Is there a needle in this haystack?
January 30, 2012
By Kristy-Lee Johnston, Footprint Recruitment
I found myself watching one of those ‘property search’ style shows the other day and was reminded just how similar the search for employees can be to that search for the elusive, ideal property.
I think, particularly for small businesses, the similarities are even more clear and here’s why:
- You, the purchaser/employer start out with a lengthy and perhaps not all that realistic ‘wish list’.
- You quickly learn that you will need to compromise, but in what area, by how much and at what cost?
- It’s personal – typically you’re recruiting a new staff member for your own business, your brand, your ‘baby’. Just like typically when you purchase a house, it’s your money and you’re spending it for you.
- The risks are high if the decision is wrong.
- You are ultimately the one who deals with the consequences of a wrong choice, or wrong compromise.
- At the end of the day, you’ve worked your backside off to get to this point, and you want to have your cake and eat it to, you don’t want to compromise – you want it all!
So how do you know whether you are looking for a rare needle in a haystack, or in fact you are looking for an impossible dream and need to compromise and move on?
Walk into the process with a clear understanding of what you are looking for and why.
It sounds odd, but understanding why you need or want certain skills will help you to further drill down and understand which skills, experiences and competencies are essential and which others would be great to have, but you could ultimately live without
Write yourself a values document for the new hire.
This is something I never learned in my years as a recruiter, but a rather clever business advisor shared this with me and having used it myself in my own small business, I think it’s fantastic!
What you do is make up a list of the values, beliefs, experiences, skills, qualifications, etc that your ideal new hire would have. What this does is allows you to clarify in your mind those ‘warm and fuzzy’ traits which will be most important to the individuals success within your business and your role, and gives you a great framework to assess all your applicants against.
Let’s face it, you will often find yourself saying that you liked a number of applicants, but each of them holds different strengths and weaknesses in terms of their experience. This is where this sort of document can make all the difference. If their values and beliefs don’t align, no matter how good their experience is, it would be destined for disaster.
Know where your target market is – and where to find them there.
What I mean is, know where your ideal applicant looks for work, which websites they trawl, which publications they read and what networking meetings and groups they’re likely to be at. But timing can also be everything; advertising for a role targeted at a ‘mum wanting school hours who used to have a high end corporate career’ in the middle of school holidays is probably not ideal – they’re busy!
Allow a realistic amount of time.
Of course, we all always want everything immediately, but sometimes it can take days, and possibly even months to find the right person. Perhaps a temp or contractor can help you get through the urgent stuff in the meantime.
Be open to change and think outside the box!
You have your wish list, but does it all have to be done by one person? Or can the tasks be broken up and completed by two or more part time, casual or contract staff? Sometimes it can be better to have people working in their areas of expertise, rather than trying to do all the tasks you want, some of them not always that well.
MORE GREAT POSTS BY KRISTY-LEE JOHNSTON:
- Top Tips to Set Your Team Up for New Year Success!
- New Year. New Career?
- Thinking Outside the Box: How to Prosper in a Candidate-Short Market
|
|
Kristy-Lee Johnston - Footprint RecruitmentKristy-Lee Johnston is the Director of Footprint Recruitment, a Central Coast based Recruitment and HR agency which is run by locals, for locals. Kristy’s background includes 10 years in Recruitment, as well as 10+ years in a broad range of other customer facing sectors. She possesses Post Graduate qualifications in Psychology, as well as a Masters in Human Resource Management. Kristy is passionate about bringing something unique to the recruitment sector in her local area and wants to see all businesses make the most successful staffing decisions they can.
|
Top Tips to Set Your Team Up for New Year Success!
January 16, 2012
By Kristy-Lee Johnston, Footprint Recruitment
As everyone returns from their holidays and the workplace starts to look a little more like normal, everyone, including management, can sometimes suffer from a little bit of ‘return to work itis’.
The first thing many staff do when returning from leave is to start planning their next holiday! So how can you make sure those grand plans and challenging goals you’ve set for the business will be met and achieved in the year ahead?
In my mind, the best way to get everyone back on track and focused on the year ahead is by dragging them out of their normal day to day mindset and excite them with some leadership, direction, challenges and opportunity.
Here are my top tips for setting your team, and ultimately your business, up for a super start to a successful new year:
- Communicate with them: without your communication and leadership, your team ultimately lack direction. This time of year is an ideal opportunity to communicate with the team, whether 1 or 1000, the plans for the year ahead, the achievements and milestones you are wanting each individual, team, department or division to make and the obstacles they may face in getting there.
- Engage them in your vision: We all know that when your people are not engaged in the bigger picture and your overall vision, they are typically less inclined to do what it takes to achieve this goal. Engaging them in your vision means more than just communicating it to them. You really need to get their ‘buy in’ so they are committed to achieving the vision and are passionate about getting there. There are many ways to do this, but ultimately it’s about making sure you have the right people in place, with common values and a passion about what they do, combined with an interest in the business and industry they work within.
- Challenge them: Individuals love to be challenged, in one way or another. For some people it’s about challenging goals and targets, for others it’s about precision work and accuracy. Knowing your team well, at an individual level, really helps to make this possible. With challenges, many individuals love to see rewards, but this doesn’t always have to be financially driven – don’t be afraid to think outside the square.
- Give them opportunity: No matter what generation your people are associated with, they all want opportunity. Opportunity to progress, opportunity to learn, opportunity to gain benefits, opportunity to prove themselves or purely opportunity to do a better job. The sense of achieving and doing something that they are driven towards can be one of the greatest motivators, so knowing what your people want to achieve, and providing them with the opportunity to do this can be critical to overall success for both them individually and the organisation as a whole.
- Listen to what they want and where possible show them you are acting on it: Communicating and listening ironically often need to be treated separately. Listen to what your people want from their work, and where possible demonstrate that you have heard what they have to say, and are taking action towards helping them achieve this. It doesn’t have to be the end solution that they see, but rather that you have heard, listened and started taking steps towards making this happen is often just what they need to keep the motivation to move forward.
Of course, how all of this is discussed and delivered can vary. A Year Ahead Focus Meeting which everyone is involved in, a team lunch, or at an individual level. Whatever works best for you and your business, but don’t miss this opportunity to use this time of year to set you and your team up for success!
MORE GREAT POSTS BY KRISTY-LEE JOHNSTON:
- New Year. New Career?
- Thinking Outside the Box: How to Prosper in a Candidate-Short Market
- Desperate Times and Desperate Measures
|
|
Kristy-Lee Johnston - Footprint RecruitmentKristy-Lee Johnston is the Director of Footprint Recruitment, a Central Coast based Recruitment and HR agency which is run by locals, for locals. Kristy’s background includes 10 years in Recruitment, as well as 10+ years in a broad range of other customer facing sectors. She possesses Post Graduate qualifications in Psychology, as well as a Masters in Human Resource Management. Kristy is passionate about bringing something unique to the recruitment sector in her local area and wants to see all businesses make the most successful staffing decisions they can.
|
New Year. New Career?
December 19, 2011
By Kristy-Lee Johnston, Footprint Recruitment
With the Festive Season festivities well and truly in full swing, and staff gearing up to take their annual leave, or prepare for your shut down period, now is the time to start thinking about and planning for any staffing and people changes for 2012!
I know the last thing many people want to do at this time of year is plan ahead and think about work tasks for 2012, but being prepared and organised can really set you up for a successful start to the new year.
A new year can be a hot time for resignations, transfers and staffing changes in any organisation. Many employees who have become disengaged in their workplace, roles and careers during the year find themselves taking stock of what really matters and what they really want to achieve in the year ahead over the Christmas/New Year period.
As they sit with family and friends and start discussing New Year’s resolutions, and the achievements of the year just gone, it dawns on many people that they are unhappy in some aspect of their lives…
The quickest fix seems to be to get a new job!
They return from their Christmas leave and one of three things will generally happen:
- They stay put, waiting for a ‘sign’, some motivation, inspiration or for something to change. These people generally remain disengaged from their responsibilities and do just what’s needed to get through the day, flying under the radar.
- They promptly hand in their resignation on their first day back and commence job hunting.
- They start searching for that great new role, giving little if any focus and commitment to their current workplace until they inevitably resign.
None of these are ideal situations for a business of any size to face at the beginning of the calendar year, but what, if anything, can you do to avoid these times and minimise the impact they have on the operations and profitability of the organisation?
-
Look for the signs of staff who have began to disengage from their roles or the organisation.
Use this time to start to open up conversations with the team about taking the time to relax over the break, and set goals as a team now for some of the things you want to do in the new year. The signs you might be looking for generally involve a shift in behaviour and some classics include taking more than the usual amount of sick leave; leaving work right on time every day, when they used to be the sort of person to work back whenever needed; not putting their hands up for those special projects they previously have been dead keen to be involved in; withdrawing from groups within the workplace; taking long lunches and in general being a different person in the office.
-
Don’t wait until after the New Year to start re-engaging these employees.
By having regular reviews and appraisal systems in place, you will more easily be able to identify and manage these employees. Also coordinate more casual and off-the-record catch ups with staff to encourage open communication.
-
Keep employees engaged in the vision through regular team and company meetings.
Share goals and visions with them and allow the opportunity to provide ideas as to how they can contribute to the success and achievement of company goals.
-
Reward staff who are doing a great job!
It doesn’t have to be grand or expensive, nor does a big fuss have to be made – a small gesture goes a long way.
-
Know what motivates your people.
When you understand this, you have the best possible chance of keeping them engaged and committed.
-
Plan a day for very early in the new year for planning, team engagement and morale building.
And let the team know about it now. Having something fun and interactive planned gives them something to look forward to, and may get the excited about coming back to work, rather than dreading it!
At the end of the day, staff will always leave organisations, and in some cases, there is nothing you can do to prevent this, but you can ensure you manage the process to minimise the impact it has on the rest of the team.
If you have open and honest communication channels with your staff and they feel they can come to you with honest feedback, you will be in the drivers seat when these situations arise. If they come to you indicating they are seeking alternate work, and there is nothing more you can do to keep them should you want to, give them your blessings, help them to find something new and start the replacement process yourself internally straight away.
The longer an unhappy employee stays with you, then more detriment it will have on your team and ultimately your business. Don’t try and delay the inevitable, nip it in the bud and move on.
MORE GREAT POSTS BY KRISTY-LEE JOHNSTON:
- Thinking Outside the Box: How to Prosper in a Candidate-Short Market
- Desperate Times and Desperate Measures
- The Value of Association
|
|
Kristy-Lee Johnston – Footprint RecruitmentKristy-Lee Johnston is the Director of Footprint Recruitment, a Central Coast based Recruitment and HR agency which is run by locals, for locals.
|
Believing in Your Staff Pays Off – Video Interview with Penny Spencer
December 10, 2011
Penny Spencer is the owner of award-winning corporate travel agency Spencer Travel. For 60% of her staff, Spencer Travel has been their only job – and, this team dynamic, Penny tells us, is part of the reason for her success.
In this video interview we discuss:
- How starting off stuffing envelopes was her foot in the door of the travel industry
- Why she focuses on staff training as a way to build business culture
- How also how taking the time to believe in your staff pays off and
- The importance of mentoring
Enjoy this interview with Penny Spencer.
Watch this interview on the Australian Businesswomen’s Network website now.
 |
About the In Her Shoes seriesIn Her Shoes is a regular video series presented by the Australian Businesswomen’s Network and BNet.com.au. Each interview features an inspiring businesswoman and her strategies for success. New episodes are released regularly. Become a Community Member for regular updates. StartUp and Growth Members get updates automatically. Become a Community Member with the Australian Businesswomen’s Network. |
Make Team Building Fun – Video Interview with Leona Watson
December 6, 2011
Leona Watson, owner of Cheeky Food Group, a company that uses the fun and interaction of cooking together to provide team building, conference and client entertaining activities across Australia and New Zealand.
In this video interview we discuss:
- How Cheeky Food Group makes team building fun
- How her large-company experience helped her start her business with almost no budget
- How to leverage in business, step back and delegate
- How to manage the mood in your business by managing yourself and more
Enjoy this interview with Leona Watson.
Watch this interview on the Australian Businesswomen’s Network website now.
|
About the In Her Shoes seriesIn Her Shoes is a regular video series presented by the Australian Businesswomen’s Network and BNet.com.au. Each interview features an inspiring businesswoman and her strategies for success. New episodes are released regularly. Become a Community Member for regular updates. StartUp and Growth Members get updates automatically. Become a Community Member with the Australian Businesswomen’s Network. |
Thinking Outside the Box: How to Prosper in a Candidate-Short Market
November 21, 2011
By Kristy-Lee Johnston, Footprint Recruitment
I seem to have spent a lot of time lately discussing with clients the pitfalls and frustrations of a marketplace that seems void of quality talent.
Business owners, managers and decision makers have been questioning whether it’s their business, their culture, what they have to offer, their clients, projects, salaries, benefits or any other tiny detail that has caused them to be in a situation where they are finding top quality talent hard to attract.
In most cases, the simple reason is: there are not enough quality candidates in the market to fill available positions.
In our local marketplace, we see this in many technical, specialist and professional areas, such as engineers, chartered accountants and technical managers. But the same situation could apply to any market at any point in time – it’s a matter of pure supply/demand economics.
So how do you attract candidates to your business in this market?
In my opinion, there are two key things to look at:
- Rule out the obvious; you need to look really carefully at your business, and attitudes, to make sure it’s not in fact you and your pre-set ideas which are excluding your ideal candidate. What I mean by this is:
- Are you paying a fair market salary which would attract your ideal candidate?
- Are you looking for a candidate with ‘all the bells and whistles,’ but in fact are not allowing this applicant to use all of these on the job?
- Are you looking for more in a candidate than what the role really needs?
- Are you looking for someone who actually doesn’t really exist?
- Once you have ruled this out, you now need to think about how you can attract the candidates you want in a market that is not on your side. And my simple solution is this – think outside the box.
The reality is that it’s not going to be easy, but if you fight on the same grounds as every other employer, you’ll probably lose in one way or another. So think laterally, think like a candidate and think left field!
Like when assessing your sales and marketing mix, you look for your Unique Selling Point, do the same as an employer.
What can you offer a candidate that’s better, different or more exciting than other employers in your marketplace?
While salary is always important to candidates, it’s often not the deal breaker, and many candidates are happy to ‘trade’ a little on salary if their other desires are met within a role.
So can you offer more exciting projects, creative outlets within work time, other non-monetary benefits like flexible work hours or multiple locations? Get creative, think outside the box and get your applicants attention!
MORE GREAT POSTS BY KRISTY-LEE JOHNSTON:
|
|
Kristy-Lee Johnston – Footprint RecruitmentKristy-Lee Johnston is the Director of Footprint Recruitment, a Central Coast based Recruitment and HR agency which is run by locals, for locals.
|
Secrets of Casually-Employed Staff
November 15, 2011
Susan Williams is the founder of award-winning business The Finishing Touch.
From modest beginnings 16 years ago, The Finishing Touch now employs more than two hundred casual staff nationally, and has a franchise in New Zealand. It has been independently recognised with more than 20 major industry and government awards.
In this video interview we discuss:
- How Susan has differentiated her business, The Finishing Touch, from competitors
- The strategies Susan uses to manage over 200 casually-employed staff
- Why employing mature aged people has proved to be a winning formula and
- The challenge of having such a wide network of operation, and how technology helps overcome this
Enjoy this interview with Susan Williams.
Watch this interview on the Australian Businesswomen’s Network website.
|
About the In Her Shoes seriesIn Her Shoes is a regular video series presented by the Australian Businesswomen’s Network and BNet.com.au. Each interview features an inspiring businesswoman and her strategies for success. New episodes are released regularly. Become a Community Member for regular updates. StartUp and Growth Members get updates automatically. Become a Community Member with the Australian Businesswomen’s Network. |
What is an Internship in Australia?
November 3, 2011
By Yvette Vignando, www.happychild.com.au
In this last fortnight, I have been looking for one or two interns for the happychild website, which is nearly 18 months old now. And I had to do some thinking about why, and whether, an intern would be a good thing for both the business and for any prospective intern. I know, through my work as an executive coach, that mentoring others can be one of the most professionally rewarding exercises – so I have been thinking about how happychild could be involved in this.
Why offer an internship?
As the happychild website grows and blooms (it really does feel like blooming now), I have been able to offer more opportunities to writers and bloggers to showcase their fantastic writing and ideas on the website. And I am proud to say we even have one commissioned writer – it may not sound like much to you, but it’s a big deal for a micro-business!
But I’m always looking at opportunities to publish more writing and I cherish the chance to pass on ideas and skills to other people. So I started thinking about offering an internship. It seemed like the ideal opportunity to offer work experience to somebody in a flexible way that only an online business can offer. Sure, the work an intern may do is likely to be wonderful for the website also – but if you’re thinking of offering an internship (particularly unpaid), you need to be sure that you can offer more than you take.
In the case of the happychild internship, we have offered a flexible arrangement to suit an applicant’s parenting or work arrangements and that can even be worked off site. But this can be tricky of course – so it’s important to think carefully about how to give useful feedback, how to mentor your intern and how to create diverse opportunities for an intern that will deliver them the educational and work experience they are after. I’ll get back to you in a few months and let you know how that worked out!
Australian Employment Law and Internships
Before reading this, please take note that I have no expertise in employment law – although my former career was in law, this was not my specialisation. So before entering into any paid or unpaid arrangement with an employee, work experience placement or intern, you should consult an expert lawyer or at least talk to a relevant government department such as Fair Work Australia.
However, to get you started in thinking about what an internship means, I can give you the following tips:
- Employee: Just because you are not paying somebody to work for you, does not mean they are not an “employee” in Australian law. If the way someone is working for you is part of a legally binding contract for example, they are more likely to be considered an employee. However, you may choose to offer a contracted paid internship in which case you’d be obliged to pay that person the relevant minimum wage for the work they are required to do.
- Obligations to employees: If somebody is an employee, then you have all sorts of obligations towards them and they of course have rights – think about things like pay, leave and superannuation.
- Hours and length of time worked: If a person is working for you as an “intern” then they should not be working for you on a long-term (or possibly full time) basis. An example is given on the Fair Work website of ‘Stuart’ who works full time for three months at a newspaper and who is given specific tasks and deadlines to meet – in that example, Fair Work Australia said Stuart may be considered to have been engaged as an employee.
- Intern is there to learn: Your intern should not be a critical part of your business’ producitivity – they are with you to learn and get experience.
More information is available at the Fair Work website.
MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY YVETTE VIGNANDO
- What are Your Favourite Business Books?
- Starting a Business – What Do You Want to Know?
- Overwhelmed by Your Own Deadlines? Think Again.
|
|
Yvette Vignando - www.happychild.com.auYvette is pursuing her passion – to take action that helps children develop great social and emotional skills as a foundation for a happy and successful life. Formerly a lawyer and then successful executive coach specialising in Emotional Intelligence, Yvette was encouraged by her experience of MentorNet to launch her business – a website for parents that publishes practical and engaging information about raising children with emotional intelligence. Yvette looks forward to sharing the challenges and successes of her experience as she navigates her way through the adventures of launching a website, and tackles online sales and marketing, an evolving business plan, and the growing universe of social media. Yvette hopes that by following her personal and professional development as an entrepreneur you will also be inspired to follow your passions.
|
Which Celebrity Apprentice would you have fired?
October 26, 2011
I got caught up watching this week’s launch episode of Celebrity Apprentice — the first Aussie version of the series made famous by Donald Trump and which Mark Bouris of Yellow Brick Road hosts in Australia.
Like the original The Apprentice, in Celebrity Apprentice participants (celebrities) take part in business challenges, mostly in teams, and someone from the losing team is fired each week.
The cast is a hodgepodge of athletes, business people and other ‘celebrities’. This season has athlete Wendell Sailor, reality ‘star’ Polly Porter, politician Pauline Hanson, ‘dance guru’ Jason Coleman, comedienne Julia Morris, beauty queen Jesinta Campbell, model Didier Cohen, footy ‘legend’ Warwick Capper, AFL’s Shane Crawford, Olympian Lisa Curry, Businessman Max Markson, and entertainer Deni Hines as the contestants.
After an entertaining first episode where teams ran a charity car wash (the team who raised the most money won) the men’s team lost and someone was fired by Bouris last night.
The show, while created for ratings (of course) and obviously heavily edited for viewer value, shows enough about a character to have the viewer decide if they like the contest or not.
As a business owner, I watched the show from the point of view of whom I would want on my business team and who would I definitely not want.
Would it be the savvy, well connected Max Markson, the funny and entertaining Julia Morris or the soft but powerful Lisa Curry? And what about the guys?
The footy players impressed me. Well, two of them. Wendell Sailer and Shane Crawford both behaved like team players. They were willing to take leadership, they worked (really) hard in the roles they were assigned and they were willing to work hard towards the team goal. One black sheep, or is it blonde sheep, Warwick Capper was as useful as (enter your own bit here) – i.e. not very! (I realise the show is edited but based on what was shown on the show, he’d be first to be fired if he was on my team.)
In many of the contestants I could see the qualities that I value in team members, qualities that I admire regardless if it’s a team I’m leading or whether someone else is leading.
- Clarity in communication – Jesinta who lead the women’s team was strong but a little harsh in her communication. Her team mates seemed to forgive her for it and to encourage her bravery and leadership.
- Willingness - Most of the guys jumped in and did whatever it took. Capper stood out as the one not willing to take direction or to participate til the end of the challenge.
- Courage - While she’s not someone whose politics I’ve been a fan of, Pauline Hanson stole the show for me when she stripped down to some AussieBum gear to wash a car for a $50,000 bounty which all went towards charity
- Calling it as you see it - Model Didler Cohen not only looked great (he is a model after all) but was willing to call a spade a spade and to put those older than him who disregarded him as just a pretty face, in their place. I hope he shows more of that in coming episodes.
- Drive - While he comes across as arrogant I had to admire Max Markson’s clarity that he had one job to do – to help the team win and (again, despite not agreeing with his leadership style) he pulled out all stops to raise the money they thought would win them the challenge. He was very focused on the prize and the goal. Unfortunately his treatment of his team wasn’t ideal.
Lessons that I drew from the show:
- Leadership matters. Clear direction and participation from the leader is vital.
Mark Bouris - Suzi Dafnis (Kochie's Business Builders 2011)
- Teamwork – No matter what your role, play it and play it to your best ability
- It ain’t over until it’s over – Until the finish bell rings, the game is still on and you can still steal the leading position if you stay focused.
Last night Bouris fired Warwick Capper . I know who I would’ve voted off. Capper!
You? Who would you have fired? And, why?
Desperate Times and Desperate Measures
October 24, 2011
By Kristy-Lee Johnston, Footprint Recruitment
When your business is short staffed, there can be nothing more frustrating than a candidate short market.
You and your team are already under the pump and as an owner or manager, you constantly find yourself being pulled into working ‘in’ rather than ‘on’ your business. This only impacts on your ability to focus on growth, client acquisition and product & service development.
But despite the temptation, it’s important to remember that desperate times shouldn’t mean you take desperate measures.
When you simply don’t have the resources to make ends meet, and fulfil the workload you have coming through the door, it can seem like a good option to appoint new employees who don’t fit in with your usual criteria and are a mis-match with your culture and values.
But this in fact can do more harm than good.
Here’s why:
- A new team member who does not encompass your values and work in a way which reflects your business quality standards, ethics and systems will never be long term, so ultimately you spend time, money and effort training, developing, coaching and guiding for them only to leave before you have recouped your costs
- Appointing a new team member who does not fit in with your existing team, who are committed to your vision and goals, will potentially upset them and have the reverse impact for you. To unsettle your existing team may result in less productive staff, or worse still those staff leaving the organisation because of the new person
- In a candidate short market, your judgement can be blurred by desperation. You need extra hands on deck ASAP, and the candidates in these markets know this. So they become more demanding with their expectations around terms, conditions and salaries. Ultimately you agree because you need someone, but long term it creates a situation with is no longer sustainable because the business workflow ends up structured around them and their demands, rather than the potential for a strong structure for growth.
Clearly, there needs to be a solution to help get you and your business through this time.
Here are a few things I recommend to help relieve the load!
- Communicate openly with your existing team and support them – create an environment which keeps them engaged, motivated and focused. This way they will be as productive as possible for you. Share with them your efforts to locate a like minded team member, and even ask for their help with this, you never know who is around in their extended social circles.
- Think outside the square. Clearly your usual ideal candidate is not out there right now, so how else could this work get done? Can the work be re structured in the office to create a different skills gap, can you promote or retrain an existing team member, can you systemise or streamline anything to help make processes easier and faster?
- Think about outsourcing. This won’t be an option for all roles and all businesses, and certainly may not be long term. But in the short term could a contractor or outsourced supplier help you to get through this busy period?
- What’s not urgent and taking up your time? Can it be put on the shelf for a short time? This can often be hard for business leaders who spend time and energy structuring things to enable them to spend time on their business and its overall strategy and development. But sometimes, especially in small business, the ability to switch between working in and on the business can be priceless for getting through these tough workflow periods
- Get an outsider’s perspective. Ever felt like you can’t see the forest for the trees? It can happen so easily when you are snowed under, overwhelmed and unable to see a real solution. Getting an outside consultant, mentor or trusted advisor in to have a ‘birds eye’ look at your business might reveal some light bulb suggestions for easing the load, which had been in front of your face the whole time but just hadn’t crossed your mind.
Above all else, it’s important to remain positive and focused. Be clear about your vision and direction and the sort of people you want in your business to help you achieve these goals. If you remain clear on that, it will help ensure that even in the times you feel like you’re drowning in work, you make the right decisions about who you engage in your business and why.
MORE GREAT POSTS BY KRISTY-LEE JOHNSTON:
|
|
Kristy-Lee Johnston – Footprint RecruitmentKristy-Lee Johnston is the Director of Footprint Recruitment, a Central Coast based Recruitment and HR agency which is run by locals, for locals.
|
