of Success Handler, (http://www.successhandler.com), and specializes in helping small business leaders find clarity and take action. He understands the challenges of running a business, because he's been there ? as a small business owner, franchisee, franchisor, corporate leader and trainer. Much like sports coaches, his coaching will show you how to compete on a level playing field in your industry.
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Business Innovation ? the Value of Work Processes Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation. Why Do Managers Create Low Morale? Or Does My Bum Look Big In This? Why do managers create low morale as a product of their management and what can we do about it? Increase In-House Nursing Homes Collections The following nursing home collections report outlines 11 guidelines you can follow to increase the amount of in-house long term care collections your facility collects. Keeping Meetings On Track We all have been in meetings with certain people who get our blood pressure to rise or just make us feel what a waste of time. Here are some of those people and hints on how you can maintain keep the meeting on track without coming across as a dictator or inept leader. Making Your Workers Your Partners There is an inherent conflict between owners and managers of companies. The former want, for instance, to minimize costs - the latter to draw huge salaries as long as they are in power (who knows what will transpire tomorrow). For companies traded in the stock exchanges, the former wish to maximize the value of the stocks (short term), the latter might have a longer term view of things. In the USA, shareholders place emphasis on the appreciation of the stocks (the result of quarterly and annual profit figures). This leaves little room for technological innovation, investment in research and development and in infrastructure. The theory is that workers who are also own stocks will avoid these cancerous conflicts which, at times, bring companies to ruin and, in many cases, dilapidate them financially and technologically. Whether reality leaves up to theory, is an altogether different question to which we will dedicate a separate article. Selective Job Cuts Often Benefits Firm More Than Broad Layoffs Over Long Term It is difficult to pick up a newspaper or listen to a business news broadcast without being greeted with the announcement of another massive corporate layoff or cutback. The economy catches a chill and, as a result, the corporate world catches a profits "cold." Before long the pink slips begin to fly. We have come to accept this as the inevitable employment cycle. Is it any wonder that employees feel so little loyalty toward their employers? Dealing with Marginal Performers: The Therapeutic Approach --PREPARATION: The purpose of the therapeutic approach is to spark an employee toward improved performance through counseling. The manager's goal is to help the employee recognize the existence of a problem, accept the need for change, and formulate his or her own program for improvement. The manager should critically assess his or her own attitudes and opinions. It is important to try to eliminate all personal bias and prejudice or at least be aware of any such emotions no matter how little effect they seem to be having. For the most positive results, the manager should be noncritical or at least noncommittal toward the marginal performer. In addition, the interview should be conducted in private, without interruptions, and with adequate time. Forecasting Support Costs Did you know that maintenance accounts for 50% to 80% of the overall product cost? Well, it does! And while most project managers are fairly good at sizing new product features, many are terrible at estimating the effort required to support a product once it becomes generally available. As a result, maintenance projects are inadequately staffed, companies can't respond to customer requests in a timely manner, and products never reach payback. Identifying Candidates for Leadership A critical task in the succession planning process of any organization is identifying candidates. Traditionally, candidates have been identified based on past performance. While this seems logical, it is problematic in practice. Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Finding The Perfect Balance This article relates to the Work/Life Balance competency, which investigates how your staff feels with regard to the balance between work and personal life. It explores issues such as priority of family and hours on the job, also covered in this competency. Organizations that enjoy a high satisfaction level in this area will normally exhibit a low rate of absenteeism and experience higher employee retention. Evaluating this competency is helpful in understanding issues relating to a workforce that is commonly tardy or absent from work. Driving of work trucks Each time you or one of your work crews cruises down the road, people see the vehicle. It is logo'ed and that advertising is there to be noticed. If you cut some one off, believe me they will know who did it. They'll tell their friends and you'll be sorry. If you see a lady trying to pull out into bumper-to-bumper traffic, let her cut in. If you see a mom in her minivan with kids at a traffic signal, be courteous. Signal her with a pleasant hand motion to 'please go ahead of me.' Mouth the words also and as they pass salute her and wave at the kids or flash your head lights. You are such a nice guy or gal they'll think. With every one in such a hurry, it's refreshing to know the crews in your company vehicles still care. If you work in a big city with a population of 100,000 or more, your gesture will be remembered, recognized and appreciated even more. You see in a big city, you will be outside the norm. They will think you are from a far away city where people are still friendly. Project Management 101 Project management is a very important business concept because it is in place to ensure that projects are completed in a timely fashion as well as to the best of the company's ability. Project Management is basically the discipline of making goals and reaching those goals. Usually, the entire scope of project management is taken care of by an individual project manager. Entitlement Programs Kill Productivity In articles I've written over the years, I have used "laissez-faire," a term more frequently used to characterize governments than businesses, to describe a rather laid-back management style. When I use this term, I am referring to management personnel who put very little pressure on employees to achieve their full potential by pushing them toward peak performance levels. Business Innovation ? the Value of Structure Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation. Finding Proactive Solutions: A Key to Demonstrating Your Management Fitness In my book Talking Points: 25 Tips for Clear, Credible Communication, Tip #17 states: "Managers and professionals in positions of responsibility got there by finding solutions to problems. They didn't rely on someone else to come up with the remedy. They worked to find solutions proactively." Those of us in positions of responsibility can demonstrate our management fitness by looking for and adding a proactive step whenever we encounter potential problems. Adding that proactive step demonstrates our ability to take responsibility for the outcome of situations. Nothing speaks "management" more than this. Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Improving Workplace Safety This article relates to the Safety and Working Environment competency and explores how your employees feel with regard to their physical and environmental working conditions, the quality of their equipment and tools, and overall attention to safety within the workplace. Every organization is responsible for ensuring the health and safety of their employees. An unsafe working environment can lead to accidents, lawsuits, and missed work. Such incidents can result in significant costs to your organization. The questions included in this competency will investigate whether your staff is satisfied with the organization's facilities, whether they believe business is being conducted in a safe manner, and if the tools and equipment provided are adequate to successfully and safely complete their jobs. Marketing Miracle: Outsource Your Creative Services The current economy is causing most companies to tighten their belts. With limited staffing and a restricted budget, how do you continue to promote your business? The simple solution is the occasional or ongoing use of outside resources such as graphic designers, writers, webmasters, and other creative talent. Delegation - The Basic Steps To Reducing Your Workload And Creating A Successful Team If you have a task greater than you can handle on your own, then you need to delegate. Not a choice many of us choose to make, but one we can all learn. This article will take you through why delegation is so important and give you simple steps to take so that you communicate the vision, motivate your members and build them as individuals and as a successful team. Making a Decision to Outsource: Driving Factors Most executives view offshore outsourcing most of all as a source of cost reducing. The greatest savings are expected to come from lower labor cost and reduced project timelines. However offshore outsourcing also creates new challenges and expenses for the organization involved. Those may include vendor selection costs, legal costs, costs of transition and many others. That is why despite the evidence of possible major up-front cost savings many outsourcing vendors have yet to prove that they are able to provide positive ROI in a complex project. Setting Direction Within an Organization FINDING DIRECTION: An organization can't succeed without direction. Direction means having clear goals and guidelines; set goals and guidelines for staff to follow. When staff direction is needed, you must provide effective procedures for everyone to follow. Have guidelines and goals firmly set to keep the gray areas to the absolute minimum. It's up to you, to keep the departmental goals and that sense of direction so that it is not allowed to be buried beneath the workload.
|
| © Athifea Distribution LLC - 2013 |
