Being a boss
The key to the success of any business are the people within it. Here, we divulge the best ways for you to ensure that you have the right individuals who are motivated to make your business succeed.
Recruiting
Often considered a chore, it is vitally important to ensure that you devote the necessary time and attention to recruiting the individuals that will best help you achieve your business ambitions. Never compromise on your selection. Every employee that you recruit must be vital to your business. Why else employ them?
As for the interview technique that you adopt, bear in mind the following points:
- Prepare for the interview. Make sure you have read the CV, reviewed any pre-selection notes, established your objectives and planned your approach.
- Make the candidate feel welcome by ensuring that they are not kept waiting, allowing sufficient time and making sure that you are not disturbed. Remember that you are selling your business to them as well.
- Suspend any prejudices. Don’t let them stop you making an objective evaluation.
- Use open-ended questions, avoid leading questions and actively listen to the answers. Keep in mind the following adage created by Rudyard Kipling:
I keep six honest serving men,
They taught me all I knew;
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
- Don’t be afraid to stretch candidates but be hard on the issues and soft on the person.
- Be prepared for difficult questions and be honest in your answers.
- Summarise and be clear about the next stage, be realistic on timings and keep to your promises.
- Finish on a positive note and thank the candidate (genuinely) for their time.
- Write up your notes immediately afterwards and, if appropriate, rank the candidate on evidence of experience, intellectual capacity, energy, maturity, creativity, values and awareness of the role.
Time and effort invested at this stage will pay off in the future.
Power to the People
Undoubtedly, the way to get the best from your people is to "set them free". If you allow them the scope and freedom to express their own ideas then you will be rewarded. Of course, you must ensure that members of your team understand their role within the organisation and how they can help the business achieve its objectives. This can be done through carrying out meaningful appraisals.
Remember, if you give a man a fish he’ll eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he’ll eat forever.
Leader of the Gang
Leadership skills cannot be easily taught. However, the success of a team depends greatly on the style of leadership shown. We can all recall great leaders in history, but what made them so inspirational? They probably used some or all of the following strategies to get the best out of their team:
- Get to know team members. Determine the motivations of individual team members. If you don’t know your people, how can you get the best out of them?
- Define the team’s purpose. If you don’t know where you’re going you’ll never get there.
- Clarify goals. Make sure each member of the team knows what is expected of them.
- Encourage questions. Disagreement is natural and a good leader should demonstrate a willingness to accept questions constructively.
- Share the limelight. It’s up to the leader to recognise individual contributions and team achievements and to convey your pleasure to those outside the team.
- Emphasise participation. Involve members in the team’s work.
- Celebrate accomplishments.
- Continually assess the team’s performance so that you learn and develop in the future.
A Winning Team
What’s the difference between a group and a team? A famous football coach was once asked about his formula for success. What he said applies as much to the business world as it does to sports.
"You have to start by teaching the fundamentals. A player’s got to know the basics of the game and how to play their position. Next, you’ve got to keep them in line. That’s discipline. The people have to play as a team, not as a bunch of individuals. There’s no room for prima donnas."
He continued:
"But there have been a lot of coaches with good football clubs who know the fundamentals and have plenty of discipline, but still don’t win the game. Then you come to the third ingredient. If you’re going to play together as a team, you’ve got to care for one another. Each player has to be thinking about the next guy. The difference between mediocrity and greatness is the feeling these guys have for each other. Most people call it team spirit. When the players are imbued with that special feeling, you know you’ve got yourself a winning team."
Drive Out Fear
Not so long ago it was fashionable for managers to adopt a very macho attitude to business. It is still not uncommon to find managers who believe that people work more productively in an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. However, more enlightened leaders realise that such an atmosphere has the following consequences:
- Trust becomes impossible
- Effective two-way communication ceases
- Mistakes are covered up or not admitted to resulting in lost learning opportunities, repeated errors and diminished customer satisfaction
- People are afraid to ask questions or offer ideas
- Change is avoided
- Time and energy are wasted in "CYA" activity
- Teamwork is destroyed
- Decisions are avoided
- The things that make you look good become priorities
- Your boss becomes more important than your customer
- The horizon becomes short-term
How many of these problems can you see in your organisation?
Staff Development
However experienced you feel you and your team are, you should never stop learning. In a rapidly changing business environment it is vital to identify and then meet the training needs of your team. It is not an optional extra to undertake only when times are good. Neither is it a motivational tool. It should be at the heart of your plans for the business and only of you relish the rewards that learning can bring will your business achieve its potential.
We hope that this brief guide will provoke some thought. It touches on a few of many ways in which your business can succeed. We would love the opportunity to put words into action. Please contact us for further information or to arrange a meeting.
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