The “Great Resignation” has forced many businesses to contend with understaffed teams, demanding customers and discouraged employees. This environment of overwork and reduced morale can naturally have a negative effect on a team’s productivity. To keep productivity high, even while experiencing a staff shortage, you’ll need to be intentional about your work. To help set you on the right track, 13 members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) weighed in on the following question: “When you’re operating while understaffed, what’s one method you have for maintaining productivity? Why does it work so well?” Consider these recommendations to improve your team’s productivity and their outlook on work. 1. Offer Incentives and Bonuses “Giving incentives and bonuses is always a great way to motivate anyone to increase their productivity. Who doesn’t like extra income? This method has worked for all of my businesses throughout the past decade. Adding a competition challenge seems to work wonders as well. Reputation, recognition and rewards all go a long way to further productivity.” ~ Fritz Colcol, Simply Thalia 2. Create Priority Plans “Have your managers create priority plans for employees and help them find resources for working when understaffed. During years of high turnover, my managers have created a system where the employees know which clients and projects take precedence over others. Keep that system simple and clear.” ~ Duran Inci, Optimum7 3. Hold Regular Meetings “If you’re operating with a skeleton crew, it’s vital that you establish clear communication channels. For instance, you should have a weekly team meeting to go over KPIs and open the floor to questions. I also suggest having one-on-one sessions every two weeks so you can check in with individual team members and keep everyone on the same page.” ~ Chris Christoff, MonsterInsights 4. Optimize Your Time “Reduce interruptions and work closely with your team on establishing weekly goals and priorities. Tech teams use sprints heavily, which is a great way to iterate weekly and focus on a reasonable volume of work to yield great results with consistent velocity. Assess communication and process areas that consume too much time and optimize as much as possible. High productivity increases satisfaction as well.” ~ Mario Peshev, DevriX 5. Emphasize Positive Reinforcement “First of all, you need to put greater emphasis on positive reinforcement. Your staff will be exhausted and stressed, so they need to feel like the extra efforts they are making are noticed and appreciated. Make sure to show your team gratitude for the work they’re putting in. You could even take this a step further with rewards or bonuses.” ~ Nick Venditti, StitchGolf 6. Extend Roles to Star Freelancers “There are times when you have just more than enough work but you can’t add more employees. One way to enjoy efficient operations with your few staffers is by extending some roles to star freelancers. You want a team of personnel who are always ready to jump on a task every time you need them without having to hire them permanently. You will still remain short-staffed but efficient.” ~ Candice Georgiadis, Digital Day 7. Offer Your Trust and Support “Recognize that you have fewer resources. Make sure your team understands the big picture. Then, give them the support and trust they need to prioritize their tasks and tackle those things that are most critical and push those that should be on the back burner.” ~ Eric Zuckerman, Pac Team Group 8. Make Working Fun “I’ve found the best way to keep everyone productive when scheduling is tight is to make working fun. We have a family channel on Slack, so we can easily chat during our lunch breaks or between tasks, even when we are understaffed for the day. These seemingly small interactions are excellent ways to keep everyone happy and productive, regardless of how many people are missing from the office.” ~ John Brackett, Smash Balloon LLC 9. Buy Your Employees Lunch “Do something special for your employees to show how important they are to you. I love providing lunch for my employees for several reasons. First, free lunch helps boost morale and productivity. Employees who feel valued and love their work environment are more committed and loyal. Second, buying lunch can help recruit new employees! Make it a recruiting point.” ~ Shu Saito, Godai Soaps 10. Prioritize Important Tasks “Prioritization is key. I keep an ongoing task list prioritized by high priority or near-term tasks that need to be completed and another category for less important tasks that I can keep moving in my schedule if I need to. Get tasks done that are critically important and that need to be done in a timely fashion first and foremost; everything else comes after.” ~ Andy Karuza, Base64.ai 11. Maintain an Upbeat Attitude “It can be easy to feel overwhelmed and get upset, but that unpleasantness will slow you, your team and your clients down, not to mention bum everyone out. Instead, focus on the positives. Remind yourself of why you do what you do, how you help those you serve and of the impact you make. When you do that, you and your team will be able to work more smoothly with a smile.” ~ Morissa Schwartz, Dr. Rissy’s Writing & Marketing 12. Implement Chatbots “One way to stay productive is to use chatbots for tasks that need a simple search-and-retrieve from a database. Today, there are many affordable options for chatbots that you can add to your customer support toolkit. Use this so that customers only need to enter a keyword or some other details and the chatbot will bring up the right information. This helps your staff focus on important tasks.” ~ Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner 13. Increase Communication Across the Team “When understaffed, one of the best ways to help maintain productivity levels is by increasing communication across the team about how each member moves the ball forward each day. Often, productivity suffers because team members are simply unaware of how their work output affects everyone else, so keeping this clear is essential when understaffed.” ~ Richard Fong, PageKits.com Source:smallbiztrends.com
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Employees are interested in professional development, and organizations want to hire and develop employees who can step into leadership roles. But where's the disconnect? What do organizations need to do to make the corporate ladder climbable? Here are some specific steps that employers can take to build their leadership pipeline while offering opportunities shown to increase employee engagement, productivity and longevity. A look at the research According to Gartner research, more than half of employees indicate that it’s important for their employers to offer real opportunities for personal growth. Employers benefit as well. The Association for Talent Development (ATD) indicates that when organizations offer comprehensive training, they experience a profit margin 24% higher than those that spend less time on training and development activities. These efforts can also help in building the kind of diversity in leadership ranks that so many companies — and their customers and employees — value today. Positive impact on diversity Being proactive in coming up with ways to lay the foundation for employee development and growth can go a long way toward addressing the lack of diversity in senior leadership positions. This is true all the way to board seats. It’s well-known that the leadership pipeline can be a rate-limiting factor for upward growth if that pipeline is populated primarily by traditional stereotypes. And yet, at many organizations, that continues to be the case. It's not necessarily because of anything these organizations have willfully done to keep persons of a diverse background out of the pipeline, but more because of what many have not done — proactively taken steps to ensure that typically underrepresented groups of employees are getting the training, development and coaching support to move into higher-level roles. Here are some ways organizations can invest in making the corporate ladder climbable while paving the way for greater leadership diversity. Help managers develop coaching skills Don’t assume that your managers are all adept at and comfortable with coaching employees and helping them grow and develop to move into higher-level positions. Many aren’t. But you can help to provide the tools, training and resources to help them serve in this very important role. As part of this training, teach managers how to work with employees to develop personal development plans (PDPs) as part of the performance management process. Encourage both upskilling and reskilling Not every employee will be interested in moving up the proverbial ladder. And, let’s face it, most organizations have very limited opportunities for employees who may be interested to move into higher-level roles. That doesn’t mean, though, that they can’t or shouldn’t pursue opportunities to learn new skills that might prepare them for other lateral, or even lower-level, positions within your organization. In today’s fast-paced and continually changing environment, the need for new skills is apparent in organizations of all kinds. Upskilling can provide as much value for meeting employee development needs for some employees as preparing them to move into other roles. Many companies already know this. In fact, LinkedIn’s 2021 Workforce Learning Report indicated that 59% of respondents say that upskilling and reskilling initiatives were their top priority in 2021. Provide leadership opportunities Leadership opportunities don’t need to be limited to those that involve supervising or managing others. The ability to lead a committee, task force or project team can offer a valuable leadership opportunity for employees while offering a way to evaluate employee competencies and potential to serve in more formal leadership roles. Develop a role for career development coaches Managers and supervisors aren’t the only members of your staff who can play a role in coaching employees in their career choices and preparation for new roles. Your HR leaders and staff members can also play a role here, as can learning and development staff. In fact, having dedicated, go-to career coaches on staff can provide valuable resources to both employees and managers. Serving in this role can provide a great professional opportunity development for employees, helping them develop a key management skill that, as we’ve seen, is often lacking. Offer tuition and certification reimbursement If you don’t already, consider offering tuition and certification reimbursement to allow employees to attend college classes or other training programs they may be interested in. Organizations can gain tax benefits from offering reimbursement, making this a win-win in more ways than one. As employees develop their skills, they become more valuable to their employers. It’s an investment that can pay off in multiple ways, including allowing employees to level up in their current positions. These are just a few of the most effective ways to help your employees climb the corporate ladder — if that’s what they want to do. And even if they don’t, providing support and resources to help them develop desired personal and professional skills can pay big dividends — for them, and for you. Source: entrepreneur.com
The New Year is always an exciting time; the clock resets and entrepreneurs have a new opportunity to accomplish goals, make more money and continue to build their empires. Of course, generating more income is a popular New Year's resolution, along with audience and customer base, and 2022 is your opportunity to grow revenue beyond the seven-figure mark. After all, while money may not be the be-all-end-all, it certainly removes financial stress and gives you more options. As someone who has built businesses to the multi-million-dollar revenue level, and after having helped more than ten thousand clients attain success, I’ve pinpointed four strategic shifts that will help take you to that altitude, as well as put foundational elements in place to make sure you both reach it and keep rising. 1. Go deep instead of chasing trends Crypto, NFTs, virtual real estate, opportunities in the Metaverse and other trends sound exciting, but can ultimately be a distraction for entrepreneurs who don't have an established business model. And you’ve no doubt seen them, those who move from trend to trend and constantly show up on your social media timeline with a new business angle. One week they're a Clubhouse expert, next month they're going to teach you about NFTs. Some of the greatest entrepreneurial minds and legacy businesses took a different approach, however — one of going deep, of planting their flag in the ground and saying, “This is what I do,” then continually working to build it. When you chase trends because you think that's the key to cracking the revenue-generation code, you confuse an audience, and confused consumers won't buy. You're not seen as an expert in anything because you're constantly switching that thing, so pick a topic, choose a model and go deep. Build social proof around what you do, continue to be a student of your craft and show up with content that showcases your expertise. 2. Balance adding value with keeping premium content paywalled Publishing value-based content is a great way to build trust with consumers and showcase expertise — leveraging material on social media, your blog, via podcasts and YouTube channels and other places that your ideal target client frequents. However, while you do want to add value all the time, you should be saving the good stuff for those who pay for your products, services and offers. The reason why too many entrepreneurs don't generate revenue from content marketing is that they're giving away too much. When you give away the steps of a solution, consumers will try to figure the rest out themselves. A large segment of them still believes they can band-aid together free information and use it to build a business, but seasoned entrepreneurs invest in expert advice because they understand its importance. So give away value, but save the process and other essentials for those who pay to join a premium community. Let your content create curiosity and awareness so that consumers want to know more. 3. Make consistency and focus your bywords It takes a lot of grunt work to build a million-dollar-plus enterprise — long periods doing what feels like boring tasks, and that tedium is the place where too many entrepreneurs get distracted and unfocused. Big businesses are built by entrepreneurs who embrace focus and consistency as default settings, with an unwavering eye on creating a path and clear goals. It’s vital for you to do the same: to be consistent and focused on the tasks that build your company, just remember to keep that steady focus on a path that makes sense for you, and not just mimic what worked for someone else. 4. Use “blue ocean” audience-building tactics Does it ever feel as if you're seeing the same things from the same people and trying to get the same customers? That isn’t just your imagination, in part because social media algorithms are programmed to show us a lot of the same; we tend to see others who do what we do. The hitch is that building a seven-figure business happens when you build an audience and customer base outside our immediate exposure circle, also known as a “blue ocean” audience. So, do market research and find what groups, social media networks and other places online your ideal target consumers might frequent, then see what other (and broader) service providers are there and how they're servicing their market, and determine what's worth your time based on market saturation. Hitting the million-dollar mark this year is completely doable with the right focus, strategies and level of consistency, you just have to find what works best for you and go deeper into what you’re best at. In this age of few-second pitches, flashy images of success are all around us, but remember that these are highlight reels, not complete pictures, so don't get drawn into business opportunity distractions. Instead, focus on tried-and-true strategies that have built businesses since the dawn of entrepreneurship. Source: entrepreneur.com
I have had the honor of being the CEO or senior business leader for many companies over my career — from startups to mid-sized to Fortune 1000 firms. Regardless of the company, size, dynamics or challenges, I have found the following to be the key ways of maximizing opportunities. 1. There is no secret sauce to success A fundamental distraction faced by many would-be entrepreneurs is the chase for the next shiny object or secret recipe for advancement. The hard but liberating reality is that these don’t usually exist. The real recipe includes things that every successful businessperson has been doing for generations. None of these are secret, but they do distinguish a winning venture from a failure regardless of its niche: focused hard work, experimentation, dedication to optimizing customer experience, creating a product that delivers real value and promoting the hell out of your efforts. I can report that these essentials hold particularly true in the software development and other tech sectors. 2. Be a focused leader Working hard to create and promote your business is critical — whether it’s a software as a service (SaaS) or cutting-edge blockchain tech company — but without a focused, purposeful mission at the core of these efforts, it’s going to be much harder. If you want to inspire your staff, collaborators and customers in 2022, give them a simple and central message and focused leadership that underscores everything your company is doing. Such leadership doesn’t just include yourself; it should filter down to your team and especially to the people who are building any backend infrastructure. Again referencing the tech sector here: a key area of potential weakness that focused leadership can improve is reconciliation between your company’s IT teams and your fundamental mission. As recent analysis from McKinsey points out, one of a successful company’s key qualities is its ability to align the vagaries of its IT developers with the business itself. Achieving this can let you lead your teams towards justifying experimentation for its own sake based on whatever actually makes customers happy, and also keep your startup focused on real growth. 3. Implement clear communication channels Focused leadership only works if communication among teams, all employees and customers is kept as clear and open as possible. This means implementing functional channels across the board, but also means taking communication seriously instead of simply paying lip service to the idea (while perhaps actually fostering a culture of fearful silence). As a company leader, you are responsible for implementing these channels, a part of its culture that nobody else can handle as effectively. 4. Define a workplace philosophy Implementing focused leadership and a robustly useful system of open communication at all levels will let you spread the gospel of your company more effectively. You can create whatever philosophy you like, of course, but keeping it focused on customers in some specific way is crucial. You’re trying to deliver something valuable to the people who keep your business afloat, and making sure that customers’ happiness guides you in this goal also helps foster a winning company philosophy. It’s easy to become so obsessed with new features and shiny additions to products, services and cool technologies that this philosophy gets lost. Don’t let that happen. 5. Strive for the success of employees Your employees are one of the three pillars of success (the other two being customers and the product or service). Because of their importance, strive to do everything in your power for their wellbeing, which will nurture loyalty, extra effort, overall happiness and a healthier culture. This requires work directed towards understanding employees’ needs and any criticisms they might have. This will not only make team members respect you more, it also improves workplace inefficiencies. (The same rules apply, incidentally, if your company is using a near shore or otherwise offsite workforce.) 6. Listen carefully and lead with purpose Having robust communication channels and striving for employee well-being won’t do much good if you’re not listening, as team members will quickly notice inattentiveness. This can hider hiring right and retaining the best talent pool. Listening carefully to individual or team complaints and gaining a reputation for taking them seriously means you are more likely to be surrounded by a growing and loyal pool of highly skilled and motivated individuals. 2022 likely won’t be much different from previous years when it comes to “secrets” for success. The essentials remain as concrete as they’ve always been. However, if you and your startup do nothing else, applying the above rules more rigorously can make this a year genuinely worth remembering. Source: entrepreneur.com
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