ReportWire

Tag: Business Management

  • Effective Communication Is Vital in Today's Diverse Workforce. Here's How to Make Sure Your Message Is Clear. | Entrepreneur

    Effective Communication Is Vital in Today's Diverse Workforce. Here's How to Make Sure Your Message Is Clear. | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    In today’s unpredictable business environment, clarity and effectiveness in communication remain paramount. One of the most significant consequences of the pandemic and the uncertainty of the U.S. economy throughout 2022 and 2023 has been the evolution of work setups.

    While early predictions about work setups shifted from uncertainty to a strong inclination towards work-from-home and hybrid models, the future remains unclear. Regardless of how it settles, the significant impact of remote work has pushed businesses to reassess and refine their communication strategies, though finding a solution that benefits all has been a complex task.

    Amid this diversity of workplace configurations and the challenges that come with them, skillful communication remains a key element in ensuring cohesive and efficient teamwork, regardless of the physical distances or differing work environments involved.

    While the two primary communication strategies feature significantly different approaches, each offers beneficial insights and practical solutions for achieving optimal communication. As we navigate our changing work environments, understanding and effectively implementing key elements of top-down and bottom-up communication strategies becomes crucial.

    Related: Don’t Neglect This One Crucial Step of Leading Through Constant Change

    Fostering a culture of open and effective communication for today’s workforce

    When discussing ways to achieve optimal business communication, employee engagement can be forgotten, yet it is a critical first step. Engaging employees sets a foundation for success, ensuring the integration of employee’s specific needs and desires regarding communication within their companies.

    As business leaders navigate a pursuit of optimized communication within their organizations, a broader understanding of employee feedback for improving communication with their higher-ups and throughout their companies can effectively frame future choices. Management must prioritize:

    1. Transparency: It may seem obvious, but the desire for open and honest communication about company decisions, changes and plans highlights a glaring issue — trust and authenticity.
    2. Clarity and consistency: Clear and consistent communication is crucial, especially regarding job expectations, roles and responsibilities.
    3. Two-way dialogue: Employees want to express ideas, concerns and feedback freely and want that input to be genuinely valued.
    4. Accessible leadership: Meaningful access to leaders and managers requires authentic approachability and an established means of discussing thoughts and concerns.

    Bridging the physical and psychological distances in a diverse workplace

    Achieving authentic communication across varied work setups — in-person, remote and hybrid — centers on overcoming the reality of physical and psychological separation inherent in diverse environments. Each setup brings its nuances, resulting in the layers of complexity involved in balancing the extremes of remote and in-person work.

    To truly entrench effective communication throughout an organization, all levels of leadership must have a deep understanding of the unique dynamics and needs of each work setup. A commitment to fostering a culture where every team member feels equally valued and heard, regardless of their physical work location, must become part of a company’s identity for it to have a lasting impact on the internal culture and optimization of operations.

    Creating a communication strategy that feels natural and inclusive to all requires both authenticity and avoiding one-size-fits-all efforts. By side-stepping empty efforts and generic rhetoric, businesses can avoid employee disengagement and the perception of forced interaction. By merging elements of top-down and bottom-up communication strategies, an effective approach to internal communication avoids the pitfalls of uninspired, disrespectful measures.

    Related: Authenticity Is the Anchor for Successful Leadership Through Challenging Times

    Understanding and implementing top-down communication

    Top-down communication is hierarchical, with directives, instructions or information flowing from higher levels of authority or management to lower levels. It centers on the strategic disbursement of messaging down each level of authority.

    1. Consistent company-wide updates: Regular updates via email or video messages from leadership about company goals, changes or achievement ensures comprehensive alignment with a company’s direction.
    2. Leadership Q&A sessions: Virtual Q&A sessions connecting employees directly to the leadership fosters transparency and a sense of shared ownership of a company’s vision and decisions.
    3. Relevant performance metrics and feedback: Pairing relevant performance metrics with actionable feedback helps remote and hybrid employees understand the role that specific tasks and responsibilities serve in achieving a company’s vision.
    4. Policy and procedure updates: By clearly communicating changes in policies or procedures, all team members, irrespective of location, are collectively aware of new guidelines, which is essential for streamlined operations.

    The dynamics and benefits of bottom-up communication

    Anchored by participation across all levels, bottom-up communication aims to encourage and cultivate potential insights, ideas and feedback from lower levels of authority. It is designed to empower all employees to contribute their expertise and perspectives.

    1. Employee surveys and polls: Regularly conducting surveys and polls to gather employee feedback reinforces a sense of empowerment for employees.
    2. Town hall meetings: Events like town halls allow employees to share experiences and challenges; this is particularly valuable for recognizing and integrating the unique perspectives of remote and hybrid workers.
    3. Idea submission platforms: A platform for employees to submit ideas or suggestions for improvements fosters a sense of respect and ownership.
    4. Cross-departmental collaboration: Sessions of cross-departmental collaboration across departments can encourage the free flow of ideas and knowledge.
    5. Peer-to-peer recognition: Peer recognition programs where employees can acknowledge each other’s contributions build a sense of community and appreciation among team members across all work setups.

    Related: If You Want to Improve Employee Satisfaction, Try This Controversial Practice

    Blending communication strategies for organizational efficacy

    Balanced and inclusive communication blends top-down and bottom-up strategies to meet the needs of in-person, remote and hybrid team members. Leveraging the strengths of both communication styles allows for the adaptability that is essential in an increasingly unpredictable business landscape.

    At Outpace SEO, productive, efficient communication across a blend of workplace setups has proven crucial in an industry that requires a comprehensive understanding of unique customers in a complex environment. The question is how can your organization evolve to ensure sustained success.

    Summit Ghimire

    Source link

  • This Toxic Leadership Trait Harms Your Credibility | Entrepreneur

    This Toxic Leadership Trait Harms Your Credibility | Entrepreneur

    Talk is cheap. It’s far easier to say we’ll do something than it is to actually do it.

    Executive coach and speaker Amy M. Chambers is an expert in this topic. “In my experience, the fastest way to build trust is to make and keep commitments,” she says. “When people say what they’ll do and then do what they say, we instantly feel more bonded and connected to them. Because this isn’t always common in leadership and life, consistently keeping your word can dramatically differentiate you from the rest. But what about when the reverse happens? Some argue that making a commitment and not keeping it damages trust more than never having made it at all.”

    Entrepreneur Staff

    Source link

  • How To Budget And Take Care Of Your Finances | Entrepreneur

    How To Budget And Take Care Of Your Finances | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Are you looking to improve your financial portfolio but don’t know where to begin? Have you been dreaming of establishing greater financial freedom but aren’t sure what steps to take to get there? Budgeting and managing finances can be intimidating — especially when trying something new.

    Leveraging these strategies can help set realistic expenditures while keeping track of investments to reach your financial goals faster.

    Establishing realistic financial goals and expectations

    You need to establish clear and achievable financial goals to achieve financial freedom. It involves setting short-term and long-term objectives aligning with your financial plan. Your goals should be realistic and attainable, which means they should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART).

    Related: Keep Your Business Finances in Order With These 6 Tips

    For example, one short-term goal might be to pay off credit card debt within a year, while a long-term goal could be to save for retirement in 20 years. By setting clear financial goals, you can track your progress, stay motivated, and make informed financial decisions, ultimately leading to greater financial freedom.

    In addition to establishing financial goals, setting realistic expectations for success is important. It involves acknowledging that financial success takes time and effort. Remember, setbacks and challenges are to be expected along the way.

    To set realistic expectations, you should create a comprehensive budget that outlines your income, expenses, and savings goals. It will help you live within your means, avoid overspending, and prioritize your financial goals. You should also regularly review your progress and adjust your budget and financial plan.

    Creating a budget to track expenditures and investments

    Creating a budget is the key to successful budget management and expansions. It allows you to track your expenses, set financial goals, and make informed choices about how to use your money. When creating a budget, it’s important to factor in fixed (e.g., rent) and variable (e.g., entertainment) costs. You should also include debt payments, such as student loans or credit cards.

    Once you have tracked your expenses and established financial goals, it’s time to create an investment plan that works for you. It could involve setting aside money regularly into a savings account or investing in stocks or mutual funds with higher potential returns but more risk involved.

    Budget management: leveraging strategies for growth and expansion

    In addition to setting financial goals and creating a budget, there are other strategies you can leverage for growth and expansion. One effective strategy is to diversify your investments. Investing in a variety of assets, such as stocks, real estate, and bonds, may reduce risk while possibly increasing rewards.

    Another strategy is to maximize your income streams. It could involve taking on a side hustle, freelancing gig, or negotiating a higher salary at your current job. By increasing your income, you can allocate more funds towards your financial goals and accelerate your progress towards achieving financial freedom.

    Related: Risky Business: Should You Diversify?

    Furthermore, continually educating yourself about personal finance and investing is important. It could involve reading books and articles, attending workshops and seminars, or working with a financial advisor. By staying informed and up-to-date, you can make informed decisions about your money and investments and take advantage of new opportunities.

    Finally, staying disciplined and committed to your financial plan is crucial. It involves sticking to your budget, regularly reviewing your progress, and adjusting as needed. It also means avoiding impulsive purchases and maintaining a long-term perspective on your financial goals.

    Analyzing spending habits to make informed decisions about money

    The first step in budgeting and expanding your finances is to analyze your spending habits. It means tracking your expenses, identifying necessary costs and areas of potential savings, and understanding how you are currently using your money.

    Once you have done this analysis, you can decide which expenses to cut back on or increase to achieve your financial goals. For example, if you spend a lot on dining out or entertainment, you might want to reduce these expenditures to save more toward retirement.

    Related: How To Monitor Your Spending Habits

    Creating a budget that works for you is essential to financial success. It helps you track your expenses and understand where your money is going so that you can make informed decisions about how to use it most effectively. It also allows you to set and achieve financial goals to build wealth and reach your dreams.

    Budget management: developing a plan of action for achieving financial freedom

    Once you have identified your financial goals and created a budget to track expenditures and investments, it’s time to develop an action plan. It involves setting short-term and long-term goals and taking concrete steps towards achieving them. It also means consistently following through on the actions you set in place so that you stay motivated and committed to your financial plan.

    You should also regularly review your progress and adjust your budget and financial plan. Pay attention to changes in the market or economic conditions that may affect your investments or income streams, as well as any modifications to laws or regulations that could impact your finances.

    Utilizing tools for monitoring progress toward your desired outcome

    Utilizing tools such as budgeting apps or online banking services will make it easier to track expenses and investments. This information can help you analyze spending patterns and identify areas of potential savings.

    You should also assess your debt load and develop strategies for reducing it. Paying off high-interest debt is a great way to free up more funds for investing in other areas of your finances.

    Finally, consider using rewards programs or discounts for purchases to maximize savings. These offers can add up quickly, allowing you to spend more money toward achieving your desired outcome.

    Staying motivated and celebrating successes along the way

    Finally, staying motivated and committed to your financial plan is important. Celebrate the small successes along the way, such as paying off a loan or reaching a milestone in your investments. Acknowledging these achievements will help you stay focused on achieving your long-term goals.

    By following these steps and continuing to educate yourself about personal finance, budgeting, and investing, you can take control of your finances and get closer to achieving financial freedom. With discipline and dedication, you can reach your desired outcome.

    Under30CEO

    Source link

  • 5 Ways to Use Data to Make Faster — and Better — Business Decisions | Entrepreneur

    5 Ways to Use Data to Make Faster — and Better — Business Decisions | Entrepreneur

    For Subscribers

    Business leaders need to have instant data access and analysis to make rapid decisions, yet getting what they need is often hampered by a lack of access and analysis, siloed teams and overwhelmed IT departments. Here are five ways you can break down siloes and get your employees what they need to collaborate and make business function decisions faster.

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Your marketing team needs to move at the speed of customers. They need to know if their new marketing campaign is working today so they can adjust it tomorrow. Your inventory management team wants supply chain products and supply visibility to quickly shift inventory to locations running low. Your sales team knows time is money and wants to know which accounts need an in-person visit to close the deal or if a sales campaign is more appropriate at this stage in the buyer’s journey.

    These needs require instant access to data from a multitude of sources. Typically, these departments ask IT for a report. But the sophisticated data analytics of today requires a specialized IT talent that’s scarce, and the velocity of data makes those requests a frustration for all. The data is needed immediately and the IT team is unable to respond in real time.

    Girish Pancha

    Source link

  • 7 Not-So-Soft Skills Every Entrepreneur Needs | Entrepreneur

    7 Not-So-Soft Skills Every Entrepreneur Needs | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Soft skills are a bit of misnomer when considering the hard implications of not demonstrating them.

    Mastering these seven soft skills can help you thrive in a 24-hour, boundaryless world regardless of what hard or technical skills an entrepreneur might possess. These skills are the foundation of empathy and creativity, which we all need as we divine new ways to manage the increasingly blurred lines between personal and professional life, and still meet our business objectives.

    Entrepreneurs will find that soft skills are essential tools in their toolbox, which are invaluable in almost all industries.

    1. Be a master communicator

    A leader’s message is only as good as their ability to share it. Entrepreneurs must be consistent, clear and concise. Their messages must be able to translate across different cultures and languages. Everyone on the team must understand and embrace common goals and expectations. Further, all team members should feel they have an open communication channel with their leader.

    Related: 9 Best Practices to Improve Your Communication Skills and Become a More Effective Leader

    2. Be innovative

    Technology is constantly evolving. This allows us to work remotely globally, but we must determine which tools are best for team activities. Entrepreneurs will need to stay on top of the situation to ensure that tools are simply tools, not cumbersome obstacles to overcome while getting work done. Teams should be able to concentrate on a project — not on learning yet another complicated new platform or system.

    Related: Is AI a Threat to Remote Work? Here’s How to Understand the Challenges and Opportunities of AI in Business

    3. Be creative

    Entrepreneurs should consider how they can mix things up to keep teams’ ideas fresh and plentiful. How can they ensure talent stays motivated and productive? What new or different tactics can inspire people to meet goals and employ some creativity in their daily role? Innovation is important. Even routine, necessary tasks may need to be retooled to fit a remote, tech-centric workplace.

    4. Be collaborative

    No person is an island — even if someone is working from one. Each of our colleagues has valuable expertise that we can use to enhance our own work product and meet business goals. Entrepreneurs in particular need to know how to collaborate effectively, especially across diverse and geographically dispersed teams, and actively encourage and facilitate collaboration wherever possible.

    5. Be emotionally intelligent

    Empathy is one of the most critical — yet unsung — entrepreneurial attributes and soft skills there is. It enables one to be mindful of teams in new ways. For example, now it’s important to consider the “whole person” not just who we see at work. Why? Working remotely poses challenges most of us haven’t consistently had to deal with before. Also, it’s important to maintain balance. In certain situations, the in-person workers may have an advantage when it comes to face time with a leader. So, make sure other team members have equal representation, opportunities, and voice.

    Related: 4 Reasons Emotionally Intelligent Leaders Impact the Bottom Line

    6. Be culturally aware

    It is imperative that entrepreneurs are culturally aware when leading a global team. Be mindful of different customs, languages, nuances, rituals,and important dates in each team members’ culture. Lead respectfully, and appreciate the benefits cultural diversity can bring to a team and to the business. It’s easy to offend when unaware, so make an effort to learn, leverage cultural differences to advance goals, and where appropriate, bolster the organizational mission.

    7. Understand the power of etiquette

    At its core, etiquette is about treating people with kindness and respect, two nouns that all entrepreneurs should acquire as they promote and “live” their company’s values. When they develop and consistently deploy etiquette, entrepreneurs can reap myriad benefits. For instance, they can foster a collaborative company culture where diversity and inclusion flourish by ensuring everyone is treated fairly, with dignity, and respect.

    A diverse team deserves to feel safe — even when working remotely — to voice their opinions and suggestions. Even better, that diversity of thought can promote innovation, process changes, and other efficiencies that can improve workflow, operations, and even create new products and services. Everyone on the team should feel included, heard, and valued.

    Mastering these seven soft skills can empower an entrepreneur to reach new business heights. Using respect, gratitude and other soft skills as fuel, entrepreneurs can build happy and productive teams and advance their businesses.

    Under30CEO

    Source link

  • Improve Your Company’s Efficiency with These 5 Strategies | Entrepreneur

    Improve Your Company’s Efficiency with These 5 Strategies | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    A business that operates more efficiently is more likely to be successful in the long term. Your company’s efficiency can increase productivity and give you an advantage in today’s fiercely competitive market. However, this can sometimes be tricky to achieve.

    Due to inefficiencies, companies can lose up to an astounding 30% of their revenue each year. We know how easy it can be to get caught up in the everyday grind, where you do what you have to without reflecting on what can be done with less effort and time, thus allowing things to run much more smoothly.

    Related: 10 Tips to Boost Employee Productivity and Skyrocket Performance

    Efficiency comes down to having the right person do the right thing at the right time. This increases the capacity of the employees and the competitiveness of the business. Efficiency is everyone’s responsibility and an important factor for us to enjoy our workplace.

    There are various methods to help you organize your work to be as efficient as possible. Here are our best tips for how you can improve your company’s efficiency so that you can continue to grow and earn more revenue.

    Conduct a SOC 2 audit

    The SOC2 auditing framework was created by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). It’s a system of controls that provides standards for managing client data in accordance with five trust-based service principles: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.

    Related: This Key Thing Will Make Your Company’s Data Safer and Get You More Customers

    Protecting your company against data breaches is not solely a defensive strategy. It can also help you grow your business and make it more efficient. SOC 2 compliance can give your company an edge and allow you to assure prospects and customers that you have taken all necessary steps to protect their data from any potential breaches.

    A SOC2 audit will help you become more efficient and secure. You can streamline your controls and processes based on your knowledge of cybersecurity risks. This will help you improve the services you provide.

    Improve communication

    Knowing when and how to communicate properly at work helps prevent misunderstandings, increases the sense of well-being in the team and strengthens cooperation. It is also one of the best ways to improve your company’s efficiency. Successful communication in the workplace is about discussing individual tasks, sharing updates on projects or giving feedback to managers or employees.

    Eliminating communication barriers in the workplace is an important part of effective collaboration. If you don’t communicate clearly, you risk creating confusion or even inadvertently hurting someone’s feelings.

    Related: Effective Communication Means Business Success

    Company managers should consider organizing communication training courses at their company. Improving communication skills benefits everyone. There might be times when communication hurdles become too much to handle, but fortunately, there are efficient coaching tools that can help you become more efficient, boost your confidence, help your employees understand new concepts, learn more about themselves, and make positive changes.

    Focus on the most important processes

    Anyone who looks around an ordinary workplace can easily find hundreds of things that could be improved for a more efficient work process: a list that can be created, a meeting that can be held or a routine that can be better defined. But before you put effort into the areas with the best improvement potential, it can be important to think about which processes in your business are vital. Focus on improving the work that contributes to you reaching your goals and leave the rest alone.

    Related: 11 Ways to Automate Your Business and Boost Efficiency

    Automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks you identify as problematic is also an option. This will make your life easier and help you do more work.

    Many tools available today can automate even the most complex administrative tasks. These tools include inventory management systems, attendance and payroll tools, accounting software and so on.

    Clarify responsibilities and roles

    Make sure everyone is clear about who is responsible for important tasks and processes and that each person does what they do best. Unclear responsibilities and the feeling that their skills are not being used can lead to employee dissatisfaction, conflicts and stress. This can, in turn, cause your business operations to be inefficient. Create a culture where differences in employees mean strengths for the team.

    To get there, the key is to encourage teamwork, improve performance, and reinforce roles. Your staff members need to understand their responsibilities and then held accountable for all tasks they perform. You should also recognize their achievements and reward them for doing a good job.

    Explore digital integration

    You can’t maximize your efficiency, no matter how productive and skilled your staff may be if you don’t provide the necessary equipment and digital tools.

    Integrating digital solutions can increase efficiency in many ways. Technology can automate tedious tasks so employees can focus on the things that need priority attention. Not only does digital integration improve collaboration and communication, but it also allows for faster reports to be generated and shared. Your employees can also work more efficiently with each other, and customers and suppliers will greatly benefit as well.

    Under30CEO

    Source link

  • What the Rise and Fall of Crypto Can Teach Us About Managing Distributed Teams | Entrepreneur

    What the Rise and Fall of Crypto Can Teach Us About Managing Distributed Teams | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The crypto industry has had a very exciting and tumultuous run over the past decade. Major corporations were founded using blockchain technology, and the promise of Web3 created a market currently valued at $2.86 billion.

    While many look at the 2022 crypto bust as a strictly monetary pit of doom, there are some very interesting distributed team management lessons to take away from the industry’s six-year bull run. Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) presented a new way to organize teams, new blockchain tools sprung up to enable greater collaboration, and the crypto boom proved that caffeine-fueled nerds can execute common ideas in ways that even Wall Street had trouble understanding.

    Despite the misfallings of the Web3 market, you shouldn’t write these accomplishments off as Web3 fairy dust. Business leaders and innovation-minded entrepreneurs should take note of the outlined workflows and processes that supported the Web3 growth of the last six years. Whether you believe in the underlying technology or not, these lessons provide insights on what entrepreneurs can replicate in the ever-evolving dynamics of team management.

    Related: How DAOS Are Changing Leadership

    What is a DAO?

    One of the most interesting things to come out of the crypto boom — in terms of team management — is the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). A DAO is a democratized organizational structure running on the blockchain network. It is a collective of like-minded people with a shared financial account, working on a shared goal. It is similar to a digital cooperative, but instead of having select leaders on the board, every member has voting rights. DAOs can have equal governance for each member or weighted votes depending on how many tokens each member holds.

    This type of organization presented a new way to organize and manage distributed teams around the world. It utilizes an automated and democratic system that blockchain technology can provide. Let’s dive into some of the management lessons from crypto and Web3 companies, especially DAOs, that can be applied outside the blockchain industry.

    Managing fractional workers

    DAOs succeeded in bringing together thousands (even hundreds of thousands) of anonymous people to achieve a common goal. While this isn’t a realistic or necessary goal for traditional organizations, business leaders can learn a lot about managing fractional workers in the future of work.

    Web3 startups led the industry’s growth vs. established enterprises because they were able to scale up and down easily to rapidly meet the demands of the market. Outside of the Web3 industry, every business is contending more and more with disruptive technologies. You can’t expect your competition to give you six months to build a new team in order to capitalize on a new trend, you need to be able to act quickly.

    Project-based or fractional hiring is a way to rapidly scale to meet new demands while also attracting top talent that is interested in working on a challenging project and doesn’t want to get tied into a long-term agreement.

    Related: How DAOs Can Transform the Business World

    Leveraging peer-to-peer recognition

    Peer-to-peer (P2P) recognition is super important in distributed and remote teams for helping to build culture and accountability and act as an incentive driver beyond monetary compensation.

    Web3 companies did this really well because all data and transactions are publicly recorded on the blockchain and can be accessed by everyone. This ensured all recognition was public, inclusive and decentralized. P2P recognition could also be tied into incentive programs, which leveraged social and monetary recognition. Blockchains and smart contracts go hand-in-hand in promoting transparency and efficiency in governance and management that elicits trust from its members and community. However, every organization can endeavor to become more transparent with their employees and with the public.

    Non-Web3 companies should endeavor to create a similarly transparent and public P2P recognition program. One study found that when an employee is recognized once per month, their employee engagement increases by 43%.

    Offering shared ownership

    Engaging employees and making them feel that they have some ownership in the project is another big driver in the future of work. DAOs achieved this because every member of the DAO was literally invested in the organization. Many companies also experimented with NFTs as a way to unlock benefits or as a reward containing a unique value that is aligned with the brand’s vision, mission and strategy.

    Companies can align their incentives for teams by looking at both the interests of team members and the goals and objectives of the organization. Examples of this can be profit sharing, equity ownership or performance-based incentive or benefit.

    However, monetary incentives aren’t the only way to offer shared ownership. They aren’t even the most important.

    It is more important for today’s workers to feel like they have a voice and some stake in the game. Including employees in the decision-making process (especially during product ideation) and ensuring there is transparency in decision-making goes a long way toward making employees feel included and engaged.

    Distributed decision-making

    Beyond engagement and ownership, distributed decision-making is simply better decision-making. Good leadership involves giving up sole ownership over decisions and valuing inputs from team members, which can lead to better decisions. This concept is built into the structure of a DAO as it directly applies the inputs and votes of all members in the decision-making process.

    Even without DAO, businesses can adopt DAO-inspired procedures such as decentralized and democratic governance that can create a culture of collaboration that empowers distributed teams to be more effective and productive. Distributed decision-making allows you to scale and react faster by leveraging diverse backgrounds and inputs, A/B testing ideas quickly and getting feedback from larger groups.

    Consider adopting a democratized organization, either by gathering smaller teams with like-minded members to achieve certain goals or even company-wide, to forward a singular mission or objective and include team members who believe in the same principles.

    Related: 4 Reasons Decentralized Business Management Is Booming

    We aren’t recommending your organization make the switch to becoming fully decentralized. One of the big things that we see coming in the future for organizational management is the idea of hybrid DAOs, where there’s a melding between traditional business structure supplemented with DAO mechanics.

    While the massive growth of the crypto and Web3 industry changed considerably last year, the principles used to reach those heights are valuable for any organization. Blockchain technology isn’t going anywhere, and companies will have to deal with a much more automated, agile and transparent marketplace full of disruptors going forward. Whether your venture uses blockchain or not, these principles will help you compete in an increasingly decentralized world.

    Cory Hymel

    Source link

  • Pros And Cons Of Leadership Coaching: Is It Right For You Or Your Company? | Entrepreneur

    Pros And Cons Of Leadership Coaching: Is It Right For You Or Your Company? | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Leadership is an important skill, even if you aren’t in an active leadership role. Regardless of what level you are at your company, there will be times you will need to lean on your leadership skills to get you through various projects or situations. What we know for certain about leadership is that everyone is still a student of it and constantly learning how to become better. We often think executives and senior staff have mastered the craft; in reality, they are always learning too.

    One tactic to get better is leadership coaching. There has been much debate on its effectiveness, but it all comes down to the context of the business and the coach trying to help. Here is a guide to help you and your workplace if you are considering getting a leadership coach.

    What is leadership coaching?

    Leadership coaching is a method of teaching to enhance the leadership skills and abilities of executives within a business or organization.

    Related: What True Leadership Is All About

    A results-oriented approach to giving transformational innovation to the firm is the proven outcome of having clever coaching examples and efforts. Whether you are a senior leader, an executive, or someone with a lot of potential, there are many avenues to approach leadership coaching. But, all of it should be for improving your career and performance as a leader.

    How does leadership coaching benefit you?

    Leadership coaching has been proven, thanks to studies within behavioral science. It is considered one of the best ways to create and develop better leaders.

    There are three things to know about leadership coaching:

    • First, it is extremely personalized. It gives the one being coached lots of ownership and accountability over the entire procedure and where it ends up.
    • Second, the personalization of the process makes it applicable to all problems during the learning sessions and to use those lessons in the workplace.
    • Third, coaching allows for sustainable education and a change in behavior.

    Leadership coaching provides a place to address processing emotions like stress and fear. Learning to deal with and utilize these emotions is key to creating a better leader.

    Related: The 7 Things to Look For in a Leadership Development Coach

    What does leadership coaching do for companies?

    Leadership coaching is essential to the continuation of companies. Especially today in the modern age with how fast-paced and competitive it is.

    A leader needs to use many skills to do their job well. This includes:

    • Set clear goals
    • Organization
    • Be the motivation for employees and team members
    • Adapt to rapidly changing occurrences

    And that’s just on a slow day! There is still a great need for a wide variety of different abilities. Having that guidance is what gets leaders to feel empowered and to maximize their potential.

    To create the next leaders of not just the company but of the next generation requires a leadership development program. In these programs, one can learn how to be a leader through one-on-one training focusing on key parts of the job. There are a variety of activities and exercises that are also used to help a leader become a better one.

    What’s great about leadership coaching is that no leader is the same. When wannabe leaders go through these programs, they are learning how they want to personalize their leadership.

    This then has leaders become more effective at work and completing their tasks. It also increases the quality of their style of leadership.

    The challenges of leadership programs

    It is an expensive industry, over $14 billion, according to Under30CEO. However, it has become clear that there are several issues. These include:

    • Leadership programs are not that effective
    • The leadership programs are expensive at the scale that they are.
    • Many programs are not for leaders at different leaders. For example, senior leaders, next-generation leaders, and new leaders.

    It is believed that a lack of context, application to the real world, inadequate measurable results, omission of mid-level executives, and even one-on-one coaching have mild success.

    Conclusion

    Every place you work will have a different leadership and coaching approach. How you approach the matter is up to you. Remember, you get what you take from it.

    If you don’t think your business’s leadership programs are inadequate, use online resources to find more like-minded people, such as yourself, for the answers you seek.

    Under30CEO

    Source link

  • Entrepreneur | Elon Musk Got it All Wrong. Here’s Why Effective Leaders Need to Loosen the Reins

    Entrepreneur | Elon Musk Got it All Wrong. Here’s Why Effective Leaders Need to Loosen the Reins

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    In a flexible, hybrid and remote work environment, many leaders have failed to let go: The Elon Musks of the world are demanding their people come back to the office or else. These leaders worry that without the ability to look over everyone’s shoulders, their employees aren’t working, are quietly quitting or aren’t working on the right things.

    They may feel the need to babysit because they don’t trust their team. But threats and micromanaging don’t work. They haven’t empowered their teams or inspired them with a shared mission. Maybe it’s on them for not building that initial foundational trust.

    It may seem that some jobs “need a babysitting culture,” where people show up, punch a clock and spend the day waiting to leave. They’re just picking up a paycheck. But the reality is that the promise of weekly payments alone can never buy loyalty, nor can it build a team passionate about working together on a shared mission. To create an environment where people love to come to work, leaders need to empower their teams, give autonomy and build a workforce prepared to take on responsibility.

    Related: Empower the Employees Who Will Build an Amazing Culture

    Letting go is more productive

    Giving people the space and autonomy to succeed fuels their fire to achieve more. My first experience with this was with a boss named Ryan in my first post-college job. I still tell him that he was the best boss I ever had. From day one, Ryan would simply ask me to get something done. Then, when the deadline was approaching, he would ask if I had finished. He gave me complete freedom not to do the right thing. I probably could have done the job better, especially with more guidance, but I got it done, and it felt empowering. The experience grew my confidence.

    People want the freedom to be empowered and create success. That’s why people come to work at Quantum: They want that autonomy, and we give it to them. Our people are passionate about their work and have ideas to drive the company to success. I have made the mistake of being involved in the middle of a work task, and I’ve gotten lots of feedback on it. They would rather me just tell them what I want them to achieve and let go. When I empower my team members to rise to their best, they learn to trust me and work harder to achieve our goals in return.

    Related: Why You Need to Stop Micromanaging Your Team and Learn to Let Go

    Put guardrails in place

    Of course, I can’t just let go of every project and hope that everything will be fine: There must be some frameworks and guardrails in place to help, and sometimes we need to get a little closer to the fire. Balancing how and when to step in is critical, especially when things get tough. There have been moments where I have taken tighter reins — a 30-minute daily call to get feedback and adjust. But I asked everyone to let it happen because rarely will I be that leader who gets so deeply involved every time, and they know it. That’s not my management style, so when I have to step in, they know it’s a higher priority and a working discussion that fuels the need to get my hands dirty.

    Elon Musk, on the other hand, is surrounded by smart people passionate about their mission, but his management style is the epitome of a leader who can’t let go. It’s worked for him because he’s detail-oriented and gets minutely involved in everything to ensure success, but micromanagement doesn’t work for most people.

    Instead, we can provide rails or infrastructure to make sure everything is happening as it should. Ensure everyone understands the mission and is aligned around the core objectives before they take off running in the wrong direction. When we know everyone has their sights set on achieving the right outcomes, it’s easier for us as leaders to step back and give them the autonomy they need.

    Related: What Happens When You Empower Employees Instead of Micromanage Them?

    How to build a workforce in a more flexible world

    Especially with so many people working from home, it can be challenging for leaders to know that they’re building the kind of workforce responsible enough to take on autonomy. Creating a workforce that wants to wake up daily and work towards the company’s mission requires certain personal attributes. At Quantum, we look for three core values:

    1. Passion: It’s hard to motivate someone to be passionate, so find people who already love their work. Ask them: “Are you passionate about what you do? Would you push me out of the way and get this done?” I want people who wake up passionate about our company’s mission, and if they ever lose that feeling with our company, I would hope to help them re-ignite that passion or help them find their next job where they could find it again.
    2. Persistence: People can be passionate but not persistent enough to take something across the finish line. A friend of mine is passionate about art, an incredible artist who could be famous, but he struggles with rejection and the persistence needed to keep driving forward. Someone ready for autonomy must be willing to take on rejection, failures and “no’s” to get across the finish line. It’s a top attribute of an entrepreneur, and to have a team of 500 entrepreneurs that will fight through any obstacle is amazing to see in action.
    3. Integrity: If I can get people who are persistent and passionate but can’t act with transparency — being honest with themselves, their peers and our customers — it doesn’t matter how much we win, it won’t be enjoyable. I want to come to work because it’s fun, and when people aren’t telling the truth, I don’t enjoy it; the work becomes much less meaningful.

    Passion, persistence and integrity — I interview every prospective employee and have them tell me what those words mean to them. Their definition and embodiment of those words get them a job at our company, and it becomes an unspoken contract: If they lose any of those values, I would rather they leave and find a place to rediscover them all.

    Elon Musk has the right concept — only work here if you can love my vision — but his “my way or the highway” approach may not work for everyone. Instead, leaders should nurture the trust and autonomy needed to build a team that loves what they do.

    Mario Ciabarra

    Source link

  • This Ukrainian CEO Reveals What it Takes to Sustain a High-Performing Hybrid Team (Even During a War).

    This Ukrainian CEO Reveals What it Takes to Sustain a High-Performing Hybrid Team (Even During a War).

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The last couple of years has been incredibly challenging for businesses worldwide. None were left unaffected by the ongoing crises of global warming, Covid-19, or inflation. When the pandemic hit, it left companies with no other option but to adopt a new hybrid model of work culture. Each of us had to step out of our comfort zone and learn how to master work-from-home quickly.

    Just when we thought the pandemic was over, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine posed a new threat to the world economy and politics. The whole generation of Ukrainian entrepreneurs was now forced to find ways of supporting their businesses and teams regardless of the war. As the CEO of BetterMe, a company headquartered in Ukraine, I can share the experience of how I charge my team with energy and motivation, considering the major crises that keep unfolding around us in Ukraine.

    On the first day of the invasion, I was sure of nothing but one thing: If my team withstood this crisis, the company would keep thriving too. After almost a year of full-scale war, the Ukrainian tech industry is not just surviving — it continues growing day by day. According to data from the National Bank of Ukraine, IT industry export revenues actually increased by 23% year-on-year during the first six months of 2022 to reach $3.74 billion. Our teams stay strong and motivated despite the power outages, the mental health burden and the neverending bad news that the war brings daily. How is that possible?

    Related: Russia-Ukraine War And What It Is Doing To Businesses And Consumers

    Ralph Emerson once said, “Every great institution is the lengthened shadow of a single man.” Even if Emerson hinted at the leader, I believe the company is an extension of everyone who works there. If your team shares common goals and values with your business, it will withstand any storm coming its way.

    Values matter: How to motivate better performance in the workplace

    Company-wide and individual employee values should sync to achieve the best results on both sides. Such alignment makes them equals, working together towards one common goal. More than that, the company needs to know how to channel these values. If the candidates are aware of these values during the interview, they’ll know whether this company is a good match for them too.

    As a result, a value-united team will share a sense of mission they strive to achieve together. For example, at BetterMe, we aspire to make a healthy lifestyle available to millions of people worldwide. Our mission is creating happiness from within, which spreads not only to our users but also to our team. People are our greatest value, so we prioritized caring for them when the war knocked on our doors.

    Helping others became our team’s biggest motivation and value in 2022. We thought of ways we could support people, our fellow Ukrainians, at the time of this nationwide crisis. On the second day of the war, we opened free access to BetterMe: Health Coaching and BetterMe: Mental Health for all Ukrainians. Even though it was a challenging task, the team saw its tremendous value for the people and worked hard to make it happen. We had numerous volunteer initiatives throughout the year, including holding donation events or launching a charity sportswear collection to raise funds. We stay on track because everyone on the team is strongly motivated to contribute to others’ wellbeing and keep helping those affected by the war.

    Building a strong team starts with hiring the right people

    But great teams aren’t created when the crisis hits — this process starts much earlier. According to recent research, a bad hire isn’t only bad for the team but can also cost a company $15,000 on average. That’s why we practice bar-raising: It’s a great tool to cut unnecessary costs and ensure we hire the right people. This practice applies to the last interview stage, aiming to “scan” a person and see if they align with the company’s values.

    In the interview process, our C-level employees can ask the candidate anything from how they would act in various imaginary scenarios to how they envision their professional growth in the future. These questions can clarify their motivation, values and professional potential.

    Hearing their answers, your employee can assess whether this person is a good fit for your company. Bar-raising can bring you closer to that employee-company match and guarantee successful long-term relationships. Hiring “your” people creates stronger teams and companies that can deal with any crisis.

    What to do when a crisis puts your values on hold

    A crisis is only dangerous to the extent it affects your team’s wellbeing. Evolutionarily, a situation of danger puts all humans into a fight-or-flight mode, evoking our basic survival instincts and making everything else insignificant. Because how can one remain productive and motivated on a falling plane?

    When a plane is about to take off, all passengers hear instructions: “Put on your oxygen mask first before helping others.” This rule applies to business perfectly: Prioritize your wellbeing to help your clients later. Taking care of your team first is crucial to getting your company back on track as quickly as possible. When the full-scale invasion started, I instantly prioritized the safety and security of our team and their families. After helping with the evacuation, we encouraged our team to stay on track with our mental health app, regular sports, online English lessons, drawing, and planting masterclasses, floral design classes etc. Despite continuing to work hybrid, regular activities provided stability for our team in times of uncertainty.

    Related: Back-to-Office: Why Putting Employees First Will Be Your Best Business Move

    In some cases, hybrid work culture can even contribute to a sense of belonging in the workplace. For example, an online initiative can unite people who work remotely and make them feel like they’re all doing a part in a significant project together. In our case, we organized a Vyshyvanka Day flashmob when everyone recorded a short video wearing their piece of national garment and singing our national song, which lifted the whole team’s spirits. Under the company’s care and guidance, the team performance will gradually improve as everyone learns to adapt and manage stress better. The good news is — you’re all in this together.

    In times of crises and instability, businesses start seeing what matters the most. People are the company’s most important value: Whoever wins the talent race can scale better and faster than their competitors. By implementing these practices, you can get ahead in this race; strengthen and motivate the team to deliver results amidst the crisis. I know that a sense of shared mission and values in my team keeps our company thriving, even when the power outages hit Kyiv again.

    And remember: Any crisis coming your way is both a test and an exceptional opportunity for growth. It only matters how you handle it.

    Victoria Repa

    Source link

  • How to Coexist With a Business Partner to Build an Empire

    How to Coexist With a Business Partner to Build an Empire

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Thinking about the business partnership phenomenon, I remembered the movie The Mighty.

    The story centers on two teenagers: Max, a silent and clumsy giant, and Kevin, nicknamed “Freak,” a small, clever boy who moved on crutches due to an illness. They were constantly mocked and bullied at school. After another incident, the boys decided to fight back against their classmates by uniting into a giant knight. Climbing onto Max’s shoulders, Kevin became the mastermind behind which the stocky giant smashed the attackers.

    Moving from the literal to the metaphorical, The Mighty remains one of my most essential collaboration films. It reveals the most crucial part of the partnership, which I call the multiplication of talents. Let’s break this down and a few more essentials of effectively managing a business partnership.

    Related: Everything You Need to Know About Business Partnerships

    1. Distribute responsibilities

    If two people manage the company, and both have the same vision of plans for development or getting out of this or that situation, it makes no sense. Each of you shouldn’t have to do everything — you should concentrate on your primary skills.

    Another managing partner of our holding and I have different competencies. For example, I am an economist by profession. I look for investors and bring companies to new markets. I mostly lead our projects in Europe and Asia because I have worked in these markets for more than 10 years.

    On the other hand, my business partner deals with strategic planning. He lives in the U.S. and mostly manages our projects there. He is a computer systems engineer by profession, which is one reason his favorite projects are technology-based.

    What do we get from such a division of responsibilities? First, we are building a diversified holding of multi-vector assets, thanks to which the business is becoming more and more sustainable. Second, this is a more convenient way to manage a team: Employees at all levels understand who to go to with which question. And third, this is how we maintain the proper distance and do not micromanage or excessively control each other. Development requires space, so we give it to each other.

    Our cooperation is built on the “do what works best” principle. And it does work: The holding grows from year to year.

    Related: 8 Critical Considerations for Choosing the Right Business Partner

    2. Don’t “hog the blanket”

    A business partnership somewhat resembles a marital relationship. It is important for partners to understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses and how they will deal with them.

    If both partners are unable to let go of control or admit their weaknesses, they will almost 100% “hog the blanket” from each other — that is, they compete to take over most of the powers without taking into account the interests of the partner. But in competition, partners weaken each other and the joint project.

    The signals partners give to employees, especially the CEO, are very important. C-level managers perceive the struggle between founders as a standard of relations in the company and a model of managing subordinates. If you see that your employees lack independence in decision-making, it is often due to the example they follow.

    The ideal version of a business relationship is that your partner is equal in strength and scale of personality and differs in habits and ideas. Based on our partnership experience, I know that sometimes the air between you can get electrified, but the best solutions are born in such friction.

    Related: 3 Steps to Creating Powerful Business Partnerships

    3. Give your partner the right to make a mistake

    “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan,” said John F. Kennedy. In a business relationship, partners must be responsible for each other’s decisions. If they blame each other for bad decisions, they will not last long together. Failures should be a reason to jointly review the strategy and work on mistakes.

    Punctures and unsuccessful investments are constant companions of entrepreneurs. About two dozen startups that my partner and I invested in burned down. If we quarreled after every failure, we would not have built a large international business.

    It takes time to develop the right attitude toward failure. We used to fight for every startup, but we have become more pragmatic with time. If quarterly reports do not match, market indicators have fallen, and there are no conscious growth forecasts — we decide to shut down such a business.

    Related: The 4 Key Tenets of Every Successful Partnership

    4. Enjoy your collaboration

    Partners can be an effective team and make good money together. But it is equally important how they feel in the process and this relationship.

    The satisfaction of working together is the glue of partnerships. Admiration for a partner’s talents and the pleasure of cooperation can save a business even in hard times. The ability to enjoy signals security and therefore the ability to trust. Trust is built through mutual support in upheavals, sincerity, and attentiveness to the person you are doing business with.

    You should be able to have fun together. I have been very lucky with my partner because it is interesting to discuss new books and research with him and debate the vector of development of our projects. And since we argue quite often, it is crucial that the shared emotional ground is solid.

    All the nuances of partner interaction are directly reflected in the business. There is a lot of personal stuff in a productive business partnership, and emotional comfort weighs no less than the number of deals or the value of common assets. At the same time, mature partnerships are not a gift from heaven but daily joint work. I hope the principles I have shared will help you make this work easier and more fun.

    Oleg Krot

    Source link

  • The 4 Most Toxic People at Work—And How To Handle Them

    The 4 Most Toxic People at Work—And How To Handle Them

    Most of us work with a jerk—toxic people who seem hellbent on making our lives, well, hell.

    But here’s the good news: You don’t have to be completely beholden to their poisonous ways. It turns out toxic coworkers often operate by the same tired playbook. And once you identify and understand what type of work jerk you’re dealing with, you’ll have more ammo to neutralize them.

    In her book, Jerks at Work: Toxic Coworkers and What to Do About Them, NYU psychology professor, Tessa West, lays out some of the most common archetypes of toxic coworkers and then offers strategies for confronting them and taking back your peace of mind.

    Here are four common foes.

    Related: 12 Ways Successful People Handle Toxic People

    1. The Kiss Up/Kick Downer

    These poisonous people have one singular goal: “To climb to the top by any means necessary,” West says.

    Kiss Up/Kick Downers (KUKDs) operate strategically. They mistreat or sabotage the people on their level or below them while simultaneously ingratiating themselves with the higher-ups. KUKDs can make themselves look like team players to the executives, even though everyone else knows they’re anything but.

    “They tend to be comfortable with this notion that it’s okay to step on other people to get ahead,” says West.

    These coworkers belittle you in front of people you’re trying to impress but shmooze with the high-power people at company parties. They insulate themselves from criticism by convincing the boss that they’re a valuable addition to the company.

    “These people are really tough to beat because if you complain to your boss, they will either just ignore you and tell you to suck it,” West says.

    How to handle: There is strength in numbers. Find another target(s) of the KUKDer and make them an ally. “The more people you can find that have been victimized to even just document what happened, the better,” says West.

    Once you have some allies, ask them if they are willing to speak with the boss. Also, be sure to collect some well-documented and researched data.

    “Then when you go to your boss to complain about them, you wanna lead with the strength that person has, acknowledging what they’re good at, and then from there, you wanna convince your boss that the problem is widespread enough that they should care,” West says.

    2. The Bulldozer

    Bulldozers have two trademark moves, according to West. First, they completely take over any group decision-making process, such as making it impossible to get a word in edgewise at a meeting. Second, they target weak bosses and bully them into submission.

    Unlike KUKDs, they’re not subtle. They don’t hide their aggressive behavior—they overwhelm everyone with it.

    “Bulldozers don’t complain to the boss. They go to the boss’s boss,” West says. “They’re scary to bosses, and bosses don’t wanna stand up to them.”

    How to handle: Pick your battles. Bulldozers love to fight, and you’re not going to win every confrontation. West recommends asking yourself if the bulldozer’s actions are making your life hell in the short term or long term. “I only take on bulldozers whose behaviors only impact the big stuff,” she says.

    Once you decide to confront a bulldozer, you’ll need a team game plan before the bulldozer even starts bulldozing. For example, if you know a bulldozer is going to interrupt a meeting, “it’s up to your team to plan how you’re gonna prevent that from happening, especially if you have a weak boss,” says West.

    To learn more about the psychology behind toxic coworkers, listen to my interview with Tessa West on the Write About Now podcast.

    3. The Micromanager

    Seventy-nine percent of people surveyed say they have been micromanaged at some point in their careers, according to West.

    Micromanagers oversee everything you do—from how you sign off on your emails to how you schedule your day.

    “They’re very bad at knowing who needs a little bit of extra attention and who’s fine on their own,” says West. “The irony is that they work the hardest, but they get the least done because they’re constantly trying to oversee every little step their employees do.”

    West has seen micromanagers creep up on her google docs as she’s typing.

    How to handle: Make an effort to keep the micromanager in the loop, no matter how annoying that may be.

    Explains West, “Micromanagers tend to do it the most when they feel anxious and uncertain that they’re not doing enough. But the structure of short, frequent meetings, where they get check-in lists of what you said you were gonna do what you actually did, can help actually decrease a lot of their anxiety.”

    4. The Gaslighter

    Perhaps the most sinister of toxic coworkers, the gaslighter deceives you on a grand scale, often by creating an alternative reality. The gaslighter also cuts you off from other coworkers, isolating you by making you feel like you’re part of something special or, even worse, destroying your sense of self-worth.

    “Most of us think of a gaslighter as someone who’s trying to destroy us,” says West. “But often it’s the case that what they do is they make you feel privileged like you are the only person who gets this. You’re an insider. You know things other people don’t.”

    Unfortunately, the gaslighter has no interest in seeing you succeed—their only goal is to have power and control over you. People unknowingly gaslit may perpetuate or protect their toxic coworker’s dishonesty or theft at work.

    How to handle: Beware of the tell-tale signs. Gaslighters often try to cut you off from having everyday interactions with people at work. They’ll try to convince you not to have coffee or go to drinks with coworkers.

    They’ll also discourage relationships with other leaders at the company, saying cruel things like these people make fun of you behind your back.

    West says getting out of the grips of a gaslighter is like “freeing yourself from a spider’s web.” She recommends documenting everything (writing it down, taking pictures, recording your concerns) that is said and done that doesn’t feel right. “These small records will become invaluable when you’re ready to open up to other people.”

    She also suggests building up your social network little by little. “The most important step you need to take when confronting a gaslighter is the very thing your gaslighter spent months conditioning you to be afraid of—turning to other people for help,” she says.

    Jonathan Small

    Source link

  • 5 Team Management Secrets From a Serial Entrepreneur

    5 Team Management Secrets From a Serial Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    I have built several businesses in my life, and my foremost task has always been to assemble a primary team to set the foundation for the main business processes. Skilled professionals that care about what they are doing and are dedicated to ensuring the success of whatever venture you’re undertaking. After all, 80-90% of your business success depends on having the right people with you.

    Related: 10 Time-Tested Secrets of Serial Entrepreneurs

    Role delegation

    My first task when launching a new business is finding the “right” people so the team can scale in size and skill. My second order of business is to find someone who can handle the bulk of management for me. After that is taken care of, I can step aside and only get involved in strategic development as a founder. I went through this model several times in my life, and it has proved itself invaluable.

    Scaling a business from 20-30 employees to 50-100 is a massive milestone in the career of all entrepreneurs. For big and medium-sized businesses, management delegation is essential. Instead of trying to control everything to the last detail, better results can be obtained by finding a team of competent professionals that can provide in-depth focus on specific tasks and branches of the company.

    Related: 7 Rules for Entrepreneurs to Delegate Effectively

    More brain power

    In any organization, there will always be contrasting views and opinions, and the task of a wise CEO is to put together a creative team that can generate the best ideas. Business models shouldn’t be set in stone but should shift and change based on the circumstances in which a company operates. The world is constantly evolving, so blindly following a rigid business model risks leading a company to bankruptcy.

    Paying attention to the team’s ideas is needed to maintain a creative spirit and dynamic business model. When a rational, well-reasoned idea is proposed that does not radically contradict the company values, a good founder has no reason to oppose its implementation.

    Effective crisis management

    When the business is running stable, and profits are going up, founders can take a step back and provide general guidance for the company in its growth while leaving the management details to subordinates. However, during a crisis, founders should return their focus to overseeing company operations directly and dedicating themselves to solving the situation.

    I experienced this firsthand: before I started Crypterium, which is now Choise.com, I was CEO of a company engaged in the processing business. At one point, it became apparent that this market did not have excellent prospects, so we needed to reorganize and find a new direction to develop in. My idea was to build a business in the crypto space.

    Together with the team, we applied our expertise and evolved into a crypto bank. A lot of effort went in, and the process was not easy, but thanks to the combined effort, we were successful and have significantly developed.

    Related: 7 Outdated Habits That Will Paralyze Your Business

    Diversity is a virtue

    Diversity is a virtue in business. Regardless of what type of business we’re talking about, there should always be a mix of different competencies. This is especially true for startups in emerging spaces such as fintech. This market often moves so fast and unpredictably that a diverse team is needed to always stay on top of the newest changes.

    Successful teams combine different competencies and skills to develop the company’s potential most efficiently. It is essential that each position suits the team members’ characters, for example, reliable and responsible lawyers, honest financiers, daring marketers, creative designers, proactive sales managers, and so on.

    Related: Be Intentional About Diversity

    An inclusive workspace

    Our team has always been open to people with different backgrounds and views. It is essential that team members feel comfortable at work to avoid a toxic environment that is detrimental to the company’s goals.

    However, a set of shared values is needed to unite a diverse team of different characters, nationalities, and viewpoints. That’s where corporate culture steps in, combining very different mentalities with values common to the whole company

    To summarize

    Some founders often make the error of being too much of a perfectionist and always wanting to have everything under direct control, no matter how unsustainable the workload is. However, effective team management is a must-have for any entrepreneur on a quest to scale his business. Building a team of target-focus professionals is essential for any entrepreneur with a substantially big company. Remember, no one can do it alone.

    Vladimir Gorbunov

    Source link

  • 7 Tips to Manage a Fully Remote International Business

    7 Tips to Manage a Fully Remote International Business

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    More companies are ditching the overhead costs of dedicated office spaces and unlocking global growth opportunities by transitioning to a fully remote business operation.

    While the potential benefits are significant, business leaders will face various challenges. Follow these tips to manage your fully remote company better.

    Related: 7 Outdated Habits That Will Paralyze Your Business

    1. Clearly define your mission and vision

    Steering a company in a strategic direction is challenging when everyone is located within the same building, and it is even harder for fully remote organizations.

    A clearly defined and adequately communicated mission and vision are vital for every successful remote business as this serves as a roadmap to guide the actions of every employee and the organization.

    If your employees connect with your mission and vision, everyone understands what they are working towards, how the company plans to get there, and what is expected from them. This unified vision is increasingly essential in an organization characterized by diverse backgrounds, cultures and languages.

    2. Don’t think local. Think global

    A fully remote business gives you access to new markets and a global customer base and opens up opportunities to tap into global talent pools.

    Don’t fall into the trap of keeping your hiring strategies and recruitment drives contained to home markets.

    For example, despite an ample supply of English-speaking Eastern European teachers, when Novakid was ready to launch, the founders looked for native English speakers from across the globe via Facebook groups.

    Building a globally distributed workforce enabled the business to expand into new markets with teachers in each region rapidly. This approach also created a pool of non-native English-speaking tutors who are highly proficient in the language but offer services at a lower cost to the company.

    Furthermore, offering classes with bilingual teachers from different regions created unique opportunities for students to experience diverse cultures and accents, which became a competitive differentiator for the company.

    A globally distributed workforce also provides additional benefits, such as better business continuity and diverse thinking, which can drive innovation and greater organizational agility.

    Related: Are Fully-Remote Businesses the Future?

    3. Build a company culture based on accountability

    The lack of direct oversight of employee time often causes concern for business leaders as their company transitions from a brick-and-mortar operation to a fully remote business. While keeping a tight rein on working hours is tempting, it is vital that every remote business finds the balance between flexibility and accountability. Rigid rules and set working hours can stifle innovation and complicate working arrangements.

    Instead, give employees the flexibility to structure their workdays around their individual needs, circumstances and preferences. The key is to set clear expectations regarding outputs and deliverables rather than tightly monitoring their inputs.

    Employees who understand this dynamic will have the discipline to manage their time effectively to complete their work tasks while also getting to the personal things they plan for their day — be it a family time or an exercise session.

    4. Empower your employees to act independently

    Building a company culture based on values like trust, honesty, discipline, courage, integrity and curiosity are the ingredients for a thriving remote international business.

    Over time, this gives employees the courage to take the initiative, make decisions, solve problems independently and, ultimately, take responsibility for their actions and outcomes when they don’t have direct access to management or colleagues. And waiting for feedback via online collaboration tools can also create bottlenecks that slow implementation and reduce organizational agility.

    As such, successful remote organizations give staff the autonomy to make their own decisions and the space they need to be brave.

    Fostering a culture of trust nurtures other positive traits within a remote workforce, such as curiosity, bravery, innovative thinking and bold experimentation. The freedom and confidence to explore, develop and try new methodologies and new ways of working can create a competitive advantage for your organization.

    This environment also supports a trend known as the “culture of everyone,” where employees become responsible for their development and learning paths. This is a powerful tool to boost employee motivation and satisfaction and can serve as an effective way to attract and retain talent.

    5. Prioritize talent and experience

    A key element in my company’s success as a remote international business has been our preference for hiring people with expertise and experience. While some companies prefer hiring junior people and developing them internally to keep salary costs low, this is not always the most appropriate option for remote organizations.

    The time and resources this approach requires often comes with an opportunity cost. And a junior person with no experience has to learn a lot. However, the nature of remote work means that managers cannot always provide the access and availability needed to quickly get junior staff up to speed.

    Bringing in people with expertise and experience means you get staff who can self-manage and work with freedom while delivering the quality outputs they require.

    6. Implement technologies that help employees

    Technology offers the ideal solution to transcend the geographic boundaries and time zones that remote international companies deal with daily.

    Online productivity tools like Slack create clear communication channels for different goals and purposes while supporting collaboration between dispersed teams and different workstreams.

    Video conferencing tools are another indispensable tool. They ensure that remote companies maintain interpersonal face-to-face interactions, which are vital to building rapport and conveying meaning beyond verbal or written communication. These interpersonal interactions are also important to transmit corporate culture.

    Productivity management tools provide managers with insights into workforce efficiency and outputs. The resultant analytics can help identify improvement areas or highlight workflows or processes that need refinement.

    7. Champion internal communication

    Fully remote international businesses require the appropriate tools, processes and procedures to drive clear and concise organization-wide communication and foster collaboration among employees in remote teams.

    Remote teams must frequently communicate transparently and correctly, regardless of the channel. Management and leadership must ensure they can effectively convey their messages to the right targets.

    Effective communication fosters trust through transparency and ensures remote employees clearly understand their tasks, roles and responsibilities.

    Creating multiple channels for staff to give their feedback and opinions, ask questions, share ideas, profile great work or simply voice their concerns allows remote workers to communicate their value and makes them feel heard and empowered.

    Related: Maintaining a Collaborative Culture in a Hybrid and Remote World

    Max Azarov

    Source link

  • Cheaters Are Everywhere. To Survive, Leaders Must Stay One Step Ahead.

    Cheaters Are Everywhere. To Survive, Leaders Must Stay One Step Ahead.

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Good gracious, chess savant Hans Niemann (allegedly) cheat in more than 100 matches? That seems to be what the chess community and reigning chess champ Magnus Carlsen are insinuating. Apparently, it’s not just the chess world that’s fallen victim to a cheating scandal. The fishing community has been rocked after it was recently revealed that lead weights were used to overstate the size of a fish caught in a Lake Erie contest. When will this insanity end?

    The fact is that it will never end. Cheating is as American as apple pie. I know this because I’ve been running a small business for more than 25 years. And when you run a small business for that long, you get used to people who cheat you out of money or in business. They’re everywhere and on both sides of the business.

    It’s the woman in California who allegedly embezzled more than a million bucks from her employer. Or another woman in Pennsylvania who was accused of stealing $2 million from her employer’s credit card. Let’s also give a shout-out to the bookkeeper from Albuquerque who is thought to have stolen $175 thousand from her employer and another bookkeeper in Rhode Island who was ordered to pay $600 thousand that she pilfered from her employer. Oh, and let’s not forget the ex-Apple employee that was charged with theft, taking kickbacks and money laundering to the tune of $10 million. Or the administrator at the Yale School of Medicine, who pleaded guilty to taking more than $40 million. Yes, $40 million.

    But it doesn’t end with employees. Some business owners can’t be trusted, either.

    Like the restaurant owner in New York’s Hudson Valley who was convicted of torching his business for the insurance money. Or the Missouri restaurant owner — and many others — who allegedly defrauded the government out of Paycheck Protection Program funds. There’s the diner in Pennsylvania and the BBQ joint in Texas that cheated (allegedly in the BBQ place’s case) its employees out of their tips. And another guy in Hudson Valley (is there something in the water there?) that was sentenced for defrauding prospective franchisees of his bagel company. And then there’s the restaurant owner in Connecticut who was convicted and the auto shop owner in Florida who was accused of cheating on their taxes.

    Related: Confessions of a Cheating Nation: One in Four Have Stolen From Their Employers

    These are just a few of the stories that actually made it to the media over the past few months. But you and I know that we’re just scratching the surface. There are cheating employees who steal office supplies and inventory and take sick days when they’re not actually sick. There are cheating business owners who defraud the government, overbill their customers, negotiate in bad faith with their suppliers and promise their employees compensation that they never have any intention of paying. A lot of this stuff never makes the news. A lot of this stuff is going on right now. A lot of the people doing this stuff never get caught.

    It’s not just Hans Niemann who cheats. There are cheaters everywhere. And anyone who has run a business for a period of time will confirm that. It’s a fact of life. So here’s some advice: Don’t waste your time getting upset, angry or frustrated. You’ll never stop the cheating. But you can minimize the financial impacts on your business. How?

    Related: ‘Lying and Cheating to Get Money’: Elizabeth Holmes Trial Begins in California

    Start by requiring people in financial positions to take time off multiple times a year — because cheating bookkeepers get found out when they’re not around. Make sure you’re segregating financial duties, so the same person who’s handling cash isn’t handling the books or invoicing. Require multiple signatures and multi-factor authentication on your bank account and get notices whenever certain transactions are completed. Have someone outside your company do the bank reconciliations because another set of eyes often sees things. Lock up your office supplies and inventory. Install security cameras. Pay attention to your general ledger and financial statements and question anything that seems out of the ordinary. Trust your people, but verify. Don’t be cynical, but be realistic.

    And what about you? Are you cheating on your taxes? Your customers? Your suppliers? Here’s some news for you: people know. They can tell. Word gets around. And if you are behaving this way, then I can guarantee that you’re not running a very successful, sustainable business because ethical business people don’t do business with unethical people. And business is all about trust. And reputation. There’s no question that you’re losing out on deals, projects and customers. I know it. And so do you.

    Cheaters are going to cheat. Even chess players and fishermen. Even your employees. But not you. When you’re a business owner, there are plenty of reasons to lose sleep at night. But you can minimize your losses from your cheating employees. And you can rest a little bit easier if you’re able to look at yourself in the mirror each morning.

    Gene Marks

    Source link

  • Beverage Consulting Firm Enliven Appoints Tim Harms CEO

    Beverage Consulting Firm Enliven Appoints Tim Harms CEO

    Press Release
    –

    Feb 23, 2022


    NASHVILLE, Tenn., February 23, 2022 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Enliven, the nation’s leading beverage partnership consulting firm, today announces the appointment of Tim Harms as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. Bringing distinctive leadership and experience to the helm, Mr. Harms is set to lead the company as it expands into new areas of strategic growth. Mr. Harms succeeds Tim Richardson, Founder and current Chief Executive Officer who will transition to Chair of the Board.

    Mr. Harms is a seasoned executive with more than a decade of senior leadership in the consulting and beverage industries. Before joining the Enliven team in 2013 as an Account Executive, he provided advisory and assurance services at Deloitte. He was promoted to Managing Director in 2015 and has worked to help Enliven’s clients create innovative, win-win beverage partnerships which deliver results directly to their bottom line. Under his purview, Enliven has grown revenue by nearly 300%, expanded into international markets, and launched new service offerings.

    “I am excited to lead such a strong and innovative organization that is a champion for its customers,” said Tim Harms, Chief Executive Officer of Enliven. “Like many sectors, food service has faced significant challenges caused by the effects of COVID 19. Our customers are facing shifting consumer habits, changes in customer traffic and behavior, as well as labor shortages and supply chain bottlenecks. In the midst of these headwinds, we are here to help our clients navigate for the future with solutions that have a material impact on their business. We thoughtfully create partnerships that are greater than the sum of the parts and yield real value for years to come. We’re honored that our customers have come to rely on us for this partnership.”

    Enliven specializes in helping customers manage and negotiate exclusive pouring rights contracts with the major beverage companies. Each of its divisions is led by a seasoned practice leader and a deep bench of talent who bring unrivaled expertise and capabilities to the table when negotiating on behalf of clients. Enliven has delivered more than one billion dollars in savings to its clients. Most recently it secured major contracts in the amusement park, healthcare, and restaurant industries. The company is strategically expanding, adding additional practice verticals in entertainment, retail, and convenience.

    “I am pleased to welcome Tim Harms as CEO,” said Tim Richardson, Founder of Enliven. “He is a visionary leader and has demonstrated significant skill and understanding of the needs of our customers. Tim is dedicated to delivering outstanding results while acutely understanding the nuances of beverage deal negotiation with the top players in the market. I am particularly grateful for his talent for creating and nurturing an outstanding company culture that prioritizes personal growth and professional development. With his appointment, we are well positioned to propel Enliven into the next phase of its evolution.”

    About Enliven
    Enliven negotiates and manages best-in-class, exclusive pouring rights agreements (beverage deals) for its customers. The company services clients in key sectors including healthcare, food service, hospitality, aviation, convenience, and entertainment. It provides mission critical business intelligence to financial and supply chain executives and has delivered more than one billion dollars in savings to its clients through its negotiated beverage programs. Enliven’s dedicated team of industry experts takes a hands-on approach to extracting long-term value and winning results for its clients. For more information visit www.EnlivenLLC.com. 

    Media Contact: 
    Angela Palmieri
    press@enlivenpartnership.com

    Source: Enliven LLC

    Source link