Open Discussion Management

I always find that the most difficult part of running a company has to do with the management of people. I find that most people have egos and its very hard to "let your guard down" and give and receive constructive criticism. I just dealt with an issue when I had one manager give unclear direction to a staff member. The staff member tried to execute on the direction they were given, but because of the communication issues, did not preform at the level that was expected. The manager that gave the incomplete direction gave additional direction, again unclear, and the staff member responded in a manner that was inconsistent with their performance level and unacceptable. When I looked at the issue is was very clear that the employee was frustrated with the direction they were given and the lack of support they received. Their performance was closely associated with this frustration. When I approached the manager with this observation, they had a lot of difficulty in seeing the issue and only wanted to criticise the employee.

The amazing thing is that neither party recognised that they were not working well as a team and it was effecting both their careers and their clients. It was clear that the reaction from the employee was unacceptable, but the lack of direction and lack of support from the manager was the catalyst for the issue. Many people believe that you should have individual discussions with the employees to correct the situation, but I believe that you need to rally the team, identify all issues, and allow for an open discussion..

Problem Solving

Over the last few weeks I have facilitated several "brainstorming" meetings to solve client issues. I try to focus on objectives (what are we trying to accomplish), roles (who is impacted), process (how should it work), and information (what is the detailed information that needs to be transmitted from person to person). This approach helps to simplify problems and not get caught on why something cant be done.

Business Development

Over the last few months I have gotten back into doing some business development. I have surprised myself in regards to the number of leads I have been able to produce. My business development staff have inquired as to why I have been so successful and I can only come up with two things:

1. Target your message - if you are talking to a bank, craft it to their specific problems and have examples of other banks you have helped. I believe that if nothing else people have an interest in what other companies in their industry are doing (enough to get you an appt)

2. Find the right contact within a business - I was able to get an appt with a company that my business development manager had been targeting for several months. All I did was search for the company email extension "@abccompany.com" + marketing. This search returned the email address and contact information for the director of marketing (it was exposed on a site in which they were on a board of an org). Using this contact information and a message targeted to her vertical market helped me gain an appt.

Welcome back

I took a few months off of writing after the death of my father. My father was an interesting man. He was career Air Force (col), worked with the CIA, and was the florida state veterinarian. he graduated from University of Georgia Vet school when he was 21, got a masters from MIT while in the Air Force, and graduated from Depaul law school (I only found this out after his death). I also found out that he was married 3 times prior to marrying my mother (I did not know this either)..

Simple Things

Its amazing how much one can save by just going through standard overhead expenses. Case in point - We are going to cut our cell phone expenses in half because they have new plans at lower rates.

Billing and Internal Audit

Internal Audit is necessary no matter how tight you think your accounting parocesses are. Many believe that audits help reduce fraud and stealing, but it also assists in finding honost billing mistakes.

Salaries and Raises

One of the hardest items to manage is that of compensation. We all want more money, we all value our employees and feel they should make more money, but we all have a fiscal responsibility to the firm. In short I believe we all want to be fair when it comes to compensation, but it is very easy to let emotion take over. I have standardized our process in that each job description has a salary range. The salary range is derived from the responsibilities of the job (not title) and compared to available industry benchmarks. Individuals are hired within the ranges and each year we check to confirm that all individuals are paid appropriatly for the position.

When annual reviews are preformed employees are elgible for up to a 7% raise. The reviews are done on a 5 point scale. If an employee scores at 3 or below they are not raise elgible. Score of 3-5 recieve a corralating increase in compensation starting at 2.5% for 3.1 up to 7% for a 5 (by the way - I have never given a 5 review). If the manager wants to give additional monies, they have to look for a promotion.

I believe this is as fair as can possibly be, but if someone has a better idea......