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Why Professional Mentorship is a Highly Underrated Business Tool

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article | Why Professional Mentorship is a Highly Underrated Business ToolIf you’ve never heard of a mentorship program, look no further.

Mentorship programs are often overlooked by business owners because they’re seen as an expense instead of a beneficial investment. You should understand the importance of mentorship because it will help you and your company.

Mentors can provide a plethora of benefits to employees and business owners that allow them to make better decisions and improve their workspace. This will allow any business owner to earn more money in the long run.

Keep on reading to learn more about mentorship programs and what they can do for your business!

What Is a Mentor?

A mentor is someone that can enter a company and guide both the employees and owners. They act as the eyes and ears of the operations because they’re constantly involved with employees and see what goes on daily.

Depending on the size of a company, there may be multiple mentors. The more employees you have, the more mentors you’ll want so that everyone can get mentored equally.

Mentors typically go to school to learn how to deal with people. They’re effective at providing support to others and giving business recommendations when needed. You can learn more about the experience that mentors have if you’re interested in hiring them.

Asking Questions and Getting Advice

One of the main benefits of mentorship programs is that they allow employees to ask a question and get advice whenever they need assistance.

Many employees, especially newer ones, struggle to get the hang of things when they enter a new job. This is because they’ll go through a standard training procedure that all employees do and will be expected to start working efficiently right away.

The problem with this is that each role needs to be trained in a certain way so that employees aren’t confused about what their job is.

Bringing in someone to mentor employees will ensure that they do their jobs consistently and effectively because they’ll have someone that’s always available to answer questions.

Receiving a Different Perspective

It’s important to hear from another perspective before deciding to do something because it helps you guarantee that what you’re doing makes sense.

One of the mentorship program goals that most programs have is to provide unbiased and useful information. Whether a business owner or an employee is looking to hear from someone else, a mentor can give them their thoughts and explain other scenarios.

Improving Key Skills

The main purpose of mentoring is to guide someone through a process by helping them improve their key skills.

If you have a new IT employee that doesn’t know how to repair a broken motherboard, a mentor can show them what they need to do. In this case, the mentor would act as a trainer.

Should your employees constantly complain about not knowing how to do things, your mentors will tell you how you can make the training process better.

Venting with a Trusted Person

Although a mentor will often assist employees with tasks, they’ll also be a person that employees can go to when they want to vent. If an employee feels as though they can’t express themselves, you’ll usually see a decline in their work because they’ll feel stressed.

Similar to a counselor-patient relationship, mentors won’t disclose the personal information that’s shared between them and the person they’re mentoring.

Expanding Networks

Mentors give employees and business owners the opportunity to expand their networks by introducing them to new people. Most mentors have worked with several companies, so they can give you contact details and mention you to others.

Even inside a business, a mentor can expand a new employee’s network by introducing them to other coworkers. It’s common for employees to not know everyone within a company, especially if it’s larger.

This benefits business owners because they can start partnering with other companies, and it benefits employees because they’ll be able to interact with more people and feel included.

Methods and Strategies

Every business has a set of methods and strategies that they employ to fulfill their services. A mentor can drill these things into employees, making them better employees as they won’t feel lost when they’re working.

If a strategy is outdated or isn’t working as effectively as it should, mentors will make recommendations to improve the system. They’ll have a better idea of what’s working because they’ll be interacting with various employees daily.

Confidence to Make Better Decisions

Having a mentor gives employees the confidence to make better decisions because they’ll know they can fall back on someone if they mess up.

Their guidance encourages employees to make bolder decisions, even if there’s a lot of risks involved. They’ll do the same with a business owner that’s struggling to decide on something.

Start Looking Into Mentorship Programs Today

Investing in a mentorship program is one of the best things you can do as a business owner because you’ll save a lot of time and money in the process. Instead of having to deal with employees when they’re stressed or don’t know what to do on the job, a mentor will take care of that.

If you own a business, we encourage you to start looking into mentorship programs in your area to help you take your business to another level. You’ll quickly notice that the company is more productive, ultimately allowing you to maximize your profits.

Browse our articles to learn more about mentorship programs and other business ideas.

Entrepreneurs: Try These Productive (And / Or Lucrative) Ways To Spend Your Coffee Break

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The life of an entrepreneur is many things, but relaxed and leisurely it is not. Rarely do entrepreneurs get to enjoy downtime in the same way that their salaried peers do. The entrepreneurial mind is never at rest and is constantly striving for new challenges and new ways in which to hone its skills while developing new ones. Entrepreneurs exist in a constant state of self-improvement and self-development. So even when they take a few minutes for a coffee break, it’s not uncommon to see them restlessly tapping their fingers, twitching their legs and scrolling through their phones.

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Entrepreneurs: Try These Productive (And / Or Lucrative) Ways To Spend Your Coffee Break

If you find yourself restless, try these productivity boosting and / or potentially lucrative ways to spend your coffee break.

Take a trading break

In the digital age, trading is no longer the sole preserve of high flying Wall Street types. In fact, virtually anyone can become a trader in their free time. Using trading apps like Metatrader 4 can help to demystify the world of trading and allow you to trade all kinds of commodities with reasonable commissions and very little financial commitment on your part. Instead of spending your downtime on mobile games, why not try your hand at something that could become a potential revenue stream?

Compose some thought leadership articles on LinkedIn

Entrepreneurship is all about building your own personal brand to supplement the brand you’ve created for your business. The more people like and trust you, the more likely they are to see value in your business. Take the time to write thoughtful blog posts on LinkedIn which demonstrate your knowledge, experience and expertise to your target audience and other business leaders. Of course, you can use the same content to post on the blog section of your own business’ website. However you choose to present it, commiting your insights, reflections and musings on your industry to writing can be an extremely useful and potentially profitable way to spend your downtime.

Learn a new language

The world is getting smaller every day, and even if your business doesn’t yet have its sights set on an international market that’s no reason not to be prepared. Learning a language isn’t just a great way to help your business on its way to international domination it’s also a great way to keep your brain healthy and feeling young (just like learning a musical instrument). You’[d be surprised how quickly you can learn the fundamentals of a new language in just 15 minutes a day.

Listen to business audio books and podcasts

We all know what a prolific reader Warren Buffet is, but if you don’t have the time to consume his massive reading list in your downtime, listening to business audiobooks and podcasts may be a more readily digestible alternative.

Try mindfulness meditation

Finally, the busy mind of the entrepreneur is like any other highly efficient machine. It needs to be well rested and maintained to remain at peak efficiency. As such, it may be worth taking a few minutes in your downtime to practice mindfulness meditation. It can not only help you to manage stress and quiet your mind, it can also help you to work more efficiently and prevent the rush of entrepreneurial life from feeling too much.

Can Your Employees Sue You for Emotional Distress

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Suing for Emotional Distress|Can Your Employees Sue You for Emotional DistressAny business should consider the mental wellbeing of its employees. Work is stressful enough without people having to deal with the outrageous behaviors of others. Major depression and burnout cost companies billions of dollars every year. In this context, the stress in the workplace is not something to neglect. From a legal standpoint, employees have the right to sue a business for emotional distress. Here is what you need to know.

Employers Have Double Legal Duties

As an employer, you have the legal duty to avoid inflicting emotional distress to other people. You must use reasonable care to prevent such issues. You are responsible for all your employees’ conduct. Say an employee causes emotional distress to another employee or a client. If you knew and did nothing about it, you are vulnerable to a lawsuit.

Making the Difference between Legal Types of Emotional Distress Cases

An employer must follow the letter of the law and its spirit. You may do everything right and face legal exposure. Some of your employees may have asked themselves, “can you sue for emotional distress” at least once. The answer is “yes,” but it depends on the situation. Most people will not sue you because you are annoying as a person. They will if:

  • you are a negligent manager;
  • engage in reckless/outrageous behavior towards them;
  • your management led to workplace accidents and injuries;
  • you ignore their complaints.

With burnout syndrome, depression, or sexual harassment, the law is intricate. In this context, you need to know the difference between NIED and IIED.

The best way to move forward is to hire legal aid. It may be hard as a small business to find the right law firm. But, it will save you money in the long term. Most likely, it will protect your reputation.

NIED – Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress

Employees can sue for NIED when someone else’s negligence leads to their emotional distress. The proof varies from state to state. These are the general provisions when making a case:

  • The employee must prove that the defendant (employer) engaged in a negligent activity.
  • The employer is open to an NIED suit if he/she willfully violated a statutory duty.
  • The plaintiff suffered significant emotional distress (as described by the law). They must prove its occurrence, persistence, symptoms, etc.
  • The plaintiff’s emotional distress is a direct consequence of the defendant’s negligence.

Example: Employees can sue within an NIED framework if a piece of equipment fell and nearly crashed them.

IIED – Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress

Bad behavior opens the door to an IIED suit. There are no guidelines on what represents extreme, reckless, or outrageous behavior. It is why IIED is hard to prove in court. Don’t misjudge the courts and lawyers, though. An IIED claim must target conducts that go beyond the usual workplace insults, threats, or annoyances. They should not exist, either, but they do not pack a big punch in court. What comes with heavyweight is the following combination of factual elements:

  • The employer/their agent’s conduct was deliberate and reckless. And there is proof to back up this claim.
  • The defendant/their agent engaged in extreme or outrageous behavior (and the plaintiff can prove).
  • This conduct led to an employee’s emotional distress.
  • The employee can prove the causality and the severity of the distress.

Example: You are open to IIED claims if you neglected an employee’s complaints regarding sexual harassment. Your failure to respond to numerous notices for months will most likely put you in the defendant’s chair.

In IIED claims, fright or shame can fall under the umbrella of “emotional distress.” As we said above, you are responsible for the conduct of all your employees. Consider promoting a safe working environment. Remove any risks of sexual harassment, bullying, shaming, emotional abuse, social isolation, etc.

Can You Put a Price on Your Employees’ Feelings?

If an employee wins an NIED or an IIED claim, you have to pay for damages. The payment is relative to the severity of the emotional injury. You should consider legal advice in such cases, even if you are a small business. Many NIED and IIED cases settle outside of court. You need to know your rights, your employees’ rights, and the methods you have to make their lives better and safer.

Is Tech At The Root Of Your Inefficiency?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Tech in Business|Is Tech At The Root Of Your Inefficiency?In modern business, we have become very used to our reliance on digital technology, to a degree that might have been unfathomable even a couple of decades ago. All kinds of businesses use it nowadays, from making processes easier to complete to managing important business systems.

However, as much of a boon as technology can be to your business, it could also put you at some risk. Without the right management and the right choices of technology at your fingertips, your tech could end up making your business more, not less, inefficient. Here are a few risks to consider.

Tech’s role in the team

It’s undeniable that technology has made it much easier to stay connected and stay in touch across greater distances, whether it’s with the team all coming together to collaborate or to work with remote workers outside the office. However, without effectively structuring how you use tech to communicate with your team, it’s easy to have a disorganized jumble that leads to the increased chance of misunderstandings and errors. Project management software is an efficient and effective way to better communicate through tech, while Cloud storage software is making it much easier to share resources more quickly than emailing or sharing physical hardware.

Be aware of the risk of downtime

The more tech you incorporate in your business, the more of a vulnerability it can become. Indeed, it is likely to be the most versatile and the most valuable tool in your arsenal, but that means that it can also become the crutch your business stands on. Take it away, and chaos can follow. Downtime can lead to major costs, as your team’s ability to do their work can freeze in place. Read more here about the managed services that can help you proactively approach those potential problems. As well as finding fixes for existing vulnerabilities, you should also consider putting together a disaster recovery plan. As such, if something does go majorly wrong, then you have a plan and a path to get you back to full strength as soon as you possibly can.

Tech should reduce your work, not added to it

When you’re bringing tech into the workplace, you’re likely to use it to change your processes and adapt your workflow. However, you need to look more carefully at precisely how it changes that workflow. Read here about key performance indicators you can use to measure the effectiveness of your technology. For instance, are you getting your work done more quickly or slower than before? Are there more mistakes are fewer? Before you roll out new tech implementations across the board, test them in a smaller setting to see how you get on with them. If everything seems legit, then you can go on to introduce it to the rest of the team.

Technology can, indeed, be what prepares your business for the next level of success, by reducing mistakes, increasing productivity, and helping the team collaborate. However, you should always be aware of the risk that comes from managing it poorly, too.

How to Further Reduce Your Company’s Carbon Footprint

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |Carbon Footprint|How to Further Reduce Your Company’s Carbon FootprintThere’s no denying that we all have to look at making changes if we’re going to overcome the problems that climate change poses to the world and the people in it. While there are things that individuals can do to have a more positive impact on the natural world, the truth is that the most important changes will be the ones that companies make. They are disproportionately responsible for causing damage to the environment — indeed, only twenty firms are responsible for a third of all emissions. If you’re a company owner, then it will, of course, be nowhere nearly as impactful, but it’s still important that you’re taking steps to make your company greener. It’ll be better for the environment, and for your business, especially as consumers are increasingly likely to avoid companies that cause harm to the environment.

But how can you do this? We take a look at a few helpful tips below.

Find Your Flaws

First thing’s first: you’ll need to find your flaws. You won’t be able to figure out how you can improve things until you know where you’re going wrong. Begin by taking a look at your current operations and identify the practices that are causing environmental damage. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, then you can hire an outside expert to do it for you. It might be that you have one especially bad practice that is severely harming your company’s green credentials.

Working From Home

There are many benefits to initiating a ‘work from home’ program at your company — it can boost employee happiness and productivity, and it’s also better for the environment. How so? Well, it takes a lot of energy to have people in the office. Apart from the energy for lighting and electricity and so on, there’s also the impact of having all of your staff members driving to work. If your staff can work from home, you’ll reduce your carbon footprint, and your company’s finances will receive a boost too.

Green Initiatives

If it’s not possible to have staff working from home, then take a look at starting initiatives such as cycle to work and ridesharing programs. It’s much better to have four people riding together in one car, rather than in four cars!

Reduced Packaging

Even companies that are generally green can run into problems. Take, for example, the packaging for their products. This is normally a secondary concern for most companies, and, because of this, is where many fall down. To ensure you’re not using more materials than necessary for your packaging, take a look at the services that product packaging companies can provide. They’ll help to make your packaging more efficient.

Reviews and Updates

Finally, remember that your move towards having a greener company is never finished. There are always ways to improve! The best way to do this is to periodically review and update your operations, so that they eventually move to become carbon positive — that is, they have a positive impact on the world!

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