by Michelle Geromel | Achieving Goals, Productivity
1) Turn Off Distractions So You Can Be More Focused a) Set your phone to Do Not Disturb Mode (you can allow favorites, so your family and even key clients or co-workers can still contact you) b) Use a plug in to make seeing your news feed inside Facebook impossible, while you get your work done on your business pages and in Facebook groups. (See our recent blog here for details.) 2) Get Clear On What Actions Are Creating Results a) Look at your metrics. What went well for last quarter and also the year? What did you improve? What did you learn? How does progress line up with your key targets for the year and the quarter? b) Whatever your key or only project focus was for the month and quarter, how did that go? How is it going? What went well this past month or months. And what can be improved? c) If you don’t have a definitive 1 thing you are focused on for the quarter or the month, what would it take to be more focused on making defined progress on 1 key business improvement? What steps can you take from today through the end of the quarter to bring about change? Remember to be honest with yourself about what you can really achieve. And also remember that you need to measure success. So how are you measuring improvement? How will you know if you succeeded? 3) Create A Plan To Achieve Your Targets For The Year And This Quarter a) What are 1-2 sub goals you can achieve each month? If you already have...
by Michelle Geromel | Human Capital
Knowledge Management is something a lot of business owners think about, but don’t really see the value in until a key employee leaves and things become a muddled mess. While I can’t guarantee that a new employee’s transition into the fold won’t be less than smooth, I do know from experience, that a way to help someone succeed and feel good about their job is to give them the tools to do so. And knowledge management is one of those tools. Yes it’s another task for you to manager (unless you have a great training person) but it’s worth it in my opinion. Start by having each employee in the office make a list of what they do on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis. Also ask them to let you know what systems they use. And make sure that you have a way to access their accounts with an Admin override should they leave suddenly. I would suggest that if you have someone handling your AP/AR that you also make sure they leave for you (and you alone) the passwords to all of your accounts. So that you can access them if they are gone. For example, if an employee is receiving your office bills online make sure that you understand where those bills are going to (what email). And also make sure you also have the ability to access the accounts directly online as well. Make sure to communicate why you are doing this. Employees are sometimes wary for sharing knowledge because it is in a way, power. They may worry you are trying to reduce the...
