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Importance of Leadership
Using a Clear Vision to Manage Effectively
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 Not only in business but in all areas of life, leadership will always be present. The principles that define leadership applies everywhere from public service to the military to education to science to sports to music and the arts. Regardless of the task that you want to achieve and whether that involves only yourself, leadership is imperative.
Especially in business, leadership should mean obtaining the best from people - managing them so that they are able to work with each other in the direction that is set by the leader. More and more as we have made our way through the 20th century and now into the 21st, leadership is recognized as a transferable skill - meaning, it can be taught. This notion has grew exponentially in popularity over the last thirty years as we've gone as a society from one man calling all the shots to a fast-moving, complex and much less hierarchical world where more people are wearing important hats than ever before.
Developing a Clear Vision
In order to lead effectively, you need a clear vision as to where your company is going - this includes anyone that manages even the smallest of departments; you need to create an objective or goal. This goal has to be understood by everyone that's involved in order for it to be accomplished.
When Bill Gates started Microsoft, he wanted to become the biggest software giant in the world. His vision was clear and effective. Sure, his plan took time, but we all know that by the time Gates stepped down as Chairman; his company had achieved that goal.
A good rule of thumb when you explain your vision to your employees or co-workers under your departmental finger is to have them write down your goal when you originally state it and make sure that it's repeated as much as possible. Make sure that no one forgets what the purpose so that they remain full steam ahead.
Communicating Effectively
To be an effective leader, you must be able to communicate and understand that communication is a two-way process that consists of listening and exchanging messages. One thing that you don't want to do as a manager is do all the talking, while never listening to any of your employees. You want to know what their concerns, ideas and views are that even though they may not change the course of your company's business plan, but may in fact help steer you in a better direction.
You have to communicate and listen with daily consistency and a clear sense of purpose, regardless of how long a person may have been at the company.
Entrusting Responsibilities to Others
As a leader, you have to be able to entrust certain tasks to other employees under your wing. In general, delegation and risk-taking are intertwined because you pass on to someone else the ability to make decisions on your behalf. Being an effective leader means that you're able to hand off responsibilities to a person and support them when they make a genuine mistake. If you're unable to do this, you will have failed as a delegating leader because you have given no faith in that person to handle what you have assigned to them.
In order to be effective when in a position of senior management, you have to show that you are able to motivate other to do for you; not only what you can to do yourself.
Measuring Leadership Ability
When someone is promoted, it's not only for their work ethic and performance, but for their natural and demonstrative leadership and potential. Many times, companies promote people solely on skills but do not have the ability to lead due to shortcomings in personality, training or experience.
Any successful business must ask the following questions regarding their importance on leadership:
1.) Are you hiring people of that have strong experience technically with the personality required to lead in a senior role?
2.) When selecting candidates in interviews, is leadership a required topic for discussion?
3.) Will leadership training take place during the career for that person that you're looking to hire?
4.) Is leadership given a place of importance during an employee's annual review; especially of that person desires to move more into a management role?
Achieving Strong Leadership
There are four qualities at the heart of strong leadership:
1.) Decisiveness;
2.) Vision;
3.) Understanding;
4.) Confidence.
The best leaders in the world are able to communicate their vision clearly, effectively and frequently. They are open to new ideas but, at the same time, they know the direction that the team and organization should be going to achieve their goal.
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Creating an Effective Business Web Site
Information Brings the Visitors Back
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Whenever a business decides to build a web site, the biggest misconception out there is that in order to create one that's effective, all it takes are some mind-blowing graphics that will have people visiting in massive numbers. However, that's where many web sites fail, especially in business, because web site design is really about information.
Look at web sites like Apple, Google and Amazon, and you will see that these are successful because they have few graphics and a wealth of informative facts and knowledge that people strongly demand and require. Most people view the Internet as a library instead of a source of entertainment; and they despise on waiting for a page to load. So if you insist that your web site contain several high-quality graphics and other high-bandwidth multimedia that will slow its loading, you will find that you will receive few if any visitors.
Effective web design should focus on three specific attributes:
- A template that's clean and simple that will allow visitors to find the content they want without any delays;
- A good page layout that allows the reader to view the content without any difficulty;
- Avoid any kind of outlandish graphics and multimedia experiences that can slow the loading of a web site.
A Web Site Design Should Be User-Friendly
Frequently, there are very few web sites that are designed to fit the needs of the visitor. Most go on web sites to find information that's relevant to them, scan and read it quickly before moving on to another web page.
A person's attention span is short to begin with; therefore, he or she is not going to wait for complex web pages to download. Additionally, they may be skeptical about visiting a new web site because of disappointment from past experience, where they find nothing but irrelevant content.
Organize the Web Site like a Directory
This may seem odd to most that don't know much if any about web site design, but you want to follow this rule if you especially have many products to sell. Therefore, you need to organize properly so that visitors can browse through them easily without difficulty such as with Amazon.com. They organize massive amounts of products properly so that people can find what they want immediately.
Elements such as metadata, navigation and search are essential to organizing content on a web site.
Metadata
This delivers fundamental information on a document or web page such as publication date, author, keywords, title and summary.
Navigation
This is a critical part because if people can't find their way around a web site, they will quickly move to another and not return.
Search
This is one of the most common activities that people do on a web site, and must be available on every page. In order to be truly effective, search depends on metadata.
Prepare Well-Written Content
When creating text for your web site, you want to make sure that is factual with sharp and descriptive headings and summaries. The majority of the content for each page should be short sentences between 500 and 700 words total with paragraphs running between 40 to 60 words a piece. Most importantly, you want to continually update the content because people will stop visiting as soon as they started if you don't have pertinent information.
Pivotal to Interact with Visitors on the Web Site
You always want to have specific contact information that's readily available for viewing and use on the web site. This will cover everything essential such as email and telephone contacts and physical addresses with location maps. You can also provide other communication options such as online chat and discussion boards, while email discussion lists can enhance a visitor's understanding of the organization and its products.
A great way to interact with visitors both new and continuing is through sending an email newsletter that allows you to keep in touch with them regularly at minimal cost.
Work Out the Bugs with Visitors
The best way to know if your web site is working or not is to test, test and test with potential visitors. The more feedback you receive, the better chance that your site will become a success because you are giving what the people want. |
Harnessing Action Learning in Business
Using Life Experience to Adapt to Change Effectively
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A great way to help create individual and organized change in a business can be done through action learning. This concept focuses on developing skills that revolve around learning and understanding than simply increasing knowledge.
Generally, there are two major factors that affect your job performance:
- Skills - Ability to do the job;
- Attitude - The will to do what is necessary to optimize effectiveness.
Action learning helps you maximize your performance in a useful way by training you as you work to solve real problems in the workplace.
The learning and development of these skills are directly linked borh work and life-related experience that you've obtained previously. This is based on the concept of:
Learning [L] = Programmed Knowledge [P] + Questioning Skills [Q]
Programmed Knowledge are the things that you have been taught or have learned through experiences.
Questioning Skills is the ability to challenge programmed knowledge by using the spurring of real life problems.
As much as you need the programmed knowledge that you have acquired over the years, you have to be able to constructively question both yourself and co-workers around you to successfully adapt to the continual changes that take place. This is especially true in the workplace with managers and their employees beneath them.
The primary concept of action learning is this: individuals are placed in a supportive environment with a problem to solve and a facilitator that will encourage them to question their programmed knowledge and to test themselves and each other. The process of questioning and testing creates experience and thus creates learning.
For example, a child learns that the stove is hot through the pain that comes from the burn afterwards (reflection) not just by touching it (test); therefore, doesn't attempt to try again.
COMPREHENDING THE CONCEPT
Key Approaches and Roles
Learning opportunities are created through certain factors such as working through life problems, having the empowerment to question what is occurring, attempting different scenerios, stopping to reflect on what and why something is taking place; and sharing the experience with others who are partaking in learning by experience.
Action learning has two main models:
The Revans Approach - focusing on individual development;
In-plant Model - focusing on combining individual development with organizational change.
Each one uses the same structure with the problem (focus for the activity), client (person that owns the problem), action learning set (people come here to share their experiences and provide encouragement), facilitator (person that encourages learning through questioning, challenging and supporting) and sponsor (senior manager responsible for implementing program)
Implementing
The first thing you want to do when you are going incorporate action learning into your workplace is consider what you want to achieve such as restructuring your organization, develop your people or solve specific problems. You want to read all relative literature, view content on the web sites and talk to people that have used action learning.
Be sure to set yourself some output goals that are both technical and behavior such as solving problems and demonstrating the ability to apply these skills in later projects respectively.
Remember that a typical action learning program will last about six months and includes five stages: 1.) introductory workshop; 2.) investigation and recommendation; 3.) presentation and feedback; 4.) implementation and 5.) reviewing what you've learned and can incorporate.
Overall, action learning will strengthen your business with problem solving, teamwork and most of all discovering and implementing new ideas that will maximize the value of your investment in the long run.
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THE VR BLOGGER
Always Keep Good Books
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Have you ever wondered about the consequences when business owners don't report all of the revenue that they're creating? Business intermediaries know that buyers will only pay for what can be proven, so one ramification is the eventual selling price of the business will be lower due to the decreasing number of documented profits.
The question is how much lower will the price be as a result? A more important question from this arises: how much can a second set of books save - disregarding the potential costs, financial and getting caught for underreporting income? It may sound like a good idea in the beginning, you may be able to get away with it for a while; but like karma, you'll find out that it will come back to haunt you 100 fold.
Continue Reading the Full Article.
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Highlighted Transactions
And New Engagements
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SUCCESSFUL TRANSACTIONS
Dental Lab
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VR Mergers & Acquisitions of Naples, FL, a leader in the sale of privately-held companies, recently facilitated the strategic sale of a dental lab.
The transaction, which closed this month was handled by Joel Soorenko, a business intermediary specialist.
VR is celebrating 30 years as the world's only network of full-time professional business intermediaries.
VR has sold more business in the world than anyone®.
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SUCCESSFUL TRANSACTIONS
Premier Hospitality Recruiting Company
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VR Mergers & Acquisitions, located in Fort Worth/Arlington, TX, the leading business intermediary firm in the area, has recently facilitated the strategic sale of a hospitality recruiting company.
Mike Kingston, a VR Intermediary, represented the seller throughout the transaction that was completed in December 2009.
VR is celebrating 30 years as the world's only network of full-time professional business intermediaries that addresses the needs of small and mid-sized businesses.
VR has sold more business in the world than anyone®.
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NEW ENGAGEMENTS
Japanese Restaurant at Redondo Pier
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VR Mergers & Acquisitions located in Artesia, CA, announced today it has been engaged by a brand name motorcycle and atv dealership to assist in facilitating the sale of their business.
This establish is beautifully set up with beer and Wine at the Redondo Pier that boasts panoramic ocean and coastline views. Go to VR Web Site for further details.
VR is celebrating 30 years as the world's only network of full-time professional business intermediaries that addresses the needs of small and mid-sized businesses.
VR has sold more business in the world than anyone®.
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NEW ENGAGEMENTS
Compounding Pharmacy
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VR Business Sales in Chatanooga, TN, specializing in the sales and acquisitions of small and mid-sized businesses, has announced that the company has been retained to facilitate the sale of a pharmacy.
Located in eastern Tennessee, this pharmacy does compounding only. It is located next to a large medical center with several doctor's offices nearby. There is also a free standing building and property available. Click here for further details and contact information.
Celebrating 30 years as the world's only network of full-time professional intermediaries, VR addresses the needs of small and mid-sized businesses.
VR has sold more business in the world than anyone®.
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Now is a Great Time to Become Part of VR!
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 With baby boomers selling their businesses to retire and frustrated corporate executives and managers looking to buy a business to replace their corporate job, NOW is a great time to become part of VR!
VR's Newest Office
Panama City, Panama
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2010 Today's Business Owner® Publishing Dates
January 19, 2010
February 15, 2010
March 15, 2010
April 15, 2010
May 14, 2010
June 15, 2010
July 15, 2010
August 13, 2010
September 15, 2010
October 15, 2010
November 15, 2010
December 15, 2010
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VR Global Headquarters
One East Broward Boulevard
Suite 1500
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
Phone (954) 565-1555; Fax (954) 565-6855
http://www.vrbb.com
Copyright © VR 2009-2010
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Ask a VR Intermediary?
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How do I value people in my business when preparing to sell?
John Pantomas, Everton, Illinois
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Dear John,
Always remember that your employees are your most important asset. Naturally, many in management and the ownership side of business snicker when they hear this and for good reason. Many people within a business organization usually don't experience decision-making and policy changes in their everyday work life that support such a belief. One corporate accountant at a previous company colorfully described employees as "costs walking about on legs."
Businesses want maximum efficiency from their employees for minimal cost, which usually leads to a very short-term mentality. This outlook is self-defeating since the final outcome that's desired by corporate is driven by satisfying other demands that generally get much less attention. A powerful system of financial processes and targets dominates the life of most managers. Measures of intangibles such as employees' capability or customers' loyalty may exist, but they are frequently excluded from monitoring with any dedication.
Additionally, people don't want a strict financial definition of an asset as they cannot be transacted at will. Furthermore, their contribution is individually unique and different depending upon the given environment and motivation that is created as a result. Most of all, they cannot easily be valued according to traditional financial principles.
However, if we view "assets" as creative entities, we will arrive ultimately at the foundational role that people play; especially in an age where the application of knowledge is a core competitive advantage. Some should be seen as investments instead of costs, but management accounting usually never recognizes this.
Most of all, there are few credible measures that relate to people and their value. We know in detail what they cost; however, we have no balancing quantity for their value. By the time we feel that asset has been lost, it's too late to do anything about it.
Solving the Dilemma in Determining a Person's Value
The valuation of businesses has steadily progressed over the last 20 years, putting a much higher emphasis on intangible assets such as knowledge, competence, brands and systems - known as intellectual capital.
The problem that arises is that there is no comparable system of measurement that enables us to give these the same balanced attention that we give financial matters. As a result, the decisions that originate regarding investment and resources are not in the long-term interests of the stockholders.
For example, one thing that occurs following a merger or acquisition of a business are lay offs of key employees, only to hire them back when the value that they contributed is recognized. More often than not, the asset that is the most important is the least understood, least prone to measurement and hence the least susceptible to management.
Ways to Measure People as Assets There are three criteria for defining any asset:
There are also traditional methods for coming to a valuation:
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It must possess future service potential;
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It is measurable in monetary terms;
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It is subject to the ownership and control of the company, or it is rented or leased.
There are also traditional methods for coming to a valuation:
Cost-Based
This typically looks at the acquisition or replacement cost. The budget for recruiting an employee can be assessed and then depreciated over the expected future service of the person hired. As an alternative, the person's gross remuneration can be used as a base.
Market-Based
The price to be paid in an open market must be a reflection of the value of a person. Value is very difficult to assess; however, and does not take account of the value of service continuity in itself.
Income-Based
The cash inflows expected by the organization related to the contribution of the human asset, calculated as the present value of the expected net cash flows. This is good for individuals whose efforts are directly related to identifiable income.
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