March brings a fresh perspective and new possibilities for organizations looking to enhance their strategies as spring emerges. This issue of Business in Action focuses on helping you revitalize your approach, sharing ideas for cultivating a high-performance culture that empowers employees, connecting with mentors to strengthen your leadership, prioritizing customer feedback of your brand, and starting your day with focus and productivity.
First, look internal to assess how you can fine-tune the workplace environment for improved outcomes. The enclosed article offers tips for prioritizing such a high-performance culture, where employees feel supported and valued. When everyone is united under a shared mission and encouraged to contribute their ideas, the potential for exceptional results increases significantly.
If you're looking to grow as a leader, pursuing mentorship is one of the best avenues you can take. Inside, an SBA representative lends his best advice for connecting with fellow professionals and maximizing all they have to offer, enabling you to gain valuable insight into honing your skills and growing your business.
In today’s digital age, online reviews can both significantly elevate a brand’s reputation and influence its customers’ purchasing decisions. Learning to leverage them allows you to take better control over your narrative and enhance your marketing strategies so you can build greater trust with potential clients—see how in the included guide.
Daily habits play a vital role in professional success, and one in particular can dramatically enhance focus and productivity: waking up early. The practice allows you to start your days with intention, providing extra time for planning, reflection, and personal development. Discover how to make this simple adjustment, and you may just boost your capacity to tackle challenges.
Here's to a season of growth and opportunity. As always, it’s a pleasure to send you this magazine.
Your employees are your company’s greatest asset, but getting the most out of them requires more than just establishing policies and procedures for them to follow. To foster effective teamwork that delivers increased results, you must create a high-performance company culture: one specifically designed to support your team members and ensure that they feel empowered, valued, and motivated to excel.
While there are many ways you can achieve this, it’s not something that can be done in a day—it will require devoting continuous effort and resources on your part. But if you can stick to it, you’ll be rewarded with a more engaged and loyal workforce and, most likely, a stronger bottom line.
Just as in sports, no team can achieve business success unless every person on it is committed to working toward the same goal. For that to happen, though, they need to have full comprehension of what that goal is. Every company shares the same general mission of steady growth and increased revenue, but what is the specific “why” of yours? What need are you intending to fill through your products and services? What concrete targets are you aiming for this year, in the next three years, and in the next five?
Once you hammer out your organization’s mission in detail, communicate it to all your employees to get them on board. Make sure to clearly outline what role each of them plays in it, from sales to marketing to product development, and encourage them to share their professional ideas openly, regularly soliciting their feedback through one-on-one meetings, anonymous surveys, and other methods. By showing that you value their input, your team will be more apt to feel like vital elements of your company, leading to increased engagement, productivity, and output overall.
Of course, a team is only as strong as the individuals that form it. From the top down, look for ways to unlock the growth potential of every person in your organization so they can perform their best both now and long into the future.
Leadership
Strengthening your company’s leaders is instrumental to cultivating a high-performance culture. In fact, a study by the Arbinger Institute revealed that 52 percent of the business leaders who responded consider leadership development the most impactful strategy for improving morale. As the report states, an effective leader “promotes employee collaboration, trust, engagement, and feelings of eagerness to improve.” And various other research shows the resulting upsides to be many—higher productivity, increased revenue, and reduced turnover, which lessens the cost of recruiting new workers.
Invest in ongoing management training to help your company’s managers and supervisors hone their leadership styles, develop communication and conflict resolution skills, and learn how to delegate authority, entrusting their employees with autonomy while setting clear expectations. Make sure to also include yourself in this—as the top dog, your behaviors and attitudes set the tone for the entire organization. Prioritizing your own continuing development can equip you with the tools and strategies to guide your leaders effectively, build strong relationships with them and lower-level employees alike, and navigate any interpersonal challenges that arise. Even more, committing to your self-improvement can set a positive example, inspiring everyone to eschew complacency and instead always pursue greater progress.
Your employees
Just as important as supporting your leaders is demonstrating a strong commitment to employee growth in general. This will not only ensure that your workforce continues to have the skills they need to perform at a high level but also help them feel valued as individuals rather than just cogs in the machine. One way to do this is by offering regular skill-building opportunities, such as workshops, conferences, and online courses, that they can take advantage of if they wish. Or consider implementing a personalized learning plan approach, in which managers work with individuals to tailor their development to their specific goals. This will allow them to pursue their personal career aspirations while contributing to your company’s overall mission and objectives.
Another key to fostering a high-performance culture is regularly engaging in recognition. Multiple studies over the years have found that nearly half of respondents who recently left a job did so due to feeling unappreciated, showing this to be an ongoing issue. And one by Bonusly revealed that 65 percent of employees would put in more effort if they were acknowledged for their contributions. So while some leaders may feel compensation should be a proper motivator, there’s clearly merit to finding ways to effectively express gratitude. You could institute a peer recognition program, provide small gifts for project wrap-ups, or even celebrate milestones like birthdays and work anniversaries. These simple gestures can go a long way toward boosting morale, fostering a sense of belonging, and ultimately enhancing employee performance.
The better coworkers get along, the more effectively they’ll work together, making it worth providing avenues for strengthening these relationships. This may mean going beyond traditional office outings to organize team-building activities that promote collaboration and problem-solving through shared experiences. For instance, you could encourage participation in a company-wide volunteer day or local cleanup initiative. These goodwill activities can help break down barriers, build trust, and create lasting bonds among employees, allowing them to become a more solidified unit that produces even greater outcomes.
Crafting a people-centric, high-performance culture can be just what you need to unlock your company’s potential. Start implementing these strategies today, and you may just see its success soar before long.
TAKE ACTION:
Closely examine your team to determine what types of training you could provide to help boost performance and morale.
If you’re eager to develop your professional prowess, there is unmistakable value in seeking wisdom from thought leaders and industry figureheads. However, establishing such connections and subsequently taking advantage of all they have to offer may seem like a challenging undertaking. For expert insight, look to a former small business owner who has made a career out of instructing others: David Elizondo, district director for the US Small Business Association, San Antonio district. Discover his top advice for gaining maximum returns from other successful individuals so you can unleash your full leadership potential.
“You may have ambitions to grow, but what if you never convey that to someone else? You have to effectively communicate that there are opportunities on the horizon you want to pursue. Otherwise, leaders above you will think you’re happy taking marching orders.”
While Elizondo’s first bit of wisdom is more targeted at employees, his broader point about taking initiative applies to leaders as well. Many people are willing to lend some professional guidance to others in their field, but they generally won’t do so without impetus. Consider who you could reach out to for potential mentorship opportunities—even if just to request a quick discussion over coffee. You may find that they are happy to connect with you and bend your ear about all sorts of invaluable topics.
“I encourage leaders to converse and cross-promote with as many small business owners as possible, including ones that seem like direct competitors. Here’s a real-world example of successful networking: A brewery owner in a small Texas town started collaborating with another brewery a short distance away. The next thing you know, they’re arranging and attending festivals alongside other microbreweries—a win-win scenario for both of them.”
Just about every small business owner understands the importance of networking, but not enough prioritize pursuing these lucrative opportunities. Elizondo advises utilizing chambers of commerce and incubators, excellent sources for making initial connections with fellows in your industry. Doing so, he states, offers virtually endless benefits, including brainstorming promotional ideas and materializing solutions to economic challenges.
“Starting a conversation with a potential mentor is as simple as this example: ‘Hi, my name is David, and I run a small trucking company in San Antonio, Texas. I’ve been in business for five years now. I’ve heard that you have a large-scale operation. How did you get started, and what are some pitfalls you could share with me that I should avoid?'”
Whether you’re attending a conference or simply sending social media messages to leaders who inspire you, Elizondo recommends using this template: introduce yourself and your work, acknowledge your potential mentor’s success, and then request the chance to gain wisdom from them. He also strongly suggests researching the attendees of networking events before you arrive so you know who may be a worthwhile mentor and how their business acumen could benefit you. And, of course, don’t forget your business cards.
“As an SBA representative, some of the most common questions I hear from small business owners include ‘How can I expand operations?’ and ‘What can I do to increase revenue?’ I frequently direct these individuals to seek out resources like the SBA’s online training tutorials.”
Mentorship doesn’t always have to involve shadowing a professional in person. As Elizondo illustrates, some of the greatest resources you can leverage for refining your business skills may be freely available on the internet. Consider visiting education centers such as the SBA Learning Platform for targeted lessons on operating and growing a business or enrolling in courses for developing your professional know-how.
“Mentorship is often about providing insight from an outside perspective. A mentor can review a small business owner’s model, plan, and financials, then identify areas they may be overlooking or failing to consider.”
Though many people associate mentorship with gaining abstract business inspiration and platitudes, you can also seek more practical guidance that digs into your daily operations. Elizondo notes that the SBA’s resource partner network frequently connects business leaders with experts in a specific area of practice, such as accounting. These mentors will work one-on-one with them on the details to help advance their organizations in more concrete ways.
“We are ever evolving. It’s important to keep learning on a weekly and daily basis. Just as the market is always shifting, a small business owner should remain adaptable and resilient against industry changes.”
To be a good mentee, you need to devote yourself to honing a wide range of business skills, including the ability to brainstorm solutions to industry challenges. Elizondo recommends that every ambitious professional reads The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for guidance on individual development, pointing directly to the seventh habit, Sharpening the Saw, for its framework for pursuing self-renewal.
“I always advocate for letting your team members come to you to share their thoughts and ideas. And when an individual has insights that suit your business model, ask yourself, ‘How can I assist this person to be successful in what they’re trying to accomplish as well?'”
As you focus on your own growth, be sure not to overlook a hidden source of value: innovation from your team members. With their inside knowledge of both your leadership style and your business’s processes, they can be an equally lucrative resource to help you hone each. To capitalize on this, Elizondo advises that leaders open channels for their employees to communicate their suggestions or ideas—these may become the seeds of groundbreaking strategies.
Then, in turn, find ways to reward those who demonstrate eagerness to help the company grow, positioning them to execute their concepts. You may just find that one of the greatest ways to enhance your leadership skills is learning to pull up teammates behind you on the ladder toward success.
No matter your specific aims, continue to seek guidance from available resources, including the SBA and trailblazers within your community. When you unlock the potential of mentorship, you can return to your desk each day with a more powerful leadership mindset, equipped with greater professional abilities for supercharging your organization’s growth opportunities.
TAKE ACTION:
List five goals for your small business, then consider which mentorship resources could help you achieve these aims.
Imagine you’re shopping online for a new coffee maker. You search on different platforms like Google, Amazon, and even Facebook and narrow it down to two options: an unrated one with all the ideal bells and whistles and one that’s missing some of your desired features but has thousands of four-star or higher reviews. Buoyed by the plethora of positive ratings, you decide to go with the latter, feeling confident you’re getting an overall quality machine.
The truth is, virtually everybody does this—including for the products or services your business sells. In fact, a PowerReviews survey indicates that 93 percent of consumers consider reviews a top factor in whether or not they make a purchase, making them absolutely essential to your business’s growth, reputation, sales, and long-term success. But what makes such ratings so valuable, and how can you take advantage of this element of the purchasing journey?
In the predigital age, customer feedback was generally limited to face-to-face meetings, letters, and printed articles. An angry reviewer might have ranted in a local newspaper, or a happy buyer could have told a few friends about their experience. But these kinds of comments ultimately had limited scope and reach, allowing businesses to take more control over their brand narratives.
Today, though, the internet and social media have put greater power in the hands of consumers, making it easy for them to share their positive or negative experiences with the click of a button. And such feedback not only carries enormous weight with people’s buying decisions but can also greatly affect a company’s image. A slew of positive ratings may help build credibility and inspire confidence in your brand, while a series of poor reviews could cause customers to flock to competitors—even if your product is better. If you want to garner more of the former and avoid the latter, you need to get proactive with strategies meant to capitalize on this essential asset.
While you ultimately can’t control who leaves a review or what they say, there are still various ways you can encourage customers to share their positive experiences. For instance, try gamifying the process, looking to the success of websites like Yelp—its users can gain badges and rewards for leaving feedback, which works to encourage community interaction and recommendations. Likewise, you can design contests or social media campaigns that reward users for posting reviews. Other ideas would be to give away a gift card for each review left within a certain time period or establish a points system for when your customers purchase a product and leave a star rating.
With their massive popularity, social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok offer a means to greatly boost your company’s image through alliances with influencers. Reach out to those who align with your branding to discuss ways you could collaborate, such as by sending products for them to share through unboxing videos or letting them do a “takeover” of your accounts. These bloggers can get in front of a massive number of consumers that traditional feedback channels could likely never reach, helping inspire more people to trust your company and try your offerings for themselves.
Building a reputation of dependability and quality is as much about crafting a narrative that reflects your commitment to consumer satisfaction as it is about earning five-star ratings. A Google study found that businesses that respond to reviews of any kind are 1.7 times more likely to be perceived as trustworthy and customer focused. To start, this means addressing negative remarks head-on. Leave an empathetic response that demonstrates you value the poster’s opinions and intend to solve their pain point, and you may just turn them around on your company. Even better, other buyers will see your engagement and appreciate your accountability, leading them to think of your company as one worth patronizing.
While negative reviews are perhaps the most important to respond to, don’t neglect positive comments. Recognize and thank customers for their praise and gratitude, and acknowledge any good ideas for improvement they offer. By making it a conversation and showing that you’re noticing them, you can help foster stronger, lasting relationships to ensure that they become loyal patrons who continually return to make more purchases.
If you haven’t yet, it’s time to start utilizing your excellent ratings as a free marketing tool. Sort through reviews and testimonials from satisfied buyers to find the ones that are especially effusive or highlight specific products or services, then include quotes from them on your website, social media, and email marketing. Such endorsements act as social proof, which then stresses the quality of your offerings to potential new customers.
Customer reviews have become remarkably influential in today’s modern business world, shaping both consumer decisions and brand images. Companies who actively manage theirs—that is, engage with customers, capitalize on positive feedback, and grow based on criticism—are better destined to succeed in an increasingly competitive virtual environment.
TAKE ACTION:
Look over current reviews of your company left on platforms like Yelp and Google, and craft smart, professional responses to as many as you can, both positive and negative.
Every entrepreneur understands the value of routines. With all the tasks, decisions, and meetings they have to juggle, it’s essential to implement certain structures and habits that can help them get in the right mindset and streamline their days. But while I’ve come across many worth adopting over my career, there’s one particular daily routine that I’ve found to dramatically improve not just my business but also my mental and physical health, overall focus, and productivity—rising early.
In a bid to get a good jump start on my day, I get up every morning at 4:30 a.m., and I’m not alone in this practice; entrepreneurs like Tim Cook, Richard Branson, Ursula Burns, Kara Goldin, and Jack Dorsey swear by it to improve their personal and professional lives. It may seem like an insignificant change, but waking up early can have a profound impact on your ability to be the leader your organization needs to continually drive it forward.
First and foremost, routines of any kind provide numerous benefits, including increased efficiency and minimized stress. They do this primarily by reducing the number of decisions you need to make, whether you’re following a meal plan, exercise regimen, or structured work schedule. Though the decisions these routines negate are relatively simple, they can still contribute to decision fatigue, or “the idea that after making many decisions, your ability to make more and more decisions over the course of a day becomes worse,” as defined by psychiatrist Dr. Lisa MacLean for an article from the AMA. By taking them off your plate, you can relieve yourself of at least some mental burden, allowing you to dedicate greater brainpower to more important endeavors.
Speaking specifically to the habit of rising early, this routine allows you extra time to ease into your day before the demands of work and family hijack your attention. This helps you naturally shake off sleep inertia, the temporary disorientation that lingers for about thirty to sixty minutes after waking, enabling you to be more focused and alert by the beginning of your workday. Further, you have more hours to eat breakfast, exercise, set your schedule, and do whatever else you need to prepare without feeling rushed—something that may only increase your stress and decrease your motivation.
The resulting effects on your performance at work can be massive. An article published by Washington State University summarizing research on the habits of successful businesspeople notes that those who wake up early are more proactive, better planners, and anticipate problems better than their late-sleeping counterparts. And when you’re at the top of your game day in and day out, there’s no limit to what you—and, subsequently, your team—can achieve.
Keep in mind, however, that these benefits are only available when you change your bedtime accordingly. If you’re giving up hours of sleep in order to rise early, you’ll likely experience the opposite effects: a lack of energy, increased irritability, brain fog, and forgetfulness. For better health and optimal performance in any area of life, you should aim to get the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep every night, shifting that number higher or lower based on your body’s specific needs. For some, that may mean an early-morning habit isn’t feasible, such as if you work in an industry with late nights or feel at your most productive in the waning hours of the day. But if you ultimately decide to give this habit a shot, do so with care, being mindful to always prioritize quality sleep to ensure maximize returns.
If you aren’t accustomed to waking early, the adjustment can certainly be a challenge. The good news is that everyone can become a “morning person” with the right discipline and strategies. To start, avoid trying to do it all at once—tweak your current bedtime and rising time in fifteen- or thirty-minute increments until you reach your new sleep schedule. In addition, follow the lead of Robin Sharma, author of The 5AM Club. In an interview with Forbes, he outlines five keys to adopting the routine with success.
Give it some time
It can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months to form a new habit, so fortify your resolve and patience. Your brain will need time to adapt to the behavior, forming and organizing new neural pathways, until it becomes easier and automatic.
Get support
It may sound odd, but Sharma suggests joining a group that has already mastered the habit of rising early. (And, yes, they do exist!) You can also make the change with friends and family, ideally ones who live with you. Either option can help provide accountability and support to keep you motivated as you work toward your new sleep routine.
Track your accomplishments
In a similar vein, Sharma advises keeping a daily checklist of what you want to accomplish, with getting up at a predetermined time being the first item on it—wake up, get up, and check the box. The goal is to string together consecutive successes, which will help reassure and inspire you to continue.
Give yourself grace
You’re not going to be perfect, so prepare to be OK with that. There may be days when you get up later than planned, but it doesn’t mean you’ve failed. As long as your overall progress is positive, you’re heading in the right direction.
Use a delayed clock
Sharma keeps an old-fashioned analog clock he sets ahead so that when he wakes up, he can be pleased to realize he’s got more time than he thought. Tricking your brain like this, especially when you’re first adjusting, can help make your new habit permanent.
Rising early is a simple but powerful routine that can benefit any entrepreneur. By giving yourself the gift of time, you can gain the ability to do whatever you need to prepare for the day ahead, in turn improving your productivity and overall performance. Start making this small change today, and you may soon see a positive transformation in your business and your life.
TAKE ACTION:
Assess your current daily schedule to assess whether rising early could benefit your focus and productivity, and, if so, take steps to begin adopting the routine.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Luke Acree is an authority on leadership, a lead-generation specialist, and a referral expert who has helped more than 30,000 entrepreneurs and small businesses grow their companies. He hosts Stay Paid, a sales and marketing podcast, and has been featured in Entrepreneur, Forbes, and Foundr.com.
