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Your Business Adventure Begins Here: A Step-by-Step Guide to Launching

05 Oct
Your Business Adventure Begins Here: A Step-by-Step Guide to Launching

Starting a business can be an exhilarating adventure into entrepreneurship, where every step brings you closer to realizing your goal. But it can also present many obstacles along its journey. Thus, I have partnered with Grant Polachek from Squadhelp to publish a guest post here. He has put together an invaluable step-by-step guide on launching your venture. Let’s work on your entrepreneurial adventure together.

Your First Step

The initial step to succeed as an entrepreneur should be discovering your entrepreneurial passions. Unleash what truly excites you and build your business around that interest – passion drives success in business ventures!

1. From Idea Sparks to Business Plans: Turning your ideas into actionable business plans is vital. Here is how you can outline your concept, set goals, and develop a roadmap for the future.

2. Market Research Magic: Successful market research is crucial to understanding your target audience, competition, and industry trends. Let’s discuss how to conduct compelling research studies that provide vital insights that help shape business concepts.

Establish the Foundation

1. Naming Your Business: Naming is more than a formality–it is integral to creating your brand identity! Our experts will walk you through the steps for selecting an exciting and memorable name that embodies all that your business stands for.

2. Discover Your Funding Options: Examine various funding strategies available, from bootstrapping and seeking investors or loans to creating a solid financial plan to meet your business goals.

3. Navigating Legal Waters: Navigating legal waters as part of business ownership can be complex. We will discuss the structures, permits, and licenses necessary for your operation to run efficiently within the law.

Establish an Online Presence Today

Having an online presence is imperative. Understand why and learn how to develop one through creating professional websites and compelling brands online, with the assistance of platforms like Squadhelp to optimize your brand’s impact and recognition.

1. Networking for Success: Building and cultivating connections are crucial assets to any entrepreneur, and here we’ll cover strategies for effective networking and relationship-building that can help make your business thrive.

2. Crafting Your Business Story: Every successful business needs an engaging storyline. Discover how you can craft and tell it effectively so that it connects with audiences on an intimate level.

Testing and Launch

1. Prototyping: Before officially releasing your product or service, prototyping provides the ideal way to test it and collect feedback before its full rollout. Let’s discuss its importance and how best it can benefit you!

2. Learn the MVP Approach: Applying the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach quickly and efficiently will enable your business to launch rapidly while gathering early insights to refine its offering further.

Marketing and Growth

Determine and develop innovative marketing strategies tailored specifically for startups, including content marketing, social media strategies, and guerrilla tactics designed to gain visibility and attract customers.

1. Scaling Your Adventure: Expanding and growing your business is exciting, so you need to focus on strategies for expanding operations, expanding markets, and broadening customer bases.

2. Survival Skills: For Startups Business competition can be tricky. Mastering essential survival strategies to navigate challenges effectively and pivot when needed to guarantee the long-term success is cruicial for the business. So, define your strategies accordingly.

Resources and Support

Discover invaluable business support organizations such as incubators, accelerators, and business support organizations that offer guidance, mentorship, and funding opportunities for your start-up venture.

1. Explore Technology: Discover essential tools and technologies to streamline business operations, manage finances effectively, and increase productivity.

2. Entrepreneurial Learning: Being an entrepreneur requires continuous education. So, keep yourself up-to-date by reading latest books, learning from new courses, and using new platforms to keep up-to-date and continuously hone your entrepreneurial abilities.

Conclusion

Your business journey can be an adventure of opportunities, challenges, and growth. By following this step-by-step guide as your compass, you are well-equipped to navigate the entrepreneurial terrain successfully. Remember that every setback is an important stepping stone, while every triumph proves your hard work and vision.

As you embark on this exciting venture, remain true to yourself, adapt quickly to changing circumstances, and never cease learning. Your entrepreneurial spirit and determination are at the core of its success; keep those qualities close as you pursue this exciting venture!

Your entrepreneurial adventure begins with you; its possibilities are limitless! Seize every opportunity, face every challenge with courage, and watch as your entrepreneurial dreams take from – good luck on your path to entrepreneurship success!

 
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Posted by on October 5, 2023 in 21st Century, small business, Startup

 

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How to become better at listening?

07 Mar

Coaching your line managersI can’t help but think about one of the meetings that I had a month back. During this meeting, I had to work with my team to create a road map of all the projects that we were going to do after few structural changes that had happened in our organization. It should have been a simple meeting. I should have presented company’s objectives for the next fiscal year to my team and then I should have allowed them to provide their input to create a road map which works for the team to achieve our objectives. It was a very simple task.

 

Unfortunately, I was unable to get the right answers from my team during that meeting. I am not sure what I was doing wrong at the time, as that meeting was not that productive and I was unable to get anything done. That incident got me thinking about the bigger question. Do I always ask right questions? If I do, then why am I not getting right answers? What am I missing here? What can I do to improve that process? After some analysis and introspection, I have realized that I was not listening to my team while I presented them with our objectives. And hence, I have come up with few practical tips and tricks through which I had improved my listening skills that I would like to share it with you here.

 

Be patient: In the past, I often fell into the trap of asking bunch of questions, all at once, so I don’t miss anything. Or worst, when someone is speaking, I actively tried to ask them my question right there and then, when they are talking, so that I can clarify things in the heat of the moment. Though this kind of a one-sided question dump had worked for me in the past in some situations, it didn’t provide most of my peers enough time to think and respond. Even though I was getting answers to my questions through this approach, often times I was not getting the right answer or an informative one. And hence, I tried to be patient with my questions during this last month. I also did my research beforehand, and found out what kind of answers I was looking for before asking those questions. I invested some time in noting down my questions while someone is speaking, so that I don’t forget what I wanted to ask, and at the same time I don’t interrupt my peers in between where they lose their train of thoughts. I tried to keep a pen and paper handy or used my OneNote on my phone to jot down any questions that I had, while someone else was speaking. This was one of the most practical thing I could do while listening to others and at the same time making sure that I remember my pointers to discuss.

 

Let silence speak: Other than being patient during meetings, I have also conducted various other experiments at my work within this past month. One of them being – using silence to speak for itself. When I was in a meeting, I often used silence as a tool to communicate when it was my time to ask questions. It was definitely a game changer for me. When I remained silent for few seconds before responding, everyone’s attention was at me before I even started speaking, and they were listening, yes, they were. I also used silence while asking questions to others. I would ask a question and then take a pause for a while. That approach did wonders for me, as it gave an opportunity to the responder to prepare their response before speaking. Obviously, it took a while before I got used to this practice, but this technique proved to be very helpful. If you want to try this technique then please make the pause long enough for the answerer to think but not too long so it becomes awkward. And while the answerer is preparing for his/her answers, try keeping eye contact, stand still, and try to feel comfortable while you wait. I am sure that you will get responses from people who hardly even spoke in the meeting. Just try it and let me know.

 

I am hoping that you all learn from my experiences and become better at listening. If you have any other ways through which we can be a good listener then please feel free to share it through your comments here. I would really appreciate your feedback.

Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on March 7, 2018 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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Motivation techniques that don’t cost you a fortune

24 Mar

LoyalEmployeesI have seen and managed many employees over the years. And through my experience, I have realized one thing; money is not even the primary factor of motivation for the people who work for you. For some employees, the new healthcare plan might be the perfect motivation boost, while for others the same exact plan might prove to be depressing. No one can find out the perfect formula for motivating everyone, but you can try to implement some practical solutions through which you can motivate majority of your team. Thus, in this blog I will talk about some practical ways to motivate your employees without breaking your bank.

Be positive: No one can make you motivated or demotivated about something. Only your own thoughts can make you happy or sad. In the same manner, no one can make your employees sad or demotivated; their own thoughts make them demotivated. So, when your employees come to you for finding the meaning of the new directive or the new process change, then it’s your duty to give a positive meaning to that new initiative. If you keep positive attitude towards your work, and if you keep yourself motivated at work, then you can create a butterfly effect of positive attitude around you. After all, people feel motivated only when they think motivated thoughts. Thoughts rule, circumstances do not. The closer your relationship to that truth, the better.

Tell the truth: Great leaders are always transparent with their team. They share a common habit of telling the truth to their team, faster than their other counterparts. Though, as managers, we won’t be able to tell every confidential matter to our team, we should at least try to be as transparent as we can. There are some managers who tell their team – “There’s nothing I can do” or “I am helpless and powerless”. It might be partially true in some situations, but you can always do something better. Even if you don’t have answers to your employee’s question, you can always ask someone and get the answer for them, and communicate those to your employees. If you remain transparent to your people and try to involve them in decision making, then you will never have to worry about motivating your team.

Care about the individual: Some managers are more of a project managers than a people manager. They think that there is nothing more important than meeting our team’s objectives. And when we meet our team’s goals, motivation comes inherently since the team recognizes that they have contributed towards this goal. Even though I agree that meeting team’s objectives are very critical for the business, making sure that your team recognizes their contribution in this big picture, is even more important. As a manager, you shouldn’t just concentrate on your business priorities, but you should also try to understand the mindset of each individual in your team. Try to stop by their desk everyday, and if that is not physically possible, then try to IM or Mail them every single day to find out if they need any help. After all, we are all humans, and no matter how far we have come, we still value personal interactions more than anything else.

I hope, my blog can help you motivate your employees. If you know any other ways through which we can motivate our employees without money, then please feel free to share it here. Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on March 24, 2016 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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Motivation mistakes that many managers make

02 Sep

Motivation MistakesThere are many motivation techniques that a manager can use to motivate his/her employees. Unfortunately, managers are so busy in managing tasks than managing people that they would rather concentrate on making their employees happy than dealing with real issues and guiding them to success. Thus, in this blog I will talk about some of the common mistakes that managers make while motivating their employees.

Give them more money: Most managers and leaders think that if we pay enough money, we can find people who will do almost any job. And hence, most managers believe that when they give bonuses to reward their employee’s past performance, they will usually become very happy, unless they were expecting a larger bonus. Money is definitely a motivating factors for some, however, this happiness is short-lived. Within few months, your employees will have difficulty in recalling that bonus and it might not have the same impact that it did within the first few weeks of receiving it.

Ignore conflicts: Most of the managers are concerned about being liked by their employees. Though it is a good thing to be liked by your workforce, it is not always going to be possible. People have differences, and hence, you will also have conflicts with your employees at some point in time. Unfortunately, many managers try to ignore these kind of conflicts at any cost, because they don’t want to ruin their relationships with their employees. Some managers would rather “let something go” or “sweep under the rug” than make an issue out of it. This practice is not going to lead you anywhere. If you keep on avoiding conflicts for long time, your employees will think that you don’t have any power, and they can do whatever they feel like, and it will eventually poison your relationship with your employees anyways.

Keep them happy: I have seen many managers, who will often go to great lengths to keep their employees happy. As a manager, you should always be invested in your employees, its your job. But that doesn’t mean that you have to go through great pain just to make your employees happy. I have seen many managers, who offer game rooms for their employees, or an early day off on every second Friday, or company paid lunches every other week. The theory behind all of these actions is – if you keep your employees happy, it will translate into increased motivation and productivity. Unfortunately, this is not very effective in practice. If you provide frequent benefits like these, your employees might get used to it, and this practice will become the accepted culture within your team, where some of your employees will continuously abuse these benefits.

Some are not motivated: Most managers believe that their poor performers are just lazy, and not motivated enough to do the job. This is a very common misconception that most managers have. As a human being, we are all motivated to do something, but our reasons for motivation can differ. Walking through the offices, the manager may see someone playing computer games or sending personal e-mail, this could be seen as the individual is not motivated because he’s not attending to the job tasks. But that may not be entirely correct. At that moment, the “aimless” employee is motivated, perhaps even highly motivated. But that motivation is not work directed, nor is it productive for the company.

No motivation for smartest: Some managers believe that their top performers don’t need to be motivated; since they are very quick to learn new things, and adapt to new technologies, they don’t require any other motivation. Unfortunately, these managers are completely wrong. Intelligence and self-motivation do not necessarily go hand-in-hand. You might have a smart employee who hasn’t been able to find out just what motivates her personally, and hence, she might get bored or frustrated easily. As a result she might lose her interest in her work, which will reduce her productivity eventually.

I hope, my blog can help you find out some of the ineffective motivational techniques that you might be using, unknowingly. Let me know, if you can think of any other motivational techniques, which are hurting your employees rather than helping them. Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on September 2, 2015 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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What should you communicate about promotion to your employees?

18 Aug

PromotionTo most employees, promotions are often mysterious. They often feel that some people rise quickly based on who they know rather than what they know. Unfortunately, this might be true for some organization, this assumption is not accurate for all situations. Actually, most managers don’t provide their employees with enough information about their promotion, and hence, their employees always feel that their promotion is purely based on luck (or lottery). Thus, as a manager, we need to help clear up their confusion by providing clear answers to their questions. In this blog, I will provide you with some tips through which you can prepare yourself to answer their questions.

Get your basics clear: Before you talk with your employees about their promotion, you should do your research. For example: Look at your organizational guidelines for promotions. Identify how people are chosen for promotion within your organization. Does your organization use their values as a primary screening tool for advancement, or does job-specific competency supersede all other considerations? Are your policies administered uniformly, or are they bent on a regular basis? Does who you know matter more than what you know? Once you have a clear picture of your organization’s practices, then only you can talk to your employees regarding their promotion opportunities.

Help them learn: No matter which position or field your employee works in, he/she needs technical competencies in both hard and soft skill area. Some employees might already have few of these skill-sets that you might be looking for in the next position, while some employees might lack these skills. As a manager, you need to make your employees understand that they need to take charge of their own skill development for their promotion. And if they need any kind of a support for that, then you are available to help them. You can display your support by informing them about various skill development programs that your company already offers, or by providing him/her with the opportunity to learn on the job through a mentor.

Provide regular feedback: Most projects and tasks at work are not just about getting the job done, they are about how you go about getting that job done, too. Your employees can be very intelligent, but if they can’t work well in a team or if they always carry a negative attitude towards their job, then this is going to hinder their promotion chances, isn’t it? Unfortunately, some employees don’t even realize that their behavior is hurting them, and that’s where you come in. As a manager, you need to ensure that all of your employees are given regular feedback, not just once a year at review time. Whenever you have promotion communication with your employees, make sure that you talk about how their attitudes are perceived throughout the organization. If your employees need some help in changing their behavior then try to help them by providing avenues through which they can match their behaviors with the organization’s values, so that they can get that promotion quickly.

Once you are clear about your company policies, and once you become transparent to your employees about their strengths and weaknesses, and try to help them increase their skills to get that next promotion, then only your promotion communication with your employees will become natural and more easier.

Would you discuss anything else with your employees during these promotion talks? If so, please share it with me through your comments here. Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on August 18, 2015 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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How to eliminate your organization’s blind spots?

03 Aug

ActionPlanLike Kodak, Xerox and Black Berry, we can all become blind sided by our own success. And as I have mentioned in my last blog, there are many organizational strengths that can turn into blind spots, if we don’t give them close attention. Thus, in this blog, I am going to provide you with some pointers through which you can keep reinventing your organization, and don’t become the victim of your own success.

Think outside the box: Even though your business is doing excellent, you should always keep looking for improvement opportunities around you, and keep yourself open to change. Make sure to frequently ask these questions to yourself: What business are we in? How do we create value? Who are our new competitors? Where is our market heading? What new behaviors our customers are displaying? Etc. If you have the budget for it, make sure to hire third party contractors every other year to provide their overall opinion on the company’s products, services and overall health. This practice will not only give you an outsider’s unbiased opinion, but it might also give you some improvement opportunities existing within the organization at this time. If you don’t have that much extra cash to spend on, you should at least have the meeting within your senior leadership, twice (or thrice) a year, and ask these specific questions. You will be surprised on what you find out.

Encourage disruptive behavior: In order to continually improve your existing and established processes, you need to create a disruptive culture within your organization, which can help you motivate your employees and encourage them to think outside the box. Obviously, this cultural change is not an overnight process, neither there is a magic wand that can make this happen faster. Some of the subtle ways through which you can implement this cultural change are.. (1) Go undercover. Keep aside one day in a quarter, where you cancel all of your meetings for a day, and let your employees give you the work orders for a day. This approach will not only help you to improve your repo with your employees, but it will also help you identify all of the inefficiencies in your existing processes. (2) Encourage your employees to research about new innovations, and provide them incentives to think outside the box. Give them some training time to learn new things on their own. If possible, try to provide tuition reimbursements. You will be surprised with all the innovative techniques that they bring back with them.

Talk to your existing customers: Most companies are so focused in expanding their business and going after new customers that they sometimes forget to value their existing customers. Surprisingly, some of the best ideas come from your own customers rather than your employees. And hence, it is very important to listen to your existing customers than completely focusing your attention on growing your business by acquiring new customers. Obviously, your customers are not always going to tell you what are the risks that your business is going to face in the future, but you can at least estimate those risks based on your customer’s feedback. Take T-Mobile for example, when they started to listen to their customers, they changed the entire mobile industry through their “uncarrier” movement. On the contrary, look at Black Berry; if they would have listened to their customers and recognized the need for touch-phone touch with the third party app development support, then they wouldn’t be in this difficult financial situation today.

Obviously, no one can eliminate all blind spots that your organization will face, but you can take proactive steps to lessen risks associated with it. I hope, my blog can help you in minimizing these risk factors. Let me know, if you have any other ideas through which we can eliminate our organizational blind spots further. Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on August 3, 2015 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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Which organization’s strengths are destined to turn into organization’s blind spots?

21 Jul

Business IssuesI have seen many companies, whose employees are so happy with their current processes and practices that they fail to see any major market changes. Look at Kodak for example; even after being the market leader for imaging solutions, it missed the opportunity to be a part of the digital revolution in image processing. Obviously, no company wants to lag behind, but sometimes we become victim of our own success. Following are some of our organizational strengths that can turn into blind spots very easily.

Business focus: When your company grows in size, you become the victim of your own success. Instead of thinking about the basic fundamentals of the company, which made you successful, you are mostly occupied in projects, delivery dates and customers. While it is not a bad thing to narrow down your focus on the priorities at hand, this narrowed focus may kill your company’s business over time. By focusing your attention repeatedly on certain (or should I say, same) things, you can seduce yourself into believing that these are the only things that matter. This approach can prevent your leadership from noticing new options or opportunities. For example: Sony Diskman, once the largest sold music listening device, was ill prepared for the digital music revolution, and hence, the completely new way of listening to music, iPod, dominated the market.

Efficient processes: Whenever we start something new, we always look for the best alternative available out there. But once we have identified those particular alternatives, we are more likely to stick with it. Thus, it is natural for an employee to stick with an already established process. After all, it frees up their time for doing other tasks. But then, we are ought to develop an organization-wide practice where our employees follow the same processes, not because they are efficient but because they are well known and comfortable to follow. If we get too much used to our existing processes, and stop reexamining the new options, we are ought to blind ourselves with the resistance to change attitude, later on.

Successful relationships: In order to succeed in any organization, your employees must build strong relationships with other employees, customers, suppliers, lenders, investors, etc. But when the business paradigm changes, companies often find that their relationships have turned into shackles by limiting their flexibility. The need to maintain existing relationships with past customers can, sometimes, hinder companies in developing new products or focusing on new markets. This phenomenon doesn’t just affect customer-facing employees, sometimes, managers (or leaders) can also find themselves constrained by their existing relationships with their employees or their leadership.

These are some of the blind spots that your organization will face, no matter how big or small it is. Do you know of any other organizational strength that can turn into your blind spot very easily? If so, please share your ideas with me through your comments. Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on July 21, 2015 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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How to increase your employee’s trust in you through your actions?

07 Jul

ManagerBuilding a trust relationship with your employees is a tricky business in itself. Even though you can’t control your employee’s perception of you, you can affect their idea of you by your actions. And hence, in this blog, I will continue my conversation from my last blog about how to build a successful trust relationship with your employees through your consistent actions.

Listen to your employees: No relationship can be build successfully, if you are unwilling to listen. Same logic applies here. As a manager, you should seek to understand your employees, and try to show empathy towards their viewpoints. If you don’t agree with the opinion of your employee, then don’t try to shoot their idea immediately. Let them tell the thought process behind their idea, and you might be surprised with what they can come up with. Let’s say, you still don’t like their idea after hearing the entire story. In that case, you should try to explain your viewpoints to them and explain your thought process to them rather than rejecting their idea directly. With this approach, they will feel more connected with you and they will at least try to understand your perspective rather than just thinking that “my manager doesn’t like my ideas, so he always says NO”. If you can at least get your employees involved in the decision making process and seek their ideas before making the decision, you can build a better trust relationship with them.

Keep your commitments: Let’s say, you have a manager who tells you something (ABC) and does completely different thing (XYZ). Will you be able to trust his/her words again? Same goes for your employees. If you don’t keep your commitments often, then they will have a really hard time trusting you. Thus, in order to improve your trust relationship with your employees, you have to make sure that you do what you say you are going to do. By seeing your consistent behavior, they will develop an idea on what they can expect from you, and hence, they will try to trust your words on the basis of your past actions. Take this for an example, if the final decision about a problem is outside of your direct control, then it is better that you tell your employees that you will “look into it” instead of telling them that you can “fix it”. In this way, they will know what they can expect from you, which is a key component in building any kind of trust relationship.

Admit your mistakes: We are all humans, and hence, we are all prone to make mistakes. But if you make a mistake and don’t admit your mistakes, then it will send a wrong message to your entire team. They will consider this as the new precedence, and they won’t admit their mistakes either, when they make them. If you do something wrong, then it is very important to apologize and admit your mistakes. This behavior will bring you and your team members close together. When you accept your mistake, try to explain your intentions going forward and live up to the new expectations that you have established. Everyone makes mistakes, the difference is what you do when you have made one. If possible, try to share what you have learned as a result of your mistake so your employees don’t make the same mistake again. By sharing your experience, you will not only be improving your relationship with your employees, but you will also be teaching them a lesson that you have learned.

With these pointers, I am ending my two part series blog about – ‘manager-employee trust relationship’. If you have any other ideas through which we can increase our trust relationship with our employees, then please share your ideas with me through your comments here. Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on July 7, 2015 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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How to build a successful trust relationship with your employees?

23 Jun

234ec-encourage-othersI have seen many managers struggling with building a successful trust relationship with their employees. Building a trust relationship with anyone in itself is not easy, and it is even more complex when you have to build that relationship with your employees to whom you can’t disclose certain confidential information. Thus, most managers take a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach. Obviously, neglecting that part of the employee-manager relationship will not help you either. Trust is very critical to the success of any organization, and as a leader you need to be able to trust your employees; and more importantly, your employees need to be able to trust you. Hence, in this blog, I will provide you with few pointers through which you can build a successful trust relationship with your employees.

Be open with your employees: I am not telling you to disclose all the confidential information to your employees, at the first chance that you get. But you should at least keep your employees informed about what’s happening in your organization. You should always try to disclose some general information that you know without releasing any sensitive (or confidential) information. Also, whenever you get an opportunity, you should try to share your values, thoughts and beliefs with your employees, so that they get the opportunity to know you better. If you support and praise your employee’s achievements and try to be positive most of the time by maintaining each other’s self esteem, then you will at least earn their respect by showing this consistent behavior.

Provide regular feedback: Unfortunately, most managers don’t consider feedback-giving process as the avenue to build trust relationship with their employees. For some managers, feedback is just another process through which they have to go through once a month during their one-on-one sessions with their employees. If you change this mindset and recognize the potential of your one-on-one time with your employees, then you can do wonders. Do this…try to develop a habit of talking to your direct reports at least once a day. I know, it will be hard at first, but you will be surprised to note the positive change in your employees within few weeks. By providing them regular feedback (yes I mean it, regular), you will be giving some time to this manager-employee relationship. And sometimes, only the time is needed to build stronger relationships. Don’t you agree?

Trust others: I know, this is easier said than done. But trust is a two way street. Unless you trust your employees, and always assume their positive intent, you won’t be allowing them to build a trust relationship with you. If you are serious about building this relationship with your employees then you need to stand up for your employees, and suspend any judgment that you might have. You should develop a practice of respecting your differences and appreciate each other’s skills. I know, it will take time, but it can definitely be achieved. And once you stand up for your employees, you will see that your employees will start standing up for you.

These are some ideas through which you can improve the trust relationship between you and your employees. If you have any other ideas through which we can improve this trust relationship, then please share your ideas with me through your comments. Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on June 23, 2015 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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How to effectively provide negative feedback to your employees? Part 2

08 Jun

ManagementStyleMost managers blame their employees for their poor performance instead of talking directly to them about these issues. Unfortunately, some of these managers try to take the easy way out, and turn a blind eye to their employee’s issues. After all, confronting someone about their behavioral issues is not the prettiest thing in the world. Thus, in this blog, I will continue my conversation from my last blog, and provide you with couple of other ideas that you can use while providing negative feedback to your employees.

Don’t give advice: Even though most managers recognize the importance of giving their feedback to their employees, they completely misunderstand the meaning of feedback itself. Instead of utilizing the feedback time for giving their feedback to their employees, these managers try to give their advice to their employees during these feedback meetings. It is not always appropriate to give advice to other people. If your advice does not work, you will be blamed later for it. Thus, you should rather try to share your opinions and ideas with your employees, and let them come up with an appropriate solution by themselves. Suppose an employee who is having trouble with some task comes to you and asks, “What am I doing wrong?” Instead of giving advice, share your personal experience with your employees. For example, you might describe a similar problem you had, and how you handled it. It is then up to them to decide what to do. This approach will not only make them independent, but it will also improve their knowledge base.

Don’t delay your feedback: If you want to provide an effective feedback to your employees, you need make sure that your feedback is always timely. Well timed feedback is more likely to provide you with the right results than delayed feedback because it allows the person to correct actions or behaviors while they are still fresh. For example, if your employee messes up the accounting system, you might want to discuss the problem with the responsible employee immediately, if possible, or at least within a day or two. Even though you want to provide your feedback to them immediately, try to consider the environmental factors first. For example, if you point out the employee’s mistakes in front of a group of coworkers, it is likely to be resented. Thus, try to provide the sensitive feedback in a private setting, probably in a one-on-one meeting or something.

Don’t be overpowering: No one wants to look bad in front of others, we all want to feel intelligent in front of others. This goes for your employees as well. During your negative feedback communication, your employees will often continue to argue for a plan even when it is obviously not working or in the best interest of the organization, because they want themselves to look good in front of you and others. Thus, during these meetings you should provide an avenue to your employees to save their face. Your employees are more likely to accept your negative feedback if you allow some degree of face saving for them. For example, instead of saying, “Your idea was rejected,” mention that the rejection was due in part to lack of funds or other factors, thereby allowing them to save their face.

With these pointers, I am ending my two-part series blog about – ‘providing negative feedback to your employees’. If you have any other ideas through which we can make this process easier, then please share your ideas with me through your comments here. Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on June 8, 2015 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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