It is never easy to manage a business. There are always a multitude of people, product, process and service issues to be juggled and prioritized.  Add to this mix the heightened pressures in today’s business world and it is no wonder today’s managers feel especially stressed.  We’ve never been in a time when we all felt we had to do more with less and yet never has it been more important to satisfy both your employees and customers.  How do you do all this when the limited resources at your disposal all seem to have become even more scarce?   Here are some TIPS for managing in today’s touch times. 

 BITES

Believe in your self and your staff – If you don’t convey confidence through your own beliefs and actions, your staff cannot project confidence to your customers. 

Intentional – Be intentional in your actions and your words.  If you’ve got a strategic plan, follow it, reference it as you make your decisions and communicate the intent of your actions and decisions in alignment with your plan. (And by all means, if you don’t have a strategic plan, create one – it is the best assurance you have ending up where you want to be rather than some unintended place.)  Everyone can then see how your decisions and intentional actions move the entire organization closer to your goals.  This is a fabulous way to lead by example.

Target – Set realistic milestones aligned with your overall targeted goals.  You achieve big goals by taking one intentional step at a time toward your targeted dreams.

Expectations – Expect success, expect results, expect a lot of yourself and expect a lot of others.  Expectations set the tone for what we will or will not achieve.  If we think we can, we can. If we think we can’t, we won’t.

Share -  Achieving results and managing toward success starts with personal leadership, but to be effective and have the organization move forward dreams, goals and plans must be written down, talked about, and shared openly. 

You eat a big block of Swiss cheese, one morsel at a time – enjoy all those tasty BITES.

BE FAB

I got this from Sharon Lechter, author of Three Feet From Gold and several other best selling books.

You have to BE FAB because no one will hire you or buy your products or come to you for service if you aren’t…

Back Straight – Erect, purposeful, confident

Eye Contact – Meeting others in the eye establishes your presence and is the first step toward instilling trust.

Firm Handshake – Establishes confidence, takes trust to the next level of depth, and creates personal connection

Ask Questions – Asking causes you to listen more than talk and listening is the key to servicing, selling and satisfying others.

Be Behold – Being bold required confidence, knowledge and projects capability – all key ingredients for business and personal success.  

 REMINDERS of things you know, but may have forgotten…

• Make a DO NOT DO list to ease your mind and gain valuable focus.
• Rejoice rather than worry – focus on your abundant blessings. Worry is praying for what you DON’T want.
• Quit trying to find the ‘one’ right answer – focus on the options and possibilities.
• Live your life for yourself rather than for others.
• RUN, DON’T WALK away from negative people – surround your self with those who believe in possibilities.
• Hire slow, fire fast – get the right people on the bus and help those who are misplaced get off the bus.

 - Joyce Friel      

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The higher you go in an organization the more the skill set needed changes from technical competence to the broader skill of conceptualization. Getting in the door requires technical knowledge of your chosen field, the right attitude and the inherent characteristics valued by the hiring organization. The first several positions you hold are quite likely to be based upon your knowledge, job skill and the ability to delivery specific results. Results get you promoted to higher and higher levels, but at some point the skill set requirements change.

Leading an organization requires the ability to conceptualize about the issues and concerns of an organization, as well as, what is needed in the future. Conceptualization is all about being able to see that which is not there. The ability to look at a set of actual circumstances and see beyond them in order to determine the problem or opportunity they present. This skill is about recognizing how the functions of an organization are all interdependent; how changes in one area impact all the others. The ability to see customers needs and project the solution in not-yet-developed products or services your organization can provide. Conceptualization is critical both in solving today’s problems, as well as, anticipating the needs of the market and then having the solution prepared in time to capture the opportunity.

Conceptualization is not a skill learned once you are at the executive level. It is a developmental skill that needs to be honed all along the way. The ability to see conceptually can be improved by holding a variety of positions and thereby broadening your entire conceptual spectrum of how business operates, taking on special interdepartmental assignments, and working with specific problems that you would not otherwise encounter in the course of your normal work, but which are necessary to broaden your thinking and skill.

So if you are already a good conceptual thinker, what do you need to be doing to help others in your organization achieve this same level of expertise? What did you do to learn this skill that might be of particular value to others? If you need to develop your ability to see conceptually more easily or more deeply, what projects, tasks or assignments do you need to seek out? Is your mentor a good conceptual thinker? If not, maybe you need to find an additional mentor who is particularly good at thinking conceptually.

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a senior-level leader that is still operating at the technical skills level. The higher you go the more you get removed from the technical side of your business. However, you’ll find the best leaders you know are good conceptual leaders and if they recognize this as a weakness in their skill set, they have surrounded themselves with others who have this talent.

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Follow me at http://joycefriel.blogspot.com and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/joycefriel