Business

As a manager, employees always look at you. They watch how you behave and are really careful about what you say. You have to always be intentional and be really careful with what you say. Some really simple statements that you often make might not have the effect you initially imagined. German Trujillo Manrique highlights some of the seemingly harmless statements that should never be made by a person in a position of leadership.

“Just Keep Doing What You Do”

This statement is usually made when talking to the high performers with the purpose of encouragement. Unfortunately, this type of feedback is actually really bad. The high performers will be left confused. They will be frustrated by what is mentioned since they are ambitious and almost always want to focus on improvement.

Constructive criticism is a huge part of being a leader. You have to offer this and try to mentor people, especially those that perform really well. A much better alternative would be to simply say what the performer is good at and what can be done to make future improvements.

“Was What I Said Clear?”

Such a statement always seems to be reasonable but it does not actually offer a truly accurate picture. No matter what the answer to the question is, you will not actually know if people understood what you said. As an example, many bright leaders offer a lot of information. The audience ends up being overwhelmed. When this happens, people do not really know how to answer. Also, when the question appears in a setting where many people are present, the possibility of responding is low due to fear of looking confused. Doing a quick review of what was presented is much better.

“Failure Is Not An Option”

This can only be appropriate when faced with a really dire situation. The best leaders understand that this is not something that should be the case with most meetings that happen. At first glance, you think that you are setting the bar really high. In reality, what you do is encourage mediocrity. When people are too afraid of making mistakes, they are not going to make any experiment. They will not try to find better ways to do anything.

A much better approach is to talk about calculated risks and put an emphasis on the fact that risks should only be taken in the event that there is a good possibility of success.

“Bring Me Solutions”

This is usually associated with something like “do not bring me problems”. The statement is normally made in order to encourage proactivity and problem-solving. What it does is stop many from talking about the issues that they do not know how to properly solve. As this happens, leaders end up being completely unaware of big problems that exist. Also, people end up being too invested in solutions. They want to sell ideas instead of working together with others.

As you can see, you have to be really careful about what you say. Some really simple statements you often use may be mistakes.

A lot of companies don’t feel that the services provided by an outplacement agency are a necessary investment. That is until they are required to make employment cuts throughout different departments and have the unfortunate task of laying off a few of their loyal workers.

No company enjoys firing people or making cuts throughout the workplace but sometimes it is just something that needs to happen. The process doesn’t have to be so terrible though and can be alleviated with the help of outplacement services.

Outplacement agencies provide services to companies in the instance of firings or layoffs in order to help their employees find new work opportunities as quickly as possible. There are plenty of agencies that provide these services but not all of them are as successful as the next. When investing in outplacement always look for these key features and services.

At least 30 days of support

It isn’t enough to just give your ex-employees one day or one week of support in finding a new job. Finding employment takes time so you should only invest in an outplacement agency that offers at least one month of support. This should give someone plenty of time to find a job or at least land a few interviews.

The best outplacement services offer 45+ days of support. Keep in mind that the more you pay for outplacement the longer the support period tends to be. If you invest some money into an outplacement program there is a good chance that there will be up to 90 days of support provided.

One-on-one interview coaching sessions

Interviewing is an important aspect of the job hunting process. Even if your resume is flawless and you have the appropriate skills and qualifications, the real test is during an interview. Outplacement can help you feel fully prepared for the interview process by offering one-on-one coaching sessions.

During these sessions you’ll practice how to answer questions that are likely to be asked by the interviewer. Questions about strengths and weaknesses, educational background, and previous work experience aren’t always easy so having a coaching session beforehand can make all the difference.

Modern job search coaching

You would think that with so many search engines in 2019 that the prospect of finding a job would be simple. Unfortunately this is not always the case, especially if you don’t know how to use search engines like Indeed or Monster in the right way.

LinkedIn profile optimization

A lot of hiring companies expect you to have a LinkedIn profile and if you don’t you might not be considered for the position at all. Outplacement services can help you update your existing profile or create a new one from scratch. These professionals know the ins and outs of LinkedIn and know what hiring companies are looking for in these profiles.

Complete resume writing and supporting documents

This is the priority service offered by outplacement agencies everywhere. If you have worked in the same place for 15+ years there’s a good chance that you haven’t even looked at your resume in a while. Outplacement can help you perfect your resume in order to showcase your skills in the best way possible.

If you are looking at setting up your own business then I would like to share with you some key learnings which I have made after completing 3 years in business. I opened Lyoness, a female beauty store back in 2016 and the journey has been incredible so far. Naturally there have been highs and lows during that period but we have survived, and we have just started to make actual profit, an exciting time.

Although I studied business at college, you really don’t learn about running a business until you actually do it and this experience has been very eye-opening for me. Here is what I learned from those first 3 years with Lyoness. 

Recruiting 

One of the key learnings which I have made since launching the business is that when recruiting, you have to bear the team dynamic in mind. For the first year I would hire sales staff or management based on their own profile, without considering how they may fit into the team dynamic. The consequence of this was the hiring of some people who were great at sales, but who weren’t good at working with a team or getting on with others, and this presented a number of conflicts. Now when I hire people I ensure that they are the right fit for the team. 

Marketing 

Now that I look back on the first 3 years I realize that the way in which we have spent money on marketing has not always been the smartest investments. For example when we first launched our marketing campaign we decided to use email marketing and we then spent a lot of time on social media, although we didn’t pay for social media ads. I now know that any marketing strategy should combine a number of different marketing approaches, in order to really get the most from it. Instead of investing our whole marketing budget on one method, we now spread it out to hit as many points and targets as possible. 

Small Steps

Something which I was very guilty of from the outset was trying to turn this business into a global leader after just a few weeks, well my dreams weren’t quite as grand as that but you get the point. I am not someone who is very good at being patient and this is why I was already planning for growth before we had even established ourselves. It became apparent after a couple of months that these years were about building a foundation from which to launch the business from, a key learning. 

DIY

There is a temptation as a business owner to do it all yourself in order to save money but you simply cannot do it. There just isn’t enough time in the day to complete all of the tasks yourself and you have to either outsource or delegate in order to be more effective. 

Hopefully the learnings which I have made with Lyoness can help you in your business endeavors.