Advisory board of smaller firms
Smaller companies with no more than 20 employees typically have up to three advisers. An odd number is preferred in case the management is looking for a swing vote on key decisions.
Six tips for finding mentors who can take to the next level.
Whether a company has 10 employees or 1,000 having reliable group of advisers who can offer objective analysis and a few timely introductions can make all the difference.
Slightly different from a board of directors, an advisory board serves more of a mentorship role. These members have no fiduciary responsibility to the company or its stakeholders.
Young, growing companies stand to benefit most from advisory boards. An advisory board is good for that independent eye. It helps ask questions beyond just what is on the first line of the profit and loss statement.
And with business regulations growing complex and transactions more international, the number of companies with advisory boards has crept up.
Here are six tips for building a firm’s own indispensable advisory board.
Where to look: Start who you know and trust. Lawyers and bankers are no-brainer additions to any advisory board. Beyond the inner circle, the firm must search through local small business development center or industry association. A riskier option: customers and vendors who might have good connections in the industry. Just be careful what a firm’s CEO tell them about the advisory role; better yet, have them sign confidentiality agreements.
Three’s Not Always A Crowd: Smaller companies with no more than 20 employees typically have up to three advisers, according to the National Federation of Independent Business (An odd number is nice in case you’re looking for a swing vote on a key decision) Just don’t load up the kitchen with cooks: More than six or seven advisers is probably too many.
Perhaps the greatest asset an adviser lends is credibility if the firm can find a big name or two with clients, employees and investors. A firm’s management wants someone who validates a solution with a name to bank on. Advisers are people who open doors.
Smart advisers are good, but companies may also want a spread of perspectives and skills that complement their own. One person might be an expert on technological trends, while another might keep the firm honest about its financial projections.
Many mentors will sit on a start-up’s advisory board for no pay. After all, they want to network with other industry players and to build their own credibility. Still, about 20% of small businesses offer some kind of compensation, if just enough to cover traveling costs to and from meetings. The price tag climbs as companies grow. According to Compensation resources, almost 91% of firms with $50 million to $100 million in revenue pay their advisers; average compensation: $4,800 per year. Equity is an option, too, but the advice better be really good.
Compiled By: Amresh Anjan
Right attitude at workplace
Managers can be referred to as key persons of an organization. The ancient scriptures give us an idea of the right attitude and mental framework with which a king’s minister should work which is very much comparable to the present day manager of a modern organization.
A manager must desist from using harsh words to another and should not lose his cool if a customer or peer addresses the manager in some sarcastic or harsh tone. In short a manager must have capacity full of forbearance like the earth.
The first step towards having the right attitude is to define success in own terms. It is like sitting at a dining table and trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle. The first thing that one does while solving a jigsaw puzzle is look at the picture on the box. The same holds true for success. Success should never be measured by what others have or have not done; rather it is something very subjective. At workplace, it helps avoid inter-office comparisons, in terms of either job responsibilities or recognition. Right attitude is seeing what one can be best at, rather than seeing what others are better at.
Developing discipline is another requisite to foster a positive attitude. Today’s preparation determines tomorrow’s achievement. However, there is a price to pay for it. One will need to find what it takes to be the best time, practice, commitment, sacrifice. In this highly competitive scenario one requires discipline and commitment to meet targets and deadlines and facilitate prioritization of tasks and duties. Ones attitude assists him in maintaining the discipline he has developed.
The following three cases, along with their solutions, are given for the article readers’ information and understanding:
Case 1: The boss fires his subordinate.
Solution: There are times when even the best of bosses fire the subordinates. The reasons may or may not be known to them. As a subordinate, one should turn away from ‘another frightful’ exchange of words.
This means that, if the boss is expressing his anger, it necessarily need not be towards the subordinate. Secondly, the assistant must not react with thoughts like “I will leave the job” or “How can my boss do this after 20 years of dedication?” etc.
He has to just keep calm and let time pass. Then, with a cool head, analyze why he or she said what was said. It was probably a continuation of some previous event that affected his behavior. Or, it could be that the subordinate did not do something expected of him.
Once the reasons are understood, it will be easy to take action. If it was a mistake, then correct it and only then go back to the boss. Just go at a alter stage (“turn away from frightful” words).
Case II: Suppose the assistant gets angry
Solutions: Now this is a situation for anger management. Never aim frustration towards others – this is very essential. It requires practice, but it’s important to recognize that when one is losing temper and control self to remain cool.
Postpone every activity and thought till one attains calmness and quite. Remember, intellect may be a wonderful instrument, but it works only without disturbance.
Case III: Someone abuses an employee (other than boss)
Solution: It may not be easy but accomplished and learned persons advise, in such a case, one should be forgiving, cool and controlled self. There are bound to be times in every manager’s life when, despite doing one’s best for juniors and subordinates, they show an attitude of thanklessness. It’s very painful. At such times, a manager can recall the example of his parents, who have forgiven him during his childhood days umpteen number of times.
Just remain calm, forgive them and let life go on. Things return back to normal as all of us realize eventually that we need each other. Having the right attitude is crucial to the kind of image created about one self and this for a fact holds more importance at one’s work place. Adopting the right attitude is a step towards personal excellence which in turn helps us to add value to everything we do. Hence, it is time tested fact that ‘Attitude’ and ‘Success’ go hand in hand.
Compiled By: Amresh Anjan
Incentives for professional employees
Professional employees are those whose work involves the application of learned knowledge to the solution of the employer’s problems. The include lawyers, doctors, economists, and engineers.
Making incentive pay decisions for professional employees can be challenging. For one thing, firms usually pay professionals well anyway. For another, they’re already driven by the desire to produce high-caliber work and receive recognition from colleagues. In some cases, offering financial rewards to people like these may actually diminish their intrinsic motivation not add to it.
However, that’s not to say that professionals don’t want financial incentives, particularly those in high-demand jobs like software and systems developers for information technology (IT) firms. A survey of 300 IT departments found that 77% were paying bonuses and incentives, including stock options and profit sharing to IT professionals. Many are also offering benefits that are highly attractive to professionals, including better vacations, more flexible work hours, equipment for home offices, and improved pension plans. Texas Instruments began offering stock option grants to about a third of its engineers when it discovered it was losing about 15% of them to the competition. Several firms, including IBM and Motorola, award bonuses to employees whose work wins patents for the firms.
Recognition-Based Awards:
Studies show that recognition has a positive impact on performance, either alone or in conjunction with financial rewards. For example, in one study, combining financial rewards with non-financial ones like recognition produced a 30% performance improvement in service firms, almost twice the effect of using each reward alone. The Minnesota Department of natural Resources conducted one study of recognition. Respondents said they “highly valued” day-to-day recognition from supervisors, peers, and team members. More than two-thirds said it was important to believe that others appreciated their work.
Employers are therefore increasingly using performance-based recognition programs today. According to one survey, 78% of CEOs and 58% of HR Vice Presidents said their firms were using performance recognition programs. Dallas-based Texas Instruments, for instance offers bonuses as well as non-financial recognition including personalized plaques, parties, movie tickets, golf lessons and team shirts and jackets. The number of individual Texas Instruments employees recognized in this way jumped by 400% in one recent year, from 21,970 to 84,260. At Metro Motors, California the name of the employee of the month goes up on the electronic billboard over the dealership. Managers at American Skandia, which provides insurance and financial planning products and services, regularly evaluate their customer service reps based in specific standards. Those who exceed those standards receive a plaque, a $500 check their photo and story on the form’s internal Web sites, and a dinner for them and their teams.
Online Award Programs:
If there’s a downside to recognition programs, it’s that they’re expensive to administer. For examples, many firms run anniversary awards programs to recognize employees on significant dates like their fifth year with the company. The HR department usually has to choose the merchandise, create the rewards catalog, print and mail the catalog, and monitor everyone’s anniversary date and make sure the employees actually gets his or her award. This can be very time-consuming.
Compiled By: Amresh Anjan
Focusing on work
A person who has work experience knows how much concentration skills matter while one is working. Here are some tips to develop better concentration while one is working or on the job:
Concentrate on one thing at a time without diverting the attention on some other tasks until the first one is completed. It’s always good to do one thing at a time rather than doing 10 different things. Multi-tasking will distract the mind. If one is doing some important work sitting in the office, he must stop thinking about what’s happening around, rather focus on the details of the job at hand. Don’t let the attention wander to other things during this time.
It doesn’t mater how menial the job is, as long as the employee is doing it well. What’s most important is that one must be serious about whatever is assigned to him by his superior. We take a lot of things for grated. To develop focus and concentration try to look at tasks that are being done everyday as if one is doing them for the first or the last time. This will encourage the individual to observe details, which he may have missed before, thus improving his observation and concentration.
If there’s something that’s bothering while one is working, the best way to get that thing out of his head is by writing it down on a piece of paper. This is one way that really works in overcoming the problem that an employee is facing of missing out smaller tasks while completing the bigger and important ones.
An individual can decide before starting the work how he would like to reward himself when he finishes the job well in time and as stipulated by the boss. The reward can be anything that makes him happy and relaxed – like having favorite food, going out for a walk, meeting his best friend etc. It doesn’t have to be something big, any activity that gives pleasure and takes mind off work for some time will do. This system of rewarding really works. This will be like a self incentive for self motivation.
Before one starts doing any work, he must be clear in his mind as to what he wants to accomplish. Think of how to plan to go about it? Allocate appropriate time to that particular task for finishing it as required. Be as specific as possible and move on to some other task only after completing the one which is already on hand.
Interruptions from emails, text messages and phone calls eat up more than a quarter of working day a research study has revealed.
Other disturbing factors are the constant stream of queries from work colleagues, friends and families which take up more than two hours. There seems little point in knuckling down to tackle projects. The working day is interrupted every three minutes, ensuring a quarter of tasks are put off until the next day.
Don’t move unnecessarily without a purpose as this can waste ones precious time and the tasks on hand will get delayed for no apparent reasons. Restless people can never sit at one place. People who have short attention spans are usually restless people. If one watches them one will notice them making a lot of unnecessary movements like shaking hands and legs while sitting talking etc. While those people who have good concentration are usually calm. They sit and stand still without any unnecessary movements. This helps to preserve ones valuable energy and improve concentration at work.
Compiled By: Amresh Anjan
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