Leadership Skills Develop Careers

This begins a multi-part series examining how—& which—leadership skills develop your career

Exhibiting current and potential leadership provides an excellent path to career growth. You can exert leadership as both a formal and informal leader. Your leadership may be a positive or a negative influence on the work team or organization. You may yearn to lead. You may resist leadership with all your might. Whatever you choose, leadership will affect your career growth.

Over the next few weeks we will examine various traits of leadership. Our study will include reviewing concepts presented by Bill George, Jim Collins, Stephen Covey, Paul Thompson, Gene Dalton, and other experts on leadership. We will explore the differences between leadership and management that will help you comprehend the differences between Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Chief Operating Officers (COOs).

In addition, we will delve into the roles of leadership including establishing the vision for the organization, adopting and adapting the corporate culture, formulating and implementing strategy, evaluating and improving performance. Once again, we will refer to prominent studies and publications for you to study to better understand these roles.

Finally, we will discuss the models and tools leaders use to enhance and improve the organizations and teams they lead. Tools will include:

• Bill George’s True North or Model for Authentic Leadership
• Clawson’s Level Three Leadership
• Six Steps to Effective Leadership
• Agle’s Stakeholder Salience model
• Kotter’s Model for Leading Change
• Principle Centered Leadership
• Jim Collins theories on Built to Last, Good to Great, and How the Great Have Fallen
• RACI, SWOT, and Structure Analysis
• McKenzie’s Seven S Model
• Porter’s Five Forces
• Principle Based Negotiation

These concept will enhance your career, earn the biggest raises, and obtain the best promotions. I recognize that they will not apply to all of you at this time. They may in the future. For some of you they may help you understand management better, while you never pursue a career in management or leadership.

In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy our exploration of management and leadership.

Business Owners Must Act

I have known many business owners who repeatedly tell me they want to improve their businesses. They complain of stagnant sales, reducing revenues, and plummeting profits. Yet they do not act to change their business situation.

Today I would like to share 3 behaviors that perpetuate problems to productivity. I offer them for your consideration. I recognize they do not represent all the possibilities that may limit business growth. They may not illustrate the barriers to your business growth. Or maybe they do. They may stimulate thinking that will help you recognize an obstacle not listed here, but which prevents your business improvement. They may miss the mark entirely. I hope they help.

1. Do the Same Things, But Expect Different Results

I know one business owner whose marketing plans consist of 2 major actions: direct mailers and changing his web site. He sends direct mailers by the thousands to potential clients. He subscribed to include a mailer in the packets most of us receive through the mail. They did not generate the sales increase he desired.  He changes the design and programming of his web site every two years. His web site delivers a very small number of clients. For years, neither of these efforts have generated the sales he wants. Yet, he persists in both of these ineffective method of sales for his industry. He does the same thing each month and expects different results.

2. Half-hearted Attempts to New Methods

One small-business owner attended a workshop at the Small Business Development Center. He heard an innovative way to reduce overhead. The six-part approach intrigued him, yet seemed too complicated. He failed to comprehend how all six steps fit together. He selected two of the steps and rejected the other four of this integrated approach. His actions failed to deliver the reduced overhead he desired. Blaming the entire idea, he discontinued the two steps. He never considered what might have happened if he implemented all six steps rather than rejecting four.

3. Always Learning, Never Doing

I belong to a small-business alliance to help one another improve their businesses. Three or four owners who suffer from this obstacle attended the group. Every month they excitedly listened to a new idea. They asked several questions to understand it more clearly. They committed to the other owners in attendance to implement the ideas that month. They consistently reported at the next meeting that they had not done anything they committed to do. Some of them complained that the alliance failed to help them and withdrew. Others continue to attend, listen, and do nothing.

In Conclusion

I hope none of these three potential barriers apply to you. If they do, however, you can change. You can improve. I doubt that every idea you explore will succeed. I know, however, that if you

1. Discard some ideas that already don’t deliver adequately to try new ones proven to work
2. Implement good ideas completely and test, test, test them for dependable delivery
3. Act on good ideas

you can improve your business. The last few posts described programs to help you grow your business. How many of them did you try? Remember, business owners must act to improve.

What experience have had or observed in others with these obstacles? Please comment!

Business Consulting Firms

This post outlines another source of programs to help you grow your business

So far in this series, I described free to low cost non-profit programs to improve your business. Today we will briefly describe business consulting firms. Business consulting firms offer specific advice and services for fees designed to maintain a profit for the consulting firm. Therefore, their services typically cost significantly more than non-profit services. Many startup and small-business owners cannot afford to pay consulting fees.

However, you may see a good return on investment for consulting as your business revenues and profits increase. For the purpose of this post we do not consider professionals such as Certified Public Accountants or Attorneys as consultants. Every small-business owner should seek the advice of these professionals in the start-up and ongoing growth of the business.

The following tips may help you select the right consulting firm for you.

• Analyze why you may need a consultant. While many consultants help business owners analyze problems or obstructions to business growth. You can save high costs by analyzing your own needs first. I don’t mean that you rely on your own understanding for deep analysis. I refer to identifying whether your need help with web marketing, sales, financing. In other words, you identify the general type of problems that requires consultation.
• Find the right consulting firm for your business. Most consulting firms specialize in certain aspects of business: market research, business analysis, marketing, production, manufacturing, financing, human resources, payroll, and more. Few try to resolve every problem a business may face.
• Research several consulting firms before signing a contract. Explore their reputations for competence and success by talking to your local Small Business Development Center (SBDC), Small Business Administration (SBA), Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), Chamber of Commerce, and other business owners.
• Clearly clarify and outline in a written document the services provided and expected results attained of the consulting. Your SBDC usually maintains a library of sample contracts and legal forms for you to review. Talk to other business owners who paid consultants about the contracts they signed.

You may also want to check out these other sources of tips on hiring a consultant: Documents Club Express, Psymesconsulting, Bay View Hunters Point, Social Media Today, and others.

Centers for Entrepreneurship

This continues our series on community programs designed to help you grow your business

Many community colleges and universities now offer centers for entrepreneurship. Many of the centers open their services to students and non-students. Some even extend their services through distance learning or computer-based venues allowing business owners who live too far away to attend classrooms. Some of the programs receive national rankings from the Princeton Review.

Services Offered by Centers for Entrepreneurship

Typically, entrepreneurship centers offer the following services:

• Courses, workshops, seminars, and conferences
• Access to grants, angel investors, microfinance and other funding programs
• Incubators, JumpStart programs,
• Forums, panel discussions, and lecture series
• Blogs, articles, libraries, and training tools

You can find the nearest center for entrepreneurship by calling a college or university close to home. You can also Google “Center for Entrepreneurship”. Several variations on the phrase will appear. Adding your city or state to the search phrase will help you narrow your search.

Thursday we will finish our series on programs to help you grow your business

Chambers of Commerce Help

This continues my series on programs that can help your business grow

Most people recognize the Chamber of Commerce. Each community sponsors a chamber to develop businesses and enhance the community. Chambers lobby Congress, local legislatures, and city councils on behalf of business. Many times they promote large infrastructure issues such as road construction, redevelopment districts, tax changes, and jobs bills.

People in large cities perceive that the chamber focuses almost exclusively on helping global or large corporations. Sometimes members feel their chamber lost sight of main street problems.  Frequently, small-business owners feel neglected in the larger chambers.

Chamber Services to Small-Business Owners

The US Chamber of Commerce sponsors Small Business Nation. Their web site defines the mission of Small Business Nation. The site still rings with rhetoric and action on lobbying. For example, ignore the community and take action sections unless you want to get involved in the political process.

I suggest you focus on the training for small- and mid-business owners offered through the toolkits section. At first you can see much of the toolkit information, however, after several views it begins to require a membership username and password. Individual membership costs $125 per year. The toolkit offers articles and tips on the following topics:

• Employer explores legal issues related to owning a business like complying with healthcare, paying your employees, benefits for employees, rules and guidelines for your employees, how to get the best from your employees, disciplinary action, firing and termination.
• Finances provides information about bookkeeping to managing your credit, growing your personal wealth, and 10+ ready-to-use documents and forms. I liked the forms because you can use them repeatedly.
• Government Contracting offers tips on what you need to know to contract with the government, 10 steps to successful bids, what happens in the bid evaluation and award phase, multiple sources that can help you in the bidding process, and the concept of sub-contracting on government bids.
• Insurance explains why you need insurance, different types of insurance, how to provide insurance and healthcare to your employees, and insuring you and your office.
• Online Solutions describes the essentials of online marketing including your website, email marketing, social media, and online advertising.
• Printing and Shipping outlines shipping and printing services (you can’t miss the plug for FedEx), document services, shipping solutions, frequently asked questions, signs, graphics, and photo services.
• Purchasing and Inventory begins with a plug for Sam’s Club, but provides information about investing in purchasing and the purchasing process; and articles about inventory control, control systems, security, and quality.
• Sales and marketing gave access to information on 5 questions that every business should answer, analyzing the market environment, market research, developing and refining you product, packaging and pricing, promotion, advertising, public relations, and total quality management.
• Start Up highlights what to do before you get started, creating your business plan, and financing your business 101.

You can find all of these resources at the national web site for the US Chamber of Commerce. Each local chamber also offers leads groups to network with other business owners, ribbon cuttings for new businesses, Chamber Universities, workshops, lectures, and other benefits.

I also found a web site called ChamberofCommerce.com. I don’t think it is affiliated with the main chamber.The logo, URL, and feel of the web site differ drastically from the US Chamber of Commerce site. However, it accesses local chambers. It also offers Chamber University that includes free videos and articles to help business owners grow their business. Beware, though, that they monetize the site with lots of ads and paid endorsements.

I suggest you find your local Chamber of Commerce and explore what they offer. Join only if you find their focus will give your business a good return on investment.

Economic Development Departments

This continues my series on programs to help you grow your business

Economic Development Departments work with businesses within their community to grow their businesses. They also work with businesses outside the city or state to lure them to locate in the city.

Almost all of the 50 states and some of the U.S. Territories provide economic development services. Most larger, and many smaller cities, maintain an economic development department or director. The economic development effort for most small cities consists of a possible part-time employee. Other small communities contract with an economic development corporation.

Economic development departments can provide revitalization areas, TradeZones, tax breaks, lower business license fees, and other incentives to entice businesses to their communities or help their local companies grow. They typically reserve their programs for companies that will add a significant number of jobs or money to their community—larger companies.

Start-up or small-business owners should still contact their local economic development director to explore the services they may qualify to receive. You may find the directors by contacting your city management or administration. You may also Google the name of your city and “economic development”.

Join my blog on Saturday to learn more about how Chambers of Commerce help small-businesses

Small Business Administration

This continues my series on programs designed to help you grow your business

The government sponsors the Small Business Administration (SBA) to stimulate the economy through small-business growth.

Most small-business owners recognize the Small Business Administration for guaranteeing business loans. True, the ensure that businesses that lack the collateral to obtain their own loans can find credit. However, if that is all that you take advantage of, you missed a great deal more.

Services Offered by the Small Business Administration

The SBA offers various services through its web site and other services through local offices around the country:

• Articles and helps: The SBA web site provides hundreds of articles under the Starting & Managing a Business tab on their site. Articles are divided under the headings of “Starting a Business” and “Managing a Business”.  Each topic contains multiple articles and branches from main articles. In addition, the site provides an assessment tool to see if you are ready to start a business.
  • Starting a Business topics include writing a business plan,  business law & regulations, preparing your financing, local resources, and licenses & resources.
  • Managing a Business topics include leading your company, exporting & importing,  getting out, and forms.
• Loans & Grants: The main section on loans and grants divides into sections on Small Business Loans, Grants, Bonds, Other Financial Assistance and Find Loans & Grants. These section sub-divide into information about SBA’s role, Disaster loans, The application process, facts about government grants, research grants for small businesses, surety bonds, venture capital, and more topics.
• Contracting: This main heading opens an abundance of information about how to get started as a government contractor,  working with the government as a contractor, opportunities for federal contracts. It also includes information for contracting officials such as size standards, HUBZones, Non-Manufacturing waivers and more. Small business owners may use this section to contract with the government to provide goods and services including office supplies, park supplies, equipment, property, and training.
• Counseling & Training: The SBA provides wonderful online courses and local counseling and training.
  • Online small business training topics include starting a business, managing a business, financing a business, contracting, and other featured training. Online training provides streaming video, tools, forms, and more.
  • Local counseling & training assistance includes finding a local SBA office, Small Business Development Centers (SBDC), SCORE, Women’s Business Centers, Veterans Business Outreach Centers, U.S. Export Assistance Centers, and Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs). You may receive counseling, mentoring, and teaching from each of these programs through your local SBA office.
• SBA Direct: Leads you to a page with the addresses for your local SBA and related offices. It also contains answers to frequently asked questions.

I hope this gives you a better idea about services you can receive from the Small Business Administration. One more thing, your taxes already pay for most of the services. Shouldn’t you take advantage of the services you already pay for?

Join me Thursday when we explore community economic development councils on your growth