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| Are You Prepared for Key Employees Leaving your Business |
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Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Very few businesses can claim to be prepared for the loss of key staff. Quite often it is an unexpected and unplanned for event that causes quite a bit of disruption to business as usual. It is quite a gut wrenching experience to see someone you have worked with over a period of time leaving your business. Even if the parting of ways is on good terms with a period of handover, you just know that there is so much information walking out the door with your former employee and there is nothing you can do about it. And this is only just the beginning… While labouring through a period of being understaffed and overworked you are then faced with the task of recruiting a new employee to fill the vacant position. This is followed by the inevitable probation and training period where, hopefully the new recruit comes up to speed and is able to pick up where the former employee left off. The problem is: What exactly was it that the former employee really did? They always seemed to be busy and on the rare occasion that they were absent due to illness, there were those problems that arose that were only truly resolved when they returned and took control and 'cleaned things up'. There has to be a better way… Fortunately quite a bit can be done to minimize the impact of situations like this in our businesses. And like most truly worthwhile solutions the steps required to complete this part of your businesses development do take some effort on your part. There is an established path that you can follow to get your business in order and the benefits to you and your people are much farther reaching than just minimizing the impact of key staff leaving you. The following is by no means a definitive list of what is required. But it does give you some idea of the steps required. - Create a flexible forward thinking Organization Chart defining the positions you require in your business. - Determine what the responsibilities are for the positions in your business. - Document key information that is critical to your business and make it available to your employees. - Work with your people to define what it is they do, how they do it and most importantly how it could be done better. Record, optimize then implement the business systems you have identified. - Assign the business systems to the relevant positions and monitor their use. By consistently following these steps for all positions in your business you will insulate yourself from some of the problems that occur when key employees leave your business. ------ Start a Free Trial of http://www.BusinessSystemsManager.com today and find out additional ways we can help you to free yourself from the concerns of loosing your key staff. 19 Timeless Tips to Keep Meetings Short Copyright 2006 Deborah Torres Patel Thorough meeting preparation alleviates anxiety. Good planning guarantees that meetings are relevant, don't overrun and aren't held back by uniformed, boring or disinterested attendees. Follow these 19 timeless tips to keep your meetings on track and on time. When preparing your agenda … 1. Identify the aim of your meeting 2. Put the most important items first 3. Establish a clear outcome for each point 4. Judiciously choose meeting invitees. Ask yourself, "Who should attend?" "Should attendees be present for all or just part of the meeting?" 5. Place controversial points towards the end so the early part of the meeting can flow smoothly 6. If you work for a large organization and not everyone knows each other there may be a need for very short introductions. Schedule time for people to quickly share, "Who I am, my role in the company and why I'm here." Distribute a specific agenda at least one week before the meeting. Make sure that everyone attending has all the information they need and that presenters know exactly how much time they are allotted. When circulating the agenda, state that the meeting will start sharp and end on time. This will subtly set the tone for an efficient meeting. Obviously, it is critical that the meeting chair sticks to the timeline. The meeting day… 1. Rehearse your presentation (if applicable) 2. Arrive early 3. Double check equipment 4. Serve coffee, tea, water or refreshments before a 30-60 minute meeting. Any meeting longer than 30 minutes should have drinks available throughout. 5. If it's an important meeting, bring a colleague with you to take notes so you can concentrate on the meeting. A discreet alternative is to record the meeting if there are no objections from attendees. 6. Avoid giving all handouts at the beginning because people often leaf through the paperwork instead of being attentive. Unfortunately, well-planned meetings can be derailed by meeting participants. If you have an assertive meeting chair, s/he can easily get the meeting back on track. However, anyone can step in if they have confidence or organizational clout. 7. An upright and open posture is commanding. You can change the volume, pitch, speed or tone of your voice to keep people's interest and engage them by simply leaning forward. 8. Monitoring other people's body language can keep you on top of the meeting. Involve slouching or disinterested people by asking for their opinions. 9. When it is your turn to present, remind others that your aim is to keep the meeting as short as possible. Your intention can motivate others to do the same. 10. If speakers are long-winded or have a personal agenda, you can take control assuming a moderator's role with a few well-placed interruptions like, "May we address the next item on our agenda?" or "Would it be possible for us to go over the details later? Or "Can we discuss the specifics offline?" 11. Suggest a short toilet break to stretch if the meeting is dragging. 12. If an argument or unresolved item prolongs a meeting, call the formal part of the meeting to an end and organize a separate meeting to address the issue. 13. Before ending the meeting, solidify specific task ownership and action items. To ensure your valuable time isn't usurped by an endless meeting, communicate in advance that you are only available for the scheduled meeting time and politely excuse yourself if the meeting runs overtime. It is your right to leave. Start and end your own meetings on time and develop a reputation for short, well-organized gatherings. Your colleagues will respect you and contribute much more when they feel you value their time. ------ Deborah Torres Patel is a leading voice and presentation coach. For the last 20 years, she has worked in over 60 countries teaching people to speak, sing and communicate with confidence using a unique communication training system she created called Expressing You! ® Get free video training, loads of helpful tips and subscribe to her popular newsletter at http://www.expressingyou.com . Do You Know What eBay Buyers Want? Wouldn't it be great if you knew what eBay buyers were looking for. You could quickly identify potential markets for the goods your selling or even new opportunities for your eBay selling activities. How would you feel if I told you that you can find out exactly what buyers are looking for and it doesn't cost you a dime! OK the experienced eBay sellers amongst you will in all probability, already know what I'm about to share with you (mind you a friend of mine who sells quite a bit on eBay didn't so who knows!) but for those of you that don't you should find this very useful. Log in to your eBay account and instead of going straight to your 'MyeBay' page look down the menu items on the left hand side of the home page until you the 'Want It Now' link which for UK eBayer's is in the 'See Also' section of the menu at the bottom. OK go ahead and click the 'want It Now' link. So that you can get a feel for what you about to be able to do scroll down to the 'Browse Want It Now' area and click on 'Baby' for example. What you now have in front of you is a list of postings made by eBay buyers looking for specific things, with info on how many responses they have had and when they made the posting. Click on a few and see what they are about. OK now go back to the 'Want It Now' page and instead of clicking on a category type in a keyword for something you are considering selling. Hopefully you will get a list of postings up of potential buyers if not try another keyword. Now think about this for a minute - what have you got here in front of you. Well, the way I see it we have a goldmine of information and here's why. Not only can I find buyers looking for what I'm selling I can get a feel for how much interest there is for what I'm selling by the number of postings. But there's more I can also see what keywords potential buyers are using which I can incorporate in to my listing tiles and finally I can also check out the competition by looking at postings with responses to see what is being sold and by whom. Right that's should be enough to get your creative juices going. Have a go and see how you get on and remember if your looking for good information on eBay selling check out- http://www.need2knowabout.com/ebay.htm Anne www.need2knowabout.com |
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