Monthly Archives

October 2018

Oct 31
0
leaders

Why Should you Recruit Leaders?

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For a company to be successful it needs to have a team that is constantly improving. This is the ultimate goal of every company: to serve the market and create valuable results. But, in order to do so, the company must have a strong team of leaders. They are the ones who inspire other people to take action by showing them the way and taking the first steps towards a clear goal.

Be selective.
This means to be discerning when choosing certain individuals to be part of your team. When you think of adding someone to your team, get know that particular person as much as you can before doing so. The best piece of advice would be to start first with the people you already know. They are the people from your office you interact with on a daily basis. You know their skills and how they work. At the same time pay close attention to their skills and how well they use them.

Good leadership drives the vision
Best-selling author and keynote speaker, Jon Gordon, believes that people follow the leader first and the leader’s vision second. If the leader is not an individual who is followed by the people around him, then his vision won’t be taken into consideration by anyone. Another important aspect is to let your entire team know the vision of the company. If they truly believe in the company’s vision the will passionately work for it. Consequently, the growth of the company will be visible. As a company you need to identify a compelling goal and, in this way, your team will be focused to work well on the assigned tasks. However, having a number of goals will not determine the engagement of your team. Their motivation to work for the company is fueled by their belief in the company’s vision.

Ask, don’t tell
Having a team of leaders means asking them questions and not telling them what to do. If you ask questions they will share their own opinions. In this way, they will be encouraged to think proactively as their responses matter to them. Seeing that you care about their answers they will be more and more involved. Every time you meet with them make sure you ask them about their insights, fresh ideas and other suggestions they might have. Your team won’t be able to develop if you are the only one who does the talking.

Nothing under the rug
An important lesson every organization must learn is to confront the ugly. There will always be situations where employees make mistakes. The leader should understand that he can’t avoid difficult conversations. What he has to do is confront the issues as soon as possible to get things back on track as quickly as possible. It is very important how you talk with each individual and, remember, a good attitude is key. A true leader must pay attention to the attitude towards the people he is interacting with. American captain of manufacturing and magnate, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford used to say: Don’t find fault, find a remedy. When something wrong happens, the leader finds a way to make things work. Telling someone about a problem without giving a solution is redundant.

Be real with appreciation
Last but not least, appreciation means a lot to the employees. Knowing that someone truly appreciates the work you are doing will give you a boost to do even a better job. A leader should know that his responsibility is to motivate the individuals he is interacting with, develop themselves and aim higher. That is why, he must not use cheap compliments that do not mean a thing, but genuine appreciation.

Recruiting is key
At SourceMatch we are recruiting leaders for other companies, not just simple employees. We encourage you to do the same. In a great article in Forbes Magazine, Ken Sundhein expressed his opinion that, although recruiting leaders may be stressful, hard and time-consuming, it pays off in the long run. In his opinion, leaders are the ones who will enable a specific organization to reach its goals.

One thing you must understand is that true leaders get things done. We are not only referring to those people who work in top management roles but in every position. You need people who think and act like a true leader. Imagine what your company would look like if your teams would be formed by leaders.

People in management roles must know that a firm lives and dies by its ability to recruit leaders. If you are a business, one of your goals is to increase the level of productivity and motivate your employees to make quantifiable progress. You can’t do this unless you have a strong team of leaders who are able to act for the benefit of the company and with the good of the employees in mind. However, if you hire incompetent leaders, your clients won’t be satisfied and you won’t get any competitive advantage.

Thrive, don’t just survive
Businesses can only thrive in each business when leaders don’t just replicate other people’s ideas but also create. Each business needs to be innovative so that is why you need to have creative leaders.

These are some important ideas you might want to take into consideration if you want both your company and your team of leaders to succeed.

Contact us to learn more.

 

Oct 30
1

Recruitment Infographic 2018

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Are your recruiting efforts ineffective and inefficient? Have you gone through bad hires, money and time-consuming talent acquisition processes? Adapt your current hiring strategy based on the latest trends.

If you want to hire the right people, make sure their experience with your brand is a positive one.
Statistics show that job seekers consider the reputation of a company when applying to job offers. This means that offering good wages/packages won’t be enough to bring them to the table and especially if you want to attract the best people on the market.

Attract people that are talented and qualified by taking care of the employer branding.

 

 

 

Oct 17
6
workplace

Common Causes of Inefficiency at the Workplace

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There are books written about the subject, but we will only touch on 8 causes that we believe have the most negative impact on workplace efficiency:

Poor fit between the person, the position and the organization.

It’s no secret that companies make poor hiring decisions all the time. As an employer, you owe it to your employees to be transparent. Talk to them about how they feel about their job, how well they think they’re doing, and even be ready to work out a transition plan into a different position. It might be their strength aren’t aligned with their current role. There’s no reason why they or the organization should continue to pretend all is well.

A disconnect between cause and effect, work and outcome.

We tend to “give work” to our teams and expect them to understand the effect it will have on the organization down the line. However, when we tie outcome to work/input, it helps people understand the value of their work in the final product or service and give them a sense of urgency and importance. It can easily be explained by asking one simple question: “what would happen to the product/service if you stopped doing what you’re doing?”

Lack of clarity regarding how responsibility is assigned

Have you ever had to complain about something over to customer support and were passed on to the next “representative” for a solution, or told that “it’s out of our hands?” That’s what lack of clarity regarding responsibility looks like. In an organization where people have no idea who is responsible for what, or even worse, know they are responsible but they will pass it on anyhow, inefficiency reins!
Responsibility needs to be assigned to people in the organization to the extent of roles – i.e. if someone is responsible to deliver a service and misses a deadline, then that’s their responsibility entirely. If they miss it twice, then it’s the manager’s responsibility. If the manager doesn’t feel compelled to address the issue, neither will their report.
Assign responsibility and hold people accountable for the quality of their work!

Nepotism – it doesn’t matter how well I do if I’m not among the preferred

Unfortunately, there are still businesses that are run through nepotism. That is gross favoritism towards people who are close to a decision maker, someone of influence or importance in the company. It’s one of the common causes of inefficiency because people all of a sudden compare their work, results, and reward to the ones of those being favored.
Any organization that doesn’t quantify and award effort according to clear criteria will suffer from inefficiency at the workplace.

Absence of feedback

There’s a direct connection between inefficiency and lack (or poor) of feedback. The unwritten rule is that what is encouraged is repeated. Managers who say anything about how well or poorly someone on their team is doing are in fact encouraging similar results. Constructive feedback requires clarity through facts and willingness to make someone (as well as yourself) feel uncomfortable. If it’s provided within the mind-frame of genuine care for the growth, and professional development of people, it can improve their performance and engagement too!

Deficiency in communication

Perhaps the most widespread of the causes of workplace inefficiency is a lack or poor quality in communication. It will affect people’s capacity to quantify how well they are doing, understanding of whether their efforts have any impact, and to act in due time to have any positive impact. It also causes frustration with the people a company needs to care about most (disclosure: not nepotism!) – those who want to work, be in time, have good results and want their job to be rewarding.

Time management

Of course, we all have 24h, and regardless of how we manage it, that doesn’t change. Leaders and especially managers have the responsibility of setting the importance and priority of projects, tasks, etc. (see the Eisenhower Matrix). Efficiency comes down to achieving your objectives with the least amount of time. The better the time management, the more efficient we are, and the more engaged we are.

Wasteful processes

We all follow steps and procedures as they are laid out in our organization’s processes. These are tremendous tools that used in the right order and provided enough attention will create the desired outcomes. However, when processes are the result of operational inertia, they can have a highly detrimental effect on an organization’s efficiency. Worst case scenarios include bottlenecks, redundancy, and misalignment. In other words, inefficiency.

All of these have deep roots in leadership but ultimately can be traced back to an organization’s mission, culture, and values. If the only purpose of a business is to create profit, then one must integrate into that equation the means to sustain and increase efficiency in the workplace!