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The People Gardener Podcast with Rhonda Delaney
The People Gardener Podcast with Rhonda Delaney
12 Common Small Business Traps and the Art of Communication: A Guide to Effective Leadership and Growth
Wave goodbye to the guesswork of running a small business and hello to crystal-clear strategies with your host, Rhonda Delaney, on the People Gardener podcast. Have you ever felt like you're navigating the murky waters of business ownership without a compass? Fear not! Our latest episode is your beacon, shining a light on the 12 common traps small business owners fall into, with a special focus on the paramount importance of structured job descriptions, processes, and an effective onboarding experience that kicks off the moment a potential hire walks in for an interview.
Communication is the lifeblood of any thriving team, and this episode doesn't shy away from tackling the nuances of effective dialogue. Whether you're an introvert struggling to voice your thoughts or an extrovert learning the balance between speaking and listening, I've got you covered. I'll share personal insights and strategies to enhance the way you connect with your team, ensuring that with every simple, daily exchange, you're cultivating a more engaged and content workforce. Get ready to be equipped with actionable advice that will transform the way you lead and communicate within your business. No guests this time - just pure, unfiltered knowledge from your devoted People Gardener, because when you grow your people, you grow your business.
Well, hey there. Welcome to the People Gardener podcast. I'm Rhonda Delaney, your host, also known as the People Gardener, thrilled to put this podcast together to help small business owners, new business owners, frustrated business owners and aspiring leaders, whether they're inside business or outside. Each week, we bring you some actionable steps so that you can actually improve your skill as a leader. That's what we're about. We're here to help you become a better leader by giving you access to lots of different perspectives. By giving you access to lots of different perspectives, the guests are varied. We're thrilled to have them. Get out your pen, get out your paper and be ready to learn Every single episode. You're going to be able to take something away that you can implement. Are you ready? Let's get to work. Well, hey there. Welcome back to the People Gardener podcast. Happy to have you here this week.
Speaker 1:So this is the first of a three-part series that I'm going to do over the next three weeks and we're going to delve into 12 common small business owner mistakes. I'm planning this in advance because I'm gonna be at a coaching retreat the 18th and 19th of April, so I've gotta make sure I get these podcasts recorded in time. Let's dig in, and I don't want you to feel attacked. This is just observation, and not just my observation, but observation on the whole, and a lot of it comes from employee feedback. So one of the first ones is that you're just winging it and you don't have a plan. Now, let me preface this. We're talking about the employees, okay, I'm not talking about your business plan, your business model. This is all predicated on looking at it from an employee standpoint. So, winging it you don't have any clearly defined job descriptions, standard operating procedures, any of those kinds of things, something that I'd really encourage you to do. As a solution to that first one of winging it and I have to confess, when it comes to speaking, my speaking coach has a persona for that, and it's a winging it, wanda. So I understand that you're in the trenches. You haven't taken the time to actually put to paper the processes, the procedures of every single job, every single task, but I'm here to tell you it is absolutely imperative that you do that, not only for yourself, because you gain clarity, but for the employees that you're onboarding. Yes, you've got to have an onboarding process that makes it clear and simple, and the reality is that onboarding process starts with the interview. It's in the interview. Let them know how you operate, let them know that there's going to be standard operating procedures. They are going to know exactly what their job description is. I think I've mentioned this before A company that I did contract work for in Seattle.
Speaker 1:I was working with their up and coming managers that were being promoted into a role. The first thing I had each of them do, I said I want you to send me an email and list out everything that you believe that you're responsible for in this role, what's your job description? And they would send it to me and I would forward it on to the lady that hired me and say do you believe that this is their job description? We had a few tweaks, but for the most part they were clear. That only happens when there is clear documentation of what the job is, what's entailed, what skills do you need, what tasks are you going to perform? And then there's the standard operating procedures that explain the task. Get in there and get yourself organized. It's imperative to the happy engagement of your employees. No more winging it.
Speaker 1:The next one is your communication skill is sometimes non-existent, it's ineffective, and we've got all these different types of personalities. We've got the introverts, the ambiverts, the extroverts and any other vert you want to name. Bottom line is the introverts need to become more comfortable communicating and the extroverts need to learn how to shut up and have the conversation and let there be a back and forth instead of taking over the whole conversation. Something that helps is if, every day, you talk to the people that you lead. It doesn't have to be these 5, 10, 20 minute conversations. It can be a simple conversation in passing. Learn to get comfortable with speaking back and forth with one employee at a time, maybe a group of employees at a time. They absolutely won't bite and they need to know that you won't bite. And if you're really struggling, find a program. Toastmasters is a wonderful organization. Yes, it's a bit structured and it might be a little staid for some folks, but it's an opportunity for you to practice speaking.
Speaker 1:Your communication, whether it's your verbal or your nonverbal, yeah, super important. The most effective way for improving the workplace culture is for people to know hey, I'm, my boss is open to communication. My boss is interested in hearing what I have to say. It's in those moments that you're going to receive ideas and thoughts and observations that are going to help to grow your business and move it forward to a place that you might not even have imagined, that you might not even have imagined. So another that I see or mistake that I see of small business owners is you ignore the employees work life.
Speaker 1:I call it blending. Lots of buzz out there about work life balance. I'm not so sure that balance is the right word, because there is the yin and the yang, there's all in and then there's okay, we can pull back a bit. So I'm not sure if balance is right Blending I like the word blending If you don't have the conversation with your employees about what's going on in their life, how their life operates, because it's so different for every single person. If you've got somebody that has children and they've got the combination of daycare and school, there's demands on them that are very different than someone who is single, with no one in their life other than themselves. As far as having to accommodate time, I had an employee. She was in her 50s and she was caring for her mom. Her mom was in an assisted living facility but she was the point person for them, so there was a lot of demands on her time and sometimes she had to be gone for meetings with the nursing staff, with the doctors, because those happen during the workday.
Speaker 1:So really get to know the ebb and flow of what's going on in your employee's life. Get creative, don't be inflexible. When it comes to that. We tend to see the world only from our perspective, and the more often we can move into somebody else's perspective, the better off we are going to be, and it's going to benefit them and it's going to benefit you, because the more often you do that, the better you become at it, the better you become at communicating. And then you come up with solutions that blow your employees' minds because, wow, way to go. I love that. Again.
Speaker 1:Mistake is, you feel, because you're a small business owner, you can't afford to develop employees. So, whether that's personal or professional development opportunities, you think you know what. We just don't have the funds, we don't have the bandwidth to do that. I tell you there is a lot of information out there that is free. One of the things that you can take advantage of is, most libraries have the current books, the current audio books, and they're free. Get yourself a library card because you can go in and get those and you can give that to the employee and okay, bring it back in a week or whatever time frame you have to return it.
Speaker 1:Youtube is a wealth of knowledge. Now I get it. There's lots of whoa that's out there and whoa not a chance. You're going to have to spend some time in going through and determining which ones align with your values, with your company values. Bring those in. Have a list of all of these YouTube videos, even series, that would speak to developing someone, and I can tell you right now, one of the number one places that you want everyone to develop is in emotional intelligence. So getting programs, getting books that speak to that is going to do nothing but enhance the work environment that you're wanting to create.
Speaker 1:Another way it's long been said that it is when you have to go and teach somebody you'll learn the most right. Decide that you are going to take on the challenge of personal development, put something together. I'm not saying you have to do it from scratch. There's lots of help, lots of help out there. You can go online and learn things and then present them to your people, and it could be that you decide you know what. This is a great way for each of these people that want to develop skills for them to do a presentation to the whole group. Ah, might freak them out to start with, but as it goes, people are going to be more engaged, and engaged they're more likely to utilize what they're learning when it's their peers or you as a company have decided you know what.
Speaker 1:We're all in this together and we are going to learn together because it's going to help all of us. So just a bit of a recap we are going to find the recipe right, the recipe right. We're going to create the programs and the SOPs and the operating procedures, the onboarding process. We want to follow the recipe, no more winging it. And then we are going to learn how to be comfortable talking and expressing ourselves in a way that people will receive us. And then we're going to make sure that we understand each person's life and what's going on so that we can get the greatest potential for that work-life blending. And then we're all going to learn and have fun becoming this company of learners and teachers. So those first four. Next week we'll go over four more.
Speaker 1:So the mistakes it's the lack of clarity of defining the roles, it's poor communication, it's ignoring the work-life blending and it's neglecting to give people the professional development that they're wanting. Over these next three weeks, these 12 different mistakes we all make them. You may say, okay, well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna address these. You know what? Six months down the road, you're back to making the same mistake again. It's all part of the human experience and it is okay For you to be aware that's what we're going for and we're going for. Let's make small, incremental steps towards this phenomenal workplace culture and into transforming our employees into raving fans, because that is how you are going to gain freedom, personal freedom and freedom inside your business, and more profit is when you have this team of raving fans, and you absolutely can do it. But there's a few little tweaks that we're going to need to make in order for you to get there. So that's it for this week. We'll talk to you again next week.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks so much for listening to this episode. Hopefully you got a few nuggets that you can get into play right away, nuggets that you can get into play right away. Every week, we certainly try and bring you things that are going to make a difference in your leadership journey. If you haven't already gone on and checked the People Gardener Collective app, it's on the Apple Store and Google Play app. It's on the Apple Store and Google Play. The free membership has my 25 ways to be interested. It's a 25-day challenge. It's one item a day. It is a fabulous place to start your leadership transformation. Check it out. Love to get some feedback, so don't be afraid to leave a review or shoot me a message on any of my social channels or my email, ronda at rondadelaneycom. Thanks again for listening.