(Engaging Your People for Success) Ep 1 Season 6. Kick off - Structure your Business for your People with Lisa Askwith

Engaging Your People for Success- Ep 1 Season 6. Kick off - Structure your Business for your People
 
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INTRODUCTION
Show Objectives - The Why
Structure your Business for Your People. 

In this Episode I will cover some of the key people tips and strategies that you can focus on as you develop or launch your business. When people launch new businesses or look at revamping the old, they always focus on revenue targets and strategy. Both are of course critical, but this tendency to focus on the money, moves leaders down a path where they forget they are people leaders. If you are trying to grow a successful and sustainable business you will mostly need people to get you there. If you structure everything around the finances and the product, you will then by default forget that the people need to be engaged, if you really want to achieve your targets. This season of Engaging your People for Success will focus on some of those key needs and strategies that support your people and hence your overall business to become the best version of itself. Without incorporating these you will find you are constantly running from fire to fire and never developing a sustainable business that you can scale and develop for the future. 

Today we will look at some of the simple steps you can take to stop you from being so tied up in revenue that you forget to plan for your people and their engagement, motivation and values. The people are the true core of your business, no matter the size, adn like the core of your body, if you don't engage with it regularly and work on it, it will become despondent, and will not give you the outcomes you truly desire. 

We are well into 2021, so if you have not already started to focus on your people, now really is the time to do it.  Both in terms of your personal leadership success and supporting your people. After all, you want to get ahead of the game so to do that you need to be a fantastic people leader, with an extensive people management tool kit that can get you through any situation. As that will make all of the difference to your success.  People are the glue that holds your business together, without them being engaged and supporting you, your business will constantly be putting out fires and leaking money. You also want to have a business that is sustainable and able to innovate to help achieve this. For this to be a reality for you, you need a positive culture driven by engaged people who value their roles and care about the success of the company. Then you will find you can really capitalise on your greatest asset- Your People as they will be the ones to take your business to greater levels of success. 

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 Key Issues - Owner Perspective:
Don’t let your business suffer, let me help you make your business the best that it can be by utilizing your greatest assets, Your People!!!! 

After an unbelievable 2020 we are now finally firmly into 2021, well done on being here and making it through 2020! No matter what you have endured you are here and listening and that means you have decided to stand up and move forward, well done on making that decision!

I am going to help you make the most of the rest of 2021. Let's find the good things together, no matter what happens next! I am passionate about exceptional leadership, and I believe you can really only achieve long term sustainable business success by engaging your people to get you there. This episode will focus on giving you a range of key quick to use tips that I will explore further during season 6. That way you have some great, easy to use options that will help you be the best that you can be, and you can target the shows that you really need to make sure you listen to in order for you to get all of the information that you can use.

​What You Need to Know - The What
Each show this season builds on core knowledge that will help you develop a world class People Engagement and leadership tool kit. Many shows interlink and support each other in order to allow you to gain in depth knowledge of the strategies and key people needs that you can focus on in your business. Make sure you download the show notes for each episode as I will always include the key strategies so you can take them away to use for yourself or your business.


Season 6 Episodes
Season 6 IBGR Theme: Build My Business TODAY
Week
1. Episode Focus/Theme)
2. Talking Points

3. Branded Episode Name


WK1
8th July
Season 6 Introduction- Start with a People Structure in Mind
When you start, or run a business it is easy to lose focus on your people as you are chasing revenue and growth. However a few simple structures put in place early can stop this from happening.
Structure your Business for your people.

WK2
15th July
You have set your business up, but you keep losing your great people
People are your biggest asset, and if you keep losing them then something is fundamentally wrong in your business, let’s fix it!
Recruitment and retention made easy

WK3
22nd July
Strategy and Culture should be symbiotic
Culture is needed to engage your people
Strategy is needed to drive revenue
They should both go hand in hand and support each other developing a symbiotic relationship
Enable your strategy to support your culture and not work against it.

WK4
29th July
Winning the war for talent
Jobs are no longer for life
Talented people can move across industries easily
Brand and social beliefs play a key part in developing your businesses ability to hold onto to great people
Winning the War for Talent

WK5
5th August
You have found great people for your business, now how do you keep them and allow them to help the whole company.
Great talent needs to be nurtured
All of your people deserve and want to feel valued
People development can a drive business success
Nurture your people and remove bias in promotions

WK6
12th August
What really makes a great leader? Is there a mindset difference or are they just born that way?
What is needed in today’s leaders
Leadership in the future
Leadership mindset
Leadership mindset- Build yours now

WK7
19th August
Authentic Leadership
Today’s leadership needs
Authenticity and trust
Respect and culture
Authentic Leaders- What are they and why you should become one

WK8
26th August
Identify hidden problems
The larger a business becomes the more likely it is that problems start to hide. This leads to costs and damages that are often unrecognized until they have been a major crisis.
Business mismatches come in 2 forms – people and process
Identify and fix Mismatched people and processes early.

WK9
2nd September
Why training programs are important and beneficial to business and people's success. How to get there for your business.
Benefit from training programs
Assess low cost high impact solutions
Low cost High impact training solutions

WK10
9th September
Continuous improvement should be embedded in strategy and people management to allow your business to be the best it can be.
What continuous improvement keeps company’s ahead of the competition
How CI can be embedded
Why your people will grow to love a well executes and support CI program
Continuous Improvement can be something your people love, while driving your business to greater success.

Wk11
16th September
Performance appraisals cause fear in everyone, but it does not have to be that way
Why use performance appraisals
How to structure performance management so it is beneficial and not scary
Performance appraisals can be a source of positive growth and development.
Performance appraisals can be positive

WK12
23rd September
Exceptional leaders
Coaching and mentoring are critical tools
Coaching is a core skill that creates exceptional leaders
Mentoring authenticity and trust also support this
Coach your way to exceptional leadership

WK13
30th September
Build yourself as an exceptional leader, and you will create more exceptional leaders around you.
Build you leadership bench strength
Challenge your persona status quo
Develop growth mindset to support strategy
The future of Leadership
 
What You Need to Do - The How
Key Tips to get you started today- Know your playing field!
It is very worthwhile that you keep in mind the rapidly changing workforce and its needs, as you are developing your people engagement tool kit. We are now regularly impacted by things such as;
 

• The Gig economy.
• Gen Y and beyond being more focused on finding something that fits culturally with their beliefs and having a high willingness to change roles if they don’t.
• The death of the long term job.
• Then out of the box things like a global pandemic
• WFH
• Remote workforces
• AI              
• Staff expect to feel valued
• An agile workplace is needed for success

Always keep these key changes in mind as they will affect the entire culture of your business, and hence the people. Your leadership team should always be planning for the future so staying aware of key trends and preparing to integrate them is another key aspect of engaging your people. Change is our working reality, don't be scared of it, instead look for ways to incorporate it into your business, and it will take you to greater levels of success.

Hiring the best Talent is a crucial leadership skill- focus on developing it!
 
First you need to decide what the best talent looks like, and there are many ways to get the overall picture, lots of websites give reviews, and matching job requirements and salaries,  for all roles and they allow you to target the right people and remunerate them accordingly.
 
However, then you need to really know what you are hiring for, it may sound basic but is often overlooked leading to wrong selections and poor outcomes.
 
Then you actually need a robust and up to date relevant recruitment process……sadly this is often missing from many businesses.
So what is a great recruitment process? Key points to consider are;
 

• Company Brand……or lack there of…..or worse negative reviews
• What are you actually recruiting for
• Is the role right
• Who is managing the process? Are they actively involved?
• When was this last reviewed?
• Is there a solid and relevant JD in place?

Value Creation through Career Paths- Your people need to feel valued and this is a key step to achieving that.

Ensure you have fair, achievable and accessible career paths that are supported by an exceptional leadership team

This is important for a few reasons;
 

• Employee’s will stay if they can follow a pathway that is clear and supported
• Career paths provide brilliant ways for employees to gain further training and be of greater value to your business, as well as themselves.
• Staff progressing through the business and staying helps promote a culture that is positive and rewarding, and encourages shared success
• Staff feel more valued and therefore more engaged if they can follow a career path

Developing your Personal Leadership- Always focus on this

You may not have given much thought to how adults learn and retain knowledge, but in fact research shows they can be broken into 3 different learning styles….now these are not exclusive, there is overlap, but generally people are more dominant in one area. Knowing this will help you understand how your audience reacts to uptake of knowledge and will help you streamline and prepare key communications with your people.
 
These are;
 
Visual learner
Auditory learner
Kinesthetic learner


Servant Leadership- Originally coined by Greenleaf in the 1970’s- A key to your success

Servant leadership is a method of development for leaders. Servant leadership stresses the importance of the role a leader plays as the steward of the resources of the group, and teaches leaders to serve others while still achieving the goals set forth by the business.

“The servant-leader is the servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions”

Greenleaf- The ten principles of servant leadership

1. Listening.
2. Empathy.  
3. Healing. 
4. Awareness. 
6. Conceptualization.
7. Foresight.  
8. Stewardship.  
9. Commitment to the Growth of People. 
10. Building Community. 

Coaching
Coaching is one of the key traits of an outstanding leader. It is something that can be learned and will set you apart as a great leader if you can teh habits on board and make them part of your leadership style.

Coaching is defined in many ways. The essence of coaching is:

• To help a person change in the way they wish and helping them go in the direction they want to go.
• Coaching supports a person at every level in becoming who they want to be.
• Coaching builds awareness and empowers choice that leads to change.
• It unlocks a person’s potential to maximise their performance. 
• Coaching helps them to learn rather than teaching them.

Coaching is a learned skill, and like a muscle it is one of those things that can be developed with training and use. The more you practice it the stronger it gets, until it becomes second nature and forms a key part of your core business skill set.

What You Need to Do- exceptional Leadership is crucial for your long term Business Success

1. Determine the level of leadership in your business.
2. Develop a plan for corrective action.  This plan should be developed in consultation with the executive team.  Address the performance problem not the problem of the “person.”
3. Engage the Executive team to drive leadership as a core concept of their roles
4. Execute the plan 
5. Evaluate progress
6. Ensure leadership is a core accountability in performance appraisals

So be an outstanding leader, or to develop them, you need;

• An organisation that is geared towards leadership, with the support tools and beliefs
• Understanding, and ability to develop servant leadership, which in turn then allows you to show true authenticity, empathy, and character, creating trust and encouraging your people to feel engaged and follow you.
• Employ coaching and mentoring, regularly until you are so good at it, that they become second nature.
• Discover your purpose and communicate it.
• Develop a growth mindset  

Leadership is the largest driving force that will make or break your culture, and hence your people and business. It is key to put the time into not only getting this right, but making it exceptional.
 
Shows
●      Previous: Episode 13 Season 5 - Key Leadership and Culture Practices that can ensure your engage your people for success. - Key people engagement tool kit items for you to focus on.
●      Next: Episode 2 - Recruitment and Retention Made Easy - How to really assess the root cause of attrition and minimise it, saving your company from leaking money unnecessarily.
 
Written by Lisa Askwith

Director of ApexBRS | ApexBRS, Regional Director of See Global Media, Chair of  EGN Singapore, and Associate Professor Cambridge Corporate University | At the Age of Change, providing the HR component of the Global Executive MBA and BBA. Lisa has worked for some of the largest companies in the world and successfully led restructures and change management programs in order to improve the bottom line through engaging the people for success, while developing exceptional leaders who can make a positive impact on Culture and long term business sustainability.

You can connect with Lisa on any of her platforms

LinkedIn Lisa Askwith - Director - Apex BRS
https://www.apexbrs.com/
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https://tockify.com/ibgrnetwork/pinboard?search=lisa&startms=1602216000000

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