Blair Stover

Small Business and Entrepreneurship

Posts Tagged employee management

Tips for Coaching Employees to Success

Nov 15

Posted by Blair Stover in Business | No Comments

Successful, happy employees are more productive for their employers and that’s why employers should work with them to guide their employees toward success. Coaching employees means more than sitting down with them for an annual job review and going over a few items for improvement. Coaching an employee to success means taking steps all year long to help them be more successful and productive.
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The first way to begin a coaching relationship is to have an open meeting with the employee and see if they are open to being coached and have a dialogue on what you can offer them and what they’re looking for. The coaching relationship should offer benefits for both of you. Bear in mind that coaching is build on a foundation of trust and respect and that it must be mutual.

 

Buy in to a coaching arrangement is crucial. If the employee simply isn’t interested enough in his or her career to want to be coached, you’re spinning your wheels in trying to work toward a coaching relationship. If coaching the employee toward better performance is crucial to his or her keeping his job, make that arrangement known up front.

 

Work with him on what performance issues are being addressed, how it will be addressed and what the ultimate outcome of the coaching will be. Set an agreed upon time for reviews of the coaching and performance metrics. If the two of you don’t have measurable outcomes you won’t know whether the relationship is working.

 

Feedback is crucial to the coaching relationship. Make certain the employee knows he is able to have an open discussion with you on how he feels the relationship is working out – it needs to be a two way working relationship in order to make it beneficial.
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How to Interview Long Distance Job Candidates

Jul 22

Posted by Blair Stover in Business | No Comments

Interviewing job candidates, in general, can be difficult. As Monster.com states in their own article on interviewing candidates, there are several points you want to gauge for in a potential new employee, including self-awareness, and desire for the position. Doing this in any format other than a personal interview has challenges. Long distance interviewing is not new, but has in fact been around as long as there have been telephones. Video interviewing is rather new, and actually not very common even given the universal usage of computers. In any case, telephone and video interviewing techniques require a different skill set on the part of the employer. There are three main things to keep in mind when conducting such an interview.

One, do your homework. Just because this encounter is not in person does not release you from your obligation to prepare carefully. Have your questions ready for the interviewee, and if at all possible do a rehearsal with someone before actually “meeting” the candidate on the telephone or onscreen. Question and answer repartee is different when you are not in the same room with the other person. For one thing, you might not be able to notice facial expressions or pick up those low-frequency voice tones, which carry important meaning. Work on the timing of your questions, making sure to allow the candidate to answer fully before moving to the next item.

Two, be familiar with any technical hardware that you will be using, such as video phones, chat software, or voice relay systems. These might be bundled with your computer’s software, but if you have never used them, then you should definitely spend time getting to know your way around the technical side of things.

Finally, remember that you are conducting a job interview, even though you might be sitting in your den or near the pool. Try to keep it formal, to some extent at least. This will convey a sense of professionalism which will emanate from your voice and attitude. When interviewees do not have your physical gestures to rely on, they often look to other cues, like tone of voice or word choice.

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Managing Extroverts as an Introvert

May 24

Posted by Blair Stover in Business | No Comments

There he is again, the employee in the break room holding court, seemingly sharing all his ideas about how to improve service. Let him talk.

He’s an extrovert and you will know him because he needs to talk everything out. By doing so he resolves issues, discovers new solutions and generally enjoys himself being the center of attention. As an introverted manager, how do you relate to him?

The job of the introverted manager is to put extroverts in positions where they can help the company and shine in their jobs without distracting others. Since their method of operation is to talk everything out, typical jobs for them tend to revolve around sales and marketing where they can use their personal communication skills to benefit of themselves and the company.

Introverts, by comparison, enjoy thinking through situations without too much conversation, which can lead to misunderstandings with extroverted employees who need words to confirm their thoughts and ideas.

Therefore, extroverts may think something is wrong with their performance if an introverted manager doesn’t immediately communicate what he or she is thinking. That’s why it is important for introverted managers to tell extroverted subordinates that they are thinking about the situation and will communicate when necessary. This tells the extrovert in “words” that everything is okay.

Even though introverted managers may not feel the need to converse about the job as often as extroverts, they should schedule one-on-one appointments to talk with extroverts. This tells them that the manager cares about them and wants their input. It also gives the extrovert time to ask questions that pertain to relevant business.

The meeting should be professional, focused and friendly so that the extrovert can be the center of attention and yet be restrained in the amount of topics covered. This enables the manager can say what he or she has to say without being distracted from his points.

An introverted manager, if he or she is not careful, can attempt to dampen the enthusiasm of their extroverted employees simply because they are different. So it’s important to allow them to shine in group meetings and give them the space to network to find solutions to problems.

In most companies, there is room for those who those who think out loud and for those that don’t. In fact, most companies need both types of people in order to serve the varied needs of their customers.

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How to Create a Company Culture that Inspires

Feb 15

Posted by Blair Stover in Business | No Comments

While creating a company culture during a recession is one of the cheapest ways to get the most out of an employee, but requires a company to inspire an employee to not only Blair Stover on Businesswork but to work well. Certainly it’s not the company’s responsibility to be an acting muse for an employee, however taking these four steps will enhance productivity, and better the retention rate of your business.

The first step for any corporation to take is to create a mission. Ask the employees to help create this, adding in a buy-in, making them feel a part of it. This creates a direction for the company to go and where the employees should lead it.

A corporation must then lead the charge, clearly verbalizing the vision and direction the company needs to go. This helps to build the excitement for the new culture, and makes the employees truly want to be a part of it. Posting this vision around the office and discussing it in a staff meeting, being sure to include where their ideas were included and tied-in, helps to do this.

Once the clear vision has been created, creating an award program that bribes employees to further buy into this new culture is a smart, if not necessary move. Celebrate when an employee does a job well, when they’ve been employed with a company for an ongoing number of years, and simply appreciate that they work there. You might also benefit by creating goals tied to accomplishments, which will create leaders within the organization who not only want to work towards creating this culture, but also want to live it.

The final step has little to do with the employees and everything to do with the employers. This is where you take a look at yourself, setting up reflection time, and make sure you are on track for what your original intention was. Inspiring your employees is one thing, but knowing the ‘why’ behind it is another. Taking the ‘why’ and analyzing how far your organization has gotten as to achieving it is critical. Be sure to scold yourself if an idea or direction isn’t leading you where you want to go. Also be flexible to make changes as needed to better get you to your goal.

Regardless of your reasons behind wanting to inspire your employees, doing so does help your company prosper, and is something that you cannot be successful without.

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