Management and Leadership Tips for Modern Times – L&R Merchandising

Modern times calls for management techniques and abilities that require adaptation to any ever evolving business environment, L&R Merchandising shares some insight into tips for succeeding in modern times.

Growing your business to the level of sales and overall success that you want is not only reliant upon the quality of your products or services, but also upon the quality of your leadership. If your skills as a manager are not up to par, then you will not be able to get the most out of your workers. Inadequate management skills can even lead to your employees deciding to leave your company, which means that you will have to spend a great deal of money to train new employees. Instead of cutting into your profit margin, you can grow your management skills as a leader so that you can ultimately grow your business.

Most business leaders’ management problems stem from one of two misconceptions. They believe, erroneously, that in order to lead effectively, they must either instill fear into their employees or, that they must be friends with them. Neither of these are appropriate long term management strategies, since they will not grow your employees’ respect for you neither their loyalty to the business.

Managing your staff effectively begins with making it clear what you expect from each of them. No matter how small your business is, each employee should still have a formal written job description that describes his or her job duties in detail. It should be reviewed as part of his or her annual review, and updated as his or her job evolves, even if he or she is not ostensibly promoted.

Tell your employees when they have done something well. It can be as simple as a “good job,” or a more formal thank you note, e-mail, gift card or other token of your appreciation. Boosting morale within your business is an important component of management, and it begins with reminding your employees that while you expect them to do their jobs well, you also appreciate when they go above and beyond the call of duty.

Listening to your workers’ body language as well as what they say is an important part of being a good manager. Are they truly engaged during your meetings? If your hour-long weekly staff meetings seem to be too long for them to focus, then instead of being annoyed, shorten your meetings to a half hour. Remember, time spent in staff meetings is time you are paying your employees, but that they are not working to add value to the business, and plan accordingly.