Sharing a Sense of Ownership
Keys to Investing Employees in Your Success
In a highly competitive business environment, the performance, attitudes and customer service of your employees can truly make or break a business. Each employee, no matter their job title or position, can have a huge impact on the quality of your product, the work environment and how customers and clients view your company. As Sam Walton once said, "There’s only one boss – the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else."
However, in today’s work environment, many workers don’t feel a sense of loyalty or obligation to their employers. The typical worker job hops frequently, works in a zone of mediocrity and isn’t overly concerned with providing decent, let alone excellent, customer service. Most employees don’t see how their jobs are important in the grand scheme of things, or there’s no system in place to help them care that they are a part of the big picture.
That’s why it’s critical to help employees see their roles in the success of your business. As Glenn Shepard put it in his book How to Be the Employee Your Company Can’t Live Without, you have to help employees act like they own the place. Now, many people may think that owning a business is about working whenever you want, making a high salary, and being the head honcho. But, most business owners know that the risks of failure are immense and it takes long hours, financial sacrifices and a servant’s attitude to make any business truly successful. Creating employees who are willing to work with these principles will set your company apart and help it truly thrive. To do this, you must enable employees to share your sense of ownership in the company.
You can make the connection between each employee’s personal performance and your company’s success, if you’re willing to invest the time and attention it takes. Here are a few tips to help you understand how:
- Connect the dots. Tie each employee to the company’s success. Help employees understand how their performance, attitude and customer service affects the company’s profits and supports the company’s goals. You can do this through profit sharing or offering bonuses to productive employees who help the company hit its goals, increase production or develop new ideas.
- Be stingy with gold stars. Don’t reward mediocrity. Show productive and highly-valued employees that their contributions make a difference by not rewarding unproductive employees.
- Reward with responsibility. Assign entire projects to productive employees and give them creative freedom and control. Then, let them receive the recognition for the finished product. Ownership in a project will foster s feeling of ownership in your organization.
- Allow failure. Don’t micromanage employees once you’ve given them the reigns on a project. Let them learn by making some mistakes, just like you’ve had to do. Don’t criticize their efforts, because this can squelch their desire to grow. Offer feedback, advice and encouragement to keep them from failing miserably, but don’t control the process.
- Give some “free” time. Organizations can spark innovation and create strong ties of loyalty by allowing employees to use their creativity and imagination. At Google, employees can use 20% of their time developing ideas that fall outside their job descriptions. This 20% time has launched some of Google’s most successful new endeavors, such as Gmail, Google News and AdSense. In fact, Google representatives have said that half of their new product launches have stemmed from this initiative.
- Be the model employee. Make sure that employees have someone to emulate by providing the ultimate example of how you expect your employees to behave. Realize no job – from picking up trash to answering phones to unloading shipments – is beneath you. By acting like a model employee, you can inspire your employees to do the same.
These tips are only a sampling of how you can help employees invest in the success of your company. Through sharing a sense of ownership in your company’s success with each employee, you can create a positive, highly productive, customer service-oriented workforce.
7 Steps to Creating a Winning Elevator Pitch
Elevate Your Success in 15 Seconds
Imagine you’ve stepped into an elevator only to discover that you’re on a ride to the 10th floor along with a potential client you’ve been trying to land. You haven’t been able to get your foot in the door for a meeting, no matter how hard you’ve tried. This is your chance. You need to introduce yourself and make a good impression before the elevator doors open – who knows, you may only have 10 to 20 seconds before someone else steps in and interrupts your opportunity. You search for words, hoping that a brilliant pitch will come to mind. But, you simply can’t think of the right thing to say.
Wouldn’t it be great if you already had a short, targeted message to snag the interest of your potential client before he walks out the doors, taking your opportunity with him?
What you need in these situations is an elevator speech, and not just your typical, “My name is Jane, and I own ABC Inc, nice to meet you,” speech. You need a stellar elevator speech that will hit the mark every time, help you land more clients and drive people to your business. Here are seven tips to create a powerful elevator pitch.
1. Keep it short and focused. Of course, you should be able to go into a full-blown pitch on all the benefits your organization offers. But, this isn’t the time or place for that – yet. Experts suggest keeping your elevator pitch to 10-15 seconds. A sentence or two is perfect. More than that sounds like a brochure or ad copy, which most everyone will tune out. Keep it focused on achieving your desired goal – such as to land a new client.
2. Brainstorm words and images. Think about what sets your company, your services and you apart from your competitors. Then, come up with words and images that illustrate these ideas.
3. Lead with the benefits. A stranger doesn’t care about you or your company. They don’t care about your products or services. They don’t want to know how long you’ve been in business or about your experience. They care mostly about themselves. If you’re going to interest anyone in yourself, your organization and what it provides, you have to tune prospective clients in to what is referred to as WII-FM, or what’s in it for me? So, open your elevator pitch with how your work benefits others.
4. Be real. Though you’re in the midst of a potential sales transaction, don’t treat your elevator pitch like one. People don’t typically enjoy interacting with pushy salespeople, so avoid acting that way. Instead, focus on building a relationship first.
5. Tell a compelling story. People love stories and storytellers. They engage us and let us feel free to interact and converse. Telling a story with your elevator pitch is a great way to interest the listener and ensure the conversation moves forward into the details of what you do. For example, tell a story about someone finding a solution to a problem – the solution, of course, is your company or product.
6. Don’t tell too much. Rather than divulging every aspect of who you are and what you do, you must create a elevator pitch that compels the listener to ask more. The best elevator pitches transition into conversations driven by the listener’s curiosity. This has the dual impact of engaging your prospect and enabling you to go into greater detail on your products and services.
7. Stay flexible. No matter how much time you spend developing the perfect pitch, you’ll have to adapt it to each person you meet. Also, it’s vital to keep it updated and practice it regularly.
Whether you ever find yourself on an elevator ride with a potential client or not, chances are you will come into contact with people every day who may benefit from your services or products. It’s up to you to be able to communicate what that is in a way that catches their interest and leaves a lasting impression and makes them curious to learn more.
Avoid Bad Boss Syndrome
Demonstrate the 12 Signs of a Great Boss
Bad bosses. Most everyone’s worked for one. People love to talk about their negative experiences with bad managers. There are a variety of websites and blogs dedicated to helping employees cope with bad bosses. This summer a site called Working America held its second annual My Bad Boss contest. The winning stories submitted by real-life workers under pseudonyms illustrate not only the actions of horrible bosses but also the HR nightmares and safety issues that bad bosses can create for organizations.
So with all this attention on bad bosses, what’s an employer to do? To ensure that you never end up reading a bad boss horror story and wondering if it’s about your company, make sure that all managers know the 12 signs of a great manager and strive to make them a part of their leadership styles.
1. Communicates openly. Not communicating with employees is a sign of a weak manager. Excellent bosses communicate openly, honestly and regularly with employees. They communicate about performance, change and opportunities. They are approachable and genuinely care about each employee’s perspective.
2. Doesn’t tolerate slackers. Great bosses don’t put up with employees who can’t hold their own. They know that slackers create more work for everyone. The best managers hold every employee accountable for their work and realize it’s their job to make sure everyone’s a team player.
3. Refuses to pick favorites. Those who choose favorites and ignore everyone else make nightmare managers. When stellar bosses reward and recognize employees, it’s for their work product, not because they’re buddies or relatives.
4. Gives and receives feedback. Being open to change is a trait of a great boss. They encourage feedback on projects, processes and ideas. Strong managers ask for feedback on their work and management style, realizing that everyone benefits from a collaborative team.
5. Promotes balance for each employee. Helping employees balance their lives is a skill best bosses practice. They don’t require 80-hour workweeks or make taking time off an ordeal.
6. Handles conflict. When conflict arises within a department, workgroup or company, great managers go to the source and refuse to avoid conflict. They address problems in an appropriate and timely way, realizing that conflict-avoidance will only create distress and frustration for their team.
7. Avoids negativity. Though it can be tricky being the go-to person for employee complaints, excellent managers know how to avoid gossip. They don’t voice their negative feelings if they have them, choosing instead to focus on the positive. Their outlook is contagious and helps create a more inspiring atmosphere for everyone they come in contact with.
8. Honors deadlines and creates priorities. A good boss will help employees by providing deadlines and assisting in setting priorities. They also hold up their end of the bargain when they promise help or support by providing it in the timeframe they agreed to. They don’t leave employees hanging and blame them when deadlines aren’t met.
9. Doesn’t tolerate bullying. Model managers aren’t bullies themselves and don’t let co-workers bully each other. They realize it’s their responsibility to protect team members who are being needlessly hassled and step up to the plate to make sure the workplace is a friendly environment for everyone.
10. Recognizes and rewards accomplishments. Hogging the glory and refusing to share the spotlight with deserving employees is the sign of a bad boss. On the other hand, great bosses step out of the spotlight and give recognition when and where it’s due.
11. Isn’t self-absorbed. Bad bosses care only about their careers. They use people to achieve what they want without caring how it affects others. Excellent bosses are more interested in the success of their employees than their personal success. No matter what, they go out of their way to put others first.
12. Acts with integrity. When push comes to shove, great bosses are those who act with integrity. At work, at home and at play, they do what’s right, even when no one’s looking. They inspire others to act with integrity and foster trust through their actions.
Thousands of managers have habits that could spur their employees to nominate them for bad boss of the year. Take an honest assessment of your management style and see if you’re displaying these 12 signs of a great boss. If not, now’s your chance to start. You never know, you may just inspire a world’s best boss contest.
Employment Situation Summary
United States
Non-farm employment rose by 92,000 jobs in July, and the unemployment rate was unchanged increased slightly to 4.6%.
Major Industry Employment for July 2007
• Construction: - 12,000
• Manufacturing: - 2,000
• Retail Trade: - 1,000
• Professional & Business Services: + 26,000
• Educational & Health Services: + 39,000
• Leisure & Hospitality: + 22,000
• Government: - 28,000
Canada
The unemployment rate dropped to 6.0%, the lowest since 1974.
Major Industry Employment for June 2007
• Construction: + 3,000
• Manufacturing: + 20,000
• Trade: + 16,000
• Transportation & Warehousing: + 17,000
• Finance, Insurance, Real Estate & Leasing: - 13,000
• Professional, Scientific & Technical Services: + 25,000
• Business, Building & Support Services: + 1,000
• Educational Services: - 57,000
• Information, Culture & Recreation: - 1,000
•
Accommodation
and Food Services: - 7,000
• Public Administration: + 7,000
e-Xchange is a publication of Express Services, Inc., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Copyright 2007.