Strategic Solutions – Business Coaching Firm

Anyone who wants to increase their productivity in their life or profession has to get organized. Often that is easier said than done. The first step in to becoming organized is to set aside a specific amount of time to begin the process. Disorganization reduces your effectiveness and can make you feel out of control. A disorganized person often takes longer to accomplish a task because they have to spend time looking for things or information that an organized person has at their figure tips.

So how can you become organized? First thing is to make a commitment to yourself that you will become organized. If you are a person who says I would like to be more organized but I don’t know how, you need to stop and change today. It is a lot easier than you think. It involves the 3-D’s. No, that is not special glasses to watch a movie. It is Do it, Dump it or Delegate it.

Step 1 in the process is to set a minimum 2 hour appointment with yourself. Put it on your calendar. Turn off your phone , cell phone and computer. Put a do not disturb sign on your door.  During this appointment you are going to handle every piece of paper and other things in your office once.  You need to determine if it needs to be done, dumped or delegated. If you say that you have no one to delegate to, that is wrong. You can always outsource an activity. This is especially true if someone else can do it faster and better allowing you time to do what is more productive.

It is obvious that the dumped items are going away and uncluttering your office and life. Remember if you have not done anything with it in the past 6 months, you either need to throw it away or put it in storage. Even the IRS does not require you to keep things forever.

The delegated things are also going away where they will be properly handled and processed.

Finally you have the Do It group. Put them in 4 groups. Today, this week, Next week, When I have time. It is amazing how few things need to be done today. The problem is when we postpone doing them until tomorrow. The problem with tomorrow is that it never comes.  ” Today is yesterday’s tomorrow”.

So set yourself a goal to become a person who is determined to unclutter and begin doing today. You will amaze yourself on how much more relaxed and productive you will become.

Unless you know what you want to achieve, there’s no way to measure how close you are to achieving that objective. Goals give you a standard against which to measure your progress.

The goals you set for accomplishing the company’s/department’s mission must be in line with the vision and what your company wants you to do. If what you plan to achieve for your job, department, or team isn’t coordinated with the goals of your organization, you’ll waste your time and energy.

Goals are the foundation of motivational programs. By reaching toward your goals, you become motivated, and by knowing the goals of your team members and helping them reach those goals, you help to motivate them.

The process of setting goals takes time, energy, and effort. Goals aren’t something you scribble on a napkin during a coffee break-you must plan what you truly want to accomplish, establish timetables, determine who will do each action step, brainstorm all the possible obstacles, create a solution for the obstacles, review all of the rewards and consequences of achieving or not achieving the goal, and implement the goal.

Criteria for setting goals.

To ensure that goals can be accomplished, follow these guidelines for setting your goals. Your goals must be SMART.

S – SpecificM- MeasurableA – AttainableR – Realistically HighT – Target Date or Time Bound

Example: Your goal is to save money. This is a hazy goal. You could put one dollar in a jar and that hazy goal would have been accomplished. It does not conform to the above criteria.

Instead your goal could be – Save $100 per month for the next 12 months starting (today’s date) to be complete by (target date). This goal is specific, measurable, attainable, realistically high, and has a target date. Happy Goal Setting!

Always create a powerful connection with your customer Have you ever thought about the criteria your customers use to evaluate positive service interactions with your organization? According to Zeithaml, Parasuraamn and Berry from their book Delivering Quality Service: Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations, there are 5 key areas that customers use to evaluate service:

1. Reliability- can the customer depend on the organization to accurately and dependably provide service to them?
   

2. Assurance- does the service provider convey confidence about their product or service and do the customers trust that service provider?
   

3. Tangibles- this deals specifically with the appearance of the service area, the store, the lobby etc., and the appearance of the customer service provider. Is the environment pleasing and appropriate and is the service provider dressed appropriately, smiling, warm and genuinely open? If you are interacting with the customer via the phone obviously your smile, your tone of voice and listening intently will create positive points of connection with your customers.
   

4. Empathy- this is the strongest skill that demonstrates that the service provider genuinely cares.
   

5. Responsiveness- this involves the ability to provide prompt or timely service and measures the willingness of the service provider to help customers.
   

Stephen Covey refers to a concept of emotional bank accounts. An emotional bank account works like a financial bank account where there are deposits and withdrawals. Points of connection Points of connection, whether positive or negative, have a direct correlation to the customer’s emotional bank account. If the connection is a positive experience there is a direct deposit. A negative experience leads to an immediate withdrawal from the account. Often times, it takes numerous positive points of connection to create a deposit; however, it often only takes one negative point of connection to deplete an account.

How did you react to the last negative experience you had with a service provider? Was you last stay at a hotel positive or negative? What point of connection formed your decision? Is every point of connection in you business a positive one? Will your clients be adding to their emotional bank account for your business or are they planning to close the account. How can you know? Start now to find out! Create a process within your organization that provides the ability to monitor and measure every point of connection in your service cycle. By creating that process you will be focusing on making every customer experience valuable and hopefully positive.

If you want to know more about how to increase you Customer Loyalty contact Hank Sullivan at Strategic Solutions (510) 432-7596

Management over the last quarter century has taken on many new and complex dimensions, and this trend is likely to continue. Advancing technology has created new and exciting possibilities in every organization. Progress creates challenge, and the challenge facing management today is: developing an organization that can meet tomorrow’s goals while continuing to meet the daily challenges of today. To balance these organizational demands, managers need a systematic approach to their jobs. They need Management Development.
Management Development involves the what and how of training and understanding the why of a situation. The result is managers who are working because they want to and because they understand why and how they are essential to the organization’s goals. These managers know that the goals can be achieved, obstacles can be overcome and problems can be solved.
Individually, each manager reflects the behavior and attitude of a goal-directed manager. Collectively they form a powerful force that literally assures the achievement of organizational goals.
Key Areas:
• The Manager as a Leader
• Goal Setting for Success
• Your Action Plan
• Confidence
• Work Environment and Motivation
• Implementing Goals and Strategy
• Decision Making
• Management Communications and Human Relations
• Managing Your Time Use
• Developing Subordinates Through Goal Setting
• Dealing with Negative Behavior

Success in today’s complex global arena is challenging and the rules are changing. For an organization to compete globally, executive leaders will have to create an organizational culture in which everyone is challenged to seek innovative and improved methods of doing business. Leading today’s organization into tomorrow’s competitive arena will require teamwork, collaboration and speed. To create and lead an organization that will maintain a competitive advantage during such turbulent times, many executives will have to transform an organizational culture that was founded on yesterday’s paradigms. Priorities will have to shift and thinking will have to change.

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The word empower is often over-used. Many employers talk about empowering their employees but often employees feel disempowered. Here’s a list of the top 10 things you can do that will really empower your employees, according to employees, not employers!

1. Allow employees to actively participate in team and company goals.
Look for every opportunity to include employees at every level of the organization, in being active participants. Employees often report getting one-way directives instead.
2. Allow employees to suggest better ways of getting their jobs done.
Ask for employee suggestions for other ways of getting the task or project accomplished. Listen and be willing to really hear the employees’ comments. Employees often report that they have no input and are told exactly how to perform their jobs, leaving no creativity.
3. Provide positive reinforcement.
Always listen and acknowledge your employees. Employees often report that their decisions and actions are second-guessed and that most, if not all, feedback given is negative.
4. Clearly delegate responsibility and give the employees authority along with the responsibility.
Do you give inconsistent messages? Do you ask the employee to handle a problem or project and then give them negative feedback or give them an assignment and then say, “never-mind?” Employees often report that they are given tasks and then told they did it wrong.
5. Be clear in your communication.
When you express goals or explain projects, be sure the employees really understand what you are asking for. Employees often report that the goals are unclear and that they are not sure what they are being asked to do.
6. Show you have trust in your employees.
Allow them to make mistakes as a form of learning. Show that it is really OK to make mistakes. Let them know you really support their decisions. Employees often report that someone is always looking over their shoulder to make sure they do things right.
7. Listen. Listen. Listen.
Do you do most of the talking? Employees often report that conversations are one way, comprised mostly of their ideas being criticized. They don’t feel they are heard.
8. Be interested in the employees’ career development.
Meet with employees and discover their goals and their wants. Employees often report that their goals are not viewed as important in the organization.
9. Let the employees help you achieve success.
Are you doing it all yourself? Employees often report that their managers do all the tasks and that they have no way to make contributions outside their job descriptions. Look for opportunities to delegate and enhance the employees’ career development at the same time.
10. Be a coach.
The best way to empower employees is not to manage them. Coach them to success. This is a process of developing their skills and providing them specific feedback to meet high standards. Employees often report feeling like children rather than being on the same team with their bosses. Be their coach and lead the team to success!

For more information visit Strategic Solutions website at www.stratsolutions.net. 

Business success is much like victory to athletes who train for years to participate in a sport. During exhaustive and extensive hours of training, there must be an almost fanatical level of commitment and intensity, as well as physical effort.  Business people like athletes need coaching. The coach is the individual who helps you uncover your potential, set clearly defined goals and develop the action plans to achieve your desired result. Your Strategic Solutions coach guides you to achieving higher and higher levels of success. It is all about achieving improved results.
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