By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions With the Great Resignation in full swing, many business leaders are scrambling to stop the exit of employees that may be negatively affecting their operations and perhaps their bottom line. What are they to do? Here are seven tips to help stop the bleed and, at the same time, improve your employees’ work lives. Employees are more likely to stay when they are: 1. Valued & Appreciated Every employee likes to know if they are doing a good job and making a difference in the company. Regularly showing them appreciation is a great start. And, if you can understand the best way to go about that, that's even better. Gary Chapman and Dr. Paul White present a great approach in their book 5 Languages of Appreciation in Business: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People. 2. Challenged Many employees leave their positions because they don’t feel challenged. Schedule a 1:1 with them precisely to determine if they feel challenged or not. If they’d like more challenging assignments, start the ball rolling to do just that. 3. Trusted It goes without saying that no one likes to be micro-managed. When you give your employees assignments, let them know you trust they’ll do a good job. And if you let them know you’re available for questions, that gives you the ability to have a hands-off approach, which shows you trust them. 4. Empowered Give your employees the full scope of what they need to do their jobs, including the authority they’ll need to see their assigned tasks through to the end. Doing so can prevent them from unnecessarily going back to you with questions when they could have handled the job independently. 5. Involved Ensure that you involve your employees in matters that concern them when it makes sense. It doesn't do you or your employees any good to make decisions about them when consulting them would have been a good idea. This approach also applies to communicating important company and department info. 6. Mentored Most employees want to grow and develop their abilities, and many leave their positions because they lack mentoring opportunities. Invest in your employees to help them become more effective in their roles and have the potential to move into leadership positions. Doing so most likely will save the company money in the long run if they don’t have to hire from the outside to fill vacated positions. 7. Promoted and Paid Well This tip is a no-brainer. Provide opportunities for advancement and compensate your employees well, or they may walk out the door when a better option comes along. In the end, investing in your current employees will most likely help increase their satisfaction. Doing so could reduce employee churn and perhaps positively impact the bottom line. And who doesn’t want that? # # # Speaking of churn, are your customers satisfied with your products and services, so they aren't leaving for greener fields? If you’d like a quick way to find out, download my FREE Customer Satisfaction Checklist. You’ll discover an answer in just a couple of minutes. Click the button below to download your freebie!
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By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions Are you feeling stuck in a rut, and you're wanting to grow, but you don’t know where to start? With all the craziness going on in the world, it’s perfectly understandable if you’re in this place! That’s why I put together the following three tips in hopes that they will help you thrive and grow in the midst of uncertainty: 1. Utilize a Mentor or Coach I can't emphasize the importance of good mentors or coaches. I have three, and it's been game-changing for me. I can genuinely say that I'm not the same person I was before working with them, and I'm so grateful for their investment in my life. A great mentor or coach can help you sort through challenges and give you an invaluable outside perspective. They're also great for helping you push through barriers in your mind to more effectively achieve your goals. Steps You Can Take: If you don't have a mentor or coach, I recommend finding one! Your connections can be an excellent source for referrals to outstanding individuals. And if you are already working with one, fully engaging in the relationship to help ensure accountability is a perfect thing to do. 2. Seek Out and Surround Yourself with Rock Stars My reach into companies is exponential because of the rock star-caliber relationships I have in my life. They make me better at what I do. A great example is my partnership with Michael Cantu, my process automation strategic partner. Before working with him, I did solo gigs as a process improvement consultant, and they are a dime a dozen in Kansas City. Now I have a steady pipeline of work due to this one relationship. Steps You Can Take: If you're a business owner or gig worker, your connections can also introduce you to rock stars in your community that can supplement the value you can provide companies. If you're an employee, seek out people in your company with whom you can provide support for each other. If you're a manager or business leader, your employees can be a great source of recommendations for new hires. 3. Push Through Hard Times to Reach Your Goals In light of the craziness in our world, I've written several blogs on this topic. Here's one about my terrible stint as a wedding singer. Steps You Can Take: It all comes down to having a don't-give-up attitude, a decision to persevere. Just decide not to give up and go after your goals no matter what comes your way! I hope these three tips gave you some food for thought. They’ve worked for me. I hope they help you! And if you'd like more suggestions, I'd love to hop on a phone or Zoom call with you! I love helping individuals and companies achieve improvement in their lives and businesses. If that sounds good, click the button below to set up a time to chat!
By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions As I look back on my career, I see several missed opportunities to step into leadership roles. There are several reasons for this, number one being that I didn't envision myself as a leader. Now I know differently; experience has taught me otherwise. I've learned since then that I'm a leader and everyone is a leader. We lead our families, frequently our friends, to name a few. And some of us need a little more guidance and encouragement than others. If you're in this boat or have been actively leading others for quite some time, here are six things you can do to increase your leadership skills and your capacity to influence others positively: 1. Expand Your Knowledge Base It’s easy to get lackadaisical when it comes to learning. Some leaders may feel complacent and don't feel the need to grow anymore. This scenario can be the case if leaders have been in their roles for a long time. If this is the case, the best thing to do is decide to keep learning, push through the resistance, and get growing! 2. Take a Genuine Interest in Others Great leaders show care for others and their needs, which builds emotional equity amongst their peers and those they lead. Who doesn’t love to follow leaders who genuinely care about them? 3. Be Generous People remember leaders for their generosity, especially when their giving isn't required. And it doesn't even have to be money--gifts of time are invaluable as well. 4. Be Authentic People can spot a fake a mile away, yet so many are afraid to be themselves, thinking people won’t accept them if they show their true selves. They’d rather put on a mask instead. The best thing we can do is be ourselves, and if the true-you has rough edges, that’s okay. We all have them. To be imperfect is perfectly human. 5. Thrive During Tough Times We do have a choice on how we deal with hardship. It comes down to two things: either we choose to face challenges head-on, or by default, we allow adversity to eat away at our resilience and our ability to overcome. My advice? Choose wisely! 6. Embrace Servant Leadership Have the mindset that life isn't about us. It's about serving others, bringing value to everyone we meet, and leaving a legacy. In the end, if we can embrace these six qualities such that they become a part of who we are, our influence as a leader will grow, and who doesn’t want that? Speaking of influence, does your organization have the resources to grow your impact in the market, but you're not sure where to start? Often, the best way to do that is through improving the way your business runs. A great way to do that is through the FIRM Fitness Assessment, a 100% virtual tool that gauges your organization's fitness and then pinpoints precisely where to start to make improvements. Interested? Then take my FREE business assessment! It will give you a high-level feel for what the assessment covers, yet it can give you actionable intelligence to get started on making your business better. Click the button below to get started!
By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions One of the most fulfilling things I've ever done in my life is volunteering with a prison ministry. My involvement started in 2009, my first visit to the Maximum Security prison at Lansing Correctional Facility. Gina Hanna, the Executive Director of Beauty for Ashes Reentry, invited me to attend. I was a little intimidated at first, but the initial anxiety melted away quickly. The guys we met in this Christian-based program seemed to be ordinary guys and were actually pretty nice! The majority are putting forth the effort to learn and grow. As I’ve come to know some of them, I’ve discovered they’re like a lot of us. Most of them have made some poor decisions, and unlike us (who may have done some crazy, illegal things in our younger years!!), they happened to get caught. These men have made enormous mistakes, but many have chosen to learn from them and are striving to better themselves. They’ve learned that bad decisions don’t have to define their forever. They can turn away from the path of familiarity to make more positive choices. Likewise, bad decisions we’ve made for our businesses are there for us to learn from. Like the guys I’ve met in prison, we have a choice to change direction if things aren't working, to take the path of doing things a better way. So, here are some lessons learned on how to recover from mistakes we’ve made. 1. Learn from Your Mistakes “Johnny” was a hardcore, mean drug addict. But he made a huge turnaround while in prison, choosing to learn from his mistakes and to become a better person. It's not been an easy road for him since his release—he kept relapsing, making the same mistakes over and over again. But he’s continued to learn from them, remaining committed to becoming the man he wants to be. Now he’s helping guide others who are like his former self, helping steer them away from making similar bad decisions. Lessons learned: Don’t let multiple bad decisions deter you from achieving your goals. Persistently continue on your path towards success. This will also help inspire those around you. 2. Believe That Things Will Get Better As a worship leader at my own church, one of my roles is to lead the inmate band whenever I go into the prison. It's one of my favorite things to do! “DeAndre” is an amazing drummer I’ve worked with over the years. When he landed in prison, he didn’t allow it to dampen his spirits. He’s always had the mindset that things will get better and he works to improve himself and the lives of those he interacts with on a daily basis. Lessons learned: Have the mindset that things will get better. This positivity can be so powerful and even contagious -- your colleagues and teams can benefit from it as well. 3. Make the Most of Your Situation “Sam” was imprisoned long-term for an over-prosecuted minor offense. He had every reason to be angry, but he chose the high-road -- improving himself through whatever means he could, which ultimately prepared him for his release. Today, he is thriving since he left prison. He’s reunited with his family, serves as a volunteer in various capacities, and is working full-time at a great job. Lessons learned: Always look for ways to improve your situation and put those insights into play. This can only help pay dividends in the future. Speaking of recovering from bad mistakes, how would you like a leg-up on preventing them from ever happening? One great area to start is customer care. Sound interesting? Then download my FREE Customer Satisfaction Checklist. It can point out areas where you could potentially use improvement.
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