Build Self Esteem Within Your Business with These Techniques

Post contributed by Dirk Hambridge

Most business owners don't appear to pay much attention to building up the self esteem of their employees. What those leaders do not realize is investing in this personal aspect of their work force will yield long-term, positive benefits.

Photo: Univ of San Francisco 

In all fairness, it;s possible that many business haven't thought about this approach to growing their business. They may also not be sure how to approach the task of improving self esteem within their organization. That is what we'll be addressing here. The following techniques will help you build greater self esteem within your business.

You, as either the owner or a person within senior management, have no idea how important it is for people to feel you are accessible. It is equally important that they know that your are willing to listen to what they have to say. By establishing an open door policy and letting your workers know that they can talk to you, you are helping them in many ways. This is a good way to let your workers know that what they think and say has value to you. It's really helps a person's self esteem to know that someone they consider important is willing to listen to them.

As the head of your organization, you need to take the initiative to develop the core strengths of your business. One of the best ways to do this is to make sure your leaders understand the importance of healthy interpersonal skills. This deals mainly with positive communication skills that will best serve the interests of your workers and business. Examples of positive skills include ensuring your lower level managers and first line supervisors always treat subordinates with the utmost respect. Workers should never be treated badly or humiliated either in private or in front of others.

Feeling appreciated for what we do is important and especially so in the work place. Millions of people don't feel they are appreciated at work, especially in the US. This means that worker dissatisfaction is at an all time high. If people could feel better about their work, you will be rewarded with increased productivity and better effort. So the best thing is to devise a program that actively works to show how much you and your entire management team appreciates those who do all the work.

Many of the methods and strategies to help increase self esteem in the work place can appear small in nature. But these methods are very effective so don't let that fool you. The little things are what usually counts the most and have the most far reaching impact. Costs are always a concern for businesses. The more personal approach of these kinds of programs get positive results and actually cost very little, if anything.

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Tips for managers to assist in business conversation

We all know that business is more about talking and convincing rather than presenting statistics and those boring business details. Those who can talk good and win over others by their sweet tongue and manners are more successful than those who open a typical business like conversation which may not win over a prospective client. In fact boring and pure business like managers may even lose a customer rather than making new ones. The essence of better communication skills rests on following 10 Tips if applied intelligently, tastefully and with all smiles when meeting a client.

• The first tip is Preparation. Before a meeting is due, get to know who you are meeting. Get to know everything about his/her tastes, likes/dislikes, family details, favourite reports, hobbies, food and travelling adventures. Having learnt that, read something about each facet of his likes/dislikes. This will greatly assist in opening up, say by starting the conversation with a painting on sale by the famous artist your client loves. This will not only please the client but will make him easy in his follow up discussions as he knows that the man he is talking to has a similar taste.
• When meeting the person, be sure you greet them in a manner that is suitable to his/her own customs and traditions. While handshake with men or even a half hug is appropriate, the same may not be true for a woman client. In fact one has to be very careful when meeting a female client as any display of “openness or frankness” may spoil the show. Avoid kissing a woman no matter how liberal she may look like. Likewise meeting a woman client from a Muslim country should at best start with oral pleasantries or a handshake – nothing more.
• Introduction is the most import after the pleasantries. If you are meeting an old client, it would be much better to address him/her with the first or family name, depending upon the degree of previous intimacy. Remembering names is one quality that every god manager must possess. This pays and really does as it instantly wins you over, especially when meeting a person after a long time. If you do not know the name, it would be better to ask someone else quietly about it rather than bumping into someone with a “finding name” eye – this will be instantly noticed and may not leave a good mark on the person you are meeting.
• When opening the conversation, draw the person towards you rather than he drawing you out to him as it would have him have the ball in his court. And this can be done cleverly by using topics or things the other person like. The idea is to put him on the defensive and get to know his response. In fact his response would really expose his strategy on you (as he would have also worked out everything to meeting you). So it is who scores the first goal. Kick the ball harder so that he takes time to regain his balance for you to get stable and shy off any imbalances that you may be having with that person.
• When conversing, there may be brief spells when there is a silence from both ends. May be for want of words or losing grounds. Well if it is for loss of words, let the other person relax and take his time. However you may ask for water of a cup of tea to fill in the gap, or else take a time out for making a telephone call. One should not take such opportunities to score point or embarrass the other.
• There would be moments when the other may throw you off balance or catch you off guard. For such situations, one should always be ready and should have worked out exit strategy when cornered. This can be done by taking a time out by diverting the conversation to another direction while working out your response. Of course this kind of response comes from experience of handling difficult person who would know of your vulnerabilities by the appearance of droplets of precipitation on your forehead or hollowness in your eyes.
• If you think that your conversation is not making headway the way you want and the client is not showing any interest, try diverting the discussion to something else, rather than losing the client. You may settle for another meeting rather than a plain goodbye. Have some other proposal or merchandise to offer rather than having a one point agenda.
• As I wrote in of my earlier posts, one should avoid unpleasant situations to avoid. When dealing with difficult clients, one should be as cool as ice and should not let the client to be offended. But if you think things are not being worked out well, make an excuse for an another event or meeting, to disengage from a meeting ending on a bad note.
• And interconnected with the above, always remember to have a graceful and meaningful ending. If you think the client has a potential for further meeting or can be convinced with a little more homework, let the meeting end with promise to “look into details and will get back” like exit strategy. But always ensure that you leave the client in a manner that is respectful even he hasn’t been all along in the conversation as YOU want him for you’re the benefit of your organization than him.  

These are some of the many tips for opening a conversation. Hope these were helpful.

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Business Intelligence – A must for future prospects of your business

Wikileaks is the talk of the town these days. Go anywhere, overhear any two people and there are 60-70% chances of people talking of covert intelligence leaks leaked out by the Wikileaks. It’s all about intelligence – the hidden secrets, details and strategies. The information gained through illegal means to expose people internationally. But that is certainly not what Business Intelligence (BI) is about.

BI is in fact a tool in the hands of an entrepreneur to gauge and adjudge the strengths and weakness of one’s business for working out remodeled strategies for better future prospects. Today, thanks to the capabilities of the digital world, computer based tools and techniques are now available to analyze the business data (that may includes the number of customers, buyers, sellers, actual sales, profits, losses and anything that one deals in day to day business environment).

Based on the current and previous business details, technology and software can now provide a precise analysis of the pitfalls and gray areas to predict areas of strength for future prospects. The predictive analysis in fact is the key to tomorrow’s business that an entrepreneur would like to have from his team of managers to work out his future business strategy through better business performance management and usage of resources. The analysis also provides an important input for reducing costs by buying best raw materials that boost production through efficient investment.

The predictive analysis thus helps in taking better and wise business decisions. Going a little outward, one can intelligently monitor his competitors and their approach based on their business trends by compiling data from both overt and covert means.

By adopting the BI, one is in fact laying the basis of analytical approach to problem solving at levels of management. The analysis on daily, weekly and periodical basis of every facet of business at every level provides an updated analysis to alter or modify business strategy, goal posts and investment. This however requires training of the managers and key employs because unless they know what to dig out of their routine work, the BI will not able to provide a comprehensive predictive analysis.

By incorporating the management and the employees, one is in fact enhancing their confidence into him and emphasizing a role for everyone to be part of the predictive analysis for the betterment of the organization and ultimately ensuring better prospects for the workers and everyone in the organization. The BI also ensures objectivity in the efficiency of the work force as now everything is based on benchmarking through confidence and training.

Anyone in business today not taking advantage of the BI would soon run out of its steam and lose the race. So use the technologies of today for a better future business prospect.

Related Link: Business Intelligence (Wikipedia)

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