Clueless in business is probably felt by more entrepreneurs and small business owners than many would admit. These 7 tips may help you work yourself out of the hole that you currently feel you are in and create incredible business results for 2007.
- Separate symptoms from problems.
Before embarking on any solution, make sure that you have separated the symptoms from the real problems. Failure to take this action may results in silo solutions that are not linked and may cause additional poor business results. For example, recently as a corporate coach I was asked to help with some team building because the management team of the potential client had participated in a workshop that suggested their organization had some team building issues. During the fact-finding discussion, I learned that personal accountability; organizational communication and time management were additional issues. After a company wide assessment, I discovered that 90% of the employees had no sense of personal mission nor realistic personal goals. Hence, team building was only a symptom or a reflection of the real problems preventing this organization from reaching the next level.
- Establish a proven and written goal planning, setting and achievement process
Within the Unites States, there exists a paradigm that individuals know how to consistently plan, set and achieve their goals. If this was true, then why isn't there more success in this country? After working with thousands of individuals as a performance improvement business consultant, corporate and executive coach, I can honestly state that less than 10% of those individuals had a written goal plan where their goals were consistently achieved.
- Confirm communication throughout the organization
George Bernard Shaw wrote many years ago The greatest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place. Communication is the first effective way to achieve business goals results especially if you feel clueless in business. Ask for feedback from your employees to ensure that they understand current initiatives.
- Develop return on investment for any training and development programs
Training and development programs beyond being aligned to the strategic plan must be constructed to delivery a positive return on investment. Research from Fortune 1000 companies to American Society for Testing and Development (ASTD) suggested that much of billions spent for training and development did not deliver a positive return on investment. For example in 2005 according to Training Magazine, the top 100 companies spent $4.7 billion to deliver an average of 53.5 hours of training per employee.
- Understand the source of sustainable change
Many individuals fail to understand the source of sustainable change. Actions are constructed around these misconceptions and unfortunately waste valuable resources of time, energy and dollars. Sustainable change must come from within each individual. Therefore, externally driven solutions that believe people can be changed from the outside in are not sustainable. This may help to explain why most training and development fails to deliver a positive return on investment. (See Tip #4)
- Measure results against strategic plan through the business dashboard
Similar to the dashboard in an automobile, the business dashboard focuses on key performance indicators. These results need to be measured and managed on a weekly basis to ensure achievement of the desired business goals.
- Include corporate coaching or executive coaching
Corporate coaching provides opportunities for continued reinforcement after the initial training and development. Executive coaching is one on one development usually reserved for the owner or the executives of the business. Coaching in either format delivers significant return on investment according to numerous research reports.
These are not the only 7 tips for helping those who may be clueless in business. However, they do provide a solid foundation from which to create a high performance organization and realize the business goals and business success that you desire in 2007.
