MARKETINGFocus On the Customer
Here’s some holiday marketing advice: Great ads focus on the customer, not the business. So says Roy Williams, author of the best-selling Wizard Of Ads. “Successful nonfiction — including highly effective advertising — is about the reader, the listener, the viewer, the customer,” he says in his Monday Morning Memo. The best ads contain entertainment and information and appeal to customers’ thoughts about identity, purpose and adventure in life. The worst? Well, they’re about how great you are.
CUSTOMER SERVICEThe Secret to Good Service
Businesses need systems and, yes, employees need managers, but when it comes to providing great customer service, what workers really need is autonomy, says Micah Solomon, author of High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service. The Forbes blogger says the key is hiring good people to begin with, training them well — and then leaving them alone to do their jobs. He identifies what he calls the central law of employee motivation: “Employees who are selected, oriented and reinforced properly, and who are surrounded by peers of the same caliber, will thrive when given significant autonomy. Otherwise, they’ll wither.”
EMPLOYEE RELATIONSDon’t Treat All Employees Equally
All employees are not equal, and treating them as if they were leaves engaged, enthusiastic employees feeling shortchanged and disengaged employees feeling entitled, says Trevor Wilson, author of The Human Equity Advantage. “Acknowledge and reward employees who are going the extra mile and point out the ways they’re contributing that may not be quantifiable or part of their job description. The successful salesman who routinely coaches less successful colleagues is displaying a strength that won’t show up on his sales sheet.”
PRODUCTIVITYTech vs. Tech
Struggling to find the willpower to manage notifications? Take some of the pressure off by using an app like Clockwise or Freedom, which integrate with your calendar to find periods of time for deep work. “You can configure your settings so that Clockwise will automatically mute notifications during focus time,” says productivity writer Trish Sammer.
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SELF-CAREMake More Friends
It can be lonely at the top, even if you have a great staff that you consider “family.” It can also be unhealthy. “Loneliness may be as dangerous for your health as smoking is,” Thomas Joiner, a professor of psychology at Florida State University told Men’s Health magazine. He recommends joining a book club or recreational sports team to meet like-minded professionals. “Nurture your network daily,” he says.
MANAGEMENTPower of One
Changing employee behaviors is one of the toughest things to do as a business owner or manager. People generally like the status quo. The secret is to start small, one step at a time, writes Morten T. Hansen on the Harvard Business Review blog. “People need clear direction. If you bombard them with eight values or 12 competencies you want them to practice,” you will be met with inertia, he says. Focus on one behavior at a time.
MINDSETThe Right Motivation
Get it where you can. That was the conclusion of a story in The Atlantic on the mental tricks that Olympic athletes use to stay motivated during training. Whether it’s focusing on the financial return, a rivalry, feelings of competence, social factors or something else, just make a note of whatever it is that gets you through your tasks and low points and leverage that. “The point is that you can’t say some motivations, like money, are inherently inferior (to intrinsic motivation),” the story quotes psychologist Steven Reiss as saying.
FINANCESNo Monthly Income Statements
It makes an accountant happy that you’re paying him to prepare a monthly income statement and balance sheet. But you are probably not getting all that much out of the process, argues Gene Marks in the New York Enterprise Report. “Toss out your financials and instead have your office manager make you a daily flash report,” he recommends, adding that these reports should just show you cash, receivables, payables, open purchases, year-to-date and month-to-date revenues and a few KPIs. “That’s all you will need to keep a check on things,” Marks says.
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