Community Loyalty

May 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Summary: We do not work or live in isolation, we are part of a community. By giving to our local community, we will be part of a win-win between the company and community.

We do not work or live in isolation by ourselves where our actions, business, or community are not affected by what we do.  We understand the importance of customer/client, employee and vendor loyalty. However, have you looked at what you can do to further your community and what it means to you.

The community where you have your business relies on you as you rely on it. The community needs you for employment opportunities, taxes, leadership, and involvement.  Employment opportunities and taxes are obvious however how can you help your community with leadership and involvement?

Photoxpress 686481 320x213 Community Loyalty

Courtesy of PhotoXpress

Here are some ideas:

  • Join the local Chamber of Commerce
  • Take a leadership role in the Chamber
  • Volunteer at a local non-profit
  • Donate to a local non-profit
  • Encourage your employees to do the same

The community around you also gives back to you by providing qualified employees, a business friendly environment, publicity, recognition and a place to call yours.  By utilizing many of the same ways you give to the community – the community will give back. You and/or your company will be mentioned in publications, news releases and networking. The non-profits will recognize your hard work, efforts and donations.

Can you see the win-win?

Of course – here’s the tough question.  How do find the time? I agree its not easy as you are consumed by your work and family. Take a realistic look at your calendar – can you spare an hour or two each week? That’s all it takes!

Personally I find that having set times each week where I volunteer helps me. Everyone knows where I am at that time and it doesn’t infer with my work. I am also involved in my local chamber where I lead a group of small business owners each month. Again, same date and time each month allows for control of my calendar and assignments.  The actual sacrifice in time in minimal and the rewards are great.

As a believer in what you put out into the world is what you get in return (you may call it Karma, Golden Rule, etc.) I know that by giving to my community it has given back to me ten fold. Not only in business, at a deeper level and has made me a better person.

How do you earn community loyalty?

Filed Under: Authentic Leadership Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Are you promoting Client Loyalty?

May 8, 2012 By 2 Comments

Summary:  Are you keeping your clients loyal? How? Here are a few tips.

You look at the title of this post and say “yes, of course”! I know you are – you are surpassing expectations with each order or project. Wonderful, what are you doing to bring them back? Are they coming back? Are they referring others to you? Are you marketing efforts solely focused on getting new customers?

clients 320x226 Are you promoting Client Loyalty?

Courtesy of PhotoXpress

Let me explain where this comes from. I don’t know if you have the same reaction or not – but you see commercials with special offers for “new customers only”. You have been a customer for many years (yes, this is loyalty) but what is your incentive to “stay” or “save” with your current provider. Do you also get frustrated? I do. I feel like it’s a slap in the face that as a long-standing customer I don’t get any “perks”.

Are you unintentionally doing the same in your business? What are you doing to bring back your clients over and over again. Here are a few tips:

Going Above and Beyond.  I know, you are doing this already. You and your company are giving your all each day to each client. I suggest taking it one step further. If you see a need your client has but hasn’t asked for yet – give it to them (in a way that makes sense for your business). think about the last time someone gave you something unexpected but needed – my guess is you keep going back to them and let others know.

Keep in touch. Your clients may not require your products or services each day. That’s ok. Find a way to keep in touch so you don’t become forgotten.  How? A phone call (with no sales attached), email, hand written note, surveys, tips, or a newsletter. Find what works best for you and your clients. Don’t become the adage, “Out of Sight, Out of Mind”.

Ask. Ask your clients where they are needing extra help in their business and help or guide them to who can help. Refer your clients to others who may need their services. Show an interest in their business beyond what you provide. Also, don’t be shy ask them for referrals as well.

These are just a few suggestions, there are many more. What are you doing to keep your clients loyal?

 

Filed Under: Authentic Leadership, Goals Tagged With: , ,

Vendor, Supplier or Partner

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Summary: You may consider them a vendor or supplier. Treat them as a partner and how does your business change?

As discussed in The Leadership Loyalty Factor, there are four areas of loyalty you need in your company to experience continued success.

  • Client
  • Vendor/Supplier
  • Employee
  • Community
partner 320x295 Vendor, Supplier or Partner

Photo Courtesy of PhotoXpress

To continue on this path, we will next look at Vendor/Supplier Loyalty.  These are the people/businesses you rely on to assist you serve your clients, employees or community. I would go so far to say that you should consider them a partner – while they may not have direct financial interest in your company, they have an interest.  Both of you rely on each other to be successful.

For example:

  • You need your printer so provide you with high quality business cards so may inform others of your business.  Your printer needs you to stay in business, so you will order more business cards.
  • You need your payroll company to keep providing the service of payroll so you can pay your employees. Your payroll company needs you to work with you so you remain a loyal client, keep doing business with them and refer them to others.
  • You need the community where your business is located to thrive and attract more residents as this is your greatest source for employees and clients.  Your community needs you to be active and profitable in order to attract other businesses and people to the area.

We don’t work in isolation, we need others to be successful. 

Take another point of view – don’t consider your vendors or supplies as just a vendor or supplier. Think of them as a partner in your success. When you treat them as a partner – how would you do business differently with them? How would your conversation change? Bring them into new projects sooner – would you have a higher success rate?

Try it and share your experience below.

Filed Under: Authentic Leadership Tagged With: , , , ,

Employee Loyalty

April 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Summary:  You rely on your employees to grow your business, to keep moving forward you need to gain their loyalty.

It goes without saying, you depend on your employees to get the work done. They are the heart of your operation. Your clients depend on them to receive a product or service. Your people rely on each other to get the job done. Because you have employees you have grown your company to what it is today and hope to grow it further in the future.

In order for your employees to continue to provide great service to your clients, to each other, and to you – you will need their loyalty. You need their dedication to your vision, mission, and goals.

The philosophy sounds easy enough…how to implement is the real question.

Loyalty needs to be earned through trust and respect. You get this by managing with integrity, being yourself, and communicating.

Photoxpress 2443470 320x214 Employee Loyalty

Photo courtesy of PhotoXpress

Integrity. At it’s base you need to do two things. Keep your word and do what’s right. Essentially as you know, if you say you are going to do something – do it. Don’t make excuses later as to why it wasn’t done. They will remember and lose your trust. As you know, doing what’s right all the time can be difficult but it will earn you their trust and respect. If you falter, it’s ok, just explain why.

Be Yourself. I know this sounds cliche but many times when we try to be a leader, we try to emulate someone else’s style.  You can learn from others but do it your way. If you are loud and boisterous – be loud and boisterous. If you are quieter and thoughtful – be just that.

Communicating.  This can be the toughest of the three. Why? You aren’t sure what to communicate, what is appropriate to communicate and when, and lastly is there such a thing as over-communicating?  Then there is individual vs. group communication. If this is new for you or something you are not totally comfortable with yet, take it slow. Focus on one person at a time or one department at a time then move onto another one. Do what feels right for you, but do it.

Integrate these little by little on a daily basis until it feels natural and you can’t imagine leading your company and people any other way.

How do you create leadership amongst your people?

 

 

Filed Under: Authentic Leadership, Employee Communication Tagged With: , , , ,

The Leadership Loyalty Factor

April 10, 2012 By 1 Comment

Summary: What makes a business successful? Loyalty in four areas: clients, employees, partners and community.

The more I talk to people about their business, what works and what doesn’t, it is becoming clearer what makes a business successful beyond its product or service.

Your product or service will attract clients to your business as you are answering a need. The question then becomes what keeps the business coming and what creates a successful business. Taking a step back and looking at the big picture, the answer I have found is “Loyalty”.

Here’s the dictionary definition (Merriam-Webster):

“the quality or state or an instance of being unswerving in allegiance”

Sounds fantastic right! What does this mean in business? You need to create loyalty in four areas of your business to be successful.

loyalty The Leadership Loyalty Factor

Clients. By gaining client/customer loyalty you will not only have a steady flow of business you will also get a steady flow of referrals. Your clients will become part of your sales team as they speak highly about your business and recommend your service/products to others.

Employees. These are the people taking care of your clients both internally and externally. The internal clients are the other departments or people who need to work together or in succession to achieve client satisfaction (external client). It has been proven through various studies – employees leave managers not companies. Be a good leader to your people and watch your business grow.

Partners. Or you may call them vendors or supplies. Why partners? If you work with them as partners you will be able to achieve more. They are providing a component to your business that is needed. Instead of having them be someone who you only ask for price reductions or extra services – have them as part of your offering.  They will help you and you will be helping them.

Community. Be of service to the community you live and do business in. Whether this is volunteering time or money – building a healthy and growing community around you will help  you in so many ways. It can be better employees, better clients, more attractive living area, or become well known for your service.  All this assists you as a person and as a business owner.

This is just a brief overview of how the four areas of loyalty will help your business.  Want to learn more? Email me (andrea@focushr.biz) to set up a complimentary session to discuss your goals for your business and how loyalty will get you there.

How has loyalty helped your business?

Filed Under: Authentic Leadership, Employee Satisfaction Tagged With: , , , ,

Are you creating doubt?

April 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Summary: Does it appear your people don’t have confidence in you? Are you creating it unintentionally? Remove the doubt words from your vocabulary.

For people to follow your lead, confidence is key. People want a leader who is clear in direction and follows through. Want to be less effective? Create doubt.  Does it seem that your people don’t have the confidence in you?  You may be creating doubt unintentionally with your words.

doubt 320x320 Are you creating doubt?

Image courtesy of PhotoXpress

Are you using these words?

  • if
  • maybe
  • hopefully
  • should
  • try

I’m sure you can come up with may more. What all these words have in common is doubt or lack of certainty. Read these two sentences and see which one inspires confidence.

  • We should try this and maybe our customers will respond.
  • We will do this and get a positive response from our customers.

Which sentence will gain more support from your people? Which one gives YOU the confidence that it will work out? It’s important you show confidence at all times.  When you think about the people who you consider to be great leaders, did they use doubt words. Martin Luther King did not say “I think I have a dream” or John F. Kennedy did not say “You may want to consider what you can do for your country”. Of course not, their confidence was a call to action!

Ready to make a difference?

To get started take small steps.  Instead of saying “hopefully” say “It will”.  Substitute one doubt word for confidence. Do it at least once a day if not at least once in every conversation.

Ready for a bigger step? Before you hit send on an email, reread it and if you find words that may cause doubt change it. It will take time as you won’t be able to write and send. The time it takes to draft a  more confident message will pay for itself in the outcome.

Remember the old adage ”it’s not what you say, but how you say it”. Say it confidently and others will follow.

Share your stories below.

Filed Under: Authentic Leadership Tagged With: , , ,

Is a bad apple spoiling the bunch?

March 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Summary:  One person with a negative attitude in your business can infect everyone. Tips on what to do about it.

The one aspect of human behavior that still confuses me is how infectious negative behavior is compared to positive.  Why is it that rumors, bad behavior or criticism can spread throughout a company at lightning speed whereas compliments, awards or great service can take what feels like forever to get around? This holds true whether there are a couple employees or several hundred.

 apple 320x199 Is a bad apple spoiling the bunch?

Photo Courtesy of PhotoXpress

Why should you be concerned about this? A bad apple will spoil the bunch. If you have that one person who is negative, thinks the company is run poorly or is convinced they know it all – watch how it travels and infects the others around them.  If you have this person, you know exactly who I am talking about.

The question becomes how to deal with it. Here are a few options:

Let them know. Sometimes your Negative Nelly has no idea the impact they have on others. Sit them down and explain how they are affecting the rest of team. Let the know they have limited time to turn this around.

Talk. When your Negative Nelly knows exactly what they are doing and almost seem intent on undermining your authority/business – you will have a different talk. This time it will be about how if they don’t change their attitude – they will be changing jobs. It sounds harsh and it is – but not as bad as what they are doing. Explain the behavior cannot be tolerated.

Let them go. If their negativity has been discussed and there are no changes, you are left with no choice. This negative attitude/behavior will cost you more than their attitude – others will become infected, your clients will be affected and so will your business.

It’s always difficult dealing with a bad apple as you may not be sure to what extent they will go. As difficult as it may, confronting them on their behavior is the only option if you want to see change.

How have you dealt with your bad apple?

Filed Under: Authentic Leadership, Employee Satisfaction Tagged With: , ,

It’s All in the Family

March 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Summary: You may be thinking of how you pass along your business to family. Before making any moves – create your plan.

In our business, one of the thoughts that may enter our mind is “Who will take over my business/clients when I retire?” or “Who can help me grow my business?”  One of the answers you may come up with is “family!” After all they know you, know the business and wouldn’t they love to take over!

duck family 320x213 Its All in the Family

Courtesy of PhotoExpress

This sounds great doesn’t it – get everyone involved. It is a good idea and in order for it to succeed – you will need a plan. Some people call it a succession plan (as in, who will succeed you) and others will call it an exit plan (as in, how are you going to walk out the door and not look back). Call it either one, you will notice they both contain the word “plan” so  you cannot just hand over the keys to a family member.

What to consider in the plan:

Training. How will they learn about the business itself? I am an advocate of being in and responsible for each position in the company. Depending on who this is, will determine how long they need to spend in each position.

Knowledge. This is business and industry knowledge. How will they learn about running a business and keep tabs on what is occurring in the industry. If a person comes from outside of the industry, this may take a while.

Experience. Or you can call this transition time. How will they gain the hands-on experience but still have you around for support and back-up.

Investment. This can be the most sensitive topic – will they need to buy into the business or earn “sweat equity” or a variation. Deal with this up front to avoid having different expectations. You don’t want a family broken up over this.

Formalize it. Yes its family and right now both sides trust each other. Keep it that way, formalize it in writing. This way down the road there is no “I thought you said….” or “My intention was….”. This is a serious subject and should be treated as such.

This may look like a lot of work now but those years down road when you are planning on walking out that door – not only will you feel confident you have left your company, clients, and employees in good hands…you will be proud of the legacy you were able to pass onto your family.

 

Filed Under: Authentic Leadership, Goals Tagged With: , ,

There is still hope

March 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Summary:  Do you notice that employees don’t have the skills or abilities to success within the first 30 days? Do you say “There is still hope”? Stop making excuses.

How many times have you found yourself saying “I will give it one more chance” to an employee who in your mind you know will not work out. I come across this often, however the conversation usually is centered around unemployment insurance rates. For example: I need to let this person go but I don’t want my unemployment insurance rate to go up any more or How can I avoid more in unemployment insurance? This is understandable as with the economic downtown which started in 2008, companies have been paying higher unemployment rates. Instead of getting into the unemployment insurance question, I approach this from another angle.

When you look back at employees who aren’t working out – did you see signs within their first 30 days?

danger sign 320x226 There is still hope

I know, I know – hindsight is always 20/20. Yes it is, but it also brings up a valuable point. If you saw the signs within the first month why did you keep working with the employee?

What I usually here is “there is still hope” I can turn them around. You have become too nice. Now, don’t take me the wrong way. I am not advocating you fire people for not being 100% within the first 30 days. Most position require more than 30 days of training before people are at 100%. I am asking you to review signs, hints, behaviors, errors, questions, etc. they give you an indication they will not work out.

Yes there is hope for the person who is willing, learning, trying and doing their best. There is not hope for the person who constantly makes excuses, doesn’t recognize their errors, or blames everyone else for their problems.

No one wants to put people out of work which makes this hard. My challenge to you, find the qualities that will help or hurt an employee within the first 30 days. You are not only doing yourself a favor but the employee as well. After all, they are not a fit for you or your company and they will be miserable.

Learn how to recruit the best for your business every time

Filed Under: Authentic Leadership, Employee Satisfaction Tagged With: , ,

Too Many Chefs in the Kitchen

February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Summary: When there is more than one person in charge, ensure you are providing a unified front.

Do people in your business have to report to more than one person?

Is your business based on a partnership – where maybe both of you don’t always agree?

Are you family operated?

These three scenarios can lead to confusion amongst your people.  In an ideal situation those at the top always agree on how to run the day-to-day business and have a common understanding of the strategy. Yes in an ideal situation. You have been in business long enough to know that “ideal” is rare.

food 320x213 Too Many Chefs in the Kitchen

Picture a kitchen where you have two or three chefs, when each is giving their own dish to prepare a great meal is had by all. However have them preparing the same dish together with each adding in their own ingredients without communicating — well the outcome most likely will not be edible.

You may not work in a kitchen but the same results will happen when leaders don’t focus on their dish but choose to contribute to the other dishes without communication. Your business, like a kitchen, will rely on communication within the leadership. The leaders of the organization need to work out differences in private before speaking to the staff.

Having this debate in front of other people can only lead to disaster.  Most importantly if you are not showing a unified front, people will get uneasy and wonder how the business can run in two different directions.

Call the family, partners and leadership together and create a plan everyone can follow.  Strategy must be reached by consensus with all involved moving in the same direction. Day-to-day operations will be different. Put one person in charge of operations and let them run with it – if you don’t agree with how they are handling a situation, speak to them directly do not get others involved. Each leader must focus on their specialty.

Essentially this follows the Golden Rule of leadership – Praise in Public, Criticize in Private. Just because many of you are at the top, the rules don’t change.

How have you handled partner, leadership or family differences with your staff?

Filed Under: Authentic Leadership, Employee Communication, Employee Satisfaction Tagged With: , , ,
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