Top 3 Ways Communication Builds a More Productive Team

Top 3 Ways Communication Builds a More Productive Team Studies released last year showed that between 60-70% of employees don’t like their jobs, are disengaged, and are not operating anywhere near peak productivity. How do you get people to really show up? Here’s how you hire for it and how you sustain it after day one: 1) Start with the interview: As companies grow, so do staffing needs that are often not linear. Sometimes growth is so rapid that many employees are needed at once across a variety of departments. For example as market-fit is achieved, customer support demands may go up, product development accelerates and marketing becomes increasingly more important. Finding and hiring the right people is an arduous task for any growing company, even the large and established ones who, despite having more resources, often don’t fare any better than startups. Hiring is a time-consuming, expensive process. Hours are spent writing job descriptions, reviewing resumes, and scheduling interviews among different higher-ups. Sometimes you find that ideal candidate only to have things fall apart at the negotiating table. Or a competitor’s offer is accepted and you have to begin the process anew. You may be tempted to hire someone who seems competent enough, just to get it over with. That mistake could cost you more than the precious time spent interviewing. You must hire people who are not only a good fit for the role, but a great fit for the company culture. And the only way to discover that is to have detailed conversations during the interview process. These 3 questions will give you a sense of who the person is, and whether they will be a positive influence or a destructive force: 1) Do you understand the company mission, our raison d’etre and how passionate do you feel about it? Why your company does what it does is of paramount importance. If a candidate doesn’t understand that, despite all their skills and expertise, you’ll never get them at their full potential. If they aren’t hook, line and sinker over the WHY of the company, it will be very difficult to cultivate long-term self-motivation and the tenacity that will be essential to overcome the inevitable hurdles. 2) If your company values are not publically available, share them with the candidate. Then ask Which ones resonate most highly with you and why? Company culture is established by leadership and lived out daily by your team to the tune of well-articulated and shared values. A candidate who believes in the mission and the values will help strengthen your organization from the inside out. 3) What is one way that you have helped another employee to achieve greatness at a previous job? A supportive employee has the makings of a good leader. Hire well and that employee can move up and hire her replacement down the road. If the hire is not a good fit, the best case scenario is that they will voluntarily move on before too long. The worst case scenario is that they poison the hearts and minds of others with their apathy or disparate values. Instead of replacing one person, you will then have to rebuild entire teams. Don’t just fill seats and cross your fingers. You are not hiring a person, you are increasing your tribe. 2. Be present: Once you have asked the right questions and found the right fit, you can’t just disappear and assume that the employee can succeed on their own. The other half of the battle is staying involved and present. How often do you check in? Once a quarter? Once a year? Annual and semi-annual reviews simply do not offer enough insight into your employee’s world. Check in and ask questions more frequently. This employee feedback is essential if you are going to re-calibrate your team around company goals and values. We have found the following questions to be phenomenally well-suited for leaders to gain visibility, employees to be heard and recognized, and teams to stay aligned: 1) Are you clear on the overall company strategy and how you fit into it? If not, what would help you get clear? When an employee is unclear on strategy, you have a chance to step in and realign them. The big picture goals should color every detail of their work, no matter how small. 2) What are the challenges you are facing? Where are you stuck? Let employees know that you are there to step in and provide help when needed. Challenge is important for growth, but too much challenge without feedback and support stunts growth for both the employee and the organization. 3) What are your top 3 priorities for next week? Get your hands dirty in the details. When your employee is aware of their top priorities, it means that they are working effectively and keeping priorities top-of-mind. Once you communicate clear goals to the team, give each employee the autonomy to do what it takes to achieve them. Stay present with a fine balance. Micromanaging leads to stifling creativity and discourages engagement, but obtaining regular feedback is the first step towards fostering growth in your employees. The impact is enduring, you secure a mutual understanding of responsibilities and goals while keeping your finger on the pulse of progress. 3) Build relationships: Consistent communication allows you to learn about each team member’s professional and personal goals which allows you to do address their needs and celebrate their triumphs. When you ask specific questions, you encourage honesty, transparency and trust the pillars of strong relationships. People want to share their challenges and wins and feel safe to do so. You remove the adversarial element that exists in far too many manager-employee relationships, and are left with a culture of openness and trust. At a minimum, asking questions of each team-member will give them a voice. Instead of feeling like just a cog, let them know that the machine wouldn’t operate if not for their dedication. Ideally, you will get a real in-depth sense of what each individual team member wants, how they feel, and what they think about the organization. You can learn to respond to needs and make changes so that ‘work’ transforms into an alignment with each employee’s greatest gifts. When work itself is the reward, employees feel far more engaged and productive. Author: Lauren Lee Anderson is Brand Content Manager of 15Five, a SaaS company that creates an internal communication process to allow the most important information to flow seamlessly throughout an organization. Business leaders know the pulse of their company, manager-employee relationships are strengthened, and ultimately teams gain the ability to accomplish great things together. Follow her @ideeahh.

Think You Have What It Takes to Be a Landlord

Think You Have What It Takes to Be a Landlord As everybody knows, the housing market is still hot, and rental properties have made many investors some decent money. According to a study published on the Chicago Tribune site, the U.S. is seeing the most renters in history since 1965. Due to this rapidly rising rate, now is a great time to invest in the rental property market. Being a landlord isn’t for everyone, though. The job isn’t always difficult, but there are some traits and skills that you’ll have to acquire to ensure a great landlord experience. Choose a Great Property The first, and perhaps most vital, step in becoming a solid landlord is to choose a property that has high rental power and profit potential. Start by defining your primary goal. “Is it good cash flow that youre looking for, or do you just want something that’s low maintenance? Ed Laine, Seattle broker of Miller Laine Properties, recommends you ask yourself. He also says a key criterion is a property that’s close to home and in a rentable location. “If the wind blew a tree limb through my tenants window at 2 a.m., how far would I be willing to drive to deal with it?” Screen Tenants Well A great property with excellent investment potential can turn into a money pit if it doesn’t get great tenants. Bad ones can fail to pay the rent, trash the property, and leave without notice. A great tenant screening system will help you take control of the situation and minimize renter damage. Patrick Chapman of Chapman Properties in Boise says that he often sees landlords suffer bad tenants because of poor tenant screenings. “It’s mostly people who have a house in Boise, they live in California, and they don’t have the means to do the background checks,” he said in an interview with Bankrate. “They just throw tenants in there and it turns out to be a nightmare. Those are the ones who run, not walk, to us.” A property management company can substantially reduce your hassles and fill your properties with better tenants. Be Ready for Late Nights and Abnormal Hours If you live near your properties, it’s easier to screen tenants and handle maintenance calls. However, this benefit can also be a disadvantage. You’ll get phone calls at midnight about forgotten keys, and emergency calls at 5 in the morning to handle an overflowing toilet. When she helps property investors find their first rental property, Jill Wente of Gary Greene Real Estate told Bankrate, this is a facet about which she warns all potential landlords before they buy. “I ask them if they’d mind getting a call on a Saturday morning with a toilet emergency,” she says. “Or at 11 o’clock at night because the air conditioning isn’t working. Or when they’re out of town. Even if they say ‘no,’ I still recommend a management company. I’ve had clients try to do without, and it just becomes too much.” Focus on Positive Cash Flow Responding to late-night phone calls and fulfilling your various other landlord duties is just a small part of achieving success. You also have to focus on ensuring you generate a meaningful profit. Otherwise, the investment obviously wasn’t worthwhile. According to Kiplinger’s senior editor Jeffrey R. Kosnett, a rental property should bring in a positive cash flow of at least $300 a month to be a worthwhile investment. “There are many formulas to calculate this,” Kosnett writes. “If rent minus all expenses, including a management fee and a reserve fund for vacancies, leaves more than $300, the transaction is a go. Tax deductions for depreciation dont figure here. They become icing on the cake after calculating overall earnings.” Use this as a basic guide to help you settle on a positive cash flow for your property. Although being a landlord should be something you enjoy doing, having your eye on the financial prize ought to be a hugely motivating factor in your success as well. Recruit a Team to Help Landlords shouldn’t try to do everything themselves. Team members and other professional entities can support and simplify your landlord responsibilities. “At a minimum, you’ll want to connect with a good Realtor who can help you market the property, a reliable handyman or contractor that can make repairs as necessary, and a lawyer who can look over your lease,” recommends Beth Braverman of Forbes. “If you’re buying a property that’s more than an hour’s drive from your home, consider working with a management company that can handle the place’s day-to-day needs.” Not everyone is cut out for becoming a landlord. It’s not easy to be patient and compassionate when you’re screening potential tenants and dealing with renters’ problems. However, if you put together a great team of property managers and other contractors to help you out, your everyday stress will diminish significantly. You’ll be grateful for a few dependable and trustworthy people to handle emergencies and promote your rentals.

Being a Good Parent and Greater Professional

Being a Good Parent and Greater Professional Being a good parent is a concern many adults have today. In the US economy, between 1960 to 2017, the percentage of families with only the father employed decreased from 70% to 30%.In that same time span (1960-2017), the number of dual-income families rose from 25% to 65%. Families with only one working mother rose in the same time span from 2% to 6%.With so many parents worried about proper parenting skills and holding down a career, we offer advice on being a good parent while becoming a greater professional.Fun Fact: Being a Parent Makes You Better at Your JobA 2015 survey by Business News Daily showed that 69% of parents believe managing children and a career makes them more successful in the workplace, plus sharpens their management skills.Parents surveyed explained they became better at the following skills:Ability to multi-task Time management Conflict management Problem-solving Empathy Mentoring Negotiation Budgeting/managing finances Project managementTip #1: Trade-Off Days Working From HomeWith advancements in technology, the need to be at the office is declining. Using tools like Skype, email, and shared work servers allow for people to all work on the same projects. The location of the employee or manager does not matter.The parents who trade days working from home are managing time, solving children’s problems, and becoming empathetic of the spouse who goes through the same routine.Having a career working from home also saves money and leaves plenty of time for parents to be mentors for their children. Not only is this being a good parent, it will also teach the children how to be greater professionals in the future.If your office needs, there will still be days when you go to work, preserving those relationships, as well.Tip #2: Have One Parent Work From Home Full-TimeEven though the workforce of working mothers from home has increased over the years, so has a number of working fathers from home. In the US, there is a freelance workforce of more than 50 million freelance workers.In addition, one parent who works from home can teach proper parenting skills while the other parent works in an office.The fact thatjobs working from home are often deadline-driven, and performance is based on achieving goals, it allows parents to decide how they manage their own time. As long as they reach their goals and deadlines, there is no need to worry if they spent an extra hour picking up children from school.Tip #3: Have Both Parents Work From HomeThis is something I have seen entrepreneurs do, as well as parents who want to scale back their careers to spend more time with family:Example #1: A successful husband-wife team that started a successful business decides to make their home “the office”. Each of them trades off tasks when it comes to raising the children. Example #2: An investment firm VP and a stock trader get married. They have a child with Autism. Both parents see the demands ahead of them. The VP changes to an Analyst po sition and the stock trader moves to a home office. The conditions were that both take substantial pay cuts.When I get to ask them both about how much they like it, even though they do not make as much as they once did, both couples reply:“It was the best decision we ever made...for us...and our kids.”The key to being a good parent for them, and defining proper parenting skills, is knowing that they are giving of themselves so that the children they love can have better lives. And when it comes down to career choices, these two couples are greater professionals because they are skilled. And the companies they work for find them irreplaceable.Additionally, the fact that they work from home means they can live anywhere in the United States and still make “big city money” even with the pay cut. Being a good parent, in their eyes, was the best career choice they made, so far.