Have you ever been thrown under a bus by a boss or colleague?

I recently answered a question posed on LinkedIn about whether you had ever been thrown under a bus by a boss or colleague, interesting question that I thought I would explore here.

In my career, I have been "thrown under a bus" by a number of bosses and colleagues, for various reasons. Some have been confident in my skills and experience and wanted to see how I would handle myself when challenged to leave my comfort zone, and sadly others have wanted to see me fail for no other reason than I was viewed as a threat.

In all instances (sometimes there was no choice) I have taken the challenge and viewed it as an opportunity to stretch myself and learn new skills. I have not always achieved to my own personal standards of success but have never "failed" as the experience has always given me something to take forward to the next opportunity.

For those colleagues who were inspired by what they saw as guaranteed failure I have had the satisfaction of being able to move forward in my career, developing a reputation as someone who is not afraid of adversity, someone who may not know everything but can work out how to find the answers, someone who achieves results.

I would actually recommend that occassionally we choose to throw ourselves under the bus for no other reason than to take away the safety net and force ourselves to think outside the box. Adversity builds character - when we have to stretch ourselves and search deep inside we can achieve amazing things, sending us forward with renewed confidence. Life, especially your career, should be about continual learning, and fear can be a brilliant motivator!

Reclaim hours as a business owner

Many business owners spend so much time working in the business that the long term viability of the business suffers, they remain hands on for far too long. The first way a business owner can reclaim time to allow them to focus on managing and growing the business is to hire someone with the right experience and delegate, this is often a hard thing to do as many owners struggle to "let go".

An alternative is to formulate standard operating procedures (SOP's). That is to:

• work out how a job needs to be done
• write down the process (flow charting is a useful tool)
• train someone to use process
• measure results

The key point here is to measure the results. With the right operational and measurement techniques and systems in place a business owner has no need to micro manage and can direct their attention to strategies to ensure growth, or to those areas that do not produce the expected results.

Having standard systems in place also means that no-one has to play the blame game. If something goes wrong the first question to ask is "Was the system followed?". There are several possible answers and scenario's:

• If the answer is no, was it because there was no system for that situation, if so you have an improvement opportunity to create a standard. If the answer was just the employee did not want to follow the system they can be informed that employment is contingent on following the standards. If the employee was not aware of the standard then again there is an improvement opportunity through staff training.
• If the answer is yes then the system needs to be reviewed for appropriateness, relevance and usability, another improvement opportunity.

Businesses who are not looking for ways to be continually improving their product, service or processes are limiting their success.

Top 7 Critical Success Factors for Business - Final Part

Last but not least in this 7 part series in the critical success factors for business is an area where many businesses make many mistakes.

1. Plan
2. Competitive velocity
3. Customer satisfaction
4. Network
5. Technology
6. Culture
7. Global thinking

Technology has shrunk the business world. Businesses of all sizes can now have access to worldwide markets, allowing them to share information, technology and products.

Keeping abreast of global trends can lead to new channel opportunities or ways to compete.

The vast majority of businesses going overseas fail within the first year after spending a lot of money on travel, consultants, market research, trade shows, giving out samples and entertaining potential clients.

The key reason for failure is the inability to understand, accept and fit it into a foreign culture.

Want to expand globally without the mistakes, Ivy Business Consulting can offer expert advice, having had experience in operating global businesses. We can also assist with the preparation and lodgement of grant applications for export marketing funding.

Top 7 Critical Success Factors for Business - Part 6

For the second to last week of the series I talk about a subject that many managers wish they could ignore and many have no idea how to manage or change it.

1. Plan
2. Competitive velocity
3. Customer satisfaction
4. Network
5. Technology
6. Culture
7. Global thinking

Business leaders must create environments that communicate consistently their passion, goals and mission to every individual employee. Nurturing a sense of ownership among your staff is key to attracting and retaining the most talented and qualified people.

Empower staff to innovate and be held accountable and most individuals will focus their strengths for the benefit of the business.

In need of a mentor or motivator? Contact me via www.ivybusinessconsulting.com.au or by return comment.

Top 7 Critical Success Factors for Business - Part 5

Week 5 of the series in discussing the Top 7 Critical Success Factors for Business brings us to a subject that scares many people due to the pace of its change and the need to constantly keep up to date.

1. Plan
2. Competitive velocity
3. Customer satisfaction
4. Network
5. Technology
6. Culture
7. Global thinking

The right use of technology can not only reduce manpower needs and operational costs but also increase efficiencies and open channels to new markets, all directly affecting your bottom line. The danger is adopting technology for technology's sake, care must be taken to identify and only implement that technology that is needed to support your business and its growth.

As part of the technology consideration the mix of Online vs Offline must determined.

Many facets of business operations can now be conducted both on and off line - e-commerce, business development, sales, customer service, marketing and public relations - you must find the right balance between online and offline that is right for your individual business and budget.

Whatever the mix though, consistency of message must always be maintained.

Top 7 Critical Success Factors for Business - Part 4

Week 4 in my series of the Top 7 critical success factors for business brings us to a discussion of how we cannot go it alone.

1. Plan
2. Competitive velocity
3. Customer satisfaction
4. Network
5. Technology
6. Culture
   
7. Global thinking

No one can be all things to all people, so use the skills and resources of others to open and unlock growth opportunities and provide support outside of your core business.

Analyse and determine what capabilities (usually non-core) that could probably be provided more efficiently or effectively through strategic alliances in which each alliance partner realises a benefit from working together.

There are many virtual resources that can be tapped into that in years past would have necessitated capital and or human outlay.

Networking requires thinking outside the box and building strong relationships, it does not happen overnight but persistence can reap huge rewards.

Top 7 Critical Success Factors for Business - Part 3

For week 3 in my series of the Top 7 Critical Success Factors I discuss the thing that many businesses place too little importance on and is my pet subject.

1. Plan
2. Competitive velocity
3. Customer satisfaction
4. Network
5. Technology
6. Culture
7. Global thinking

Sub standard customer service not only alienates the immediate customer but can damage the reputation and brand of the organisation, leading to additional customer loss and an inability to attract new customers.

Surveys suggest that a discontented customer tells an estimated 10 people about their experience while a happy customer tells only one.

The more information you have about your customers the better you can service and anticipate their needs. You must have mechanisms in place that gathers customer information to allow personalised marketing and service and the future needs of your customer to be anticipated.

There is also the internal customers to consider - the humble employee, a type of customer that is quite often left feeling very dissatisfied at great cost to the business.

Remember a satisfied customer is a repeat customer!