Modern businesses of any size face several challenges. How can they take their business to the next level of success without letting the cost structure get out of control? Salaries and wages are the largest costs in a business’s Profit & Loss Statement—or, to put it another way, people.
Your challenge as a leader is to get the most out of your employees without making them work long hours or follow orders. What would your business look like if every employee was passionate about the company, believed in the business goals, and worked hard to achieve them?
Business leaders have tried to solve growth problems by hiring more people to increase sales. However, they later discovered that overhead costs had canceled out sales growth. A business is often said to be only as good or as successful as its people. This statement may be truer today than ever.
How can managers and business leaders get more from the employees they hire?
An old saying states, “A fish rots where the head is down.” This applies to any business or organization. Any strategy to get more out of people has to start with the senior leadership. Any business leader must set clear goals and rules for everyone, even the most senior executives.
Leadership in a business involves more than explaining the rules and goals of the company. It also requires inspiring employees to be passionate about the business’s mission and why it is important. Leaders often forget that people are more important than tasks or jobs. How people view their jobs can make the difference between a company moving slowly and one that excels. True leadership involves inspiring people to care about the company’s performance and results as much as directors and owners.
A key function of leadership in modern business is to retain and develop the current key talent and to constantly search for new talent to add to the company. Many business owners in the UK tell me they get a lot of applicants for their jobs, but it is getting harder to find real talent in the marketplace. To attract and retain the best talent, senior business leaders must align their culture and perception to ensure they have the right business culture.
The owners should ensure that the organizational structure of their business aligns with the business goals and objectives.
It’s amazing how many businesses have altered their structures to accommodate the different roles. This often leads to a need for more ownership and communication problems within the industry. This happens when the business’s structure aligns differently with its goals.
Job roles must align with the business’s structure and goals once the system has been established. The most common way to create a job position is to concentrate on the tasks the person will be doing. This can lead to the job role becoming a list of tasks that is too long and loses its overall purpose. It is better to define the job role to achieve the desired outcomes. Every job role should have a measurement or set of sizes. This will allow the leader and the individual in the position to quickly and easily assess the job’s performance.
I recently worked with a company in their sales department on this matter.
All the sales reps told me they spend around 10% of their time selling and the remainder on other duties and functions. Most of their time was spent in other departments, and the structure and roles needed to be aligned to increase sales. This was exactly what the business needed!
After you are done, look at your organization as a leader to ensure that the right people are in the right positions. This can be a difficult step for leaders because it is often associated with fear of upsetting people and causing disruption to the business. Take action back, look at the larger picture, and ask yourself if there are any frustrations, upsets, or lack of results that the leader is causing to the business and the people in the wrong role. This can often lead to a great eye-opener.
Once all of this has been done, it is crucial that the business’s marketing strategy aligns with key customers in the market they want to attract. It’s interesting to see how many business leaders complain that too many potential customers contact them and waste their time. They need to realize that their marketing messages are what is attracting them. It is important to identify the market you wish to be active in and to determine your ideal customer.
Next, you must align your marketing strategy and communication with the need to attract your desired customers. This should be repeated for each sector you want to be involved in.
