Five Steps to Increase the People Power in Your Business

Take some bold steps and help your employees and business partners open up to real change and help them start thinking again to the longer term. Send a message that you are ready to commit to new ways of thinking and that that includes a commitment to the success of your employees in the changing workplace.

1. Reconsider your company vision.

A vision statement uses the future to help analyze the present. It must have a message that everyone from the CEO to the receptionist to your freelance workers can understand and put into practice daily. Vision is the match that lights the fire of potential in people. To do its job, a vision must be long-term, meaningful in a human context and appeal to a higher purpose. Make several drafts of your vision and circulate them to people who's opinion you value inside your company and out.

Ask yourself and others these questions:

Does our vision lead to action?

What will your customers be looking for from your company?

Can you live with this vision? Are you willing to act in accordance with it even if times get rough?

2. Devote more time to the management of people power.

People issues only seem to capture our full attention during times of crisis. Give them the time they deserve by setting up regular monthly staff meetings to discuss HR issues only.

Try this exercise: Managers rate the effectiveness of each employee on a simple scale from one to ten. Employees you rate 4 or below are clearly not making it in your workplace. Take action to move them within the company or help them move out of the company within the next 30 days. Employees you rate 8 or higher should have ongoing leadership development plans - they are your superstars. Spend more time with these people than any others. Make sure they know how you think about them and put them in coaching programs to be sure they continue to develop.

3. Start a 360 degree performance review process.

Have employees reviewed not only by their supervisor, but by their peer group as well. Make these reviews optional for the first year, but mandatory for employees who want to be considered for promotions.

A Caveat: It takes at least 6 months of preparation to introduce a 360 degree review process effectively. Show employees the evaluation materials you intend to use up front. Train employees how to accept negative feedback by giving them a system to take it in and process it before reacting. Also train employees to give feedback that is work-related and objective with factual examples not feelings.

4. Have the employees review the company.

Ask employees to hold the company up against its own standards. Do this survey annually and check the trend over time.

Ask yourself and others these questions:

Does the company walk the talk of its vision and values? Are management employees role models for ethical behavior? Do you take short-cuts with safety? Do you encourage honesty in reporting or do you shoot the messenger?

5. Create action plans for each individual tied to your vision.

Make a direct connection between employee actions and the company vision.

Consider this process:

1. Develop a more specific mission statement from your overall vision, by defining your focus to what markets you are serving and balancing your commitments to quality, value, and service.

2. Determine the factors key to your company's success and focus on specific, but long-term, goals in these areas.

3. Create annual corporate objectives related to your goals.

4. Have each department manager develop department objectives derived from the corporate objectives.

5. Post the results of 1-4 and ask each employee to develop individual objectives related to his or her department's objectives.

About The Author

Jan B. King is the former President & CEO of Merritt Publishing, a top 50 woman-owned and run business in Los Angeles and the author of Business Plans to Game Plans: A Practical System for Turning Strategies into Action (John Wiley & Sons, 2004). She has helped hundreds of businesses with her book and her ebooks, The Do-It-Yourself Business Plan Workbook, and The Do-It-Yourself Game Plan Workbook. See www.janbking.com for more information.

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the byline is included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

janbking0191@sbcglobal.net

---

Lower the Bar

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." Ralph Waldo EmersonI'm... Read More

Management & Leadership - Doing it right in the 21st Century

The Old Way ? Command and ControlAlthough workplaces and management... Read More

7 Strategies for Sustained Innovation

The need for constant reinvention is a given in today's... Read More

Problems with Group Decision Making

DECISION BY AUTHORITY RULE: Many groups start out with-or quickly... Read More

Its All About The Customers, Baby

If you want to ensure a steady stream of customers... Read More

How Can A Communications Audit Help You?

Organizations communicate in two directions: internally to staff and externally... Read More

Increasing the Return on Your Training Investment

Insightful leaders and organizations recognize that training is a valuable... Read More

Four Steps to Better Performance Reviews

Direct reports-people who need direction and leadership-rely on their leaders... Read More

Change Management: Avoid Havoc In Very Uncertain Times

Escalating gas prices...tensions and turmoil in the Middle East...a struggling... Read More

How Bad Communication Can Hold You Back and How to Break Free of It

The reason jobs are often not done right and employees... Read More

Hiring Productive Employees: A Checklist for Assessing Their Appeal

The characteristics of job applicants have a strong influence on... Read More

Management Apathy

I recently received a most interesting phone call.When I answered... Read More

Leadership Skills Means Turnover is Not a Problem

"Ha!" you say. "For someone to make a statement like... Read More

Cheat Sheet; Understanding The MSDS and Your Obligations In The Workplace To Employees

MSDS SHEETSMSDS stands for Material Safety Data Sheets. MSDS sheets... Read More

The 3rd Plan Missing from your Business

If you're like most people, you probably started with wonderful... Read More

Top 10 Things Every Business Should Provide for Every Worker - Including the Boss!

Doing business and meeting the needs of workers is increasingly... Read More

Human Resource Communication Pays Off

Human Resource Communications and Corporate Communications ? are they one... Read More

Enable Continuous Improvement of IT Services through ITIL

One of the major benefits, if not THE benefit of... Read More

Take Control of Your Paper in 3 Easy Steps

Do you have piles of paper on your desk. Many... Read More

The Rise of Corporate Chair Massages

Employers have rapidly begun to understand the importance of stress... Read More

Classifying Motivational Needs

While there exist several useful definitions of motivation, for our... Read More

Innovation Management ? Rigorous data analysis

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Innovation Management: Radical Innovation

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Improving Your Inter-Company Communications At No Cost

It's all very well having a flashy (and expensive) advertising... Read More

The Death Spiral

Sometimes things just happen. Maybe we lose focus and take... Read More

Building Bridges of Communication

Building a 'bridge of understanding' between parties is... Read More

Using Outlook to Count Responses

Here's a productivity tip that will save you a lot... Read More

Planning a Productive Retreat

What value is there in leadership or team-building retreats? Just... Read More

Top Ten Things About Creating a Business Vision

To visualise where you are going, is deeper and more... Read More

Travel the World - for Free!

I have been very fortunate to travel to several countries... Read More

How to Say No

Rejection hurts. No one likes to give it or to... Read More

Coaching Champions at Work

I saw Brian Kerr (the Irish national football coach) on... Read More

Success: A Wholistic Perspective

The world has always been mixed with the... Read More