Upgrade Your Success Potential
"If you want to achieve greater levels of success, you must
develop the systems to handle it in ADVANCE! Success will NEVER expand beyond what you are able to handle."
- Phil Humbert
In working with a family-owned construction company, a review of
the financials revealed that on any project over $100,000 they
lost money. The reason was because the owner and his construction
supervisor could not personally manage anything larger. Larger
jobs or a greater volume of jobs required more defined procedures,
systems, communication methods, and controls than were in place.
Improving these processes are definitely not exciting or glamorous
activities, which is probably why they are so often ignored and
put off. Yet, when these areas are poorly defined, it results in errors, rework,
crisis, frustration, inconsistency in quality and quantity of employee
output, and an ultimate drain on the company’s profitability.
Let’s Compare Your Business to an Orchestra
The owner or manager of a department or division is like the conductor
of an orchestra. The conductor/owner/manager chooses the music,
that is, how and what kind of service and product or what work will
be performed.
For every instrument in an orchestra, music is precisely scored
with each note and rest for that instrument’s part. This could
be compared to a set of procedures defining specifically, step by
step, how a particular business function or task is to be accomplished.
The conductor’s score, on the other hand, shows all the parts,
defining when, where, and how each instrument’s part will be
integrated into the whole musical piece.
In like manner, the overall business systems, model, or plan defines
where, when, and how each job function fits into the whole.
If it is a project-oriented business, then project plans further
define when, where, and how tasks will be performed in the context
of a project, just as a musical score would indicate when and where
a solo section would be played.
The conductor’s job is to lead, guide, interpret, and pace the
artistic expression of the music with the orchestra, to emotionally
inspire and touch its audience.
The business owner/manager’s job is to determine what qualities
and values will distinguish his or her business from the competition.
Then lead, guide, interpret, communicate, and implement systems and
procedures, so that the organization unmistakably demonstrates the
desired qualities and values to its customer or audience.
Can you imagine a first-class orchestra that did not rehearse and
practice diligently between performances? Of course not. This is
where ongoing training, communication, clarification, and interpretation
are refined into a splendid performance.
In business, we call it staff, project, and planning meetings. All
too often, business meetings are inconsistent, poorly planned, and
unstructured. Yet, they can be golden opportunities to dramatically
increase teamwork and productivity, producing a splendid business
performance!
Professional musicians and performers have a lifelong commitment
to taking lessons using trainers or coaches. Thus, the business
owner/manager must provide continuous technical and professional
training and coaching that will keep his or her employees at the
top of their professional and technical capabilities.
Take Your Success to the Next Level
So, now is the time to take a look at your systems and procedures,
communications, and training to see if they fully support the smooth
operation of your business and will move you to the next level of
success.
Here are a list of some of the things to review and consider updating.
See Books and Other Tools for more samples, articles, and booklets.
* Employee Handbook (covers basic rules of employment, pay,
benefits etc.)
* New Employee Orientation checklist
* When, how and by whom new employees will be trained
* Roles and responsibilities with job descriptions
* A Desktop Policies, Procedures and Training manual for each job
function
* Document your major computer applications so they
are easy to train
* Schedule weekly staff meetings; plan agenda and 15-minute basic
training reviews
* 12-month marketing calendar with monthly activities assigned and
on track (such as quarterly client and prospect reminders, presentations,
tradeshows, newsletters, trade publication articles, ads scheduled,
website updates, client and prospect data base current etc.)
* Keep a one-year calendar with employee vacations and trainings up to date
* Accounting calendar; quarterly income and payroll taxes paid on
time and verified, weekly cash flow report, up-to-date A/R & A/P , budget plans and reviews, audit, etc.
* Schedule employee performance reviews
These are some of the key elements of your company’s infrastructure
and foundation. Without them, you cannot grow and very likely are
losing profits due to poor performance, rework, redundancy, and inefficiencies.
Joan Bolmer, 3307 Lake Ridge Bend, Spring TX, 77380; Office 832.458.0455
Copyright (c) 2007-2010, by Joan Bolmer, all rights reserved. Contact
Joan Bolmer by e-mail at joan@bolmer.com Website: http://www.bolmer.com
Permission is granted to reproduce, copy or distribute
this article so long as this copyright notice and full information about
contacting the author is attached.
