Four Tips To Prevent and Handle Workplace Conflict
One out of five people working in every office is a pain. Look around. If the next four people you see are great folks, it could be you. Okay, I made up that statistic and if you’re reading my tips, there’s a good chance you care about your workplace and you’re probably not the source of conflict. However, even among otherwise amiable people, conflicts arise. It’s part of life. In fact, when people’s livelihoods and the future of their careers are on the line, it adds pressures that can push us into places where we would otherwise never go. In other words, sometimes when things get tough, it brings out the worst in people. We have all said things in the heat of the moment that we regretted later. But as a small business owner you are probably very aware of the fact that few things can ruin productivity and potential for growth as much as workplace conflict. Not only is it in your best interest to keep it under control for the sake of your peace of mind, you need to keep it under control to guard your profitability. These tips should help you maintain smooth sailing. Be a people person. I’m not saying that you have to be a social butterfly; I’m saying that you need to be a student of people so the early signs of conflict get onto your radar screen. Sometimes small business owners can be so enthralled by their vision and the “inner workings” of their business that they lose touch with the human side. It’s just a fact that many small business owners have to be a one-person human resources department. When you hire new people, ask about their interpersonal skills. Discuss the subject during the interview and with previous employers/references. Be a teacher. Let your employees know how you value a respectful work environment. If you have any faults you know about – and who doesn’t? – bring them out into the open. I remember a manager of a fairly large operation once tell his crew, “It may seem like I have a fence around me, but it’s only six inches tall – anyone can jump over it.” He was encouraging dialog with his employees. Tell your team that they should not expect to enjoy working with everyone equally. Some people’s personalities make them a natural “fit” with one another while others are more of an “acquired taste.” I know one man who just talks a little on the loud side and until people get to know him, they mistake it for anger. Be clear about your expectations. Let your team know that you do not appreciate office gossip or other bad behavior, such as bullying. Tell them that you expect their relationships to be founded on the advancement of your business and that cooperation is required for that to happen, even when they are working with people who aren’t their best water cooler buddies. Let them know that it’s the customer’s perception that trumps everything. When a customer gets the feeling that two employees are at odds with one another, it undermines the credibility of the business as a whole. Tell your employees that you expect them to iron out small differences in an honest, respectful and timely manner. If...
read moreSmall Business Productivity: Do You Need to Deploy an Army of Digital Spies?
Some studies indicate that employees on average spend 16 minutes an hour on social media. That can be a real productivity killer. The answer? Digital “tattle tale” software that monitors your employees’ computer and online activity…maybe. I qualify this with a resounding “maybe” because before you jump into downloading the software that lets you keep track of what your employees are doing on their computers you need to consider one more side of the issue: If you don’t deftly manage the introduction of this software and how you use it, you can kill team morale in a way that could be more destructive than the time your employees are currently wasting on social media sites. The software We’ll come back around to this issue in a moment, but let me give you a quick introduction to the players in this arena and the way this software works. Activtrak, Spector 360 and WorkExaminer are three of the major software providers. While the software differs in pricing along with “bells and whistles” they all track what software your employees are using and where they visit on the Internet. They will send you screen shots and compile information into reports. Some will also give you the power to block access to sites. They are made for regular computers so you won’t be able to monitor smartphone or tablet use. Activtrak has a basic free offer for three or fewer computers. Price points generally run from $25 to $115 per computer depending on which software you prefer and how many machines you need to equip; the volume discounts can be significant, but few small business owners will qualify for the best pricing. Careful deployment As I mentioned above, how you manage and use this software is extremely critical. With all the recent publicity about government spying on our online use via the NSA, people are very sensitive to this issue. And just as many fear the government misusing the data it collects, employees may fear a similar abuse from their employers. It’s easy to imagine a situation where an owner detects online political activity from an employee that runs contrary to his or her political beliefs. Not only might that activity cause an immediate confrontation, it could color the owner’s views of the employee and lead to unjustified negative performance evaluations. Listen to your employees This illustrates how important it is to inform your employees that you are introducing this software and clearly define why you are using it. Give them time to adjust to the idea and bring their questions and concerns to you before you install the software. Further, if you go this route, be sure to update your policy handbook. I also need to mention that merely announcing your plans to start monitoring computer use often leads to employees becoming better stewards of their digital work habits. However, there is one situation where you might not want to tell your employees about your intentions. If you are suffering from fraud or shrinkage that may be occurring through online manipulation or deceit, you may want to consider beginning your surveillance without informing you employees. If this is the case, be sure you know what you are doing and have good legal advice in case you need to take serious follow-up...
read moreThere’s Money, and Valuable Lessons, in Turning Your Hobby into a Business
The best thing the Internet has done for average folks is lower the barrier to entry for starting a business and one of the paths most often walked is for people to turn their hobbies or crafting talents into a commercial enterprise. Some of the stories are wildly successful. North Carolinian Brandi Temple turned her passion for sewing cute children’s dresses with a Southern twang into Lolly Wolly Doodle, a multi-million dollar business by selling through Facebook. On the other side of the pond, West Yorkshire woman Kate Broughton was able to quit her day job in a bookstore and sell greeting cards and stickers via Etsy. eBay and a wide variety of plug-n-play ecommerce service providers also make it easy to offer your goods over the Internet. Today, budding ecommerce mavens can make the process as simple or as complicated as they wish. Business is the hard part However, success is seldom simple. Because of Etsy and the plethora of other selling venues, the competition is high. You need to have an excellent product and great marketing if you want to make a serious go at it. Because of this fact, many crafters, artisans and creators see ecommerce as a way to supplement their incomes or simply to pay for their hobby “habit.” But don’t let that discourage you from testing the waters. Also, I want you to see a somewhat bigger picture than might at first be apparent: directly selling your wares isn’t the only way you can leverage your hobby into a business. Consider starting a website and blog that helps establish who you are and what makes your products so fantastic. Build a following for your blog and in the social media. You might find that Facebook works for you, but, if you’re selling a craft item, there’s a strong possibility that Instagram or Pinterest – maybe even Vine – could be the best platform for you. An “all (or most) of the above” social media strategy may be the way to begin until you find which suits you best. Social media synergy Use social media to send visitors to your blog and vice versa. As you build your followers you not only build your pool of buyers, you are increasing the number of people who want to listen to what you have to say. At this point you can write and sell an e-book about your craft with insider tips and information. You can put together a webinar to teach people how to do what you do. You can sell ad space on your website or within your newsletter to businesses related to your craft or hobby. You can become your own horizontally integrated craft conglomerate! Now as I said earlier, this is difficult to pull off if you want to make it your sole source of income. However, in the worst-case scenario you will probably make a little money and get invaluable lessons in startups, social media marketing and ecommerce. I don’t see any downside in...
read more10 Low-Cost Ideas for Employee Appreciation Month
It could be that the fastest way to happy customers is by creating a team of happy employees. Good cheer is contagious and heightens the enjoyment in any setting. Further, enjoying their time on the job spent with coworkers is the biggest contributor to job satisfaction. With these ideas in mind, it’s time to pack March – employee appreciation month – with special events to show your gratitude. And while we’re taking special note of this in March, don’t think this is a “one-and-done” process. Make expressing your gratitude a professional habit. 1. Make it personal. Personally express your gratitude to each of your employees. This may be the most important step for you to take. While we are discussing employee appreciation month, this is an action item you need to schedule throughout the year. Provide yourself with whatever kind of reminders you need to be sure you get this done. 2. Establish a suggestion program and implement some of the suggestions. You can use the old “suggestion box” vehicle or bring it into the 21st century with a special email address assigned to suggestions: e.g. suggestions@mycompany.com. Follow-up is the important part of this 3. Give time off unexpectedly. Award your team with an early (paid) quitting time some day when you can work out the details. Another variation would be an extended lunch break. 4. Solicit ideas for retreats, seminar attendance and other off-campus events. Find out what kind of activities employees truly see as beneficial to their job performance and careers. Work these into your future plans. 5. Encourage continuing education. Let your employees know that you want to see them advance in their careers. If you can’t reimburse for supplies or tuition, introduce your employees to the wide range of free, high-quality training and college courses that are available online. 6. Play well with one another. Have employees bring in their favorite games and enjoy a few hours of casual fun. You can also stage a company-wide tournament to find out, for example, who is the best Connect Four player. Bring in a 1,000-piece puzzle for people to work on. 7. Plant a garden. If you have the space, give a little release time to employees who sport green thumbs. Some might be interested in preparing a plot of soil for a vegetable garden when the warmer months are here. 8. Give an inexpensive gift. Lottery tickets and Starbuck cards are inexpensive items that virtually everyone will appreciate. How about holding a drawing where the winner receives a professional house cleaning? (Toss my name in the hat if you do that one!) 9. Casual or humorous dress day. If your setting is more on the formal side, break the mold and go casual. If casual is standard, don’t wait for Halloween to allow costumes. I know some companies that have had fun with “dress like the boss” day; it can be hilarious when people point out your little habits. 10. See what your employees want to do. It’s very important that you make suggesting and planning these inexpensive acknowledgements a year-round routine. Don’t wait for employee appreciation month. Solicit ideas from your team on a monthly or quarterly basis....
read moreThis Week in Small Business: Learn From The Other Guy’s Mistakes
Last week was a time for confessions. I don’t know if it was because of Lent or what, but we were treated to a number of articles where otherwise successful folks confessed their marketing mistakes. The week also treated us to a number of good insights into increasing your personal productivity as well as the productivity and capability of your team. Marketing and sales Whoops! TopRight Strategic Marketing made several marketing missteps when it originally launched in 2006. President and CEO David Sutton shares their four biggest marketing mess-ups. It’s always smart to learn from other people’s goofs. Here are the toughest lessons the content marketers at Pepsi have learned in recent years. You should probably print out this list of classic marketing mistakes and put it on the refrigerator in your lunchroom. The big picture Customers aren’t following a linear path to buying anymore so there needs to be a revolution in marketing, says Fred Studer of NetSuite. If you’re familiar with the lingo of web marketing, you should find this “translation” cheat sheet helpful when you move into the app marketing world. ClickZ reports that 84 Percent of Millennials Don’t Trust Traditional Advertising. This poses some serious challenges. Make you life easier and your business more profitable with marketing automation. Here are seven proven benefits. Things may get crazy as brands try to figure out ways to get their message across on that teeny-tiny Apple Watch screen! Content, online and mobile marketing Content marketing needs to be central to your small business DNA, not just a small part of one person’s job. Here’s how to achieve buy-in. Get the most mileage out of your content marketing with these 10 tips to boost your share-ability. Adobe’s Giselle Abramovich takes an in-depth look at mobile marketing to help you determine if your current content will make the grade. Online marketing is driven by metrics. Will measuring “attention” become the new holy grail of data? Take a deep breath: Here are 47 things to put on your social media marketing to-do list. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to blast through many of them. Entrepreneurism, startups and venture capital There’s a direct correlation between failures and success. Are you doing enough of the first to achieve the second? Make time to check out the full Kauffman Foundation report on entrepreneurial activity between 1996 and 2013. The Gigaom blog had the brightest minds in the world writing about the merging of tech and business, but they couldn’t make the financials work. Goodbye Gigaom, it was great while it lasted. Silicon Valley may have a terrific infrastructure for entrepreneurs, but there is much to be gained by venturing elsewhere with your startup. Square became famous for the little credit card reading device that connects to smartphones and tablets. Now it’s trying hard to make itself the go-to small business financial services provider for small businesses. It’s not for everyone, but some entrepreneurs are funding their startups by using their 401(k), IRA or other retirement savings accounts without suffering any penalties. Here’s how it’s done. Management and leadership With so many big-box, deep-discount retailers around, how is it possible that ANY small businesses survive? Customer service expert Shep Hyken shares the answer. Want to put your head down on your desk and take a...
read moreMore Interested in Make a Difference than Profits? Social Entrepreneurship.
Over the last several years entrepreneurs heading up “disruptive” startups have been regularly making the headlines. They build a business around an idea that sets a seemingly intransigent old business model on its ear. The way peer-to-peer transportation startups like Lyft and Uber have disrupted the taxi industry is one of our more recent examples. What if smart and energetic entrepreneurs could “disrupt” a social problem and give us whole new ways at looking at solutions? That’s the heart of social entrepreneurism. We often counsel individuals to pursue what they love and what interests them. If social change is what captures your imagination, starting down the path to becoming a social entrepreneur might be your best life choice. Taking an innovative idea and running with it is central to both business entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs. Famous social entrepreneurs Some examples of social entrepreneurs through history would be John Muir, who worked to found the Sierra Club and the national park system; and Florence Nightingale, who established the first school for nurses in England. Just like entrepreneurs in the commercial sector, social entrepreneurs also need excellent fundraising and sales skills. The sources of their funds are mostly different than in those in business and can range from individuals to charitable endowments to government agencies and even to crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter. Social entrepreneurs need to be able to sell people on their vision. However, if you are involved in a business and don’t want to walk way from the whole enterprise to start something new, it’s possible to create a not-for-profit arm of your company and become involved in social entrepreneurship. Also, far-reaching social responsibility policies are becoming increasingly important in the business world and they may impact the ability of future startups to succeed. Social responsibility and Millennials One of the widely noted qualities of Millennials is the value they place on social responsibility in the business world. Companies like Toms – famous for giving away shoes in impoverished areas – have won over legions of shoppers with strong views on social issues. In the same way, Millennials prefer working for companies that share their social concerns, typically these can involve issues of poverty, justice or environmentalism. In other words, as we move forward, I expect to see the most successful companies actively involved in finding creative solutions to social problems. They will have to do this to win Millennials as both consumers and employees. This is good news for entrepreneurs who share these concerns. By finding ways to incorporate social entrepreneurism into your plans you don’t have to leave your dedication to improving the world behind as you work on building your company. Additionally, you’ll find that many of the same skills you used to get your business off the ground will serve you well as you branch out into the social realm. Do you have a strong desire to be an instrument of change? If so find a social need and fill...
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