Accountants, Insurance Agents, and Financial Planners are for the most part independent agents who measure success by their own personal achievements. They face issues in the areas of sales, market planning, leadership and time management. Shown below and linked to our blog are a number of projects and programs which are specific to their success.
- Successful HiringSuccessful Hiring In our over 20 years of business coaching with both small businesses and nonprofits one of the main issues is hiring. So often the manager or owner involved makes a bad hiring decision. As a business coach we hope to make the hiring decision one which produces excellent employees in the majority of cases. We recommend a hiring process with a number of steps that provides improved results. Here is an outline of those steps. The Job Specification A Job Specification ...Read more
- Building Great LeadersBusinesses and Organizations Need Great Leaders As business coaches, one of our most important roles is the development of great leaders. Whether your role is company president, nonprofit executive director, department head, entrepreneur or even parent, leadership is key to your success. We defined leadership success as the continual achievement of your own predetermined goals stabilized by balance and purified by belief. Bruce Avolio author of Leadership Development in Balance: Made/Born states, Let us be clear, even if you are predisposed to ...Read more
- Don’t Make a Bad HireBetter Hiring As our businesses and organizations return to a pre-virus status, our owners and managers are currently in a hiring mode. Because of the lack of applicants, one may be overly anxious to hire the first available candidate. Let us consider the cost and time wasted in hiring the wrong person and consider a better methodical approach. Consider the time and cost associated with finding and evaluating candidates. There are first the media costs, whether you use a publication, a website ...Read more
- Leadership During a CrisisResilient Leadership You started the year with great plans and expectations, but sometime during the month of March, the work seemed to end. It was if your customers went into hiding and your telephone stopped ringing. If you are a retail business or retail store, you had to shut down. You had to layoff much of the staff you had hired and trained over a period of months and years. You found yourself disheartened and in a state of crisis. Stephen Covey ...Read more
- Focus on the PlanStaying Focused So often we find that a business or a nonprofit organization has wandered into an area which might not be consistent with their Mission. They are spending time and energy addressing some idea that diverts them from the important issues which need to be addressed. Let me remind you that our business name is RLS Focused Solutions. One of the roles of a business coach is to remind the client not to lose their focus. Let’s consider an example. I ...Read more
- Trust at WorkTrust and Leadership I believe at the core of leadership is whether the leader is trusted by others. Would you be motivated to believe and follow a manager who you did not trust? How would the staff work to accomplish the plans and goals put forward by that leader or manager? Whether you are the owner of a business, the leader of a nonprofit, or a government official, leadership starts with Trust. This is true not only in leadership, but in all ...Read more
- New Year PlanA Time to Plan This is that time of year when we reflect on the events of the previous year and begin to plan for the current year. Think back over the last year and think what you learned from your failures and successes. We hope to be lifetime learners and understand that much of our education comes from our practical experience. Therefore, let’s build our future with what we learned for the past. In thinking back over 2019 ask yourself: What ...Read more
- Effective Strategies for Employee RetentionsEffective Retention Strategies There is ongoing discourse in all sectors (public, private, healthcare and non-profit) regarding the need for retaining talented employees. And there is consistent agreement that doing so can be more difficult and challenging than hiring them. The retention of good employees is a human resources strategy that contributes in many ways to the overall performance of an organization. Effective employee retention results in lower turnover and associated costs, increased customer and employee satisfaction, increased productivity, improved product quality, and ...Read more
- Delegation of ResponsibilityThe New Supervisor Susan is the owner of a profitable and growing service business. She has worked hard to grow the business, spent many hours away from family and friends. She has done most of the business management herself, dedicating only minor clerical tasks to others. Her strengths are in sales and marketing, but she is frustrated by being constantly pulled away to supervise the work crews and address customer complaints. The conclusion is that she must begin to delegate some ...Read more
- Business ProfitabilityManagement by the Financial Statement As we work with small and emerging businesses, one of the most rewarding milestones is when the business leader is able to read and evaluate the state of their business by reading and understanding their monthly financial statement. Most start-up business leaders manage their businesses by the balance in their checkbook. This is understandable since they must have the funds to pay employees, supplier and feed their family. As they grow, this is not enough to ...Read more