The Power of Brainstorming

Brainstorming is useful and effective when you have a challenge, problem, or stale patterns of thinking. It helps you overcome issues and will get buy in from the team, especially since they are a part of the solution. Having many people involved in solving an issue brings incredible richness and better solutions. Brainstorming sessions can be used for any issue from increasing sales, cutting down employee turnover and reducing waste, to improving morale & attitudes.

I worked with one company that had a goal of reducing errors & waste at a manufacturing company. In one two-hour session we came up with a plan, and within six months reduced the errors and decreased waste by 22%. That savings went right to the bottom line and everyone was excited because it was their idea. It also made it easier to give raises during performance appraisals.

Seven quick brainstorming rules:

1.           Have as many people from multiple areas of the company in the session. You never know where the next great idea will come from.

2.           No ego’s in the room. Everyone is equally important.

3.           Clearly define the problem / challenge you want the group to solve and any criteria that needs to be met

4.           The leader must keep the session focused on the problem

5.           No criticism or evaluation of an idea that comes up. You don’t want people to be scared or intimidated by any others in the session.

6.           Use a flip chart to write the ideas down.

7.           The leader of the session must make sure everyone is involved and his or her ideas are heard. Keep a close watch to make sure everyone is engaged. Remember, there are some behavior styles that will not feel comfortable in this setting and will want to stay quiet. You must get them involved in a respectful manner.

Albert Einstein said “Imagination is more important than knowledge”

So, get your people together and get your company moving forward. Remember, brainstorming can help get you there better, faster, and more efficiently than doing it by yourself.

Have a great day and happy brainstorming.

Written specifically for us by our associate Gary Sorrell, Sorrell Associates, LLC. Copyright protected worldwide. All rights reserved.

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Alternative Possibilities

 

Since positive thinking makes the ability to believe in alternative possibilities a reality, it also leads to more creative thinking when faced with everyday setbacks. By believing that the solution may not be obvious, positive thinkers are more prone to draw their ideas from unusual sources.

 

Positive thinkers also express more creative thinking throughout everyday life. Self-proclaimed positive thinkers are responsible for a large amount of the inventions, discoveries and innovations that we enjoy today.

 

Since positive thinking promotes more creative thinking, it also promotes better problem solving skills. When positive thinkers are faced with a particularly stubborn situation, they not only use their skills to envision an increased number of solutions, but they also use their belief in the affirmative to continue until they have found a resolution.

 

People who are faced with problems or failure are usually too quick to give up. However, by using positive thinking problem solving skills, you can tackle problems head-on and seek out desirable outcomes.

 

Through the previous benefits, positive thinkers are awarded a boost of confidence. By utilizing the skills of positive thinking, you will begin to experience an increased belief in yourself and your abilities. After experiencing success with positive thinking, your brain will become trained to see each situation as a simple challenge instead of a barrier that blocks your success.

 

As you develop your positive thinking skills, this new belief in yourself will lead to greater focus and determination. By simply believing that you will find a suitable solution, you will gain the motivation necessary to stay on task until that desirable outcome is achieved. Plus, a can-do attitude will help center your concentration enabling you to stay focused on the positive aspects of the situation until the problem is resolved.

Need articles / content for your newsletters, blogs, or website? Contact us today! 740-824-4842. http://www.NewsletterVille.com ~ Gary@Newsletterville.com

Written specifically for us by our associate Gary Sorrell, Sorrell Associates, LLC. Copyright protected worldwide. All rights reserved.

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The Power Of Positive Thinking!

When tapping (in to) the power of thought and getting positive, the most important step is to create a mindset that allows you to think positively. Once you have pulled the weeds from your mental garden, you can begin to sow the seeds that will anchor your new way of life.

Creating a positive mindset takes training. In much the same manner as runners train their bodies to endure long periods of sustained activity, you can train your mind to sustain positive thought, and naturally defer to pleasant or optimistic paths. At first, thinking positively may feel awkward or ridiculous (particularly if you are the type of person who believes perky morning people should be shot). Keep in mind, though, that it does get easier the more you do it, and eventually, sustaining a positive mindset will be as natural as breathing.

Like any training program, there are steps you can follow to achieve your optimal results: in this case, a positive mental outlook. You may recall that it takes 21 days to form a new habit (what’s that…you’ve forgotten already? Go back and add “long-term memory” to your list of habits you’d like to improve). 

Therefore, you should perform each of the steps for at least 21 consecutive days. You can take on one step at a time, or implement an entire program; just be sure you aren’t leaving anything out.

Step up to your mental treadmill, and let the training begin!

“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” – Abraham Lincoln

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Written by Gary Sorrell, Sorrell Associates, LLC. Copyright protected worldwide. All rights reserved.

How to Attract Top Talent to Your Company

Upon completing a successful selection process, the next challenge a hiring manager will face is finding ways to ensure that all the time, effort, and money spent does not go to waste by firing or having their top talent leave for greener pastures. Below is a look at some of the common challenges faced by hiring managers in trying to retain their staff.

Employee disengagement is one of the challenges facing hiring managers when it comes to the retention of staff. In fact, a Gallup study has shown that as many as 70% of the workforce is disengaged.
Mismanagement is another retention challenge, with research carried out by Target Training International showing that over 95% of all people stated that they have been mismanaged. As a result, they will attribute their below par performance at certain periods during their employment as having stemmed from this mismanagement. Eventually, those interviewed gave their reasons for leaving the company as being because of one reason: mismanagement.
Being unclear about job accountabilities is another retention challenge facing hiring managers. This is best illustrated by the fact that the common reason why most people get fired is because of a disagreement on what constitutes “superior performance”.
When the individual’s talent is not being applied (bad talent/job match) or when they are not rewarded by job (bad talent/job match), these scenarios can also pose a challenge to successful retention in a company. However, both these issues are easily eliminated when the talent of the candidate and the talent requirements of the job are well matched.
Another challenge facing recruiters in successful retention is conflict within departments or teams. However, occurrences of conflict within a team or between two employees may be avoided completely, or significantly improved once the talents of each individual involved is recognized and understood.
By accurately measuring talent and thereby understanding each individual’s talent, recruiters will be able to tackle the challenges that hinder successful retention in a company. What the recruiter needs to do is to get the individual to answer “yes” to the following Gallup questions relating to retention. Below are the questions and what every hiring manager can do to ensure that their staff answers them in the affirmative.
• Do I know what is expected of me at work?
For a “yes” answer, be sure to inform your staff about what is expected of them at work in the most effective way for their particular style of communication.
• At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best everyday?
Give every individual the opportunity to do what they do best at work everyday, based on their particular talent strengths.
• At work, do my opinions count?
Give the individual an opportunity to voice their opinions, while providing them with opportunities for growth based on their particular strengths.
• Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
In order to enable the supervisor to create a powerful working relationship with the individual, ensure that you provide them with sufficient key talent information.
We have the tools necessary to accurately measure all of these areas for each candidate, employee, and the requirements of these for the job itself.
Contact us today!
Need articles / content for your newsletters, blogs, or website? Contact us today! 740-824-4842. http://www.NewsletterVille.com ~ Gary@Newsletterville.com

Written specifically for us by our associate Gary Sorrell, Sorrell Associates, LLC. Copyright protected worldwide. All rights reserved.

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How to Hire Top Talent

One of the biggest problems in businesses today entails making mistakes about who to deploy to perform specific roles within an organization. There are a number of tactics available to assist employers in hiring the top talent to meet the needs of their companies.

First, the company should devise a blueprint for the role that needs to be filled within the company. Rather than hire the well-rounded employee who can fill any role, managers should seek individuals who have specific talents for specific roles. Strive to hire the specialist rather than the generalist.

Conventional hiring practice sets goals to attract those individuals who have graduated from the best schools with the highest grades. However, recent research has shown that this practice does not necessarily lead to recruitment of candidates most suitable to a specific position.

The process should not be about hiring the best person. It should be about hiring the right person. Seek the candidate who has a 90% chance of achieving a set of outcomes that only 10% of a group of people could achieve. This could as easily lead to the young woman who ran her father’s company instead of working toward that Harvard MBA.  The key is to be sure about the person you are hiring and make sure they will be able to accomplish the goals set forth by your company once they are in the role. 

The majority of successful companies are now beginning to use their own networks to source talented candidates for a position. In other words, if possible, hire from within. It is common sense, but not necessarily common practice to stay in close touch with and talk to a company’s networks on a regular basis.  Finding the right talent can be as simple as asking trusted co-workers and associates the question, “Who do you think I should hire?” There is no better, more successful or more cost effective way to generate a flow of the right talent. But if you don’t know what you are looking for in a position, you won’t know what to look for in the candidate!

Managers tend to fail at hiring the ideal candidates who possesses the right talents because they do not follow a rigorous enough hiring process. Interviews should walk through a candidate’s entire career in chronological order.  They will also need to know how a person will do the job, why they will do the job, and will they do the job.

This is the best way available to make a good hiring decision. You are not going to be able to distinguish the real talent from the average performer in a rushed, twenty-minute interview. Taking the extra time at the beginning of the hiring process is well worth the time and effort when that right candidate comes through for your organization.

If you have any questions about this article, or about how we can help you with your current hiring needs, contact us today!

We encourage your participation and comments.

Need articles / content for your newsletters, blogs, or website? Contact us today! 740-824-4842. http://www.NewsletterVille.com ~ Gary@Newsletterville.com

Written specifically for us by our associate Gary Sorrell, Sorrell Associates, LLC. Copyright protected worldwide. All rights reserved.

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Discover What Matters Most to Your Employees and Include it in Your Company Brand

After the employee surveys have been taken and the results read, it’s time to understand the results and implement them in your course of action. This step is crucial in improving your company’s employer brand. There are lots of important steps that you and your company can take.

§         Incorporate your employee’s values into your company’s strategic plan

§         Reward employees in accordance to their values

§         Hire individuals that share the same values as your company

When a company stays on the same page as its employees in terms of values, your company will benefit from employee engagement, self-motivation, job satisfaction, a strong work ethic and the desire to work hard. The end result is an advantage to both the company and employee. Both are left satisfied.

Need articles / content for your newsletters, blogs, or website? Contact us today! 740-824-4842. http://www.NewsletterVille.com ~ Gary@Newsletterville.com

Written specifically for us by our associate Gary Sorrell, Sorrell Associates, LLC. Copyright protected worldwide. All rights reserved.

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Recognize the Global Demand for Professionals

Recognizing the global demand for professionals puts you ahead of other businesses. By getting top talent on board before the competitors, your business propels forward. While other executives are still searching for professionals, you already have the best ones on board. In the next year, there are several staffing areas you should consider. 

Return On Investment 

Project management professionals with IT skills are essential for your organization to succeed. Modern technologies move fast and you have to keep up with the pace. Properly planning projects and overseeing their implementation are crucial to keep your company profitable and progressive. Look for a project manager with leadership abilities, a positive attitude and excellent people skills.   

Protection 

Letting the cat out of the bag to your competitors is inevitable unless you employ security professionals. Spam, malware and other attacks threaten your business security every day. As these potential security breaches continue, businesses and their valued clients are compromised. Hiring security professionals is a top priority as more business is conducted online rather than personally or via telephone. 

Support 

As technology moves forward, you will hire more IT employees and other computer-based workers.  These inevitable hires will need desktop support to adequately serve your business needs. A desktop support professional with proficiency in Microsoft is worth their weight in gold. Their assistance minimizes downtime for new employees as their questions are answered immediately. 

Traffic 

With more IT personnel comes additional traffic. Advanced technologies such as video add to the potential complications along the way. Professional network administrators keep traffic moving with minimal problems. Computer networking engineers also plan, design and implement the latest technologies your company needs to install. 

Cloud 

Hire a professional with their head in the clouds. Cloud computing and virtualization are the wave of the future. Be ahead of the crowd by hiring a certified expert in virtualization to handle the latest aspects of IT for your company. An area still forgotten by many, having a virtualization professional on board puts you ahead of the rest. 

Harness the power of the global market by hiring professionals in these growing areas. As the competition continues to seek talent, you will already be working with it. 

Need articles / content for your newsletters, blogs, or website? Contact us today! 740-824-4842. http://www.NewsletterVille.com ~ Gary@Newsletterville.com

Written specifically for us by our associate Gary Sorrell, Sorrell Associates, LLC. Copyright protected worldwide. All rights reserved.

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Since 1995, Sorrell Associates has been producing proven effective customized newsletters, blogs, and marketing programs.  We offer these powerful marketing products/services in order to help you achieve your dreams and goals through an effective proven communications tool. Contact us today to see how we can put your marketing on auto pilot. 740-824-4842. http://www.NewsletterVille.com
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Are Your Customers Merely Satisfied or are They Loyal?

There is a distinction between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. In effect, a customer is “loyal” when they have the tendency to choose one business or product over another for a particular need time, and time again. Further, for any industry, loyalty is action-based, not wholly reliant on the satisfaction level or opinion of the consumer.

A customer can express high satisfaction levels within, let’s say, a survey, but satisfaction is not equal to loyalty. In reality, customers can be extremely satisfied and still not be loyal. As an example, a person can rave about a product in a survey and will give the product the highest rating but this doesn’t necessarily mean that the customer is loyal. In effect, if the customer is merely satisfied, when the same product comes onto the market from a competitor for a cheaper price, the customer will invariably try out the cheaper product. On the other hand, if the customer is completely loyal, the customer will not go to the competitor even if it costs a little more for the product.

The advantages of achieving customer loyalty are all encompassing in nature. Some of these include:

·     Costs for acquiring a customer only occur at the beginning of a customer relationship. In effect, the longer the relationship is, the lower the recurring costs associated with wooing customers.

·     Long-term, loyal customers are more likely to initiate free word-of-mouth referrals and promotions.

·     Long-term customers have a tendency to be disinclined to switch brands or switch to another competitor and, in addition, tend to be less sensitive to price fluctuations. The result is a more stable unit sales volume and potential increases in dollar-sales volume.

·     In addition, loyal customers are likely to purchase high-margin supplemental and/or ancillary products.

·     Loyalty equals less expensive services.  In effect, if the customer is knowledgeable about the process involved, they require less “education,” and are extremely consistent in placing orders.

So, how do you achieve customer loyalty? In order to build this long-term relationship with your customer, it is essential to have an extremely well managed customer retention program in place. No matter what industry, field, or niche of a business, all programs for customer retention must rely on communication. These communications will give consumers encouragement to remain active and will invariably entice them to continue business relations with a particular company.

If there are difficulties in obtaining and retaining a loyal customer base, it is necessary to look at the operational procedures of a company to see where it is going wrong. As an example, the greatest advice in the world on how to write engaging ads will mean nothing if customers are unhappy with their service. Word travels fast, whether on or off the Internet, and if your customers are unhappy with their service, the business will more than likely never gain loyal customers. Some may even be lost in the process. Customers need to be involved in how a business is run; therefore, it is imperative that a company learns what consumers think of their customer service experience.

Chris Dekle at netpromoter.com suggests that a company needs to give surveys to their customers to determine if a business’s customer service policies need to be changed or not.

Truth be told, customer loyalty is more important than customer satisfaction. There is a plethora of benefits, not just the ones listed above, that will ensue if customers become loyal, and stay loyal, to a particular company.

Written specifically for us by our associate Gary Sorrell, Sorrell Associates, LLC. Copyright protected worldwide. All rights reserved.

Need articles / content for your newsletters, blogs, or website? Contact us today! 740-824-4842. http://www.NewsletterVille.com ~ Gary@Newsletterville.com

Written specifically for us by our associate Gary Sorrell, Sorrell Associates, LLC. Copyright protected worldwide. All rights reserved.

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Since 1995, Sorrell Associates has been producing proven effective customized newsletters, blogs, and marketing programs.  We offer these powerful marketing products/services in order to help you achieve your dreams and goals through an effective proven communications tool. Contact us today to see how we can put your marketing on auto pilot. 740-824-4842. http://www.NewsletterVille.com

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Steps to Creating a Successful Multi-Generational Workforce

A combination of generations in the workplace can be a successful venture but only if all sides are willing to comply with one another. Older generations have built a career on the knowledge and experiences they have gained. Newer generations, often fresh out of college, think they know everything. They have spent the previous four years studying in a higher learning institution and have earned their place, no matter the starting position, in your company. In order for a multi-generation workforce to garner respect from one another and become assets to the company, they must possess an acceptance and the willingness to learn from one another.

Sizing up Cross-Generation Competition

Do not let age deceive you or become the basis of the opinion you form of an older or younger employee or coworker. As the age of retirement is consistently pushed upwards, more and more “baby boomers” are staying in the workforce and all but demanding a certain level of respect they have worked so hard to establish.

Sizing up a coworker based on their age is a fruitless venture. Focus on the person’s attributes and contributions to the company rather than age.

Focusing on age tells you nothing about your coworker except maybe they are too young to be the next leader of our country or that they may have amassed a clan of grandchildren. More importantly, it won’t help you establish a line of communication or show you how to work alongside one another in a productive manner. In order to create an industrious working relationship and workforce, you will need to focus on the information that pertains to the contributions you can make to the company together.

 

The Assessment Report

 

The assessment report contains vital information necessary in building a strong, multi-generational working relationship. The assessment report will tell you what the other persons values are, what motivates them to take action and the personal skills they bring to the job at hand.  Taking the time to read the assessment report will hand you details about your coworker that you never would have taken into account based on their age. Look for these characteristics.

 

• Hands on
• Personal accountability
• Takes initiative
• Gets the job done
• Able to focus
• Makes steady contributions
• Natural team builder
• Talkative
• Embraces new ideas
• Willingness to learn new skills
• Capable of decision making

 

Making the Adjustment

 

With a better understanding of your coworker it is time to come together and compromise. All people, no matter their generation have a preferred method of communication. Older generations tend to be more “stuck in their ways” so to speak, so it may be more conducive for the younger generation to make a larger adjustment when it comes to communication. At least at first.

 

You know how you communicate the best. After reading your coworker’s assessment report, you have a better understanding of which communications methods work best for them and which ones they prefer. Make establishing an open and constructive line of communication between generations a priority. Find your common ground and work from there.

 

Once an open line of communication has been established, determining how you can boost and compliment one another’s job performance will appear easy. You may realize that your coworker from an older generation has a library of experience and has the tools it takes to complete the project at hand. A coworker from the older generation can learn new techniques and styles from the newer generation. Combining these two aspects as well as others can create an explosive new way to enhance one’s job skills making contributions to the company excel.

 

Not only will one generation benefit from the next, the company as a whole will benefit profitably and favorably.

Need articles / content for your newsletters, blogs, or website? Contact us today! 740-824-4842. http://www.NewsletterVille.com ~ Gary@Newsletterville.com

Written specifically for us by our associate Gary Sorrell, Sorrell Associates, LLC. Copyright protected worldwide. All rights reserved.

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Since 1995, Sorrell Associates has been producing proven effective customized newsletters, blogs, and marketing programs.  We offer these powerful marketing products/services in order to help you achieve your dreams and goals through an effective proven communications tool. Contact us today to see how we can put your marketing on auto pilot. 740-824-4842. http://www.NewsletterVille.com

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