Valhalla Business Solutions - Business Management Consultants

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

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Delegation

Identify tasks/projects to complete

· What can be delegated

· Choose the right person

· Delegate

Delegation is rarely used as effective as it could be. Often managers are perfectionists, they prefer to take work home or work late. They will override decisions made by their team frequently. Consequently, managers teams struggle when they are absent from the office. Their teams don’t take initiative or accountability for the operations of their department. These managers when absent from the office come back to large piles in their inbox, email, etc.

If you don’t delegate, you are not a good leader. Delegating to team members provides empowerment, development and accountability to the team. Anticipate and be comfortable with mistakes, your team will display much more initiative if they feel they can learn from their mistakes.

How?

· Identify the task to complete

o Analyze your job function. What are you evaluated on? When you write down the things you do daily, weekly and monthly. Which of these things can be done by your subordinates?

o Choose the right person. Contemplate your team’s talents and hard skills. Also consider their interests and career ambitions. What exposure will my team member get? How will this improve their skills?

· Delegate

o Request help. “Chris, I need your expertise on this.”

o Communicate why. “You have the best relationships with our marketing department and design team!”

o Seek acceptance. “Would you be willing to take on the preparation for the sales teams trade show in Denver next month?”

o Describe the details. “Here is what’s involved…”

o Affirm deadlines and standards. “Design, materials and travel arrangements need to be coordinated by the Friday the 22^nd at 11:00 a.m. Please have final complete for me to review on the Wednesday the 20^th at 11am as well.”

o Discuss check in points. “This month let’s start your one on one 10 minutes early to review your progress on this specific project. How does that sound?”

o Acknowledge you are a resource. “What do you think you need from me on this? This is your show, but if you need further guidance don't hesitate to ask and I will direct you the right resource or show you how to complete.”

Labels: calendar management, career, Coaching Teams, effective manager, employees, feedback, Restaurant Management, Sales Coaching, Small Business CEO, Small Business developing your team members

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

Monday, March 1, 2010

Another Email? (Managing Email in a Corporate Environment)

· Use the technology of your email client

o Create Rules and Folders

o Utilize Junk Mail Folder

o Turn off auto preview and email notification

o Use signature function

· Change your email behavior

o Schedule specific time during the day to complete email

o Don’t take blackberry to meetings

o Utilize subject line effectively

o Keep emails short

Unfortunately today email has become the most used form of communication. Email is abused endlessly!! Emails from two cubes over, countless distribution lists, C.C.’s and even interoffice humor. I love hearing the term “urgent email” which in all senses of the phrase is an oxymoron. Of all the forms of communication it is the least effective form of communication behind face to face, phone and voicemail. Email is a handicap to the most talented people, it allows people who are less effective with oral communication to communicate on the same playing field. It also mistakenly becomes a to do list. Hundreds of emails will be saved as the next thing that must be done. Email is communication only! Not a to do list! Use something else to set your priorities.

I speak with endless managers who say their day is consumed by email. They check during meetings, while they have employees in their office, etc. Of course these managers are also sending out just as many. For every email they send, multiple come back. Consequently the less you send, the less you get!! How can you accomplish this?

Use the technology of your email client

Create rules and folders- First and foremost decide on categories to place your email, boss, peers, team, urgent, C.C.’s, customers and project headers. When emails come in, use your rules to forward these messages to the proper folders. It is easy to assume reviewing emails from your boss would be most important followed by your team and so on. C.C.’s being the least of importance. If you are working on a particular important project have a folder that contains the emails that reference the project.

Utilize Junk Mail Folder- How often do you find yourself on distribution lists that don’t pertain to you, etc. Add them to your junk mail folder.

Turn off Auto Preview and Email Notification- This is self explanatory, but is very distracting while completing other work, meeting with employees, peers and so on. Removing this will keep priorities in line with your to do list. Nothing is ruder than having someone in your office and you check your email notification.

Use the Signature Function- Include your phone number. Give the person you are emailing the opportunity to call you back!!

Change Your Email Behavior

Schedule Specific Time to Complete Email- Email is important so take the time to manage it. Peace of mind comes when time is set aside to complete it. Three times a day should be sufficient. Schedule sometime in the morning, before lunch and before you leave for the day.

Don’t Take Your Blackberry to Meetings- this will be unnecessary to bring after time is scheduled to check email. Remember to all execs, managers and employees. We can all see you checking your email under the table.

Use Subject Line Effectively- Put action items in the subject line. Put “Do Not Respond” when no response is required. Use this as much as possible. Use “Action Required” when your team needs to respond in action to the email. Here are some other examples “Call me,” “Please respond,” “Due by Date,” just to name a few.

Keep Emails Short- Your emails are not read if they are long. Keep them four paragraphs or less. Secondly put the bottom line first! This means tell the story backwards, always tell the ending followed by the details.

Labels: banking, big three, calendar management, career, Coaching Teams, corporations, development, effective manager, email, email etiquette

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 8:49 AM 0 comments

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

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Denver Broncos: Dear Coach McDaniel's

As an extremely avid Bronco fan, I found it very important I weighed in on what I witnessed with my team this year!! Countless management mistakes were made, but let’s focus on one.

*Earning the trust of your team

-Recognizing Individual Talents

-One on One communication

Often rookie managers have one idea in mind, "I must prove myself and my knowledge." In this case you (McDaniel’s) being a young coach this common mistake was exaggerated. New managers may have the best tactical ideas on how to perform the tasks at hand, (X's and O's) but lack the people management skills to help deliver their perfect strategy. Human nature is such that people deliver based on how they feel. A team member must be emotionally engaged to deliver.

To build the perfect team, recognizing individual strengths is one of the first tasks at hand! Although you (McDaniel’s) are absolutely correct, "No one person is bigger than the team." You went out of your way not to recognize the strengths of your people. Thus the loss of Cutler and the potential loss of other outstanding talents. Although tactically it may have made sense to rid Cutler, how it was handled was completely inappropriate. Football players or not, people need to feel special and gifted. And more importantly deserve it.

Although McDaniel’s you most likely have a great strategy for the football field. It 100% needs to be coupled with a people management strategy. This is obviously lacking!! "Why the 6-0 start then?" Well Josh, frequently when there is a need for a new leader and one is brought in, a team goes through a honeymoon period! Team members are engaged, motivated to keep their jobs, etc. The honeymoon period typically evaporates after six months, if not sooner. At this point it comes down to strong fundamentals, relationships and sound management practices. Josh over the next couple years you will make mistakes, we all do! However it is how you handle them that makes you a great leader.

McDaniel’s my advice to engage your team is know your people. Their strengths, weaknesses, desires, goals, motivators and so on. And more importantly than anything JOSH!! Confidentiality is a virtue so many managers lack. Build it into your management "system!"

Attached is an article link of one tactical management protocol you could implement into your system to know your people!!!

http://www.valhallabizsolutions.com/resources/Management-One-On-One-Meetings.pdf

Labels: calendar management, Coaching Teams, Denver Broncos, effective manager, employees, management expectations, Small Business CEO, Sports Management

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 9:01 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Do What's Right For A Customer?

Genuinely know your client
Be a solutions based business
Follow up to ensure the solutions are correct

I am baffled at how often I walk into a customer situation to see a company not providing the right solutions for them. There are ways to ensure you do whats right, but are often skipped by company managers, sales people and execs. Below are some solutions to help you do what is right for your customer. Keep in mind a good organization at its root genuinely care about their customer and doing the right thing every time. If this standard is not at the forefront of your business philosophy, then make it and communicate it to your teams every day.

Genuinely know your client! Get to know what is important to the person or persons you will be working with. Ask simple questions like; What got you started in this field?, What do you like most about working here?, Tell me about your family? If the setting isn't appropriate for those questions, do some research about the company first and ask about a related news story an their opinion on it.

Be a Solutions Based Business! Set the standard with your organization to only make recommendations which makes sense for your customer. To do this appropriately you must profile! For techniques on profiling visit www.valhallabizsolutions.com/blog.html. Once you have a good understanding of what your customer needs, you have a moral obligation to match those needs. This creates loyalty and in turn more cross sell opportunities.

Follow Up! Sounds simple, but always make sure you follow up after any solution is given. If its installing signs, to a large consulting project, inquire about the results and ask if their is anything else they need from you.

Labels: banking, calendar management, Coaching Teams, development, economic crisis, economy, effective manager, internal customers, printing, profiling, Restaurant Management, Small Business CEO

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 7:47 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

What Organizational Issues Do You Have?

Management Consulting Companies today can add so much value to a corporation, small business and teams within an organization. Some of the biggest issues in management today stifle companies from growing and furthermore attracting the right talent to their organization. This only translates into poor product to the customer.

Here are some of the issues that exist in businesses today...

Wasted expense
Improper Pricing
Goals
Communicated Vision
Values
Expectations
Consistency
Complicated Vision and Values
Infrequent Communication
Development

Management consulting companies take these issues head on, specifically Valhalla. The issues listed are problems Valhalla addresses head on.

Wasted expense- as a business owner or leader in your department, when was the last time you spend time auditing your credit card processing bills, telecoms, employee time sheets, insurance premiums, 401k, etc. Often when reviewing these monthly fixed expenses there is an opportunity to save as much as 30 percent on their monthly expenses. As important as this is, leaders accept it as an acceptable ongoing expense. Those opportunities to increase capital are critical, especially during economic downturns.

Improper Pricing- this is a direct result of not understanding competitor pricing and not managing your fixed costs appropriately. Management consulting companies work with thousands of companies and often can add immediate value to pricing based on revenue goals and reducing your fixed costs.

Goals- If you don't know where your going, how do you build a plan to get there? Truth is your can't. Organizations usually do one of two things. They don't establish goals or establish too many goals. When there are know revenue goals, strategy goals, timeline goals, etc. Your team has no chance of meeting the expectations that so frequently fill a leaders mind. On the other hand some companies establish too many priorities or goals and handicap growth and productivity because each employee is an expert nowhere.

Communicated Vision- Many times a company will have a vision, mission statement or sometimes both. Countless times as management consultants we walk into an organization and ask an employee the company vision and no one knows what their company cares about.

Values- Have a core to how you do business, something that sets expectations for your team without saying a word.

Expectations- many companies have too much room for discretion amongst their team. They often call it empowerment, etc. However this never seems to be the result. So often each and every issue that comes up in a organization requires the person handling it to make a educated decision. While this sounds great and often they take care of an issue appropriately, the door to inconsistency has been let in the door. Meaning every time the same problem arises it requires a new solution and worse yet the customer gets a different solution from the time before.

Consistency- this falls hand in hand with expectations. Management consulting companies help establish the proper systems to deliver what your customer deserves.

Complicated Vision and Values- So often companies will have a well thought out way of doing business, lists of ideals, etc. Yet if you were to ask anyone in the company what they are, would they know? The answer is no, the lists can be so long that employees don't read it or recall any of the information. Management consulting drives home the most important ideals, keeps it simple and helps managers cement it into a way of life with their groups.

Infrequent Communication- Management does not communicate with their people enough. Why? There is no expectations for managers on how to manage. So often a manager is put into a role and asked to do it his/her way. Which is great, however you may have 200 managers and they are all doing it different. Can you guess how consistent of a product your people are delivering in all 200 locations? Management consulting companies assist organizations on implementing management communication standards. This keeps messages flowing consistently to all levels of companies.

Development- How often as an organization do you have to recruit talent outside your organization? Organically developing your staff can be the most beneficial revenue producing strategy you can have. The more educated your team members are, obviously the better asset they are. What is your strategy for developing your people?

Management consulting companies provide a unique niche in today's business world. They address entire organizational problems such as the issues listed above or can address specific areas for development. As a leader, if you care about your organization and your people, hire help. Before you even hire your next employee, take the time and analyze what revenue opportunities am I missing short term and long term by not hiring a management consulting company?

Labels: Coaching Teams, development, economic crisis, effective manager, knowing your customer, making money, management, management expectations, Restaurant Management, revenue, Sales Coaching, team goals

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 6:49 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Financial Management Consulting

This day and age much of how a company cuts costs is by laying off workforce. It is a frightening time for so many individuals, corporations and even local municipalities. The last thing anyone wants to do as a leader is let go of people who have been such a large part of a team. Financial management consulting can help avoid ever getting to this type of situation. Specifically in new companies, there is an opportunity to set up their business for success and potentially avoid massive layoffs in the future. For a new business establishing a defined organization chart with detailed job descriptions. This may seem simple, but simple does not define easy to execute. Financial management consulting helps define organization charts, job descriptions and lastly the appropriate pay for the job description. Again this sounds easy, but we see many organizations pay way too much for positions and often pay for positions that shouldn't even exist. Financial management consulting focuses on other business needs beyond their biggest expense, employees! Their are investment strategies, distribution strategies, and cost saving strategies that must be implemented regardless of the businesses age.

Labels: banking, Coaching Teams, corporate responsibility, corporations, development, diversity, economic crisis, effective manager, Restaurant Management, revenue, Sales Coaching

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 3:30 PM 0 comments

Monday, May 4, 2009

What to do in Uncertain Economic Times

In today's work environment the need for consulting and management from a third party is critical to an organizations success and development. What makes managers and owners want to figure everything out on their own? We are in tough economic times, with challenges still ahead. Some companies will weather the storm and excel during a recession and others will falter. Consulting and management services can bring vision and direction during these uncertain times. Services include cost management to control overspending where unnecessary. Growth strategies, how can you leverage your customers and employees in you distribution and sales process. Marketing budget analysis, consulting and management services bring new cost effective strategies and in house solutions to cut costs that already exist. Management effectiveness, coach your team to follow your vision and guarantee revenue growth going forward. Consulting and management services assist in culture change management, employees can often struggle through monumental shifts in philosophy specifically when there is a management change. Customer management solutions are also a must in today's world.

Labels: banking, calendar management, Coaching Teams, economic crisis, economy, education, effective manager, internationa companies, Restaurant Management, Small Business CEO

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 5:00 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

What Makes a Good Manager?

What makes a good Manager?

A good manager provides...

Expectations
Tools
Accountability
Development
Recognition
Solutions

In today's world, management skills often struggle to develop within individuals. There are many resources to improve a managers skills, but so many managers refuse to resource appropriately. This happens from the most senior management down to the floor managers. The bottom line is the production of your organization is a result of your management's effectiveness. Yet so often management's development is ignored. Valhalla's management development consulting invests a bulk of their services into managements development. Truth is, if your behind on your sales plan, projects, time lines, budgets, etc. its managements fault. When an employee becomes a manager, frequently it is assumed they know what they are doing. Then as their career progresses bad habits are formed from watching their superiors repeat and do the wrong things. Consistently we witness managers who manage by reacting to their environments. They have hot buttons or themes of the day. Strategy and proactive solutions fail to exist. They resort to gimmicky motivation techniques such as games and contests. Many managers give multiple priorities that result in their people not doing one of the priorities effectively. Valhalla's management development consulting focuses on the effectiveness of each manager. Managers deserve skill development and tools to make their jobs easier. We also provide ongoing foundational solutions for managers to be successful from the beginning of their careers on. For an organization to grow, the growth of its people, especially managers is the most critical piece.

Fortunately in my career I had the opportunity to have great mentors and leaders. In fact I was witness to one of the best managers I have ever seen. He is who I credit so much of what I have learned. Learned about process, systems, fundamentals and what it takes to a move a team on a macro level with measurement and accountability. When you witness a good leader you absolutely know. He brought direction, answers, frequent communication, resourcing, and most importantly development of his managers and an expectation his managers provide the same.

I have also witnessed great teachers. Peter Drucker stands out as one of the most influencial in forming the processes and coaching techniques we use today. Michael Hortsman also a disciple of Peter Drucker, brings great communication and step by step solutions to the management world. I have learned so much from them in my making companies successful.

Labels: calendar management, Coaching Teams, corporations, effective manager, feedback model, management, management expectations, Small Business developing your team members

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 10:38 AM 0 comments

Friday, April 17, 2009

Valhalla Introduces New Saving Money Program

Budget CC Program

Save money immediately on expenses

Analyze utility statements
Analyze telecom statements
Review advertising and marketing budgets
Review bank statement fees
Review credit card processing
Insurance
etc.

Marketing Solutions
Immediate cash flow
Budget Analysis

Valhalla is an expert in saving clients money, beyond the sales, service and management expertise, Valhalla brings an immediate value added feature to businesses. Truth is businesses can become complacent with their fix costs. Since they have already budgeted for the cost, they don't take the time to save themselves money and reallocate their budgets towards revenue producing strategies. Valhalla brings a team of experts to analyze and diagnose cost saving techniques which will immediately have a monetary benefit.

Labels: Coaching Teams, corporations, cross sell, diversity, economic crisis, economy, effective manager, revenue, Sales Coaching, Saving money, Small Business CEO

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 6:35 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Conflict Resolution

Identify conflict and form an opinion
Address immediately after or during conflict
Provide feedback (use Valhalla's SelfDiscoveryBH Model)
Gain commitment on future resolution behavior

Conflict is absolutely with out exception inevitable in any organization. However not all conflict is unproductive, in our organization conflict is channeled into the checks and balances which produce the must creative ideas or processes. It takes fundamental processes, but beyond having processes that set up appropriate communication in the work place there are ways too accomplish this. Conflict is a great opportunity to identify development opportunities in your staff. Always remember conflict is inevitable and a person is not bad for having conflict.

You must identify if the conflict needs you the manager to be involved, sometimes it is not necessary to give credibility to situations that don't warrant it. You the manager are a problem fixer, but it is not necessary to be a hero always.

Never ever wait 24 hours to address conflict, you lose the ability to address specific behaviors. Good or bad. Also please no matter what you do, do not bring both parties into your office together. It is unnecessary and you will not be able to deliver the feedback they deserve based on their behavior.

Provide feedback, individually address the specific behavior. i.e. "Jon when you say know to Jeremy's ideas, he feels as if your dismissing his input. You are one of the leaders of this team and the team needs you to be able to facilitate and engage the rest of the team."

Gain commitment on behavior going forward. i.e., "What can you do to manage this behavior in the future?" Follow up on commitment in their one on one. Ensure you get a commitment from each party on apologizing to the other.

Labels: conflict resolution, corporations, effective manager, management expectations, Restaurant Management, work relationships, workplace

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 3:15 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Valhalla's Effective Manager Calendar

Attached is my sample calendar to help any successful manager have the forums to communicate with their teams. I have followed this model with every team I have worked with and had beyond extraordinary results!

Effectivemanagercalendar.doc

Labels: calendar management, economic crisis, effective manager, employees, feedback, feedback model, management, management expectations, Restaurant Management, small business, Small Business CEO

posted by Valhalla Business Solutions at 9:10 AM 1 comments