Module 6

On successful completion of this section you will be able to:

• Define and discuss the concept of strategic planning in managing business performance;
• Discuss and explain the role of the various organisational structures in business performance;
• Supervise and monitor expenditure as a crucial aspect of business performance;
• Analyse marketing objectives related to business performance;
• Identify and rectify performance problems occuring in your own business;
• Develop business attributes in a specific context to enhance business performance.

Introduction

The aim of improving performance is to become more efficient, competitive and profitable.

Business Performance can be achieved by applying a structured approach of:

1. Measuring performance.
2. Identifying where improvements are needed.
3. Finding effective ways to achieve these, learning from others.
4. Involving your staff and implementing the required changes.
5. Monitoring and taking appropriate corrective action.

From a strategic perspective, as a leader in an ECD environment, this may involve :

• Understanding your market and meeting Customer needs / expectations.
• Looking at and challenging fixed and variable costs.
• Business process reengineering.
• Increasing efficiency and productivity:
  • Getting the best from your people, raising skill levels and attracting the right people.
  • Improving methods and equipment.
  • Eliminating waste.
• Improving co-operation with partners and suppliers.
• Product development.

In other words,  the first step is to get a better understanding of your business, by measuring performance.

You would use this information to identify potential improvements, detailing financial or other benefits and the resource needed. 

It is always wise to involve your staff in order to get buy-in and then decide on  your plan of action. 

Continued monitoring and corrective action will lead to success and avenues for further improvement.

In order to improve your business results you will need to improve the performance of your key people. 

• Set goals and achieve targets consistent with the company's vision. Your ECD business has a long range strategy- it's VISION for the future. In order to achieve that vision, you need to break it down into a series of smaller, tighter short range goals. Failure to reduce visions into tangible goals will render the Vision, an unrealisable fantasy. 
• Set, demonstrate and maintain high personal standards. In order to achieve goals, the manager has to set, maintain good standards. And the best way to do that is to be a role model for all the standards required. He (she) should be a living example of the standards expected. Failure to do so will render the management useless because they will not be respected. 
• Communicate with accuracy and clarity. Having a goal is only the first step: the manager must be able to explain WHAT the goal is and WHY it is important. Any ambiguity in the explanation will cause:Misunderstandings, Errors and Confusion. 
• Plan ahead to PREVENT problems developing. All goals require a good plan. A goal without a practical plan for its attainment is worthless. Many people don't plan: they say "I can't plan here: it is too chaotic!" I say "It is chaotic because you are not operating to a plan". You must be able to plan ahead to avoid problems next month; next year. Failure to plan will be the cause of panic. 
• Make accurate decisions based on a logical assessment of the facts ( not gut- feel-guesses). Indecision or poor decisions will cost your organisation time and money. The reason that some people avoid decisions is because they are afraid of making a wrong decision: And the reason for that is: some do not know HOW to make LOGICAL decisions. Failure to understand the principles of logic will render the person indecisive and nervous; too slow to react and too reliant on gut feel to make a good decision. Your team should know the laws of logical decision making. 
• Handle conflict with unhappy customers and suppliers. Failure to respond to complaints quickly will cost you more time, money and a loss of reputation. Your managers need to know how to handle complaints. 
• Handle conflict within your staff team. Conflict can occur within the team: issues of character clashes: they must be handled by leadership; properly and according to named policies.Failure to manage conflict will render your team less effective than it might be, because they will spend too much time squabbling amongst themselves instead of providing value to your customers. 
• Handle "poor performance" issues. Sometimes people do not do what they should do. And they do some things that they know they should NOT. You need to know how to tackle poor performance. Performance issues need to be handled carefully and according to named policies. 
• Develop self motivation and self confidence. Leadership is often under immense pressure at work. Consequently some become de motivated, and depressed. They need to know how to stay emotionally strong during tough times. This is mental toughness and durability and can be learned. Failure to learn how to handle pressure and stress will cause leadership to fall ill or lose motivation and drive. 
• Develop high a degree of motivation and confidence in others.Even if you can self motivate, you must be able to inspire positive emotions in others. If they feel dis-spirited, they will not perform well. Therefore the leader must have the ability to lift the spirits of the others in the team.Staff is affected by:

• The goal
• The environment
• Their knowledge
• How they feel

        

Set goals and achieve targets consistent with the company's vision.

Summary
 
In order to improve performance what, specifically, do your leaders need to be able to do? 

They need to develop the ten skills listed above and put the skills into practice as a daily habit pattern of thought and action.

PART 1

CONCEPT OF STRATEGIC PLANNING

IN MANAGING  BUSINESS

PERFORMANCE

Strategic planning can help you to improve the performance of your business. 

But don’t confuse Strategic Planning from Business Planning. 

They they differ in the following three ways:

1. Strategic planning looks much further ahead;   
2. Strategic planning consists largely of words with just a few figures to indicate the scale of the planners’ intentions. A Business Plan, on the other hand, consists largely of figures. Because these are often unreliable beyond a few months, managers are reluctant to look ahead as far as they may need to. Strategic plans can look further ahead because so few figures are employed, and also; 
3. What few figures they do contain are tested by risk analysis techniques.

Systematic strategic thinking helps you to find, and decide what to do about, the handful of really big issues facing your business.

It is the size and impact of these strategic issues that gives rise to the importance of the strategic plan. 

It has been found from long and sometimes painful experiences that in order to effectively plan strategically requires five essential procedures.

THE FIVE ESSENTIAL PROCEDURES:

1.  Engage commitment

2.  Set long term strategic objectives for improved performance;

3.  Generate strategic options;

4.  Evaluate and decide on strategies

5.  Monitor plan implementation against the long term objectives.

Let's look at each of these more closely- 

Engage commitment from those people who will be affected by the plan. 

This is how you Start and ensure Support for planning, and the implementation of the plan. Stakeholder groups may possibly be affected by the implementation of the strategic corporate plan in the operation. Their interests must be respected. It must be remembered that the processes for engaging people operate in various ways in all the other stages of the planning process. 

Set long term strategic objectives for improved performance of the organisation. 

These objectives should clearly further the purpose of your business. This means knowing and spelling out for whom the organisation exists, and what benefit the organisation seeks to provide this group. 

Generate strategic options 

Formal strategic planning calls for the analysis of key strategic factors, shortlisting the really major strategic issues and the generation of Alternative strategies. 

First, an attempt should be made to provide comprehensive strategies; that is, the plan should consider all the truly important factors - the strategic elephants. 

REMEMBER: 

The strategies should not exhaust all available resources. 

Something should be held in reserve.

Evaluate and decide on strategies  

It is all too easy to go with the bright ideas that emerge from brainstorming strategic alternatives. Effective formal planning uses systematic methods for evaluating the various alternatives. 

Evaluate to ensure that they do not violate any constraints. Rate the strategic options against the objectives. Ensure that all major strategic issues are addressed.

Now you are in a position to Design a set of strategies, based on a few key decisions. 

Monitor Execution of the strategies against the long term objectives.  

Having planned the work of implementing or Executing the strategic plan, you need a system in place for working the plans as they get implemented. The plan should provide for formal reporting at agreed intervals.

To allow for corrective action, the monitoring system should address the same objectives and factors determined as significant through the planning process.

All the essential procedures for strategic planning can be summarised as follows -

Practical Corporate Planning is as useful as a S_P_A_D_E

START - Organising to plan, engaging affected parties

PURPOSE - Sizing up the strategic challenge, setting targets

ANALYSE – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats, and generate options

DECIDE – Devising Strategies from the options looked at

EXECUTE – Evaluating and Actioning strategies. 

PART 2: ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURES

Introduction

Organisations are structured in a variety of ways, dependant on their objectives and culture. The structure of an organisation will determine the manner in which it operates and it’s performance. Structure allows the responsibilities for different functions and processes to be clearly allocated to different departments and employees.

The wrong organisation structure will hinder the success of the business. Organisational structures should aim to maximize the efficiency and success of the Organisation. An effective organisational structure will facilitate working relationships between various sections of the organisation. It will retain order and command whilst promoting flexibility and creativity.

Internal factors such as size, product and skills of the workforce influence the organizational structure. As a business expands the chain of command will lengthen and the spans of control will widen. The higher the level of skill each employee has the more the business will make use of the matrix structure to maximize these skills across the organization.

Span of Control

This term is used to describe the number of employees that each manager/supervisor is responsible for. The span of control is said to be wide if a superior is in charge of many employees and narrow if the superior is in charge of a few employees.

Different Structures

The most common organisation structures are:

• Tall;
• Flat;
• Hierachical;
• Centralised and decentralised.

Let us briefly look at each one independantly and what the advantages and disadvantages are of each;

 

TALL STRUCTURE

In its simplest form a tall organisation has many levels of management and supervision. There is a “long chain of command” running from the top of the organisation eg Chief Executive down to the bottom of the organisation eg shop floor worker. The diagram below neatly captures the concept of a tall structure.

However, tall structures rarely exceed 8 levels of management. This is firstly because the number of layers (i.e. management levels) decreases the span of control. Secondly the disadvantages of the tall structure begin to outweigh the advantages of a tall structure.

Advantages of Tall Organisations:

• There is a narrow span of control i.e. each manager has a small number of employees under their control.  This means that employees can be closely supervised.;
• There is a clear management structure;
• The function of each layer will be clear and destinct.  There will be clear lines of responsibility and control;
• Clear progression and promotion ladder.

Disadvantages of Tall Organisations

• The freedom and responsibility of employees (subordinates) is restricted;
• Decision making could be slowed down as approval may be need by each of the layers of authority;
• Communication has to take place through many layers of management;
• High management costs because managers are generally paid more than subordinates.  Each layer will tend to pay it’s managers more money that the layer below it.

 

FLAT STRUCTURED

This means that the “Chain of Command” from top to bottom is short and the “span of control is wide”. Due to the small number of management layers, flat organisations are often small organisations.

Advantages of Flat Organisations

• More/Greater communication between management and workers;
• Better team spirit;
• Less bureaucracy and easier decision making;
• Fewer levels of managment which includes benefits such as lower costs as managers are generally paid more than workers.

Disadvantages of Flat Organisations

• Workers may have more than one manager/boss;
• May limit/hinder the growth of the organisation;
• Structure limited to small organisations such as partnerships, co-operatives and some private limited companies;
• Function of each department/person could be blurred and merge into job roles of others;

 

HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE

In a hierarchical organisation employees are ranked at various levels within the organisation, each level is one above the other.

At each stage in the chain, one person has a number of workers directly under them, within their span of control. A tall hierarchical organisation has many levels and a flat hierarchical organisation will only have a few.

The chain of command (i.e. the way authority is organised) is a typical pyramid shape.

 

A traditional hierarchy, senior managers make up the board of directors and are responsible for establishing strategy and overall business direction, whilst middle managers have responsibility for a specific function such as finance or marketing.

A traditional hierarchical structure clearly defines each employee’s role within the organisation and defines the nature of their relationship with other employees. Hierarchical organisations are often tall with narrow spans of control, which gets wider as we move down the structure. They are often centralised with the most important decisions being taken by senior management.   

Advantages of Hierarchical Organisations

• Authority and responsibility and clearly defined;
• Clearly defined promotion path;
• There are specialist managers and the hierarchical environment encourages the effective use of specialist managers;
• Employees are very loyal to their department within the organisation.

Disadvantages of Hierarchical Organisations

• The organisation can be bureaucratic and response slowly to changing customers needs and the market within which the organisation operates;
• Communication across various sections can be poor especially horizontal communication;
• Departments can make decisions which benefit them rahter than the business as a whole especially if there is Inter-departmental rivalry.

CENTRALISED AND DECENTRALISED ORGANISATIONS

In a centralised organisation head office or a few senior managers will retain the major responsibilities and powers.

Conversely decentralised organisations will spread responsibility for specific decisions across various outlets and lower level managers, including branches or units located away from head office/headquarters.

Organisations may also decide that a combination of centralisation and decentralisation is more effective. For example functions such as accounting and purchasing may be centralised to save costs. Whilst tasks such as recruitment may be decentralised as units away from head office may have staffing needs specific only to them.   

Certain organisations implement vertical decentralisation which means that they have handed the power to make certain decisions, down the hierarchy of their organisation. Vertical decentralisation increases the input; people at the bottom of the organisation chart have in decision making.  

Horizontal decentralisation spreads responsibility across the organisation. A good example of this is the implementation of new technology across the whole business. This implementation will be the sole responsibility of technology specialists.

Advantages of a Centralised Structure for Organisations

• Senior managers enjoy greater control over the organisation;
• The use of standardised procedures can result in cost saving;
• Decisions can be made to benefit the organisations as a whole.  Whereas a decision made by a department manager may benefit their department, but disadvantage other department;

Advantages of a Decentralised Structure for Organisations

• Senior managers have time to concentrate on the most important decisions (as the other decisions can be undertaken by other people down the organisation stucture);
• Decision making is a form of empowerment.  Empowperment can increase motivation and therefore mean that staff output increases.
• People lower down the chain have a greater understanding of the environment they work in and the people (customers and colleagues) that they interact with.  This knowledge skills and experience may enable them to make more effective decisions than senior managers;
• Empowerment will enable departments and their employees to respond faster to changes and new challenges.  Whereas it may take senior managers loner to appreciate that business needs have changed;
• Empowerment makes it easier for people to accept and make a success of more responsibility.

PART 3: SUPERVISE AND

MONITOR EXPENDITURE

Introduction

Monitoring costs and expenses is a feature that every entrepreneur should do. Money is essential to earn that money in more than minimize the payoff to the entrepreneur must therefore costs as much as possible.

To minimize costs, the entrepreneur must be verified for each item of expenditure and ensure the purchase was necessary. In addition, it is important to ensure the best price for the desired quality has been paid.

All entrepreneurs should be aware of every single expense, no matter how big or small, and they should be aware, the cost before the money leaves the bank. It is not well done, after the event as none of this can be done consciously, and if spending unnecessary it was too late and there has been money spent on potentially unnecessary items.

In this module we will be exploring some good ways of tracking and monitoring your expenditure.

Keep records

• Make a note of all expenditure movements in a book or on a spreadsheet.  For complete monitoring the owner of the business should be aware of not only the level of the individual costs, but also what it refers to.
• All receipts and invoices kept and filed. Do not throw anything out, no matter what it is. All entries in the book or on the spreadsheet should have a unique number that cross references are given to the relevant invoice or receipt. This allows the owner to be bound to any payment made to documents, which is of great importance for the implementation of the accounts together or in a position where there is a tax investigation.

Monthly Summary

At the end of each month a summary account in the book should be written or typed on the worksheet. This account does not have to be detailed. Add the cash receipts minus expenditure (detailed) to include a final figure to reach. This closure should tie up with your bank statement reconciliation.

Cost Control

Make a monthly list of all the elements to prepare the expenditure from the book or spreadsheet and thoroughly check them.

EXAMPLE

If the amount of expenditure on, say, postage and stationery, is higher than expected, the entrepreneur should investigate and find out why. 

By breaking down the expenditure you will be able to see which element of say Stationary is higher than expected. 

FOR EXAMPLE:

The unexpected costs could be reflected in the ink cartridges been too expensive, try and find out if you are paying a competitive price or if there are any cheaper options that will not comprise quality.

This review should be conducted regularly to ensure that any problems to you as soon as possible be included and can be solved in a short time before wasting too much cash.

CHEAT SHEET:

REFERENCE

Marketing can be one big cost of your business, See section 4 of this module for ideas on how to in-expensively market your company.

PART 4:  MARKETING OBJECTIVES

Many a times, companies either over spend or under spend or understand their market budget, with little or no idea about the consequences of doing either action.

For a marketing campaign to work effective, it is critical to ensure that the campaign budget is well managed.

"Objectives are statements of specific outcomes that are to be achieved"

Meeting marketing objectives should lead to sales. (If not, you need to set different marketing objectives).  Your objectives should;

• Be clear
• Be measurable and;
• Have a stated time frame for achievement

Examples of marketing objectives follow:

• Increase product awareness;
• Inform target audience about features and benefits of your product and its competitive advantage,
• Decrease or remove potential customers' resistance

If you have multiple objectives, make sure they are consistent and not in conflict with each other. Also, be sure that the remainder of your marketing plan components, the marketing strategy, budget, action programs, controls and measures support your marketing objectives.

Do you have the resources necessary to accomplish your objectives?

The Marketing Strategy

The marketing strategy section of your plan outlines your game plan to achieve your marketing objectives. It is, essentially, the heart of the marketing plan. The marketing strategy section should include information about:

• Product - your product(s)and services;
• Price - what you will charge customers for products and services;
• Promotion - how you will promote or create awareness of your product in the marketplace.

There are "4Ps of marketing" that should be taken into consideration when planning your marketing strategy, namely;

• Product
• Price
• Promotion
• Place (distribution)

Product Description

A product can be a physical item, a service, or an idea. In the context of this module we will refer to “the product” as “the service”

While service features are usually easy to detect and describe, service benefits can be trickier because they are often intangible. The most compelling service benefits are those that provide emotional or financial rewards.

It is not the brighter smile that the toothpaste offers that is its benefit; it is what the smile might bring you.

Benefits and Features of your service

To identify your service benefits, you need to consider the customer's viewpoint. Besides putting yourself in your customer's shoes mentally, talk to or survey them asking them to tell you why they like your service.  They might see benefits in in your service that you had not considered - or, conversely they may not be seeing the benefit in the service that you had designed it for.

Understanding service features and benefits helps you develop your marketing strategy to better:

• Describe your service in marketing brochures, publications or in a personal selling situation in a way that is most relevant to customers
• Differentiate, explain how your service differs from other services in the market
• Use a variety of pricing and positioning strategies effectively.

Pricing your service:

Pricing your service is one of the most important business decisions you will make. You must offer your service for a price your target market is willing to pay - and one that produces a profit for your company - or you won't be in business for long.

So, the price you set is the cost to the customer. Ideally, it should be higher than the costs you incurred in producing the service.

Somewhere between your cost and "the price the market will bear" is the right price for your service - a price that enables you to make a fair profit and seems fair to your customers. Consequently, once you understand your costs and your maximum price, you can make an informed decision about how to price your service.

A Promotion Plan

A promotion plan outlines the promotional tools or tactics you plan to use to accomplish your marketing objectives. You might choose to include the following components in your promotion plan.

Laying the Groundwork for Effective Promotional Tactics

Once you have are happy that you have the best promotional strategy for reaching your target market, you need to:

• Do research
• Keep your customer in mind
• Be creative  

Promotional Tools:

A partial list of promotional tools could be;

Advertising

Print advertising such as that in programs for events, trade journals, magazines, newspapers

Direct mail

Outdoor Advertising

Such as billboards and bus boards

Broadcast advertising on radio and TV (or Internet sites)

Marketing Collateral
You might choose to produce and distribute materials such as:

• Brochures;
• Newsletters;
• Flyers;
• Posters.

REMEMBER:
Estimate your costs as accurately as possible.

Marketing can be a very costly exercise, below are some in-expensive ideas on how to market your business;

Make Friends in the Field

Your business is most likely getting some supplies from another source. Ask that business to put in a good word for you in exchange for you doing the same. For example, if you make jewelry, ask the bead seller to use your work as an example or mention your website on their website. When someone looks at your jewelry, recommend the bead shop. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.

Mix Pleasure with Potential

Use your leisure hobbies to promote your business. If you like to write, write an article about your business. If you like to play music, introduce yourself as the owner of a business. Don’t take away from your enjoyment, but make the most out of every opportunity.

Create a New Signature

Make sure that every piece of paper and email that you send out to anyone has your business name listed on it somewhere. It doesn’t need to be a long description; the name and contact information is enough. Change your email settings and create a signature that will automatically be added to every message you send.

These inexpensive methods of promoting a business are effective without breaking the bank. Experiment with a couple to see which works best for you. Change it up every once in a while to keep it interesting. Most importantly, have fun with it. When the business is having fun, the customers will feel at greater ease.

Sales and Distribution Plan

Remember, the primary goal of the marketing plan is to get people to buy your products or services. The Sales and Distribution part of the marketing plan details how this is going to happen.

Traditionally there are three parts to the Sales and Distribution section of the marketing plan, although all three parts may not apply to your business.

Outline the distribution methods to be used

How is your product or service going to get to the customer? Some methods could be for instance;

• Distribute your product or service through a Web site,
• Through the mail;
• Through sales representatives

What distribution channel is going to be used?

In a direct distribution channel, the product or service goes directly from the manufacturer to the consumer. In a one stage distribution channel it goes from manufacturer to retailer to consumer. The traditional distribution channel is from manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer.

Outline the transaction process between your business and your customers.

The following questions should be address in this section;

What methods of payment will customers be able to use? What credit terms will customers be offered? If you will offer discounts for early payment or impose penalties for late payment, they should be mentioned in this part of your marketing plan.

What after-sale support will you offer customers?  Will you charge for this support?

Is there a system for customer feedback so customer satisfaction (or the lack of it) can be tracked and addressed?

If it's applicable to your business, outline your sales strategy.

This section pertains to a sales department, where a sales force is set up to sell your service and some questions to ask yourself would be;

• What types of salespeople will be involved (commissioned salespeople, product demonstrators, telephone solicitors, etc.)?
• Describe your expectations of these salespeople and how sales effectiveness will be measured.
• Will a sales training program be offered? If so, describe it in this section of the marketing plan.
• Describe the incentives sales people will be offered to encourage their achievements (such as getting new accounts, the most orders, etc.).

PART 5: PERFORMANCE PROBLEM

Introduction

It is interesting the way businesses handle performance issues with employees. 

Some handle them promptly, professionally and in a way that encourages improvement.  Others handle them poorly, carry a big stick and get what they want through an aggressive approach.  Finally you have a group that do nothing at all - at least until the problem becomes so bad that it can't be ignored!

Avoiding conflict is human nature, generally managers and business owners don't want conflict within their business.  However, poor performance has effects on business performance, team morale and may result in conflict anyway.

It is important for Business Owners or Managers to undertake regular two way communication with employees.  Performance issues should be addressed as a matter of course, not as an exceptional circumstance.  If it is done correctly, then it can be seen as a learning event rather than a disciplinary issue.

Identifying Performance Issues

Identifying performance issues confronting your employees is an important leadership skill. It is one of the hardest tasks you face in your managerial or leadership position. This is because of the sensitivity that surrounds the issue. However, good leaders are quick to identify poor performance and take corrective action, thus, facilitating productive performance by employees. Do share your favorite tips and tricks for identifying and resolving performance problems at the workplace.

Devise parameters for performance. When you know what is expected of your employees, you can determine whether they are able to reach their targets or not. When you set parameters for a desirable behavior or performance, keep in view how poor performance or undesirable behavior affects the organisation, its employees and customers.

Work with team leaders or managers and gather inputs from them. This will enable you to have a clear view of desirable behavior and you will be in a better position to analyse your employees’ performance.

Analyse Performance. While analysing performance, don’t focus on people issues, but on their performance. A subjective view may lead to unnecessary confrontations between you and your employee.

Identifying performance problems early on helps both you and your employee reach an amicable solution.

Reasons for Performance Problems

Performance problems do occur for many reasons. Some problems are related to employees’ attitudes or motivational levels, some to their workplace environment, some to lack of resources and others to their knowledge levels.

• Attitudinal or motivational issues refer to a situation where employees are knowledgeable but consistently show tardiness at work. The work they produce is not at par with established standards. Besides, they frequently abstain from work or try to abstain from work responsibilities by giving lame excuses.
• Problems relating to the workplace environment are subtle but have a profound impact on employee performance. Sexual harassment, workplace bullying, coercion and favoritism by the boss are some leading factors affecting employee performance.
• Lack of training on using resources also adversely impacts employee performance. In this situation, employees are knowledgeable and have the right attitude but they cannot perform well because they do not have the right information or training on using resources such as new technologies, equipment, etc.

When employees do not have the requisite knowledge about their job responsibilities, they cannot perform well.

Hints to manage Performance

• Ensure your employees are aware of your expectations.  This can be in the form of position descriptions, goals and targets, employment agreements or various other instruments.  Talking to them regularly is another way of letting them know your expectations.

• Make sure your employees know the effects of failing to meet your expectations in regards to business performance.

• Ensure your employees know what to expect if their performance fails to meet these expectations. Ensure you have a process of communication and counseling for such issues in place and that everyone is aware of it.

• Make sure your process initially is designed to encourage improvement in performance in an educational manner (so that they learn from their mistakes)

If they continue to perform poorly, have a system in place to manage the issue through to a positive outcome but with the recognition that continued poor performance may result in termination of employment.

Finally - if it does come to the point where the situation is no longer tenable - have a strong process in place to terminate employment.

Systems to encourage positive outcomes are your best defense against poor performance.  It is much better to manage performance in a positive manner than manage poor performance in a negative one - for you and your employees.

What Are Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

Key Performance Indicators are quantifiable measurements, agreed to beforehand, that reflect the critical success factors of a business.

Once your Key Performance Indicators have been selected, they must reflect your business goals, they must be key to its success and they must be quantifiable (measurable). Key Performance Indicators usually are long-term considerations. The definition of what they are and how they are measured do not change often. The goals for a particular Key Performance Indicator may change as the businesses goals change, or as it gets closer to achieving a goal.

EXAMPLE

Benefits of business performance monitoring

Business performance monitoring is critical to driving needed change within your business.

Business performance monitoring helps change the way people do their jobs, approach their day, and deal with daily roadblocks in the following ways:

·         Encourage people to focus on the big picture

·         Help people distinguish the important from the trivial

·         Assist in differentiating between the “must be done” from the “could be done”

·         Place greater emphasis on strategy and organisational results.

PART 6: BUSINESS

ATTRIBUTES

Introduction

Theodor Roosevelt once said, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

Those business leaders that care the most make the greatest impact on their employees and will, in turn, be the most successful leaders.

When your employees know that you care about what they think and bout their lives, they will feel more valued.  In turn, they will pay that back to you in the form of being a dedicated employee and giving you respect.  What more could a business owner ask for?

Now it is just a matter of making sure you possess the caring attributes you need in order to lead.

Attributes of a Successful Leader

Be part of the people

People usually identify with leaders from within.  This because there is a “get me” feeling. When you lead by being part of the crowd, you will be much more embraced.  The ones who are “above the crowd” are seen as superior, and it is difficult to connect with those people, or to like them.

Be Humble

Great leaders know that no one, including themselves, is better or worse.  Everyone brings their own value, and collectively there is power in that. Great leaders position themselves so that if they leave the group, the group stays just as strong.  Great leaders develop strength in the crowd and free everyone from dependency on any one individual.

Be simple

To be a great leader, avoid communicating over people’s heads.  Instead, communicate on the same level as everyone else.  This, in part, will make you one “of the people”.  Good communication with your employees can be a key component in helping to grow your business.  Besides, when you talk to people rather than down to them, you show respect.  That, in turn, will get you respect.

Block and Tackle

Great leaders defend, protect and help their team.  They know their most important job is to make everyone else’s job easier.  They gladly do the dirtiest of the dirty work when it supports the achievement of team goals.  When you show you are willing to get in there and get dirty, you are demonstrating to them that you are humble, and you are one of them.

Believe in them

Forget trying to the people to believe in you.  Instead, get them to believe in themselves.  Let them know you believe they can do their job they can help the company to succeed and that they will do what is right.  That’s what great leaders do, and when you can do that, they will automatically believe in you.

Mutual Stance

Often times, entrepreneurs don’t realise that they will get what they give when it comes to their employees.  You have no doubt heard the axiom that to get respect you have to give it; it works like magic in the business world. Treat your employees how you want to be treated, especially when it comes to being part of their group, respecting who they are and believing in them.  When you do this, you will make your job, and theirs, a whole lot easier.

Focus on showing your employees that you care, and will see the rewards come back to you.  People who know that their leaders care want to see them succeed.  They will do everything they can to give them the support, and productivity, that is needed.  What helps make a great business leader, in turn, helps to make great employees. And the cycle continues.