FIVE Signs That Say you are NOT Business Savvy

Do you own or lead a business? If so, you will need to do a lot of background work before you can be successful in your professional venture. The very first diagnostic activity is whether you have good leadership skills. Here are five signs that say you should NOT be a business owner – do you recognize any of these as describing you?

1.    Non-existent communication skills – when you run a business you need to know how to communicate effectively. This is the first and the last of not just good but great leadership skills. You need to be a people’s person. If you are a grouch by nature, an introvert, it is very doubtful that you would be able to develop a successful network or a worthy customer base.

2.    You cannot decide – a good businessperson can and is often required to take split-second decisions; hard decisions. Are you good with taking decisions? This is a very important trait among leadership skills without which your business will definitely flounder and fail. If you are an indecisive person, forget about being a business owner.

3.    You are an ‘I, me, myself’ type of person – leadership skills are a must if you want to run a business successfully; and not into the ground. For this you need to have a basic humility about yourself so your employees would feel motivated to work; which in turn, would attract more business. If you are an egotistic maniac, you will not last too long in this field.

4.    You cannot face unpleasantness – possessing good leadership skills does not mean that the path to success is all milk and roses. As the head of your business, your employees and customers would often create unpleasant situations that require confrontations and arguments. Are you afraid of unpleasantness or confrontations? If yes, business is not your cup of tea.

5.    You are not ready to work hard – leadership skills do not come by wishing for it; neither does success. It takes hard work, great efforts and a lot of time. Do not, for one single moment, think that because you are the owner and head of your business you can cut yourself slack. On the contrary, as the head and leader you would often be required to put in double the efforts of others. You need to be disciplined about your business, which in turn will motivate your employees to give their best. If the leader is lazy, the employees will follow suit. The result would be a disaster for your business.

No one is born with any of these leadership skills. The good news is that anyone can acquire these skills. It is never too late to seek help and set yourself up for success.

What's So Hard About Real Conversations?

If you’re a leader, your job is to accomplish the goals of the organization. You do that in large part by making every conversation you have as real as possible.  A leader’s job is essentially to engineer the types of conversations that produce clarity, cooperation, creativity, drive, and a connection to values beyond the company.

Being conscious of how you communicate and having a well-thought out strategy is key to being an effective and influential communicator.


We come into contact with so many different people during the course of our day, we can't just have one mode or style of communicating. Your boss, your direct report(s), your partner, your clients, your colleagues - they all need and expect different things from you. Being able to communicate in the appropriate way and match those needs will make your life easier!


The Beauty of 360degree Communication
Here are a few tools and techniques you can employ to deal with those different groups of people:


1) Your Boss


He/she is expecting you to do your job, that's why they hired you so when they interact with you, they want to hear about what you have been doing especially the things you have completed that will make their life easier.


• Keep positive - if you have a challenge then have a solution as well.


• No surprises - as much as you may not want to tell them something, honesty is always the best policy. If it's a genuine mistake then admit it, be upfront and give your Boss a chance to prepare for any fall-out there may be. Depending on what it is, your Boss may be as much on the line as you so have him as your ally as opposed to your enemy.


• Be inclusive - don't complain about other people to your Boss. Don't be seen to be self-seeking or sycophantic, it's not attractive and only makes you sound desperate. Like the 'comedian' who can only make people laugh by poking fun at others; be credible and good at what you do without having to malign your colleagues.


2) Your Direct Reports


Just as you will want to impress your Boss, your direct reports will want to do the same thing with you, or at least your high performing direct reports will. They also need something in return - they need to hear information from you about the business, they need to know how their job fits in with that and contributes to the bigger picture. They also need to know you care about them and their development. Lots of things huh?! Here are a couple of easy ways you can meet those needs:


• Set the Communication temperature - set up regular briefings with the team informing them of things happening in the business, within their department and even the industry. Let them know that open communication is a given and that you are committed to sharing things with them and giving them an opportunity to share their own ideas.


• Set up regular Engagement Interviews - these need to only be once a quarter or maybe twice a year depending on how many people you have in your team. Spend at least 1hr speaking to each individual direct reports about what they are passionate about, what they enjoy about their job, how you can make their lives easier, why they stay with the Company. This information is like gold dust and will give you great insights in to how your team can be more productive and how to keep them engaged.


3) Your Client


This can be one of the more difficult relationships to manage as it really is about positive influence, without any positional power. You need to rely on your personal power - the traits you have that set you apart and make you someone your Client wants to do business with. Be a person with integrity, who can be relied upon to do good work. Build a track record based on success and delivery. Be an expert in your field and use your knowledge and network to add value to your Client. All good in theory right, so how do you put this into practice:


• Be a skillful enquirer - ask lots of questions, gather information and really understand your Client, the needs they have and where you can help and add value. Have a Question Strategy - think about the questions you will ask at the next meeting, use open questions to encourage your Client to talk and share and make sure you plan enough time so it doesn't feel rushed and like it's the Spanish Inquisition


• Know their style - we all have a preferred style of communication. Some of us like data, others value relationships; some like to make decisions and do so relatively quickly and others prefer to consider all angles and make a more informed decision, over a period of time. There is no better way but we have more in common with some styles than others and that can impact how well we communicate and ultimately influence. Knowing if your Client is more about data or relationships could be the key to getting the next deal signed!


So, ultimately, it's all about knowing how to change your communication style to suit others and having an arsenal of tools and techniques you can readily deploy for any given situation. Good luck!

Effective Executive and the Listening Skills

Peter Drucker is a highly regarded consultant and prolific writer in the sphere of management and leadership. His classic 1966 work, The Effective Executive, emphasizes the importance of focusing the executive's work load to avoid "wasting time" on non-essential matters.

Drucker's basic model for an effective executive can be summarized as follows:

• one, executives must carefully choose how to spend, and not to spend, their time;
• two, executives must consciously choose what they want to contribute to the organization and ask their subordinates to make such a choice also;
• three, executives must choose people to perform tasks based on their individual strengths and the fit between strengths and tasks - people should not be chosen for whether or not they lack weaknesses; 
• four, executives must deliberately choose long-term business priorities; and 
• five, executives must choose from among all of the alternative opinions offered within their organization.

Drucker's five-part effectiveness model depends heavily on listening ability, particularly steps one, two, and five.


Drucker's step one, choosing how to spend and not to spend time, requires aggressive delegation in order to avoid spending time on peripheral matters. Although he doesn't say it in as many words, it's implicit that his vision of delegation relies on a coaching management style - essentially, periodic listening as subordinates describe their planning and progress - because a direct-control style of management would negate the executive's decision not to spend time on delegated projects.

In step two of Drucker's model, executives ask both themselves and their subordinates what they contribute now to the organization and what they could contribute in the future. According to him, regardless of whether an individual's view of what they now contribute, or could contribute, matches their manager's view, bringing out and stressing the importance of everyone's role as a contributor is essential to the organization's overall effectiveness. (The same general principle is embodied by Covey's and Goleman’s emphasis on self-awareness, as in listening to one's self, and being aware of others, as in listening to subordinates.)

In step five, Drucker emphasizes the importance to the executive of actively seeking competing opinions and inquiring about the basis for those opinions before choosing a course of action, rather than acting on the basis of pre-arranged or tacit consensus. Of necessity, this requires consistently listening with genuine curiosity in order to encourage development of diverse opinions and supporting rationales, rather than simply setting forth proposals and working to build consensus around them.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you follow Drucker’s model in your business?

Really Good Listening Habits are Hard to Find

When is the last time you had a conversation with someone where you really felt like the person you were talking with was engaged in the conversation and was really interested in what you were communicating?

Their body language, eye contact, and tone of voice were focused and inviting and surrounding distractions seemed irrelevant. Every one of us can remember a meaningful conversation and what it felt like to “be heard.” Being heard is an important component to how we measure our self-worth and self-confidence.

Emails, voice mails, text messages, LinkedIn, Facebook, and the limit of 140 characters on Twitter are the very common forms of today’s communication. Technology has given us the ability to share ideas with anyone, at anytime and anywhere in the world. Our global environment requires this technology to be successful, and it will foster continued innovation at an awe-inspiring rate.

However, the true essence of business is built around people and the future innovations people can and will inspire. Every piece of technology existing today and every new innovation that will inspire our world tomorrow is a collaboration of people listening, communicating, and working together.

I am the first to admit the advances to communication portals and the speed at which we can communicate are necessary. I am only suggesting that we do not forget to really listen along the way. Take a step back and evaluate your listening ability and techniques. Do any of the following apply to you?

·        Check and answer email while talking on the phone (personally or professionally)

·        Respond to texts while in a meeting or at your child’s soccer game

·        Watch your children IM or text while doing homework or at the dinner table

·        Spend time updating your Facebook wall instead of reaching out to someone meaningful and having a real conversation

·        Engage in a conversation with an employee, while you shuffle papers and respond to a receptionist call that Mr. Smith is on line two

If we are honest with ourselves, we are all guilty of one if not many of these listening infractions. We get caught up in the crazy and scattered pace of life. Let’s take a step back and remind ourselves that good listening is essential to effective communication, and here are some simple habits that can improve our listening ability:

§  Take time to listen. Stop, take a deep breath to clear your mind, and really listen to an employee sharing ideas or to how your son’s day at school unfolded.

§  Be attentive. Put the world on hold and pay 100% attention to the person talking with you. They believe what they have to say is important and so should you.

§  Listen with an open mind. Don’t be judgmental. Listen to everything the person is communicating and before judging the value of the information, ask questions to better understand the scope and depth.

§  Listen for feelings. People repeat those things that are important to them. Listen to what is said but also to how it is said. Feelings often speak much louder than words.

§  Listen for retention. While listening, summarize the highlights of the conversation in your mind so you can play it back to the person with whom you are talking. It will help you implement the important details later, and it will send the important message that you were really listening.

Finally, listen to others like you want to be listened to … you will be astounded as to how much more you will get accomplished and learn if you stop and really listen. And, you will be amazed how much you miss if you don’t!

__________________________________

Surya M Ganduri, PhD. PMP. is the founder and president of eMBC, Inc., an international firm specializing in strategic and executive leadership development processes that Help People Succeed in an Evolving World. His company is dedicated to helping organizations and individuals manage strategic change, innovation, cultural transition, and goal achievement. Surya has over 26 years of business experience in management consulting, leadership development, executive coaching, process improvements, organizational development and youth leadership. Contact Surya ats6ganduri@eMBCinc.com. For more information, visit www.eMBCinc.com or contact eMBC, Inc., directly at (630) 445-1321.