Valhalla Business Solutions - Business Management Consultants

Sales Management Consulting Specializing In... Sales and service Systems, Managing younger generations, Management protocols Coaching effectiveness

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Measuring Success (Setting Life Goals)

Below is a quick exercise to assist you in making the proper goals in your life.

Blank Piece of Paper
Fold the Paper in Half
On the left side of the paper write at the top "Accomplishments"
On the right side of the paper right down the things you want highlighted about you at your funeral

Note: the younger you are you may not have much to list, but I challenge you to dig deep and think about the milestone you are most proud of. Secondly of the accomplishments you mentioned, how many would you want spoken about at your funeral?

The goal of this exercise is to establish the things most important for you to accomplish in your life time?

Things to consider when you are through evaluating what you want to accomplish...

What did I do today to accomplish these goals?
What do I have planned tomorrow?
Are my goals realistic?
What is the predominant theme of my goals? (spiritual, family, career, monetary)
How close is the situation I am in today helping me achieve what is most important to me?

Life is short! If your situation is off course, change it tomorrow!

Labels: career, community outreach, conflict resolution, diversity, economy, education, effective manager, life goals, Saving money, small business, volunteering, work relationships

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 1:17 PM 0 comments

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Corporate Social Responsibility -- Diversity

Diversity

Board of Directors should match your communities
Establish a work environment conducive to...

Disabled employees
Women and minorities
Gay and Lesbian
Diversity of thought
Promotions

Work and life benefits

Products and Services
Benefit the economically disadvantaged
Quality of services

Employee Relations

Healthy and safe working environment
Retirement plans
Profit sharing
Internal non-political resource groups

Diversity as a priority must start from the top. It must be important to all senior management to be apart of a companies organizational structure and culture.

First, if you have a board of directors make a conscience effort to mirror the communities in which you are present. Not only does it make good business sense to have a cultural understanding of the communities you do business in, it is critical to establish a work environment conducive to those cultures.

In your Vision and Values take the time to make an organization that holds diversity at the very top. One of the best organizations I have seen has internal resource groups for disabled employees, women and minorities, gay and lesbian and so on. These internal resource groups recruit membership within the organization and become a nucleus for networking, skill enhancement and giving back to the community. Each of which should be a priority for any organization. These groups can influence benefits, recruiting efforts, community involvement and the quality of service you deliver to the diverse groups in your communities.

Labels: community, community outreach, corporate responsibility, corporations, diversity, internationa companies, Sales Coaching

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 11:10 AM 0 comments

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Economic Recessions -- Understand Your Competition

Review the following...

Pricing
Competitive services and conveniences
What they are doing well

services
processes
marketing
social networking

Community involvement

Its amazing how much your competition can help you, most people don't look at it that way. Too often I run into business owners that refuse to use another businesses great idea. As if it is an admission of inadequacy? I can only challenge you as a business owner or manager look around you and see who is doing it the best. Use it to innovate processes in your organization.

As the President of our organization, I have yet to refuse advice from experts in their respected areas. I solicit advice from experts in each of the bullet points above. Its critical to build a network that can add value to your organization. (we will discuss networking in a future blog)

The truth is if you as a business owner go to your competition as a customer you begin to understand more of how your customer views your business. Adding value to your customer is your number one priority, be humble and learn from those around you!!

Labels: Coaching Teams, community outreach, corporate responsibility, economic crisis, economy, management, Small Business CEO

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 2:07 PM 0 comments

Monday, February 23, 2009

Corporate Responsibility -- Community

Community

Internal volunteer program
Support for education needs within the community
Charitable Giving
Innovative community outreach

What can this look like in your organization?

An internal volunteer program has to be encouraged and supported by the CEO all the way through each team member. Valhalla for example requires each employee to volunteer eight hours each quarter. Valhalla does not require or put expectations on where or who they can volunteer for, it is the employees responsibility to decide on their own. However Valhalla partners with a number of non profits to make the volunteer opportunities easier for each employee to fulfill. As you can imagine if you have an organization of 100 employees, it translates to 3200 volunteer hours a year. For any organization that is a considerable amount of hours in the community. This type of outreach will be great team building exercises for your team.

Make your volunteer program effective by offering support for education needs within the community. What does this mean for your organization? This is a time to analyze what services you offer. How can these services be of use to help your surrounding communities become more educated. The benefit of this often is a healthier community, better choices for hire and more educated consumers for purchase. For example at Valhalla I spend my volunteer time in high schools educating kids on how to interview well, I also educate them on how I have gotten where I am by hard work and doing the right things for people.

Be innovative in your charitable giving, this does not have to be purely monetary. Often organizations will take time during the year to establish food drives, clothing donations and giving blood. These are simple things to do and can be annual strong holds in your organization. It also can be a great development tool for someone in your organization to demonstrate their leadership skills and further their career.

Lastly innovative community outreach, is another great way for your organization to take the lead in the community. Often an organization has a lot of resources to speer head such projects. Best practices I have seen are youth education programs, conferences educating seniors on preparing for retirement. I have seen lawyers review estates for free, banks educate on how to be fiscally fit and sports teams provide exercise guidance. These are simple things to do the right thing in your community.

Labels: community outreach, corporate charity, corporate responsibility, corporations, education needs, employees, internal volunteer program, management, Small Business CEO

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 12:59 PM 0 comments