Seattle Small Business Blog

Whether it involves talking with your teen about sex or drugs, your spouse about finances or housework, or your employee about attendance or performance issues, the prospect of initiating a difficult discussion is daunting to many, if not most, people. Mix in the tendency to procrastinate tackling unpleasant tasks, then feeling guilty about putting something so important off, and you can wind up feeling even more miserable and anxious about the impending conversation. You might even lose sleep over it.

Initiating such a discussion doesn’t have to be nearly so painful. With the proper mindset and some preparation, you can learn to handle even the most difficult topic with ease and confidence. The following tips will enable you to do just that.

1. Realize that by having the discussion, your goal is to benefit others as well as yourself. Whether or not he shows it, your teen will most likely appreciate that you care enough to talk to him about things that concern or matter to you. In the case of the employee with the performance issue, she will have an opportunity to correct or improve on it, or face consequences. In either event, the other members on your team will certainly appreciate that you took steps to address the situation, because they will see the poor performer either stepping up to the plate or terminated.

2. Focus on the possible positive outcomes of having the discussion sooner rather than later. The employee’s performance could most certainly improve. Or you may have the opportunity to replace a poor performer with someone more willing and able to do the work and follow company or departmental policies. Either way, the performance of your team as a whole will benefit, which will be a positive reflection on your own performance.

3. Prepare for any possible reaction to the discussion. Have contingency plans for handling any behavior or response to what you have to say, whether it be anger, denial, silence or disbelief. Knowing in advance exactly how you will deal with any of these will give you the confidence you need to proceed. Understand that you cannot control a person’s reaction, and in many cases you cannot predict it either. But you can always prepare for any possibility.

4. If the topic for discussion is an especially difficult one for you, have a reward planned for yourself when you complete it. Take a half day off to do something you enjoy, or treat yourself to something you ordinarily would not. After all, you just accomplished something that doesn’t come easily for you. You deserve something special.

Following these tips will not make handling difficult discussions any more fun, by any means, but doing so when the necessity arises will make you a better and more competent communicator, manager, parent and/or spouse. And who wouldn’t benefit from that?

Creating a positive work environment is crucial to the success of any organization. In the current challenging times, less people need to do more or the same amount of work for the organization to stay ahead. What are the strategies that an organization can apply to create a positive work environment?

1. Plan Effectively
While it is important to do a lot of research and study reports for planning purposes, effective planning should include the people involved in implementing the plan.

There are things that these people are aware of that can make a difference to the plan. Aside from that, there will be a better understanding of the plan and a sense of ownership when it is time to act on the plan.

2. Change Where Change Is Needed
Change is something that cannot be avoided. Either you change with the times or you get left behind.

It is necessary to be aware of customer needs, changes in the economy and trends in the industry to be aware of the changes. However, make changes where it is needed and not just for the sake of changing.

3. Groom Your People
Your people are crucial to the success of your business.

Groom your people to develop skills as well as attitudes and behavior required to take your business from where it is to where you want it to be.

4. Encourage Dissent
Do not be afraid of dissent. If all your employees agreed with everything, you may not become aware of changes that are happening to your customer base or in the industry. Focus will be narrow and based on conventional ideas.

Allow dissent that will generate new ideas and actions that will enhance your business.

5. Foster Leadership
You need more than management personnel to run the business. Thinking like a leader is a mindset that needs to be developed in every employee.

Every single person be it from sales, support or administration can also contribute creativity and responsibility to the roles they play.

6. Move Quickly
Change is happening so fast that it is necessary to make your move quickly. While it is important to think through your decisions, there are changes to which response has to be fast to stay ahead of competition.

7. Be Customer Oriented
Ultimately, it is your customers who keep you in business.

Be aware of your customers’ needs and wants. When they provide feedback on your products and services or require support, listen and take appropriate action.

If there are complaints, handle them. Be glad that they remain your customers despite the complaint. A complaint well-handled will get you a happier customer.

8. Take Action
While having ideas and strategies are great, a difference is made only when action is taken.

It is necessary to study and research whatever decisions you make. However, remember that often you may not get all the information you would like to have to make the decision.

Make your best judgment call and take the required action to make the decisions work out well.

Creating a positive work environment may be about environment and comfort. More importantly, it is the passion that you create within the organization by bringing people together to deliver a vision.

Keeping your employees motivated with high morale is the most important function of a supervisor. This article provides a list of actions that can be taken to keep employees producing for the success of the organization.

The first three suggestions are related to the physical characteristics of the work place:

1. Make sure that the work place is clean and well-lighted.

2. Give employees the proper equipment (furniture, computers, machinery) to perform their jobs efficiently and comfortably.

3. Design the work flow such that there are few bottle-necks and downtime.

The following are suggestions for keeping employees’ morale high:

1. Reward employees with the highest rank and status justified by their aptitude, performance, and contribution to the success of the organization.

2. Provide salary and wages based on the employees’ performance and value to your organization.

3. Provide a meaningful annual review which includes recognition for work accomplishments and an honest assessment of areas where the employee could improve.

4. Give employees effective feedback on their work, including giving reasons for work assignments, the assignments contribution to the organization, and how the assignment contributes to the success of the organization.

5. Delegate as much authority to employees as they can handle effectively.
6. Provide positive incentives rather than negative incentives.

Consider the following actions related to communicating effectively with your employees:

1. Listen to employees–really listen.

2. Allow employees to air their grievances–even if they reflect on your perceptions of your own performance.

3. Give credit for actions, ideas, and suggestions for improvement to operations. (Never take credit for actions or ideas of your employees.)

4. Organize your operations so that everyone can make a contribution by offering suggestions for improvement. Consider all suggestions seriously. If you find that the suggestion can’t be implemented, give a full reason for not adopting it.

5. Show a genuine interest in each employee without becoming a bore.

Now that you’ve been presented with a series of actions that you can take to improve the morale and motivation of your employees, here’s one more important point to remember:

Each supervisor comes into the job with a set of attitudes and behaviors that have developed over a period of years. In most cases a new supervisor needs to take stock of his or her attitudes and behaviors that might not be effective as a supervisor.

Most new supervisor don’t take the time (or even realize that they need) to assess their skills related to being an effective supervisor.

Let the list above serve as a checklist of areas where you need to make improvements to be successful as a supervisor.