Business Tips from SCORE: Steps to maximize business success
Why do some organizations exceed all expectations and have tremendous growth and others do not? Below are several characteristics of high-performing organizations.
Building a team
Some consider building a team as recruiting and hiring the right people, but those organizations that are truly successful not only recruit the right people but get the right people in the right positions. High-growth organizations don’t wait until they have the need for personnel they anticipate the needs and are recruiting constantly.
Leadership
High-performing organizations have strong leaders. The relationship between the employees and management is based on trust, which enables organizations to transcend operational issues in order to grow. Leaders create highly functioning teams that address both the positive and negative issues of operating an enterprise with ease and efficiency.
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Have a strategic orientation
Good organizations operate their businesses efficiently and effectively, but extraordinary growth businesses look beyond today’s operations and view their enterprises strategically. They look at the long view. They ask “what if” and plan accordingly. They constantly ask “what can be” and create action plans to achieve the next level of performance.
Use metrics
OK organizations set objectives, but outstanding organizations apply key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the performance against their stated objectives. They then determine actions that need to be taken to correct deficiencies in their plan execution.
Operate with transparency
The values of commitment, loyalty and transparency are closely aligned. Organizations that have extraordinary performance have nothing to hide internally or externally. It is easier to address customer issues when you are transparent. Maintaining quality staffing is also easier when you are open and honest in communications. Leaders of high-performing companies communicate well and regularly. Whether it be good news or not so good, open, authentic communications keep morale high among the organization's most important assets.
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Address poor performance
High-functioning organizations hire slowly and fire fast. They take corrective action to address issues that are causing poor performance quickly. Leadership takes advice and counsel from those impacted by the performance issues and utilizes that information to address the issue.
Employee appreciation
Companies that are high achieving understand the importance of respect and appreciation of employee contribution. Appreciation can be addressed individually or as a team. It can be in the form of a “thank you”, monetary bonuses, days or hours off or other types of rewards. Appreciation yields high morale since employees are more satisfied with their job and will even contribute more.
Achieving high performance and success is not accidental. It takes detailed planning and aggressive execution.
Contributed by Marc L. Goldberg, Certified Mentor, SCORE Cape Cod & the Islands. www.capecod.score.org, capecodscore@verizon.net, 508-775-4884
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod: Tips from SCORE about how to maximize business success
