Creating success with a few proven tools

Communication, leadership, appreciative inquiry will go a long way in getting what you want.

A typical day might be something like this:

  1. Open the place of business up.
  2. Check emails, faxes.
  3. Look at the list from the previous day to see what wasn’t done.
  4. Say a quick good morning to your staff.
  5. Let the day begin.
  6. Handle the business of the day.
  7. Say a quick goodbye to your staff.
  8. Turn out the lights and lock the doors.

Seems like a normal day at the office. Problem is there is much more to running a business or being a manager of a business. Although there is an assumption the staff is on board with “what has to be done,” all too often what needs to be accomplished has not adequately been communicated.

Left to their own observations they may, in fact, be working counter to what you are trying to accomplish.

One way to get your people on board is to have weekly meetings with specific agenda items you want accomplished listed for all to see.

A top-down meeting is a waste of time. It will not be as robust as a meeting that solicits input from all attending. This meeting is a time to talk about company/department goals and objectives. It is a time to talk about your passion regarding the culture of the company. It is a time to infuse the values important to you.

Once that is done on a regular basis the discussions will be more fruitful and with purpose. There has to be positive reinforcement that what you want is being accomplished, and when it is, acknowledge it with some sort of celebration.

Leadership affords you the opportunity to set the tone for the company. It affords you the opportunity to develop a strong sense among your employees you are there to support them when needed but you also expect them to support you in the same way.

I often refer to making sure I have my boss’s back. What I mean by this is there is no way she/he can be aware of issues that are “in the trenches.” If there has been a good job of communicating to the rank and file there will be an awareness by that rank and file of issues to be on the lookout for. If the expectation has been set that “we” are in this together, then the likelihood of rank and file watching your back is very high.

Appreciative inquiry is yet another tool that gets below the surface of everyday stuff and begins to look at what the strong points of the company are.