SBSC and Management Fundamentals - Part I
This is the third article in a series to help you operate your business better this year by taking the Small Business Success Course, or SBSC. This part of the SBSC curriculum is about helping you become a better manager.
It could be argued that the first SBSC management topic -- trust -- is the most important. Unfortunately, trust isn't as intuitive as it should be.
In an organization where trust exists, the company's goals and objectives are available to all managers and employees so they can understand their roles in reaching those milestones. When you trust your staff with the company's vision by allowing them to assume ownership of their part of the company's future, they feel more like contributors instead of laborers. Without trust, employees feel that you have a plan, but they're not part of it.
Trust promotes performance and retention. Employees who act like stakeholders take initiative and are more resistant to other employment overtures, often even when more money is offered. And if you have an under-performer, it might be because you haven't invested trust in that person.
Building an organization based on trust requires leaders -- not drivers -- who create and maintain trust as an organizational way of life.
Next let's talk about two issues that every business has: threats and opportunities. Here are three things we know about them: 1) They both represent change; 2) when they first appear, they often look the same; 3) which one they become usually depends on the manager.
Successful managers know that whether their next little bundle of excitement becomes a threat or an opportunity depends on whether they react to change or manage it.
Now let's talk about the best thing that ever happened to small business: Outsourcing. Outsourcing is the process of integrating a strategic vendor into your operation in order to increase capability and efficiencies.
Here are two pieces of good news for 21st century small businesses: 1) There are thousands of outsourcing services available to fit our special requirements and diminutive budgets; 2) our big business customers are ready to talk about strategic outsourcing partnerships.
All you have to do to identify outsourcing opportunities is to ask your organization -- and your customers -- this question: "Must this task be done in-house?"
If your answer is no, find a way to outsource it. If your customer's answer is "No," that's a "Yes" to you.
Write this on a rock... Practice these management fundamentals and success will come and play in your back yard.
Jim Blasingame
Small Business Expert and host of The Small Business Advocate Show
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