Becoming A Conscious Leader

Friday 11 January, 2013

by Jane Mara

The conscious leader is one who inspires their people to adapt to change readily, embracing uncertainty, whilst having a feeling of security and centeredness in the direction the leader is adopting. If we are to succeed in this time of rapid change, we must address and re-balance our reliance on the logical analytical thinking styles that are so prevalent in business today.

At their heart, all organisations must be responsible for adopting a deeper understanding of what motivates people to succeed and to grow. Many organisations focus on improving effectiveness in times of change by changing processes or procedures, not considering the human beings that are implementing the changes. Clearly this way of thinking is not working! Albert Einstein famously said: "we cannot solve the problems with the same level of thinking that created them".
 We need to deliver strategies that allow individuals within organisations to experience greater authenticity and a richer more fulfilling professional and personal experience.
Business leaders are challenged by conflicting goals and the need to deliver shareholder value over the long term in climates where once buoyant businesses are suffering from wavering global credit cycles, fueling or lowering demand. In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, an organisation's culture defined as "the way in which we do things around here" has become a key determinant to attracting and retaining the best people into the business.
In a world where it is possible to work 24/7, with increasing pressure on our relationships, our social capital suffers and diminishes. People are seeking to add greater meaning in their lives, wanting to derive increased satisfaction and meaning from their work. Integration of who we are as human beings with our professional self is critical to leveraging organisational performance and lifting personal satisfaction levels.
Neuro-science is increasing our knowledge of how the human brain functions, including how we make decisions, the effect of our emotional states, our biological functioning and how our thinking affects individual performance.  Positive psychology informs us that ‘happier' people are less likely to suffer from stress - related conditions and will experience greater satisfaction at work, consistently.
We know that decision-making is not solely rational!  It is influenced by both the context of the decision and individual emotional states. 90% of our awareness is unconscious. The unconscious mind drives our behaviors, which are a result of values, beliefs, education, environment, past experience, societal norms which are then filtered by our view of the world in which we live.
It is important to realise that these interpretations are processed by a different part of the brain, the limbic system, where feelings and emotional memories lie. The limbic (feeling) part of the brain, is the part that is in charge of interpretations, conclusions and assumptions and is much faster than the thinking, reasoning part of the brain, the frontal cortex. The feeling part of the brain is very fast and fuel efficient and can easily (and often does) over-ride the logical brain.
When we ask people to change direction or adopt a new process, we are communicating with the limbic part of the brain. If the change is entirely contrary to what has occurred previously, the first response may be to react emotionally, often with fear. Fear, stress and anxiety affect our capacity to make sound decisions and to access our innate intuitive wisdom.
When we are stressed, we engage with our ancient or so called ‘caveman' brain. Our pre-frontal cortex, the source of our decision-making cuts out, leaving us stranded and responding to our primitive brain, the part of our brain that dictates whether we flee from a predator or stand and fight! 
 This primitive brain served us well when the tigers were chasing us; today the tigers come in different guises. When uncertainty and complexity are the norm, with too much or too little information, you default to the primitive part of the brain. The good news is that we now know that the brain is changed by every new experience and that the brain does not lose functionality with age. Learning new experiences changes the brain and keeps it fit! 
The ability to recognise and manage our own and other peoples' emotional states is  mandatory. This self understanding can be learnt easily and positively impacts on problem solving, decision-making, innovation and creativity, ultimately leading to a significantly improved bottom line. Recognition and acceptance of their own unique capabilities allows people to perform at their highest potential and to increase the organisation's profitability.
Having intra-personal intelligence is the ability to understand oneself fully and to be able to use this capacity to operate effectively in the world. If we understand our essential human-ness, we can as a consequence understand other people and learn to become more effective leaders and managers.
Seven strategies to develop intra-personal intelligence:

1.  Listen actively to other people! Learn to recognise what is said beneath the surface - listen for tonality and consistency of the content being communicated, whether spoken or written. Developing active listening skills provide clues to the true meaning of the communication.
   
2.  Listen to yourself! Is your inner dialogue one of criticism, blame and guilt? Do you scare yourself with your thinking? Or is your inner dialogue one that supports your goals and objectives? Developing self awareness of our internal dialogue provides a platform to have more positive thinking.
   
3.  Schedule active relaxation and stress reduction as a daily priority. You will have greater clarity and access to higher levels of creativity and intuition with this one step.
   
4.  Delete the words: can't, don't and should from your vocabulary! All of these terms when added into a sentence create blame about a situation or person. Adopt personal responsibility for what has occurred.
   
5.  Learn to be present in every situation - whether that is in a meeting or a conversation with another person- be aware of where you are, not where you are not! Too often we live in the past or the future taking little notice of present time which is the only time we have.
   
6.  Listen to your intuition - senior executives rely more on their intuition as they progress up the corporate ladder. Your intuition is a reliable ally particularly in situations of rapid change where complexity and ambiguity exist.
   
7.  Slow down - do you react or respond in a stressful situation? Reaction is fiery, uncontrolled, response is more measured. 

Source:ceoonline.com

How Status Quo Bias Can Kill Innovation

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 By Jeffrey Baumgartner

Status quo bias is a proven cognitive bias that exists in all normal people. Innovation, especially breakthrough innovation, requires veering from the status quo. As a result, the average managers is all too likely not to approve a highly innovative idea, not because of any intrinsic flaw in the idea, but because the idea would require change. You need to work around this bias if you truly want your company to innovate.

Published: March 26, 2013 | 0 Comments and 24 Reactions
In: Organization & Culture

Status quo bias is an irrational desire that all normal humans have. It is a desire to keep things pretty much as they are; to avoid changing things. It is irrational in the sense that the bias exists even when there is no evidence that keeping things the same is a better outcome than change. Nevertheless, substantial psychological research has empirically demonstrated that status quo bias is commonplace among us humans.
This is not a good thing for innovation which inevitably involves change. Moreover, it may explain why so many organizations find it easy to generate lots of ideas, but difficult to put the more creative ideas into practice (in other words, to innovate): the average human manager when faced with approving an idea that will result in significant change in operations is all too likely to find reasons not to approve the idea. The manager faced with a choice of several ideas ranging from incremental improvement to significant change is more likely to choose incremental improvement. It’s not her fault. It’s at least partly the result of status quo bias
Status quo bias may also explain why some companies innovate constantly, while others struggle to maintain a process of continual improvement. In companies where innovation is the norm, it becomes the status quo — and not innovating is something to be avoided!

With dozens, hundreds or even thousands of ideas to choose from, managers can select ideas that do not require substantial change.

I believe status quo bias is one reason why brainstorms and crowdsourcing initiatives seldom result in notable innovation. With dozens, hundreds or even thousands of ideas to choose from, managers can select ideas that do not require substantial change. When voting is available in these ideation tools, incremental improvement ideas tend to receive the most votes — allowing managers to reinforce the legitimacy of their decisions as popular. However, the votes and decisions in such a scenario are more likely to be the result of status quo bias than of any analysis of creativity or innovation potential!
This is not to say that status quo bias affects every managers’ decisions nor every brainstorm. Nevertheless, it is doubtless a negative factor in any innovation program. And if you are overseeing an innovation program, you should be aware of the effect this cognitive bias and the negative effect it may be having.

What Can You Do About It?

The first thing you can do is be aware that status quo bias exists and is a part of human nature. It may be irrational, but it exists in all sane people: even you and me. And you must use this knowledge in your innovation process.
If you are trying to encourage true innovation in your company or business unit, consider establishing a permanent evaluation criteria of “Does this idea veer significantly from the status quo?” and only implement ideas where the answer is “yes”. If you use some kind of stage gate or automated process for reviewing ideas. Be sure that they system gives points to ideas that veer from the status quo, rather than the other way around.
On the other hand, if you are trying to sell a potential breakthrough innovation that will result in change, bear in mind that status quo bias is one of the challenges you will face. It is something you should address when selling the idea. For instance, you might demonstrate that although it may seem that the idea will cause great internal disruption, in fact the change will not be that great and most people will continue working as usual. Such reassurance may help people, who need convincing, to overcome their status quo bias.
Most importantly, put yourself in your colleagues’ shoes. Think about how you would feel if a colleague was trying to convince you of the value of an idea that would potentially disrupt the way you work and force you to make changes in your daily routine not so much because you chose to make those changes, but because the implementation of a new idea would force that change. Most of us would not like that, no matter how compelling the idea might seem.
Where possible, draw up implementation plans that limit operational disruption — at least initially.
You also need to be aware of status quo bias in yourself. If you are responsible for approving ideas, be sure you are not rejecting ideas that would result in change, simply because you don’t want the change. One way to do this is to apply strict criteria to idea selection. Also, if you feel compelled to reject an idea that would result in operational change, analyse your decision carefully. Any idea that involves operational change is surely creative. Whether it is a potential innovation is a trickier question.



Source:http://www.innovationmanagement.se

5 Questions For Sustaining Success

Tuesday 26 March, 2013

by Aubrey Warren

Often, the pressure of what's in front of us right now obscures the progress made, the lessons learned, the successes earned, and the opportunities ahead. The immediate and urgent too easily pushes these things aside unless we deliberately pause to think intentionally about progress, lessons and possibilities. This is why reflection, though often neglected, is so valuable to sustaining our success - individually and collectively.

For this reason ask yourself the following five questions:

1. What's becoming clearer?
   
   Clarity helps us focus and helps us focus others. But clarity isn't a given, and we often have to start things with a necessarily fuzzy vision. Over time, things become clearer - if you are paying attention. Old 'realities' alter and new directions emerge. It's true that we act our way into learning - but the learning requires that we make the effort to reflect on our actions and their results.
   
2. What question needs resolving?
   
   Emerging clarity notwithstanding, some questions remain and new ones emerge as projects unfold, as teams mature and as priorities shift. Questions are an essential part of effective leadership and learning - but they need to be asked to have effect. Questions direct our attention and focus our thinking - often in new and revealing ways that open up new possibilities.
   
3. What do you have the most energy for?
   
   It's common to feel a bit weary, especially when business is challenging, cutbacks are occurring or deadlines are looming. As the months go by, we accumulate more and more things to do. It can get a bit overwhelming.
   
   The reality is that none of us has limitless energy. So it's wise to channel your energies into the high value, high return and high importance activities you're responsible for. Again, some brief reflection can help you clarify your priorities and determine where and how best to apply your energy. To help renew your efforts and reinvigorate your energy - consider leadership writer John Maxwell's advice to work through the 3Rs.
   
   1. What's required of me
      
   2. What gives the highest return
      
   3. What's gives the highest reward?
      
4. What action do you need to take?
   
   One thing that many people discover along life's path is that it's easy for you to 'get in your own way' - to unwittingly hold yourself back through your own behaviours. For example, people in leadership roles may limit their effectiveness by focusing too much on their own efforts and achievement, and not enough on the achievements and development of those they lead. You can easily hold yourself back by ignoring, avoiding or simply not being aware of the most important actions you need to take.
   
   Denial is natural, confronting reality is harsh, but necessary. Sometimes the 'wake up call' comes via feedback or a setback. Sometimes it can come from an insight gained from intentional conversation or a learning experience. The key is your response: What action do you take as a result of the insight gained? What's the high value, high importance action you need to take to move forward?
   
5. What advice do you need to give yourself?
   
   The final question about the advice you need to give yourself can be a revealing and liberating reflection. Many talented, successful people have confronted this question. Their reactions broadly fall into two categories:
   
   
   1. "I instantly knew what it was"
      
   2. "That's a really hard question"

But the answers tend to be roughly the same in nature: an acknowledgement that they know and have known, but have been avoiding or ignoring something not too complicated but fundamental. It might be that "I need to change my job", "I need to back myself", "I need to get fit", "I need to have that conversation", "I need to get over it", or "I need to just get on with it" ... but it's usually not too complicated, and sometimes obvious to people close to them.

While these questions are useful in an immediate planning or development context, they can also be of value in a wider context for reinforcing and sustaining success. Use these five questions to reflect on your progress made and lessons learned.


Source:ceonline.com

How to Emerge from Crisis by Knowing your Innovation Growth Opportunities & Competitors’ Strengths

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Companies sometimes behave like the ostrich with their head in the ground while others emerge from the crisis like a phoenix. Not knowing with which new products or services your company really earns money is a bit like the ostrich. However there are effective means to gain transparency on innovation spending without too much effort. These tools also allow a comparison with your competitors to understand what they are doing differently in their approach to successfully managing their innovation activities. Finally, they help companies which currently struggle with the economic situation to become more effective and efficient in their innovation management.

Published: February 28, 2013 | Comment
In: Strategies, Support for SMEs

Written by IMP³rove Academy

This article is suggested for: Beginners Intermediate Advanced Large Organizations Small/Med Organizations

Learn about your company’s innovation management performance

Your first question as the manager is what is part of a state-of-the-art innovation management and how can I compare my company’s innovation management performance with others before I can start improving it. You will think of the innovation process that takes you from the idea to the new product, new service or to a new process or business model. But you also need to ask yourself what are the criteria for selecting the right ideas. Here a clear strategy will help you focus on the market needs and technology trends while at the same time taking your company’s own core capabilities and resources into account.

Overall the innovation results are what count and where most of the companies have little transparency on.

You might have already developed a culture that fosters innovation and leverages the wide array of innovation enabling factors such as project management, innovation controlling or better IT support. Overall the innovation results are what count and where most of the companies have little transparency on. Imagine, you would have insight in the contribution of your innovation management to growth in sales and in profit.  This will allow you to more efficiently and effectively allocate your resources and out-perform your competitors.

Figure 1: The “A.T. Kearney House of Innovation”

There are strong links between the various dimensions of the “A.T. Kearney House of Innovation”. The targets set by the innovation strategy need to be translated by the innovation organization and culture into action that then need to be managed along the entire innovation life-cycle – from the first idea to the successful launch of the innovation and its continuous improvement.

Develop your own “House of Innovation” as key asset to re-gain competitiveness

Your own innovation strategy is unique.

For each company, the “House of innovation” has the same structure however the design and content are different. Your own innovation strategy is unique. It is based on your ambition to grow by innovation and on your willingness to take risk. Your innovation strategy should not only be known by yourself as the manager but also by your team and staff members. They need to understand how they can leverage innovation as key driver for profitable growth: for which new markets or technologies you want to identify new ideas? To what extent are the new offerings are expected to contribute to your company’s growth? etc.
The innovation strategy should be the compass for your organization and therefore guiding your idea management, and setting the objectives for your innovation project management. If you are ambitious and willing to take more risk, you will ask for ideas that lead to more radical innovation as they will have a high growth potential.  This also requires a culture that supports risk-taking and risk-sharing. Such organizations take learning from failure as essential part of their innovation processes yet they focus on the business impact of potential new products, services or business models.  Therefore, they clearly define targets for their innovation projects regarding budget, time, resources and expected quality. They also monitor the time to market and the time it takes the innovative offering to reach the break-even point.
Innovation controlling as a key enabling factor for innovation then monitors the progress of the innovation project as well as the compliance with the defined target from launch of the innovation project to the successful introduction to the market and the contribution to revenues and profit.
If you don’t know what your innovation spending is, you will not know what the contribution of that innovation is to your profitable growth. You can check how transparent and effective the innovation spending is in your company by asking the following questions:

• How much do we invest in technology and market trend analyses?
• How much does our idea management cost?
• How much do we invest in the development of new offerings?
• How much do we invest in the marketing and sales of our innovative products, services or business models?
• What is the revenue from our new offerings or the savings from our new processes?

If you are one of the few companies that have full transparency on all these issues, you are one of the very few that are currently not on a blind flight. Creating more transparency will show you the levers for more effective and efficient innovation management. In this context you would like to know how other companies in your industry are dealing with innovation management  – an innovation management benchmarking would be most desirable.

Benefit from systematic innovation management benchmarking

A comprehensive innovation management benchmarking is just a mouse click away. This benchmarking is ample, caters to different industry sectors, ages and sizes, and it provides you with a thorough assessment of your own innovation management performance in comparison with those of your competitors along the dimensions of your “House of Innovation”. What I have just described is the IMP³rove Assessment. already successfully applied by almost 3,500 companies.
Therefore, you are invited to take your own IMP³rove Assessment to quickly find out where your innovation management needs improvement. We strongly recommend involving a trained IMP³rove Guide who will be able to support you in the preparation for the IMP³rove Assessment and can then also can give you valuable hints on what measures will create a significant impact on your innovation results and your overall innovation capabilities and competitiveness. The IMP³rove Assessment is part of a “full-service” approach to better innovation management.

Figure 2: IMP³rove Approach from online innovation management assessment to improved innovation management performance

Concrete benefits from the IMP³rove Approach

By following the IMP³rove Approach you can:

• Improve your knowledge about innovation management
• Identify your own strengths and weaknesses in innovation management
• Achieve profitable growth by increasing your management capabilities that turn new ideas into successful innovations
• Keep your competitors at distance

Improve your knowledge about innovation management

When filling in the IMP³rove questionnaire with the support of a trained IMP³rove Guide you will discuss the importance of the five dimensions of the “A.T. Kearney House of Innovation” for your organisation. First of all, you will gain an understanding of why you should think about your innovation strategy or why design management could be an innovation enabler for your company. At the same time you will learn about the inter-linkages between the various dimensions of innovation management. Furthermore, you will realize see that many issues that you have addressed already are part of a systematic innovation management. Despite the good news, you still need to put the aforementioned into a clear framework.

Identify your own strengths and weaknesses in innovation management

The IMP³rove Assessment report will present your strengths and weaknesses in innovation management in a systematic manner. For each dimension of innovation management you will see your score compared with the score of the growth champions and the average. The growth champions are those companies that have achieved the highest growth from innovation in terms of revenue, profit and number of employees during the last four years.
Another notable feature is that you can select the benchmarking class against which you would like to compare your company. Mostly likely you will select the companies from your own industry sector – your competitors.  So within less than 1 hour after you completing the IMP³rove questionnaire you will have access to your IMP³rove benchmarking report with detailed benchmarks presented in a well-structured manner.

Figure 3: IMP³rove Assessment:  Benchmarking innovation management performance with competitors

Just imagine how much time you would normally spend in finding out what your competitors are doing differently – for example, ability to offer their products at a lower price or at a better quality. And this research usually does not generate a systematic analysis of their innovation management capabilities. And here these insights are presented to you within less than one day.

Gaining profitable growth by increase your management capabilities in turning new ideas into successful innovation

Once you have analysed the IMP³rove benchmarking results you will identify measures that will help you to close the gaps that became obvious from the benchmarks. Your IMP³rove Guide might help you in defining the most effective improvement measures and develop an action plan. This will be geared to increasing the innovation results. It might be that you



Source: http://www.innovationmanagement.se

Using Communications to Drive Innovation – How to Develop an Engaging and Sustainable Program

By Colin Nelson

HYPE Innovation is producing a series of five articles to help innovation practitioners, and those new to collaborative innovation, understand how to build a successful and sustainable enterprise program. Each article will address a different theme, will focus on clear actions any company can take, and highlight pitfalls to avoid. The first article in this series explained how software can help engage your enterprise in collaborative innovation; this article discusses the vital role communications can play in making your program sustainable.

Published: March 29, 2013 | 0 Comments and 6 Reactions
In: Learning Programs, Organization & Culture

This article is a part of a Learning Program from HYPE.
Written by Colin Nelson, Director of Strategic Consulting, HYPE.

This article is suggested for: Beginners Intermediate Advanced Large Organizations Small/Med Organizations

Promotion and Engagement

Enterprise innovation has one main goal – developing business value.   There are many different elements that support that goal, but one of the most crucial is communications.  As mentioned in the previous article, software has a key role to play, but it doesn’t guarantee employee participation or value to the business, we need to think more widely to address these needs.
Communications initiatives have many elements, the two most critical phases these elements need to support are as follows:

• Promoting the innovation program – key for new programs and those with new participants.
• Keeping and growing levels of engagement – vital to building belief and confidence in your innovation activities.

Key activities for new programs

1)      Create a buzz – You need to entice and excite your potential audience.  Advertising comes in many flavors and you need to make sure the enterprise innovation program stands out. Consider viral videos, flyers on desk, novelty giveaways as-well as more traditional posters, intranet marketing and emails.
2)      Inform & educate – Many invitees will want to understand more about what innovation means, what’s being asked of them and how to participate online.  Consider webinars, town hall meetings, brochures, or videos that show how to join in and help.
3)      Demonstrate the corporate mandate – Invitees need to be aware that senior management encourage and want them to participate. Many won’t be prepared to take time out of the day-job without explicit permission from a credible senior sponsor.
4)      Advertise progress – Many invitees may wait and watch to see how people participate and what’s achieved. Issue information at the end of every innovation activity (such as an idea campaign) what the next steps will be and who owns major actions. Remember to include everyone that was invited whether they participated or not.
5)      Recognize everyone that helps – It’s not just submitters of insights and ideas that should be recognized, consider those that build and improve the ideas of others, those that identify issues and those that provide a practical perspective.  Each helps build an idea into a workable concept and should be recognized as having helped develop something new.
Not everyone will participate on day one, but these five recommendations will help develop the momentum from which you can build.

Building belief and confidence

1)      Issue regular success stories – On a quarterly basis issue a program update to the entire enterprise, highlight progress and implemented ideas.  Not only does this help keep those that have participated enthusiastic, but also shows demonstrates the program delivers value to those who are yet to join-in.
2)      Keep marketing your program – Every organization will have a natural attrition rate, people will leave and new joiners will arrive.  In addition, you may acquire other companies or be subject to a merger.  This increases the potential for innovation, as greater numbers of diverse opinions arrive and they’ll want to understand how to take part.  Consider how to raise their awareness and demonstrate how to get involved.
3)      Monitor and share details from older projects – Innovation doesn’t happen overnight, so maintain contact with those running innovation projects to which the program has contributed.  Include any major developments in your quarterly newsletter.
4)      Seek out the non-engaged – Consider who is participating and who is not; there will always be pockets of the organization that take longer to get engaged.  Consider surveying the non-engaged and ask whether they’ve heard of the program and whether they’d like to get involved.
5)      Rigorous feedback and review – Ensure every innovation initiative provides feedback to invitees at the end of the campaign or idea theme phase. Nothing slows momentum more than lack of feedback.  Of course, to offer good feedback, ideas and concepts must be evaluated and judgments made.  Ensure review teams and time is allocated in advance of any innovation initiative.

Summary

The highest performing programs rigorously focus on communications, marketing the program, showing value, keeping people engaged and growing the audience over time.  Don’t be frightened to reshape your plans depending on what you learn from feedback and participation.
Remember that the innovation themes and sponsors also help motivate the invitees to participate, but effective communications can ensure everyone hears about the program and believes in it.

What’s next?

In the following article, HYPE will consider ‘engagement’ in more detail.  We’ll discuss ways to understand how engaged the company really is and what steps to take to increase that level of engagement over time.

To Build Your Business, Focus On These 5 Areas

Thursday 7 April, 2011

by Sue Hirst

The best way to grow your business is to surround yourself with people who understand and specialise in each of these five areas.

Most businesses have five areas that require focus. If you proactively manage these five areas, a lot of hassle can be avoided.

1. The product or service that you offer
   
   Many businesses get started because someone has an idea or a passion. Unfortunately not enough research is put into whether the product or service is viable and if there is a market for it. Passion is important in business, but if the idea just doesn't have legs, it's going to cause a lot of heartache.
   
   The product or service needs to be well researched to ensure it delivers a solution or benefit.  Research, testing and improvement needs to be ongoing, as markets change rapidly.
   
2. Marketing and selling
   
   Once you've found a great product or service and you've identified a market, how do you let people know about it?  Marketing is one of the most important factors in business success. There is no point in having a fantastic product or service if no one knows about it. If you can't convey your value proposition, the business will fail.
   
   You must research your market, let them know what you have to offer and the benefit. Once you've got some interest, the deal isn't done yet. You need to sell to your customer. You need to engage with them, listen to their needs and find ways to solve their problem.
   
   It is a long road from enquiry to closing a sale and it needs patient and trained salespeople. A good sales process can have a massive impact on revenue and getting top performers to share knowledge is vital.
   
3. Operations and finance
   
   Once you've made the sale, you have to deliver. There is a lot involved in delivering a product or service to the satisfaction of customers. Systems are the best way to ensure efficiency.
   
   SMEs are often time poor and lack ways to implement systems. SMEs complain about being overworked and trying to do everything. Systems are the solution. Documenting tasks, especially repetitive ones, will help the business owner be involved in more strategic aspects of business.
   
   Then there is finance to consider. There are costs and overheads to pay, stock and jobs in progress to finance, debts to collect, equipment to be bought or financed, suppliers to pay, interest to financiers ... and the list goes on. Cash flow is one of the biggest issues for SMEs.
   
   It has to be managed proactively with forward planning, such as budgets and cash flow projections. If cash runs out, the business won't survive without outside injections. These can be difficult to source if finances aren't run effectively.
   
4. Customer service
   
   Have you ever heard the saying "The customer is always right"? If the customer is wrong, go back and read the first line! Without happy customers - business will be a struggle. Constantly finding new customers is expensive. It's an often quoted point in customer service training, that a happy customer will tell two or three people, whilst an unhappy customer will tell around twenty. Nowadays you can multiply that by several thousand with the Internet.
   
   A customer service mentality must be paramount. If those dealing with customers don't understand this, it could be costing you thousands of dollars in lost income.
   
5. Human resources
   
   Happy staff mean happy customers. If you want staff to look after customers, you must look after your staff. I often hear that even big businesses rarely have reviews with staff and don't provide any mechanism for feedback. Your staff are your most valuable asset.
   
   You can have a fantastic product or service, market and sell it well, but if the person delivering it is grumpy and unhelpful, all that good work can be undone. Your staff are often the ones interacting most closely with customers and hear their comments. These provide clues for improvement. Including front line staff in development meetings is vital.
   
   A good start to efficient HR management is an Organisational Chart and Job Descriptions for all staff and the business owner.

You probably spend time dealing with all five areas, but you can't be an expert in all five.  If you try, you will wear yourself out and create an unhappy working environment.  If you surround yourself by a team with each focussing on one of these areas, it will free up your mind and time to focus on strategic management and growth.

I can recommend this thinking. If you don't currently employ these people, start looking for them, or outsource to specialists.


Source:ceoonline.com

Envision your future

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In these times of rapid, profound change, you can’t effectively plan your future by extrapolating the past.

Published: September 6, 2001 | Comment
In: Success Strategies

In these times of rapid, profound change, you can’t effectively plan your future by extrapolating the past. Remember, this accelerating rate of change is quickly rendering many of our tried-and-true ways of doing things obsolete — or at least less effective. Using the past to plan your future is something like driving your car by looking in the rearview mirror!
Under these circumstances, what is the best way to plan for the future?
Author Daniel Burrus, in his author of the best-selling book TECHNOTRENDS, offers some “visionary” advice on planning for the future:
1. Give yourself permission to dream big dreams. As children, we spend a significant amount of time and energy daydreaming, stretching our imaginations. As we get older, however, our schools, work and culture tend to drive this creative spirit out of us. In Burrus’ opinion, it’s time to crank up the dream machine once again.
2. Think ten years out and plan back to the present. This non-linear technique forces us to break away from our natural tendency to overlay the past onto the future, and focuses instead on helping us make wild leaps of imagination. Our conventional, habitual pattern of linear thinking, Burrus carries us step by step, from problem to solution, is suspended. In its place, Burrus explains, a bunch of pictures — visual images, the raw material of dreams — begin popping into our heads. “Images are the roots of the imagination” he adds. “Visualize your future. Visualize your goals.”
The images and pictures that Burrus describes come from the subconscious mind, which records all of the information we feed it, digests it and reassembles it in new combinations — the raw material of ideas. It usually serves these ideas up to us as hunches or flashes of intuition, often in pictures or images. It’s then up to us to interpret these mental pictures.
3. Finally, when thinking and dreaming about your future, Burrus suggests that you refrain from judging them immediately. After all, many of the so-called absurd ideas of the past have gone on to become successful products and services of today. In times of rapid change, what was impossible yesterday may be eminently possible today!
So let go of your past and give yourself permission to turn on your dream machine!


Source: http://www.ceoonline.com