Improve My Business

background:  It’s 1979.  I’m sharing an office, and a phone, with a co-worker.  A vendor calls up for my office mate, Gary, who’s not in.  I say that he’s not there, and ask if I can take a message.  The caller asks where he is, and when he’ll be back.  I say I don’t know (to both), but again offer to take a message.  The caller says that I “should know where my boss is” and then leaves a message for Gary to call him back.  As a woman, I’m sorta used to being considered the admin help rather than the engineering staff, so it’s no biggie for me.  Gary, however, is incensed that “this jerk” assumed I was his admin (back then we called them ’secretaries’) and calls up the vendor, telling him [in no uncertain terms] that I am an engineer - just like him - and I deserve his respect - just like him.  He then goes on to say that I got better grades than he did in college, and that I was probably a better engineer.  He then “offers” to let the vendor speak to me to apologize - which of course the vendor does - profusely.  I’m more amused than anything else by the whole exchange.  As a woman, in the ’70’s workforce, it was not uncommon for folks to assume that I was in an engineering meeting to take notes, make coffee, etc. rather than to actively participate.  I knew it would get easier, as more women entered the professional/scientific/engineering ranks - and it has.  I’m rarely mistaken now.

Fast forward 30+ years later, to 2011:  I get a phone call on my business phone.  Because we have the phone roll over to the home phone after 5 pm, and this call is at 5:11 pm, my daughter answers the phone a split second before I do on a different extension.  The caller asks for “Mr. McDonald”.  [My husband, though part owner in my business, is not an active participant.]  While my daughter is getting my husband on the phone, I (on another extension) ask what this is about.  Just then, my husband answers the phone.  I again say, ‘This is a business phone and Mr. McDonald is not a part of this firm; may I ask what this is about?”  and the caller has the poor instincts, and the gall, to say, “I’m calling for Mr. McDonald - and you’re interrupting!”  [You could almost hear him muttering something derogatory about the "Little Missy" interrupting him...]

…

at which point my husband states that “MRS. McDonald owns this company, you are calling on HER business line, and I suggest that you tell HER what this call is in reference to.”   The caller half-heartedly apologizes and quickly hangs up.  Now, we’ve got caller ID and are smart enough to use reverse lookup, so we know EXACTLY which company is hiring Neanderthals.  We’re not stupid.

My message to the caller?  Get into the 21st century, bucko.  Women own companies.  Women make decisions.  We are NOT interrupting when we are inquiring about inbound sales calls - we are making decisions (including a decision to block any calls from your company).  And the fact that you’re trying to sell us something?  As Julia Roberts, in Pretty Woman, says to a sales clerk who originally refused to wait on her - “You work on commission, right?  Big mistake.  Big.  HUGE.”

Technorati Tags: Add new tag, Business, Business Relationships, communication, customer satisfaction, customer service, julia roberts, pretty woman

our friends at Crucial Skills offer the following advice if you are plagued by one of these

Top 5 Career-Limiting Habits:

1. Unreliability
2. ”It’s not my job”
3. Procrastination
4. Resistance to change
5. Negative attitude

Luckily, they also provide some tips on how to overcome them…

Technorati Tags: Business Relationships, eliminating defects, improvement, leadership, managing your time

To close out this relationship themed month on our blog I want to talk about online relationship building, and before you ask, no I am not going to talk about online dating sights. By now everyone knows that your business needs a website, and if you are reading this blog chances are you are relatively tech savvy and have a nice website set up. What is the purpose of your website? Does it give information? Is it simply a place to list your phone number where prospective clients can find you? Or is it a community? Are you using your website as simply an informational tool or are you using it to build relationships with clients and prospective clients? This is what I mean when I say I want to talk about online relationship building.

When the internet first came around it was a great source for easily search-able information, and this is still true. Now days most any question can be answered if you know how and where to look on the internet. However, this is not the only use for the internet, like anything else it grows and evolves. Recently we have seen the rise of social networking and what is being called Web 2.o. The importance of these new innovations from a business standpoint is that they are shifting the way our customers use the internet, and therefore we need to shift the way we use the internet.

Web 2.0 is changing the internet from a simple search-able database of information into a forum for creating community and fostering relationships, and as business people who realize the importance of relationships this is great for us. People are no longer content to simply find information posted on your website, they want interaction, both with you and with other customers. We need to  make sure that we are tapping into this new way of building relationships and using it to reach a new customer base that we may have never thought of before.

To me it makes sense to think of the new internet as one big trade-show. At a trade-show you can have your booth and just put on information for people to come by and pick up and look through, or you can stand at your booth and invite people in, engage people in conversation, and start building a relationship with that person. The growth of web 2.0 has given us the opportunity to stand out front of our online booths and interact with the people coming in, not just let them pick up information and leave. As anyone who has worked at trade shows will tell you, it is the interaction more then the information that is valuable, and this is becoming true on the internet as well.

One final point that I think a lot of people forget is that the rules and tips for building personal relationships apply just as much on the internet as they do in person. This means that whatever you do to start building your relationship presence on the internet you need to make sure it is honest and genuine or you won’t get the desired response.

So I encourage all of us to start thinking about how we can increase our presence on the internet not just from an information stand point, but from a relationship standpoint. That is part of what we are trying to do with our blogs at McDCG. We want to use these blogs to not only provide information, but also start growing a community. This is why we always encourage you to leave comments and start discussions. So how is your business using the internet? Leave us some comments so we can all see what you have done and learn together.

Technorati Tags: blogging, Business, Business Relationships, communication, twitter

This week I want to continue our relationship theme and talk about how we relate to the people we work with. Whether they are employees, bosses, or partners, at some point in time we all have to work with other people, which is sometimes a great experience but can also be a total disaster. If you are like most of the people I know you have had both kinds of experience, sometimes you really click with a co-worker and your collaborative productivity is great while other times you just don’t seem to mesh and you spend as much time trying to get on the same page as you do actually working. Have you ever wondered why this is?

One way to start to figure out why we have such different experiences with different people is to look at Myers Briggs personality type profiles. If you are not familiar with the Myers Briggs questionnaire and personality types you can find more information here. Basically what Myers Briggs does is go through a series of questions designed to assess your personality. By personality I mean your personal strengths, weaknesses, motivating factors and, perhaps most importantly, communication style.

Myers Briggs testing has been successfully used in the workplace for quite some time to improve teamwork and understanding with in a department or organization. Typically each member fills out the questionnaire then the facilitator will go through the results with everyone, thus you and your team gain a better understanding not only of your own type, but everyone else’s too. Through this process it often becomes clear why you click so well with one coworker but struggle to communicate with another.

Perhaps you will discover, as Mary did when she did her first Myers Briggs test, that you are a big picture person while your boss is much more detail oriented. This can be incredibly valuable information, now you know how your boss thinks and can anticipate what they will be looking for when you present something to them, in this case a higher level of detail. The boss on the other hand can understand that perhaps it is not due to laziness or lack of skill that work and reports aren’t meeting his satisfaction as much as because employees have a different view of what is necessary. This mutual understanding of how the other person operates can make everything in the office run more smoothly. In this example the employee now knows to cover things in more detail and the boss now knows that they need to be specific in asking for detail because not everyone is going to just assume it is necessary like he does.

This is just one example of how a Myers Briggs test can improve workplace productivity. If you find you are constantly butting heads or disagreeing with someone in your office place, chances are it’s because of some personality difference. Once you can understand these differences you can learn to work around them. This is the true power of Myers Briggs, it allows you to understand personalities and like anything else, the problems caused by personality differences can’t be addressed until the cause of the problems is understood. Think of Myers Briggs as root cause analysis for work relationships.

Technorati Tags: Business Relationships, communication, Myers Briggs

Today I am cross posting an article posted by Suzanne on one of our other blogs, The Efficiency Dr. blog. It fits well with our theme this month of relationships in business. Feel free to comment about your relationship with your business here or get in on the conversation taking place over at the  The Efficiency Dr. blog.

Building Your Relationship with Your Business

Today I want to talk about the relationship you have with your business, is it a healthy relationship, or do you suffer from one of the following issues?

Do you have a love-hate relationship?

One day you’re in love with your business, the next you hate it and wonder why you started it. We’ve all been there. An exercise you could try would be to brainstorm what you like and what you dislike about your biz. Then, come up with ways to minimize the parts you don’t like. It could mean hiring some outside help, or getting rid of a service or product that causes you more grief then profit.

Are you co-dependant?

You are always thinking that you should be working when you’re away from your computer.  You get distracted when you’re spending time with your family, wondering if you have new email or thinking of what you want your next marketing promotion to look like.

If you can’t think of anything else you’d rather do then work, it may be time to take up a new hobby or join a book club. Make an effort to talk to people as people, and not just for the sake of business networking.

Do you cheat on your business?

If you want to be efficient at running your business, you have to commit to working hours. Do you spend time away from work when you know you should be working?

How’s your accounting? Are you borrowing money from your business account to get your hair done (and trying to justify it as a business expense)?

If you create content or material for your business, how much of it is 100% original and how much is “borrowed” or inspired from your competitors?

Take a look at your habits. If you don’t feel like you’re getting much out of the business, perhaps you aren’t as committed to succeeding as you should be.

Are you Growing Apart/Have you lost the spark?

If every day you dread working in your business, it’s time you take a look back at the reasons why you started it in the first place. Pull out that dusty business plan. What did you write as a mission statement? Did you set goals for the business? How far have you come to reaching those goals?

It may be time to re-assess your plan and make new goals. Re-word your mission if it is no longer meaningful to you. What? No business plan? Well, it’s high time you put in writing why it is you’re in business. This exercise could very well get you out of the rut.

Are you jealous of your business?

How can you be jealous of your business? Look at your relationships. Are you closer to your clients and talk to them more often then your friends? Maybe you’ve built a strictly business persona for yourself and are afraid to let your real personality shine through? Or, you could be at a loss to converse about anything other than business.

Consider what aspects of your personality make you good at what you do, and then think about how those same aspects make you an interesting person outside of work. What other traits do you possess that don’t necessarily apply to your job? Give yourself credit for having a broad range of gifts and talents in addition to your great business skills.

Like they say in couples counseling – being open and honest about the problems in the relationship is the only way to overcome the hurdles and strengthen the bond. What better time than Valentine’s Day to take your relationship with your business to the next level?

Technorati Tags: Business, Business Relationships