How Businesses can Build and Maintain Trust Internally and Externally

Across America, studies have shown that businesses are some of the most trusted organizations in people’s daily lives. This trust has been carefully crafted by C-suite leaders based on the commitments and actions taken during global crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. More than ever, businesses today are beginning to advocate for social justice and protect marginalized communities. Diversity and inclusion conversations are occurring more frequently within the office workplace.

Unfortunately, this idyllic picture is only one small piece of the corporate puzzle. More work has to be done to continue to build trust with customers and employees as business owners. There is a new pressure placed on those who are managing others to consider the betterment of all – not just the betterment of a corporation’s bottom line.

With that being said – how can CEOs and business owners build trust?

Advocate for Ethical Business Practices

This one is a big deal on the list as Gen Z continues to grow its wealth and enter the workforce. Ethical business practices encompass a range of issues including diversity and inclusion, pay equity, climate change consideration, vetting ethical and sustainable suppliers and contractors, and investing in ethical retirement funds on behalf of your employees. Believe it or not – having ethical business practices can be a major piece in attracting the right talent within the next decade. Those who fail to address this realm will be out of luck when trying to build long-term trust with employees and customers.

Hit Hyperspeed on Data Protection and Cybersecurity

Many are arguing that the wild west days of data collection and unsafe data storage are ending. With consistent global threats on the horizon, potential internal bad actors, and a media-savvy consumer audience… it’s time to step up your data protection game. Those who suffer dangerous privacy breaches lose all trust and credibility with both customers and employees. Data protection and cybersecurity have to be a priority for all business owners and CEOs regardless of organization size or scope. Legislation may force the hand of many companies regarding digital data collection, privacy, and use. Political structures are taking notice of the looming threats that are emerging worldwide.

Treat Employees more than Fairly

There is no question that over the last 2 years (and longer) employees have stepped up time and time again in North America to bolster the economy. Without employees, all organizations would simply fail to operate. There would be no products or services for customers to consume. The importance of talented, loyal, and hardworking employees cannot be overstated by business owners. Treating employees fairly, equitably, and compensating them adequately according to the profit margins of your organization is necessary. Thinking solely about investors and their best interests is a great way to land your company in hot water with employees and customers. More often than not, customers reward a company if they feel it is fair and just to its employees!

Made a Mistake? Don’t lie.

It’s just like we learned in childhood… mistakes happen. Unfortunately, if you’re facing a challenging situation regarding a mistake, it’s best to be transparent and honest with your employees and customers. Those who spend more time “covering up” an issue with clever public relations strategies can lose trust internally and externally. Work swiftly to remedy a mistake and then admit that it happened. Where necessary, apologize without placing blame on anyone except for the company. It’s hard as CEOs to look beyond our pride – but this is a major key to avoiding a drawn-out and publicized crisis.

We would love to hear your comments.

Gary Brunson
gary@myclearfocus.com

Debra Rider
debra@myclearfocus.com

574.361.2674

Sustainable Growth & Profit Consultant, Coach, Mentor and Counselor/Therapist for Business Owners and Professionals.

Digital transformation isn’t about evolving your business and company culture slowly – it’s about adapting, surviving, and thriving.

Digital transformation has been the focus of many businesses as we collectively move through the COVID-19 pandemic and adapt to new working styles. Most new technological adoptions at the workplace have been to increase productivity, manage accountability, and a better transition to effective remote work.

Despite digital transformation appearing as linear in this COVID-19 example, this pattern shouldn’t be thought of as the norm. As digital transformation and technology become more commonplace, digital transformation can be a “mass extinction” event for businesses. Leadership risks losing in the digital transformation age if they fail to adapt – ultimately, risking elimination.

What does digital transformation mean?

Digital transformation may look different for every company. This difference in appearance is what makes it challenging to create an all-encompassing definition. Simply put, digital transformation can be defined as the integration of digital technology into any area of business.

This digital transformation fundamentally affects how businesses operate and how their goods/services are delivered to customers.

Beyond the implementation of technology, digital integration requires changes in leadership, organizational structure, and company culture. It impacts the way that managers and employees ultimately function and complete their jobs. This results in the need for new processes and procedures that span the entire organization.

Interconnectivity between devices and data will ultimately help to drive better analytics. Digital transformation will also drive mergers and acquisitions as companies begin to see overlap that makes sense in more ways than just the goods or services that they provide customers.

Digital transformation is the biggest hurdle (and opportunity) that businesses and managers must face moving into 2023 and beyond.

Top 3 Trends in Digital Transformation for Businesses Today

1)    Cybersecurity and Data Governance

As hacking and other digital threats become more common, cybersecurity and proper data governance are top of mind for businesses of all sizes. Securing data and ensuring that you have the proper checks and balances in place to protect your customers and employees is critical.

Moving into 2023 and beyond, cybersecurity tools that are available to smaller businesses will become a major digital transformation trend. This will become an everyday piece for leadership to consider implementing just like HR and marketing practices.

2)    Cloud Computing

Computing in the cloud is also another trend in digital transformation which allows for greater power with remote work and efficiency of hardware. Cloud computing costs have also dropped significantly over the last two years which has made the cost barrier to entry much lower than previously thought.

The technology of cloud computing also offers security and speed that allows for businesses to pivot and adapt at a faster rate than previously thought.

3)    AI and Machine Learning

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are two terms that have been thrown around for the last decade with minimal weight for the average company. However, as this tech continues to improve every day, it is being implemented in various areas with different capabilities. Some of the current commercial uses of AI include financial services, healthcare and medicine, public safety, military, and manufacturing.

As the technology continues to evolve, look to AI and machine learning to become more regular in almost every workplace in various capacities. Consider getting ahead of the curve by researching if there are any current uses of these technologies within your current organization.

Reasons why Digital Transformation Matters for your Company Culture

• Improve customer experience
• Automate business processes internally and externally
• Focus employee attention on things that matter
• Increase efficiency
• Encourage mergers, partnerships, and acquisitions
• Gather more data for better decisions and business cases
• There could be major drawbacks to not embracing digital transformation

As stated above, digital transformation is both an opportunity and a threat for businesses today. Corporate leadership and managers would benefit from considering how digital transformation and tech are going to impact their unique business spaces ahead of time. Anticipate trends and begin research or implementation early to ensure that your business is maximizing a great opportunity to survive and thrive.

We would love to hear your comments.

Gary Brunson
gary@myclearfocus.com

Debra Rider
debra@myclearfocus.com

574.361.2674

Sustainable Growth & Profit Consultant, Coach, Mentor and Counselor/Therapist for Business Owners and Professionals.

Disruption in the workplace can come from anywhere. Be it a global pandemic, an office renovation project, or a software roll-out… here’s how to lead your team through disruptions.

Managers and leadership across the globe have been dealing with “unprecedented times” for the last two years. COVID-19 has been a significant disruption in just about every aspect of our lives. While the pandemic’s disruption has come on a mega-scale, workplace disruptions are nothing new for managers or leadership. Now, more than ever, it’s incredibly important to have the competencies to navigate managerial decision-making.

At the helm of many of the decision-making opportunities in a workplace is the CEO. However, that’s not the only manager who should have relevant skills and competencies in managing disruptions.

The more trained and engaged that managers are in disruption mitigation, the healthier that an overall workplace environment can be.

In these uncertain times, how can leadership optimize better decision-making?

Here’s where to start.

Address Mental Leadership Challenges During Disruption

• Internalized Cognitive Biases – Where managers consciously (or unconsciously) apply biases to their current situation, despite each situation is unique to previous disruptions.
• Aversion to Change Management – Change is hard. Embracing and managing a team of employees through change is even harder. Managers who struggle with change management competencies will have a challenging time moving through disruptions.
• Hesitancy to Directly Communicate – Direct communication with staff, leadership, and stakeholders is incredibly important to maintaining some semblance of normalcy through a disruption. Lack of, hesitancy, or complete failure of communication is a great way to lose buy-in from those that you’ll need it from most during a disruptive time.
• Failure to Create Contingency Plans – Considering all avenues of outcomes is important to expertly pivot and react to disruption in the workplace. Be prepared for situations beyond the one that you’re dealing with. For example, plan appropriately if an office renovation will take longer than initially planned. How will you accommodate displaced employees whose regular work schedules have been disrupted?

3 Routes to Better Decision-Making during Disruptions

1)         Focus on Building the Right Decision-Making Team

Making the right decisions in leadership means having the correct team and voices included in those decisions. After a potential (or impending) disruption is identified, the first step should be to consider which perspectives should be involved when making the decisions around the disruption plan.

2)         Gather Data and Metrics to Build your Case

Making the right decisions means making informed decisions. The more information, resources, and research that you gather around the disruption (and resulting decision) makes it airtight. If there are rumblings or questions around the result of the decision-making process, having the right information to rely on can be a major lifesaver as a manager.

3)         Recognize if you need External Guidance

Not sure if you have the internal team for optimized decision-making around your impending disruption? Consider a consultant or tap into your professional network to see if anyone else has relevant experience with a similar disruption. External guidance can bring in a fresh perspective with less bias than those who are experiencing the disruption in real-time.

Please share with your colleagues & staff.

Gary Brunson
gary@myclearfocus.com

Debra Rider
debra@myclearfocus.com

574.361.2674

Sustainable Growth & Profit Consultant, Coach, Mentor and Counselor/Therapist for Business Owners and Professionals.

How Managers Can Help Employees Set Meaningful Goals.

Meta Description: Discover how setting high goals improves performance by inspiring individuals to work harder & smarter resulting in a greater focus and prioritizing their work.

Employee goal-setting is a crucial responsibility for company managers/Leadership. By setting measurable and attainable goals, a manager can guide improvement in employee performance and actively help strengthen the business and enhance its reputation as an employer of choice.

Here are some suggestions to set goals in the workplace to help you make these possible benefits a reality this year:

1. Guide Employees on how they can have an Influence.

Present the company’s main goals over six months, and discuss with your team members to share their knowledge and ideas on how they can assist the company in achieving these objectives.

Managers should avoid creating these for their employees. Let each employee create the goal based on the company’s mission and assist them along the way. Help employees focus their goals and utilize their competencies.

2. Discover Common Ground Between Employee and Business Goals.

Encourage employees to discuss their own goals and consider how working towards them can help the company achieve its goals, according to Jennifer Tardy, CEO of Jennifer Tardy Consulting LLC, located in Bowie, Md. When you have a one-on-one discussion, encourage employees to think about ways to utilize the interest or skill they’re trying to improve to fill in a gap within the team. Let them consider how their interests might be a good fit for the workplace.

3. Help Employees accomplish their Goals.

Allowing employees to work towards their goals is a part of great company culture. Encourage employees to break down their goals into small-scale achievements or milestones, which should be celebrated.

If a goal doesn’t get met, don’t simply put it on the following year’s list. Instead, it’s essential to determine why a goal was not met and then discuss how to modify the goal/purpose to ensure it’s achievable.

4. Show Employees the Advantage of Getting a Goal.

Shoemaker (a women’s executive coach in Greensboro) said, encouraging employees to consider how achieving that goal could make their lives better. Perhaps they’ll be more confident, acquire new skills, or even earn recognition. “Help your employees see the end goal not as an endpoint, but the start of something that can be different and better for them,” she said.

Conclusion

Employee goals are the basis of the adequate performance of management. Goals can help employees align with the mission of the organization. They also aid employees in seeing how their contribution fits the bigger picture and what impact they have on the business. Goals guide and direct employee efforts, inspire performance, enhance performance evaluation and strategic planning. Without the proper goals, performance and engagement will suffer.

We would love to hear your comments.

Gary Brunson
gary@myclearfocus.com

Debra Rider
debra@myclearfocus.com

574.361.2674

Sustainable Growth & Profit Consultant, Coach, Mentor and Counselor/Therapist for Business Owners and Professionals.

Traits of Leadership That CEOs Should Avoid

Meta Description: CEOs who acknowledge they’re portraying poor leadership traits can devise a better way forward. Learn strategies to identify the negative characteristics.

Self-Examination of Bad Characteristics

CEOs tend to concentrate on the positive aspects of their business. But, in the end, it’s the best place to begin when it comes to learning from the past and taking away lessons from mistakes and successes.

However, CEOs can also benefit from being able to spot the signs of bad characteristics of leadership. When they approach this self-examination with a vulnerable and open mind, they can create a more effective way to lead in the future.

5 bad leadership qualities CEOs should avoid:

1. You don’t accept responsibility and blame others

An executive’s dedication to accountability for mistakes can boost your credibility and confidence. However, your position and power have nothing to do with your appearance. They are everything dependent on how you work and what you do to your employees.

The leadership is responsible for everything. Therefore, leaders should learn from their mistakes in their decision-making instead of pointing at the wrong person.

2. You act like a tyrant

This is a type of lousy leader that stands by itself. They aren’t leaders; nobody likes them.

Tyrants rarely succeed; harming or insulting others undermines confidence. Influential leaders are dedicated to their contributors as well as the entire team.

Introspection and comparing/contrasting right vs. wrong leaders are one way to consider if you have these leadership qualities and competencies.

3. You don’t actively listen

A good leader always listens, and a lousy leader is not listening. So — Begin by enhancing your active listening abilities with the three A’s of:

• Attitude: Maintaining a positive attitude involves tackling criticism with respect and appreciation that there is something to learn from other people.
• Attention: To be a satisfactory listener, you must have a good concentration span.
• Adjustment: The final point is that the adjustment process is just being open mind to what the other is saying. Stay focused and don’t prejudge.

No CEO would deliberately ignore or dismiss other people’s opinions; however, they might be in the habit of doing precisely that.

4. You’re unaware to weaknesses

Some leaders claim to recognize their strengths and weaknesses, but it’s difficult to spot. Most often, they are due to a lack of action.

Everyone else sees this as well, except for the person struggling to recognize their weaknesses. Self-awareness is a way for leaders to acknowledge their shortcomings. Ask others how you can serve them better in their tasks and abilities. Is there something they would like for you to do better? Their answers may help you see blind spots in your leadership style and allow you an opportunity to improve as a leader.

5. You aren’t keen to keep learning

CEOs, CFOs, COOs, need to be aware of the importance of continual development and improvement, particularly in the ever-changing and complex Company Culture.

One effective way to accelerate your learning as a CEO is to form an inclusive group of peers that allows you to learn from one another’s experiences, gain perspective, and hold yourself accountable for your decisions and the results. Create a plan of action within your group to help you keep on track.

Conclusion

Leadership is the key to the success or failure of any company. This is why these traits must be applied to anyone trying to enhance their skills. Whatever the circumstance, be aware that successful leaders need to exhibit integrity, aptitude, acumen, vision, trustworthiness, and communication abilities to guide their teams to success successfully.

We would love to hear your comments.

Gary Brunson
gary@myclearfocus.com

Debra Rider
debra@myclearfocus.com

574.361.2674

Sustainable Growth & Profit Consultant, Coach, Mentor and Counselor/Therapist for Business Owners and Professionals.