How does a small business owner who is extraordinarily busy at the best of times become a great manager? How do you go about managing your people to be their best?

There is one system that is the best training and learning ground for both managers and their direct reports. This system is extremely powerful and effective, and the more often you do it, the faster you’ll move toward your strategic intent.

This system might sound counterintuitive. Some of you are going to say, “But that’s just going to give me more work.” Believe me, if you do this the right way, it will free you up in ways you could never imagine, and at the same time, help your employees on the way to being the best they can be. Continue reading

When recruiting and hiring, there are bound to be mistakes. Knowing what to watch for, and planning carefully, will get you well on the way to hiring great people.

Let’s take a look at some of the common hiring mistakes.

Not being clear about what the position entails – including the objectives of the position. Make sure that when you are in that hiring interview, you set out the responsibilities, and the standards. It’s very important to mention the standards expected and set them out clearly, and how the job and the results are going to be measured.

Not being clear about the skills and experience required. Be clear in your own mind of what the required skills are and the experience. Continue reading

When you need to fill a new job, or replace a person leaving an existing job, you can hire the first person who comes along, or you can be careful about it and make sure you have the right person for the job. The question is…how do you get the right person?

Putting on new employees isn’t a people problem. It’s a systems problem. If you have an effective system for recruiting and hiring employees, you won’t have people problems. Good recruiting and hiring costs time and money, and poor recruiting and hiring costs a lot more, and wastes a lot of time. They hurt the morale of the other employees. They make it hard, if not impossible, to get the results you need in order to achieve your strategic intent. Continue reading

Run an efficient business by avoiding these top managing mistakes.

I know it’s fashionable to do a top 10 or top 7 list, but when I sat down to write this, the list came to seven.

Let’s go through them. I’ll first list the mistake, and then I’ll provide the solution.

Not listening – this is one of the first big mistakes.
Solution: listen openly. You don’t have to respond every time immediately. You don’t have to have an answer all the time. You can say, “Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I’d like to think about it and I’ll get back to you.” Because you’re the owner, manager or boss doesn’t mean you have to have an answer every time. Listen, and let them know that they’re listened to. Continue reading

Develop effective management and recruiting systems that show you how to recruit and keep the best people for your business.

This week, I continue this series with Getting Your People on Board. We’re still focusing on management. Management is about getting a desired result. The three key points of business we talked about before:

• Focus on results
• Systemize everything you can
• Delegate everything you systemize

And I add this fourth key point for managing: Measure everything you delegate.
This is what you’re doing when you’re managing. You’re looking for the most effective way to get those results. Getting results, being effective is our focus. It’s the what. Systemization is the how. More than anything else, systemizing the business and all the significant parts of the business will get the best results. People run the systems, managers orchestrate the people. Just keep in mind that systemization and the operation of systems is central to everything supervisors or managers do. Continue reading