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Providing Feedback
Effective business owners understand the value and importance of giving continual performance feedback to their people and getting feedback from employees, customers and others, both positive and corrective. There are a few critical things to remember when giving feedback to others.
Feedback should:
Be timely. It should occur as soon as practical after the interaction, completion of the deliverable, or observation is made.
Be specific. Statements like “You did a great job” or “You didn’t take care of the clients’ concerns very well” are too vague and don’t give enough insight into the behavior you would like to see repeated or changed.
Focus on the “what,” not the “why.” Avoid making the feedback seem as if it is a judgment. Begin with “I have observed…” or “I have seen…” and then refer to the behavior. Focus on behavior and not the person. Describe what you heard and saw and how those behaviors impact the team, client, etc.
Use a sincere tone of voice. Avoid a tone that exhibits anger, frustration, disappointment or sarcasm.
So… what do YOU think? Feel free to comment below.
50 do’s and don’ts for small biz
You Can Own a Business if You Obey These 50 Do’s and Don’ts on (Small Personal) Business Management
Ed. note: This was first written in 1953… and still, it remains good, sound advice! I’m sure you can interpret the “old stuff” into today’s words and technologies. 
THESE ARE practical points to save you from the fate of so many who enter business and fail (some say it’s about 95 out of 100). The most widespread failure to succeed is lack of preparation, experience, capital and competence. But these things can be acquired, even from books. There is really no good excuse for a small personal business failing if reasonable care has been exercised, and simple common sense. Business is really applied common sense, nothing else. If you go into a business for which you are personally not fitted, is that common sense? If you go into a business blithely without any preparation, is that common sense? If you go into business without any preparation in the thing you will deal in, or make no effort to hire, study or acquire some experience, is that common sense? If you go into business without enough money (or credit) for the absolute essentials of operating that business, is that common sense? Of course not!
So, we have put down here the fifty don’ts and do’s which will tip you off on your operation’s critical points to watch. There isn’t room to go into a lot of detail, but “a word to the wise is sufficient”. Recognizing a warning is half the battle.
Remember, we are dealing here with very simple, ordinary business operations, a very small “personal” business to start with. That’s how most big business started, anyhow, (Henry Ford in his little shed, C. A. Post in his little outhouse; neither with scarcely any money to pay for help). That’s the far safer way to begin, than with a great, extravagant flourish, a ruinous “overhead” expense; a refusal to face elemental financial facts; a desire to make haste and a lot of money quick; a belief that you can run before you can walk.
Here are the fifty do’s and don’ts:
- Do start operation in your own home, if at all possible.
- Don’t have false pride and a show-off attitude, and, because of these, put on an expensive “front”.
- Do have good operating office and accounting facilities, with desk, files, orderly system.
- Do have an excellent letterhead, billheads, cards, with adequate advertising on it; not cheap, poorly printed material. Read more
The Road Less Traveled
Scribbling Outside The Lines:
The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray was “Take only ONE. God is watching.”
Moving further along the lunch line, and at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. A child had written a note, “Take all you want. God is watching the apples.”
——
The secret of success for small businesses is to figure out who wants your product/service, and deliver your message directly to them. Don’t waste your time and money trying to reach anyone else.
Sell to desire. Don’t try to create it.
You can do that when you spend your time finding buyers instead of finding new sources of stuff to sell.
—— Read more
