Six Words To Guide You To Successful Management And Operation Of Your Business.

The job of a CEO, a business manager, an owner/operator, or whatever you’re calling your leadership position, frequently involves hands-on operation, sales, problem-solving, receivables collection, bill paying, etc. You’re busy, busy, busy and are doing everything you have to do… so you think.

The reality is that while most CEO’s are trapped in task-oriented activities, there is a better plan: Train, plan and review. This is the job of the leader.

TRAIN
Constantly training, cross-training and upgrading the skill level of your employees, be it direct hands-on training, hired training, or a managed employees-training-employees system, is the first goal. Training is the lifeblood of a business and of successful implementation of a growth plan. Further, training combined with a career path development process will result in the first stages of supporting a successful business. Further, this effort will support greater employee satisfaction, long-term employment and higher quality goods and services.

Frequently, “training” equates to learning on the job, without plan or purpose, and is usually a learn-as-you-go situation with tips from the person closest to the employee. It’s inefficient, unproductive, less successful, uncontrolled, undisciplined, erratic and sometimes even dead wrong.

Training must be done with purpose, definition, focus and should be designed to elevate the skills of your employees, sharpen their abilities and build upon their career path.

PLAN
The second job of a senior leader is to plan, short-term, medium-term and long-term. He needs to plan operations, plan fitness and plan sales and marketing on the short- and medium-term while planning growth and development for the long-term. Planning is the lifeblood of growth and development. No plan and you remain flat and directionless, doing the same things you always do. Plan, and you will advance the mission. No plan, no advance.

REVIEW
Once a plan has been established there must be benchmarks and key indicators, ways of measuring productivity to determine where on the development path the program is and how successfully the growth plan is being implemented. This will allow for accountability, a key requirement for successful growth.

Now, how do you manage your business on an operational level as the operational manager? Track, monitor and control.

TRACK
It’s all about checking the progress of your employees, holding them accountable for predetermined goals and objectives and tracking their productivity. Setting goals and then measuring success, giving your employees the appropriate feedback to support their success at their tasks and overall job, this completes the circle. It’s a key requirement of the manager. Every employee must be tracked and managed by this review process.

MONITOR
This is actual act of paying attention to the key indicators that you are tracking. Make certain that this is consistently being done as the employees are watching your follow-through as well and if the monitoring is not done, tracking is irrelevant and controlling is impossible.

CONTROL
This is all about making the necessary adjustments that are revealed and required from the tracking and monitoring efforts. Once tracked and monitored, you must do something with the data. Use it to sharpen the workforce. Share with them the results and support their goals of reaching greater heights and more success. The greater the job satisfaction for all, the greater the success for the business.

Six words are all the guidance you need: Train, plan and review; track, monitor and control.