The 3 Most Effective Tips on Hiring Your First Assistant

Are you looking to hire an assistant? As a decision-maker, there is a never-ending stream of events seeking your attention. A reliable aide can help you focus on results instead of busywork. Keep reading to learn how to find the best assistant for your needs.

1. Clearly Define What you Want

People perform best when you clearly define your standard procedures. Take note of everything you do each day. Break these tasks down into steps. It needs to be so easy a fifth-grader could understand. Otherwise, you can’t expect a new hire to understand their responsibilities.

Define the Type of Assistant You Need

What will be their focus? You need to make sure you’re looking for the type of person who has the right skillset.

There’s a difference between an administrative assistant and an executive assistant. Social media assistants reply to your customers who post online.

Have a clear picture of their day to day responsibilities. Using the proper terms will also attract more qualified candidates. Quality people are looking to work where there’s concise communication.

2. Post to Multiple Job Platforms

Don’t rely on only one job site. Hiring people requires interviewing many people to find those who meet your criteria. It is a fact that many people go through the motions of job-seeking.

Give them exact steps to fill out. You can tell them to record a short video. Another popular trick is to have them change the subject line of the email they’re told to send.

This is a good way of sorting out people who do not follow instructions. Tell them to fill their resume out a specific form to see who pays attention. They should be detail-oriented, or they will cause long-term issues.

3. Ask Questions To Probe Beneath The Surface

Asking good qualifying questions is also key. Some people have sterling resumes but are a dud in person. You should ask them to answer the following three questions:

Why are you leaving your current position? This will tell you if they are a team player, looking to take the next step up, or a problem in the office.

What traits are most important in a person? It helps to understand how they see themselves and their teammates.

What do you do to keep learning? A valuable employee is always looking to learn and grow. You want to weed out the people who aren’t looking to learn. They will likely do the minimum and cost to receive a paycheck.

The Bottom Line

Hiring an assistant is an investment that will make or break the growth of your business. Investing the time to vet an assistant properly will pay off. A good assistant will help you focus your time on more significant priorities. This enables you to see the big picture and take your company to the next level.

This article was originally published on GormanHouston.info

Purpose Or Passion In Leadership?

All through history different schools of thought, philosophers, and leadership consultants have debated the difference between purpose and passion in leadership. They have said that passion is the emotions and feelings you have for leadership where your purpose is the reasons behind the passion. The passion is defined by the “what” and the purpose is the “why” you are in a position of leadership. There have been many significant figures that have tried to simplify this argument.

Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato were all very significant philosophers from the past and have offered many ideas that have defined the way we think about issues and problems today. They all had opinions on these two words that shed some light on the argument. Aristotle believed that passion was only to be considered part of pleasure or pain for humans. Socrates thought that passion took the soul and imprisoned it to the body, while Plato that the goal of humans should be a dispassionate control over our body.

Religious leaders in the world have said that the “Meaning of Life” is to be completely self-aware and to be conscious about the world around you, the desire to own more will cause suffering in your life. This means that the reason you are trying to advance in a leadership role should not be that of personal gain.

Many people have said to “follow your passion” in life in order to find who you want to be. It is often told to people who are in a low point of their life or in a point where they dislike the job they are currently in. The hard part of this saying is that some people don’t have passions or as Plato said, should be dispassionate. The “purpose” is still there in everyone even if its harder to see. The reasons you are doing what you are doing is what is driving you for success.

I believe the true path to success in leadership is to have a blend of both characteristics in your life. You need to have a purpose for success but without passion the underlying emotions towards your purpose are non-existent. The middle ground needs to be able to hold both in harmony to a path of better leadership.

This article was originally published on GormonHouston.info

Models Of Strategic Planning: Part 2

There are a few different ways to effectively strategize for your business. The models of strategic planning help build the framework for a business to help improve strategies around sales and growth. As stated in the previous blog, “There are models that are beneficial to a business at the beginning stages of planning, or models that are good for ongoing strategies within a business”. Here is part two for the different models of strategic planning.

Strategy Map

This is one of the base level strategies for a business to put in place. It is a visual representation of the strategy to easily show how to reach goals and the roads to get there. This is a very easy way to get everyone on the same page for a strategy as the map clearly shows everything needed in a streamline form. It effectively shows the connections between the goals and the other steps and parties involved in the process. It shows the direct benefit or correlation to each section and how to get there. This is one of the easiest models to produce and incorporate.

Read the full article here.

Models of Strategic Planning

There are plenty of strategies that you can put in place to optimize your business. When choosing a strategy to use in a business you must consider all of the different models that exist and which one fits you and your business the best. There are models that are beneficial to a business at the beginning stages of planning, or models that are good for ongoing strategies within a business. Here are a few of the most popular and favorite models that are proven effective.

Balanced Scorecard

One of the most common strategies that you can put in place. It was created by Dr. Robert Kaplan and Dr. David Norton. It brings together your objectives, measurements, and initiatives. Your objectives are the end goals, measurements are the numbers or stats that can define your progress to the goals, and initiatives are the steps in place to progress towards your goals.

Click here to keep reading.

How Chick-fil-A Makes More Per Location Than The Competition

When you think of profitable fast food restaurants, McDonald’s and a few others come to mind. Chick-fil-A is usually one of the places people think of on that list. It might be a surprise to some people that Chick-fil-A is the most profitable per location than any of the other fast food businesses. Per location they outsell the top three, according to QSR Magazine, which include McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Subway. McDonald’s has about 14,000 stores which when averaged out is about $2,670,000 per unit. Starbucks offers 13,930 locations and brings in $945,000 per location. Finally Subway has almost 26,000 locations and averages about $416,000 in revenue per location. When you take Chick-fil-A’s 2,225 locations and average the total revenue per location it comes out to almost $4,045,000. How does a business that is closed every week on Sunday’s beat out these titans?

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How To Figure Out If Your Business Has A Strategic Plan

When you are looking at your business from the top-down, a key component that needs to be there if there isn’t one in place already is to have a strategic plan in place to be the “blueprint” or structure to your business. A strategic plan is supposed to be able to fully lay out your business and evaluate the ways you can reach goals and avoid problems. If you don’t have one already, here is a way to create one for you and your business.

Evaluate

The first step before anything can happen with a strategic plan, a full evaluation of what state the business is currently in is needed. A SWOT analysis is the best way to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the business or anything that can affect the business in any way possible. This will give you the insights into how to approach the plan moving forward.

See The Future

This isn’t telling you to actually look into the future, but to determine where you want the company to be in the future. This is easily defined by finding goals that you want the business to hit in 1,5,10 years, and so on into the future. These can be size based goals, profit goals, or even simple goals such as not losing money. Whatever the goals for the future are, make sure they are an integral part of your plan.

Create

This is the part where you take the goals from the last step and put into place the plan to reach them. When you create the plan from the end result, it is easier to keep the end goal in the process the whole time. Make sure that the plan is fully fleshed out in all aspects of the business, so there is no way you can stray from the plan in place.

Measure

Lastly, a large part of the plan is to be able to define and measure your progress and success within the plan. It is easier to be able to understand how you stack up to goals when there is a way to measure the progress made towards the goals. This will give you an idea on how much is needed to reach and attain the goals moving forward. Review the progress made every couple of months and make adjustments as needed.

These steps can help you understand your business, but if you don’t commit 100% to the business you won’t see the results you want or need to see.

Originally published on GormanHouston.org on December 28, 2018

Honing In On Your Leadership Skills

Leaders around the world can tell you one thing, you always need to work to be a better leader. Leadership isn’t just a title and to become a great leader and really dive into what makes you a great leader, you need to always be learning new things and working to improve your skills.

Balance

Some people should realize that being a leader is more than the position, and while some people can be good at a job, that doesn’t mean they are good at leading. Don’t fall into the rut of following other people’s personalities and build something for yourself. One single thing doesn’t make the leader, there are a variety of skills and traits that make a good leader. Finding the right balance in your leadership skills is a key factor in the process to become a great leader.

Adapt

Being able to adapt to changes effectively and give your employees a reason to get behind the change is a skill that many leaders look to gain. Being able to make the hard choices that affect the company and employees is something that leaders need to be able to do. Once you make a decision, staying strong in a decision of change is key to showing the rest of the company you can adapt to the change for good.

Trust

Trust and communication are the best things any person can learn to get better at. Communication is such an integral part of any situation or business and can put you on the path to better trust. Listen to your employees and understand the needs they are asking for, building the ability to communicate with your employees can help you understand what they need and when they need it.

Culture

Having a great work culture and environment is the main reason that people want to show up to work in the first place. You can have the best business plan in place, but a negative environment can sour the business immediately. Making sure your employees have a place that they can feel comfortable in, gives them a reason to stay working and comfortable towards the goal.

Originally published on GormanHouston.info on February 12, 2019

Strategic Planning For The Future

Many times when a business is trying to create a strategic plan retroactively, they don’t look to the future of where they want to be because of the future is the last place they want to look for answers. Many times too much is going on and deadlines pile up and that causes a strategic plan get skewed in its goals and vision as you’re trying to fix the fires now. Creating a great strategic plan starts with looking to the future.

Timeframe

When creating the strategic plan, ignore everything that is happening now in the company and look forward into the future about three years out. This doesn’t mean that you go find the closest magic mirror and actually look into the future, but what does the business look like in an ideal world where everything goes right. The reason you shouldn’t go too far into the future is due to the fact that industries change and the way business looks will be vastly different three, five, ten years down the road, and trying to predict that is close to impossible.

Purpose

Find the company a purpose, or a set of ideas/pillars that the company stands for. This can also be noted as a mission statement or the vision of the company. These are things that you can outline the plan forward with so that way the path is more clear cut, rather than trying to figure it out as you go.

Goals

Having a purpose in place, start to drum up ideas on what the success looked like in three years. What goals and milestones were on the road to that success? What got the company there? Seeing the end goal can show you the path between the present and future and give you the goals in between.

Narrow It Down

Now that you have all those goals outlined for the company, find the few that are the topmost priorities and rank them on how they are related to the purpose of the company, how easy the goal is, the excitement behind the goal, how the goal will affect the value of the company, and how the goal makes the company better.

Originally published on GormanHouston.org on February 2, 2019

Proven Strategies for Scaling a Business Quickly

Every business owner wants to scale. There’s nothing quite like seeing an organization grow from a start-up to an industry leader. Of course, there’s usually a lot of legwork involved in getting from the starting point to the pinnacle of success. But by following proven strategies for scaling, it’s possible to get there more quickly.

One of the biggest keys to success in any business is to do good research. By finding out what’s working for others in a given industry, it’s possible to construct a template to follow. Research is also one of the best ways to identify existing gaps in the marketplace. Understanding the landscape of an industry is the first step in making a successful foray into it. The most important cohort to research is any existing consumers a company already has. Understanding who buys and why can mean selling more in the future.

Partnering with related brands is another great way to get ahead. Customer research can be key, here, too. Knowing the consumer can mean knowing their other interests. If a product appeals to people who are also heavily invested in an activity like gaming, partnering with a company that makes games can be a great idea. Best of all, it can be a great way to put a related product in front of a new and very interested audience.

Lead magnets are incredibly important for any business. Getting people’s attention is the best way to get their contact information. Showing them some expertise up front means they’ll be more willing to let a business into their inbox. Directly contacting people whose trust has been earned is a proven way to convert leads into sales. Managing these customer relationships is best done with CRM software like SalesForce or Hubspot, rather than paper-based tracking tools.

Finally, one of the fastest ways to grow is by buying another company. This brings new locations, inventory and customers into the fold of the purchaser. It’s even one way of expanding into new industries. However, it can be a mixed blessing. Takeovers can be complicated. Making some employees redundant can damage morale. In cases where a former competitor has been purchased, retaining customers who’ve been loyal to that brand can sometimes prove challenging.

Originally published on GormanHouston.info on January 22, 2021

How Poor Communication Can Lead to Micromanaging

As more people settle into the work-from-home routine, many of the communication issues that go unnoticed at the office have become apparent. When an employee feels like their manager is never off their case, the problem is usually caused by each party’s inability to understand the other.

What Micromanaging Looks Like

When most employees are asked what micromanaging is, they all have the same answer: micromanaging occurs when a leader is overly involved in their employee’s work. Running a team is all about trusting each member to do their job. If the manager steps in too often, it can leave the employee feeling frustrated, disrespected, and undervalued.

In the work-from-home world, micromanaging often takes the form of checking in too often. Many employees complain that they can’t work if their boss constantly asks them when the work will be done. Managers can also overstep their bounds by making surprise changes to projects, completing responsibilities that belonged to someone else, or asking to review the project at each small stage of development.

Of course, accusations of micromanaging aren’t always accurate. Managers need to check-in with their employees regularly, and they should also be involved in the development of a project. This is why it’s important to develop a healthy relationship with team members to ensure that no one feels like they’re being left out.

Learning to Communicate as a Leader

One of the best ways to stop micromanaging employees is to learn to communicate more effectively. Most employees thrive when they receive fewer messages that are more clear and to-the-point.

Struggling managers should ask a neutral third party to assess their current communication skills. Show the party the messages in question, and ask how they would feel if they were a team member. Receiving criticism can be difficult, so make sure to be patient and maintain a calm attitude.

Next, start identifying the issues that have led to the communication problems at hand. Work to make all messages clear, concise, and directed. Ensure that both managers and employees know their responsibilities and what kind of check-ins they can expect. With a little work, most micromanaging issues can be left behind in favor of clear discussions and steady workflow.