Is Your Business Healthy?
Most business owners I work with want to grow their businesses. I guess this probably applies to most businesses in general. But growth for the sake of growth alone is not always healthy for a business or its people. I've always believed a business should strive to be healthy rather than focus just on growth. Of course, this begs the question, "What make a business healthy?" This question comes up often for me so, I have crafted what I call my Healthy Business Manifesto. (Before I dive in, I should clarify one point. When I use the word "business" I mean any organization that has people, money and a purpose, not just a for-profit business in the traditional sense. A business can be a non-profit organization, a school, a church, a government agency or a membership association. It does not have to be a for-profit entity.) To be healthy, a business needs to have several things going for it. Here are the factors I would look for in a healthy business. First, it needs to have a clearly defined mission that its owners, managers and employees understand and support. Second, the business should have resources that are appropriate to meeting the mission. Lacking them, it should have a realistic plan to acquire those resources. Third, each person in the organization should understand what their role is and how it fits into the overall mission of the business. They should be able to see a clear link that connects their success to the success of the organization. Fourth, the people who own and manage the business need to understand and accept their role as resource providers. Their responsibility is to make sure their employees have the necessary resources at their disposal to be successful at their jobs. Fifth, the business needs to generate enough profits to fairly compensate everyone involved. This includes owners, employees, managers, vendors, contractors, customers, host community and perhaps others. Anyone who participates in the success of the organization needs to be compensated fairly. This compensation needs to come from the operating profits of the organization. (Rather than from capital contributions, loans, etc.) Sixth, the business must have a system in place to monitor the extent to which it is accomplishing its mission. It should be able to stay directed toward and course-correct whenever necessary. Seventh, the business must be a fun place to be. Whether you're an owner, manager, customer, employee, vendor, volunteer or whomever, you should enjoy being a part of the organization. Does your organization meet these seven standards? If not, what can you do to help your business become healthier? Kevin Stirtz is a successful entrepreneur, writer, trainer, speaker and mentor. He is a published author of over 150 business articles and he has been featured in local, regional, national and international business publications. He currently writes a marketing column for AllBusiness.com and he is writing his first book, which is due to be published in March of 2006. He can be reached at 1-952-212-4681 or http://www.KevinStirtz.com
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
When Politics Prevent Innovation - Or? Still Fighting Battles and Losing Wars
The objective is to beat the competition and make money. Everything a business organization does should be focused on that simple objective, with interpretation through various Vision and Mission Statements. However if we take a survey of how our organizations spend our energy, often that objective is lost in a web of internal politics and positioning. Of course competition is normally good ? regardless of whether it is internal or external ? to the point we do not lose focus on company objectives as the ultimate outcome of our competition.
Motivating Employees - Ten Ways to Start You Off
Yet there is a place for those external 'raft-build's', 'away days' and 'paintballing'! Just get them in context; there is work to do up front to leverage those experiences and get the best value from them. Just build great relationships in your business or organisation, one-to-one - then have the fun day out and grow even more!"Motivation is like food for the brain. You cannot get enough in one sitting. It needs continual and regular top ups."Peter DaviesSo a 'people-focused' way of being in your business generates Motivation permanently and ongoing.Start at the Beginning
Minimising Conflict With Effective Communication
Let's look at them...
Definition of 'Conflict'
You Get the Behavior You Reward
On consulting assignments, here are some of the questions I frequently ask the employees I interview:
CEO: The Key To Fix ingThe Marketing/Sales Collaboration Problem
We all know that achieving better alignment, synergy and cooperation between company marketing and sales departments is vital, but oh so elusive. Despite all the talk and more talk in the media and at national business gatherings, nothing significant ever seems to happen.
Project Management 101
Project management is a very important business concept because it is in place to ensure that projects are completed in a timely fashion as well as to the best of the company's ability. Project Management is basically the discipline of making goals and reaching those goals. Usually, the entire scope of project management is taken care of by an individual project manager.
Management Team Section of Business Plans
Writing an award winning business plan is a great skill, but rather than winning any awards you need to get funded. In order to be funded the bank, venture capital firm or even family members need to be sure they will either be paid back or receive their required return on investment. To succeed in business you need a quality management team one, which can move you thru the rough waters of start-up and control the ship as you sail away from the competition.
Important Communication Tips For Managers
The following tips will help you communicate more effectively with your employees:
Looking through the Glass Ceiling - Women in Management
Women have made tremendous contributions to society at every level; consider Joan of Arc, Golda Meier, Indira Gandi, Condalezza Rice.
Million Dollar Support System For You and For Your Business
Whether you are a consultant, coach, business owner, doctor, professional, corporate elite or student, whatever your profession is, moving towards your dream requires taking courageous steps. Making long-lasting changes requires us to create a network of support. Surrounding yourself with a community of nice-giving-good people, committed to their own growth, will give you tremendous emotional strength to move forward.
Turbo Charge Your Career With The Most Powerful Leadership Tool Of All: The Leadership Talk: Part 2
In Part One, I described the Leadership Talk and how it is a much more effective leadership tool than presentations or speeches.
10 Steps Towards A Stress-Free Introduction Into Management
Becoming a manager for the first time can be an unnerving and sometimes stressful experience. In many cases, organisations expect you to immediately jump into the role and begin to perform as if you have been there for years. Also, you may have been promoted "out of the blue" and as such have not taken part in any "succession planning" that would have prepared you for the management role.
Time Management - How to Have Productive Meetings
One of the greatest time wasters of all are unnecessary or poorly run meetings. If you want to dramatically improve your time management skills, then learn how to have productive meetings.
Delegation Obstructions
OBSTRUCTIONS: 1. Staff deficiencies. Lack of confidence in employees quite understandably leads to a reluctance to delegate. When deficiencies exist, action must be taken to restructure jobs and/or retrain, reassign, or as a last resort terminate employees. 2. Management deficiencies. Intimidation or lack of organization on the manager's part makes effective delegation impossible. In such a case, it is the manager's responsibility to seek training in the delegation process via seminars, self-help courses, and the like.
What Makes a Good Appraisal Interview?
WHAT MAKES A GOOD APPRAISAL INTERVIEW?
The Comfort Zone
The Comfort Zone
I have a friend named Gene, a serial entrepreneur who currently runs a software business. Like many people, last year was a tough one for his company. They survived largely by providing add-on services to existing customers - a decent response to difficult circumstances. They even grew revenues a bit. But here's something else that happened: They got comfortable. They decided they could exist on their base of customers, and then they "realized" there would be no new ones.
A Leadership Screw Driver: The 90 Day Improvement Plan
I was talking with first-line supervisors in a utility company about how to deal with poor performing employees.
Increase Productivity: Five Powerful Actions
How can you make the best use of your energy to increase productivity each day? Here are five actions that can increase productivity and leave energy to spare. They will also help you to achieve more balance between your work and personal life.
From Boring to Interesting - Making Training Effective
Being a good trainer requires experience and skill. Experience comes from practice and skill from learning the theories, applying them, getting feedback and consciously improving.
Get Meeting off To a Great Start
When asked what part of their job they find a major time waster, many will answer loud and clear... MEETINGS. In a recent survey of business leaders, ninety percent of the respondents attributed the failure of meetings to a lack of advanced planning and organization. And, over three-fourths, indicated that they received no formal training on how to conduct a meeting. The following four strategies can help improve the quality of your meetings.
|
