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Helping Your Staff to Experience Success

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Experience Success|Helping Your Staff to Experience SuccessRunning a business is no easy feat, but having the right team behind you can make this venture a whole lot easier. Sure, you may want to retain as much control as possible over your business, its products, its brand and its operations, by managing as much as you possibly can yourself. But as time goes on, and as demand on your company increases, you’ll quickly find that you can’t do everything on your own. Not only does hiring staff allow you to distribute your workload, lifting a weight from your shoulders, but it can also give you access to individuals with specialist knowledge and expertise in different areas that will help your company to progress beyond your own limitations. Of course, when you take staff on, you do become responsible for them in many ways. You’re going to want to make sure that they experience success and are happy in the workplace and their position. Here’s some more on the topic!

Why Help Staff to Succeed?

All too many business owners make the mistake of thinking that if they train and improve their staff, their staff will leave for better opportunities elsewhere. But this isn’t necessarily the case. In fact, employees that are constantly encouraged to experience success through support and training are much more likely to be satisfied in their roles and this can seriously help with staff retention levels. Holding onto good staff members will reduce recruitment costs and prevent you from having to experience dips in productivity as you hire, train and introduce new members to your team as a replacement. On top of this, when you train staff, you benefit from the skills and expertise that they acquire through their training. You will simply find yourself with the best quality team you can possibly have.

Software and Tools

Make sure that your team has the software and tools they need to do their job to the highest standard. Whether that’s communications software like Microsoft dynamics phone integration or a new piece of machinery that helps with the manufacturing process. Ensuring that your team has the best tools in the trade will make sure that they can do their job to the highest standard. Unsure of developments in different areas of equipment and software to specific roles? Chances are your team working in that area knows about the latest developments and releases. Talk to them. They’ll be able to advise you on whether their current options are up to scratch or whether they could do with an upgrade.

Training

The most straightforward and logical way to help your staff to experience success is to provide them with job-specific training. There are so many different options that you might want to consider. A copywriter might benefit from training in SEO. Management may benefit from knowing how to use Excel and other spreadsheet software. Someone in marketing could benefit from a marketing masters degree. The list goes on. Make sure to do some research and consider which areas you want your team to progress into. This can help to introduce you to training programs that benefit everyone. You may also want to consider health and safety training, such as how to do CPR, fire steward or fire marshall training and more.

Personal Development Plans

Remember that not all training has to be completely job-specific. You can help your team with personal development in areas that aren’t necessarily directly relevant to their role. Instead, you can help them to build traits, confidence and other skills that will supplement their position and help them in a variety of professional situations they may find themselves in. For example, if someone feels uncomfortable with public speaking, you may want to help them with some therapy, confidence building exercises and courses in public speaking or speech making that can help them to overcome this. If your team member wants to be healthier, you can help them along their fitness journey, which can help them to feel healthier, fitter and less likely to take time off work. If your team member wants to learn a second language, you can help them with lessons or language learning software, which will then benefit your company if you ever decide to expand into overseas markets.

It really is essential that you help your staff to progress and experience success while they’re working for you. This will keep them on board and significantly increase productivity, which benefits them and benefit you and your business.

Cracking the Confidence Code

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One of the greatest barriers for women is our reticence to raise our hands, ask for what we want and be noticed. This lack of confidence appears as a weakness. It makes women seem less comfortable with risk taking and decisiveness, both of which are critical competencies for senior leaders.

The Confidence EffectRight now many people are asking why women have a crisis of confidence. My reply is that it’s not as important for a woman in the workforce today crack the code or to know “why” she lacks confidence; it’s much more critical to provide her with the tools to course correct. It is NOT too late to learn the skills to make you appear more confident even if all the internal factors are not addressed. Some people call this “faking it ‘til you make it.” I say “suit up, show up and start where you are.” The appearance of confidence is as beneficial as actually feeling confident.

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About the Author

Grace KilleleaGrace Killelea is founder and CEO of Half The Sky Leadership Institute, a program that develops high potential women and builds critical leadership skills. She is a former Fortune 50 company SVP of Talent, a skilled executive coach and sought after keynote speaker. Grace is also author of the highly anticipated title, The Confidence Effect: Every Woman’s Guide to the Attitude That Attracts Success. Connect with her on the Web at www.thegkcgroup.com and www.halftheskyleadership.com.

Professional Development Best Practice 6 – Peer Coaches

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Peer CoachesAn individual’s manager should seek to provide ongoing performance feedback. This, however, is not always the case. Even high performing managers may, at times, be challenged by time constraints or have so many direct reports that it is not possible to provide each individual the amount of feedback desire. Additionally, the StrategyDriven Professional recognizes that performance is best evaluated by several different individuals, each possessing unique perspectives and having demonstrated competency in the areas to be assessed. Consequently, the professional needs others to provide feedback to cover management’s gaps and provide multiple perspectives.

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StrategyDriven Podcast Episode 42 – Acquiring Management Experience

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Episode 42 – Acquiring Management Experience focuses on how to gain management experience even if one does not currently hold a management position. Next, we’ll explore how to convey this experience such that it opens the doors to a management position within one’s organization. During our discussion, Wendy Powell, author of Management Experience Acquired: Necessary Skills for Successfully Managing Any Employee, shares with us her insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • the opportunities to ascend into management given today’s economic conditions
  • what organization leaders are seeking in their managerial candidates
  • how to gain management experience when one does not hold the position of manager
  • how to effectively convey one’s management experience so to be considered for such a position
  • how to overcome the ‘tenure barrier’ to promotion

Additional Information

In addition to the incredible insights Wendy shares in Management Experience Acquired and this podcast are the resources accessible from her website, www.ManagementExperienceAcquired.com.   Wendy’s book, Management Experience Acquired, can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Wendy Powell is the author of Management Experience Acquired. With more than twenty-five years of human resource and management consulting experience, Wendy has spent most of her career at the University of Michigan. She is currently on the business faculty at both Palm Beach State College and the University of Phoenix. A member of the Society of Human Resource Management, she received a leadership award in 2002 from the Midwest College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. She is routinely featured on The Huffington Post and has appeared on Fox Business’s The Strategy Room. Wendy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business management and a Master of Arts degree in organizational management.

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Training is out. Education is in. Are you in or out?

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There are no two companies that train alike. Some go all out. Some do little or none. From my personal observation over the past five years, training (especially sales training) is in decline. Training budgets follow the economy and corporate profits.

I wince at the word training, because I have always associated it with lions and elephants. The word education seems more appropriate.

Training teaches you, ‘how.’
Education teaches you, ‘why.’

The person who knows HOW will always have a job. The person who knows WHY will always be his boss. (Although many people claim to be the author of this quote, it was originally written by Ralph Waldo Emerson around 1870. Emerson used ‘man’ rather than the PC version ‘person.’)

REALITY: Most companies provide salespeople initial (minimal) training of essential product knowledge and basic sales skills. Big deal. Then the real world kicks in and the salesperson is expected to produce without the real skills he or she needs to ‘make plan’ or ‘achieve quota’ before they ‘get fired.’

Pile on the facts that customers have situations, barriers, problems, and objections not covered in training, while the boss is demanding ‘cold calls’ and all kinds of accountability. If you combine those elements with zero attitude training, low belief sysyem, and constant rejection, it’s no wonder early turnover in some companies (maybe yours) EXCEEDS 25%.

What to do?

Here is list of the major categories that need to be included in the training/education of your sales force in order to retain good people and achieve your sales objectives:

CAUTION: This list will require your company to make a serious investment in the education of people and salespeople – but take heart, whatever the money involved, it pales in comparison to the cost of employee turnover.

  • Personal development skills. Attitude comes before sales success. Positive attitude, followed by the five parts of belief, and classes on achievement and listening. Educate employees to make them better people BEFORE you throw them into the market.
  • Communication skills. How to speak and how to write are at the fulcrum of sales success. Poor communication skills OR poor writing skills will lead to failure faster than anything other than poor attitude.
  • Buying motives. Why people buy is almost never taught, yet it’s THE most powerful concept a salesperson can possess. Teach it at your best customer’s place of business.
  • Product knowledge. It’s not an option to make your salespeople experts before they hit the road or the phone. Teach it at your best customer’s place of business.
  • Personal presentation skills. Getting your compelling message transferred and “bought” is an essential aspect of salesmanship.
  • Laptop and tablet (iPad) presentation skills. If you have the tool, and you’re not the master of it, you will miss the marginal sale. If you don’t have the tool, you’ll miss a ton of sales.
  • Selling skills. Asking engaging questions and establishing relationships – the basic science of selling. BUT the elements above need to be understood BEFORE selling skills can be learned, let alone applied.
  • Smart phone skills. This is the communication device of the present and the near future. It must be mastered.
  • Voicemail skills. How are you at creating one, and leaving one? Two of the biggest enigmas of the modern sales era.
  • Value messaging skills. Weekly emails, blog posts, and tweets to existing customers and prospects to stay “top-of-mind.”
  • Pipeline building. How to build the number of qualified and expected sales. At the end of the month, a full pipelne ensures you’ll exceed plan.
  • Customer service skills. How to be memorable enough to create word-of-mouth advertising and unsolicited referrals.
  • Loyalty actions. Going the extra mile. Being WOW! By your actions, creating positive word of mouth advertising.
  • Customer uses of product and services skills. How the customer uses what you sell in order to produce and profit.
  • Customer perspective skills. How the customer views things and how the customer wants to be treated.
  • Business social media. No longer an option. No longer possible to ignore its power. Not just for the company, also for the individual.
  • Networking and relationship building. Getting face-to-face with customers and prospects on a regular basis. Network for sales AND relationship building.
  • Earning referrals and testimonials. THERE IS NO BETTER WAY TO MAKE A SALE THAN A REFERRAL AND A TESTIMONIAL.
  • Personal promotional skills. How to market yourself so that others will call you first. This is a combination of corporate support and personal (online) branding.
  • Past history of company and product (even if it’s a service). Knowing the history of your company and product or service will help put much of the prospet’s fear and unspoken risk to rest.
  • Continuing education. Once you start, you must make a commitment to continue as long as you exist.
     
    StrategyDriven Contributors find online schools, like Indiana Wesleyan, make it easy for business professionals to schedule continuing education classes around their busy schedules.

This list is the MINIMUM requirement for salespeople to be prepared to succeed. But my best guess is that you are not educating or being educated in most of these critical elements. WHY?

There are no good reasons other than cost of training. And cost is a weak argument at best as the competition heats up their recruiting and training efforts.

And of course you’re going to want to measure the returns on your investment. Luckily in sales, ROI is the easiest part. Here’s an ROI reality: subtract last month’s sales from this month’s sales, and this month last year from this month’s sales and compare the results. You might also want to measure employee retention.

In sales all you have to do is measure reality. How’s yours?

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].