High Performance – Star Qualities to Get You Noticed

Strategy Plan One

July 19, 2012

High Performance

Whether you are an employee in the private or public sector, or into self-employment, you need to set yourself apart from the pack.  To make a significant impact on your organization or industry, there are things you can do to achieve high performance.  Possessing and demonstrating qualities will ensure you stand out from the competition, internally and externally.

For the most part, personalities get noticed, but other characteristics and qualities gained through experience can make you shine through.  Your qualities can assist in your performance, but can also rub off also in the higher performance of employees, teams and business itself around you.

High Performance Qualities and Tips

Here are some qualities and tips to performing at a high level and getting noticed:

• Demonstrate excellence in everything you do, strive for excellence and encourage all to achieve excellence
• Set aggressive, achievable goals and demonstrate dedication by hitting them
• Seek and implement continuous improvements for yourself, for your team, for your business
• Be genuine, truthful, honest, respectful and fair; uphold strong values and ethics and treat others as you would want to be treated
• Create an open and transparent environment around you; staff, stakeholders and customers will want to go to as you have gained levels of trust
• Keep emotions in check
• Be consistent in your responses, decisions, and in your daily work
• Be an example of collaboration, partnership building, encouraging team effort
• Rely on other’s expertise; be noticed for calling upon others for their value-added advice, opinions and recommendations
• Value everyone’s input and feedback
• Lead by example
• Be energetic, enthusiastic, creative and innovative
• Be loyal to colleagues, staff, customers
• Hit and make the deadlines, be on time

More on personal and business development:

• Social Media Jobs – What Social Media Companies Are Looking For
• Productivity – 6 Small Steps For a More Productive Day
• Fathers – Great Dads, Great Mentors
• Positive Words – Business Communications in a Positive Way
• Goal Setting – Keeping You Going in the Right Direction
• Presentation Tips for Business Meetings and Interviews
• Values and Ethics – Integrating Strong Principles into your Organization

More business blogs of interest:

• Business Plan – The Next Steps

• Business Intelligence – Keeping you Wired In
• SEO Guide to Higher Conversions with a Few Steps [infographic]
• EService, Social Media and Customer Service Trends [infographic]

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Self-Service – The Evolving Automated Customer Service Experience [Infographic]

Strategy Plan One

April 26, 2012 

Self-Service

The automated customer experience around self-service has come along way, evolving from the invention and implementation of clunky vending machines to the new wave of online streaming of transactions, from anywhere and at anytime.

It is interesting to note that self-service has moved from the delivery of tangible goods to the delivery of information, transactions, digital products in this information era.   However, self-service intersects many sectors, and almost anything is available for either a physical self-serve kiosk or through the web.  In your business planning, have you integrated self-service concepts into your business to make transactions easier, more convenient and accessible to your customers?

Check out this great infographic by Meridian, illustrating the evolutionary time-line of self-service.

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Oil Prices & Impacts on the US Economy and YOU [Infographic]

Strategy Plan One

April 1, 2012 

The price of crude oil, and consequently the price of everything, is rapidly increasing.  This infographic, courtesy of fuelfreedom.org highlights the impacts of oil prices.

Some fact and impacts of oil prices:

• 10 out of the last 11 recessions occurred after an increase spike in oil prices
• $330 Billion – US net outflow for foreign oil
• Economists projecting 2012 to have the highest gas prices in history
• Estimation of up to $200 per barrel of oil if Iran relationship worsens
• Highest impacts would occur to lower – middle income earning families

Time for increased emphasis on alternative energy sources and technologies?  You bet.  Tough economic times an challenges such as these open the doors further to business opportunities around alternatives and green clean energy.

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Best Practices – Encourage, Promote and Share Best Practices

Strategy Plan One

March 28, 2012 

Best Practices

In your business or organization, teams and units work to find effective and efficient operations, methods and procedures.  Most of the time through the normal course of business evolution, teams find brilliant solutions.  As a leader it is in your realm to bring teams together to encourage them to share best practices, to bounce great ideas off each other, and to create a constructive learning environment.

The sharing of best practices across multi-functional teams is one method of implementing continuous learning and improvement processes.  Success is achieved at many levels when best practices are shared and implemented across business units.

Identification of Best Practices

As a leader in your business you may note differential results between units that do the same work.  In your regular meetings and briefings, investigate the methods and successes that are isolated or behind the scenes.  Best practices may be revealed from frequent communications and engagement with individual staff members and with teams.

Encourage and Promote Best Practices

Great work and efforts should be recognized.  Incorporate recognition in your organization as a way to illustrate appreciation across colleagues.  Promote an environment where teams can openly share what works well for their units.  Promote an environment where teams can learn.  The combination of sharing best practices and open learning environment spells potential success broadly across the organization.

Best Practices Forums

If your organization is large, establish a formal setting for the sharing of information and effective practices.  Forums or working group meetings assist in bringing large groups together to share a broad array of topics.  Structured, these forums can result in improvements to cross-functional units that are not related, such as an administrative efficiency that improves the general operation of all units.

Intellectual Property

As a leader ensure you identify any process, product or design that may fall into your business’ intellectual property rights.  Pay close attention to the best practice or method as it may warrant protection of intellectual property.  Investigate whether patents, trademarks and copyrights should be filed with your Federal Patents office.

A very effective way to improve your organization across individuals and business units is to share and implement best practices.  Allow your professional teams to help others be successful with results-based best practices.

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Lessons Learned … From Your Own Employees

Strategy Plan One

March 26, 2012 

 

Employees Have the Ground, Intelligence Wise

Your business has been successful and booming for a long period of time, and you as the leader / entrepreneur, have been busy in your management duties.

You may be far removed from the ground level operations, not having to grind it out on the floor or crank out code, or deal directly with customers.  However, you are not that removed from your employees who have the greatest wealth of knowledge of the operational level.

Much can be learned from employees who know what is and isn’t working at the operational level, who know what the customer’s actions, thoughts and feedback are, and what other employees are saying behind the management lines.

Engaging and Interacting Frequently with Employees

As a manager, leader, and entrepreneur, engage and interact well and frequently with your employees.  Make it well known that you are openly interested daily about what is taking place on the floor.  It should be a part of your daily routine, either through inspecting your place of retail or office space.  The employees will feel more at ease when the management team is readily and physically available for open discussions.

Grab Intelligence from Employees

Setting the stage with frequent engagement and interactions will assist in your employees openly providing you with a wealth of information to improve operations and/or improve client and customer relationships.  These professionals in your organization may provide valuable recommendations and will look to you as the leader to implement some solutions from issues they encounter.

Make employees feel valued that they can share information and that you, as a tuned-in entrepreneur, are listening and willing to embrace recommendations for approval.

Encourage Continuous Improvements From Employees

To stay on the cutting edge and at the top of your industry, you will need your employees to think and act innovatively.  The best practices and solutions do originate from team actions, and so would innovative practices.

Empower your employees to develop ground-breaking practices that would set the units, team, and business far ahead of the competitors.  Create an environment that is rewarding and promotes recognition for achievements.  Depending on your budgets, you can develop incentive programs for high achievers and for employees that bring innovative solutions to the table.  You may be surprised at the untapped intelligence from all of your professional staff.

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur