HR Management: Which Employees Are Most-Likely to Quit?

 

If you need help in retaining talent, an HR study contends there is a way to determine how to anticipate which employees are likely to leave, according to an article in CFODailyNews.com.

The study by eePulse, Inc, the HR software company, contends there are four criteria of employees who are most likely to quit.

The four are:

• Workers aged 41 to 45
• IT and marketing professionals
• Directors and supervisor/managers
• Employees working at companies at average or below average pay

The article suggests monitoring more-closely workers who took on added responsibilities during the downturn. Those employees are more inclined to feel taken for granted. You know what that means. They’ll look for work with your with your competitors.

For possible solutions, here are some key questions for you to consider:

1. Have you gauged the attitudes of your employees?
2. Have you conducted a wage and compensation study?
3. What does your employee-recognition program look like?
4. Do you make education and training programs available?
5. What training do you provide to upgrade the skills of your managers?
6. What have you accomplished to increase sales for better cash flow to reward deserving workers?

Once you have positive answers to these questions, you’ll lessen the likelihood of having to suffer from employee turnover. Notice that most of the challenges to retaining workers is solved by skilled management. It’s important to have great relationships with your workers and to be empathetic with them. Within reason, they need to know that you care about them.

Who wants to lose valuable employees? Especially, losing valuable employees to competitors is not only a human-capital loss, it means a loss in profit. Plus, it results in a marketplace stigma. You want to be known as one of the best places to work.

From the Coach’s Corner, this sites’ HR section has 25 HR-coaching topics.

Here’s a sample:

• How to avoid EEOC Discrimination Suits
• Management and HR for higher performance
• Human Resources: 12 Errors to Avoid in Evaluations

How To Deal With An Oppressive Employer

 

Updated April 29, 2010 9:16 p.m.

In the private and public sectors, organizational performance is strong when employees are confident. In turn, employees perform well and they are confident in their employers if the organization is competitive. That can only come if an organization is well-managed, and employees are confident about their future and are treated well.

So it was disturbing when someone recently asked me  what to do about an abusive boss. The degreed employee had just received a negative -performance appraisal, and is a white-collar professional over 40 years old. The appraisal threatened a coaching and counseling session in 90 days as a precursor to being terminated.

So I asked some open-ended questions to get the person to open up to me. The person mentioned examples of increasing hostility from the boss, micro-management, uneven treatment compared to coworkers, and reduced duties after trying to speak up. Also cited were cases of other employees who were forced out after long tenures.

Among my conclusions: The boss was guilty of age discrimination, harassment and retaliation.

Even in the face of such bad management, my personal philosophy is to try to avoid calling attorneys or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The self-esteem benefits from triumphing over such adversities are worth it.  So, before calling the EEOC, I suggested an alternative.

My counsel included these measures:

• Respond in writing to the appraisal after doing some research. (Research should include best-practices management, related-EEOC definitions on discrimination and harassment, the organization’s employee handbook and the organization’s published management principles.)
• Then compare the supervisor’s behavior with the best-practices management, EEOC standards, and the organization’s employee handbook and management principles .
• Document and compile a list of management misbehavior – try to reach the magic number of six allegations of poor management.
• Write a response using five steps in “How To Assertively Voice  A Complaint.”

The five steps:

1. Ask for a meeting and suggest two options (e.g. “How about Monday at 10 or Wednesday at 2?” ).  It’s a good sign if the person selects the first option. Either the boss is a decent person or anxious to find out what’s on the employee’s mind.
2. At the start of the meeting, give the person two strokes – two valid compliments. Even an abusive boss has two qualities worth mentioning. The extreme example I use in HR teamwork classes is Adolph Hitler, the world’s most notorious madman. Even Hitler could have been complimented for his cunning and for being an excellent orator, right? I suggested to the employee  –  in the event two qualities didn’t come to mind – then, the employee is culpable, too, because of  a negative or fearful attitude. Negative or fearful attitudes are manifested in poor work performance.  (What, if any of the supervisor’s criticism is valid?)
3. Hand the supervisor the written response that includes steps 2-5 , starting with the compliments and mention how and why the boss  makes the employee feel uncomfortable. NOTE: Here’s where you insert your six complaints. (e.g. “I feel uncomfortable when…”).
4. Then, tell the person what you want (e.g. “What I want is…”)
5. Get a contract or an agreement by asking a simple question (e.g. “Are you willing to…?”). Then, pause and wait for the person to answer. If the person agrees, shake hands and watch for improvement. If the person says no, don’t make any threats but politely leave and head for the telephone to call the EEOC. Remember in adversarial situations,  never  give away your power by telegraphing your next move.

In the three decades I have used this assertive process – or taught it to others – it has always worked. True to form, the employee received a re-worded employee appraisal with the threat of termination deleted.

From the Coach’s Corner, here are two resources: 

• If you’re lacking in confidence in business or other relationships, try reading an excellent book on how to be assertive. It’s a best-seller entitled, “When I say no, I feel guilty,” by Dr. Manuel Smith.
• If you’re a manager and want to avoid employee problems, consider the readings in the HR section of this site, including: “Managers Be Careful – EEOC Discrimination Suits Are Skyrocketing.”

Management and HR for higher performance

Part three: How to grow your small business

In analyzing the growth rates of small businesses – every great entrepreneur has one salient quality – the ability to be an effective manager.

An effective manager efficiently allocates resources for achieving goals. Quality management usually results from an independent SWOT analysis – assessing internal strengths and weaknesses along with evaluating external opportunities and threats.

Self-employed people need to carefully inventory their own strengths and weaknesses as business personalities. They should also assess how to maintain their good health because they’ll suffer if they don’t. Larger companies should focus on several factors in a strength-weakness analysis of their human resources, such as recruitment, training and development, compensation, culture, leadership, reliability, and salespeople.

Once a business owner looks in the mirror to assess management strengths and weaknesses, then he or she is ready to analyze opportunities and threats for a strategic plan.

Even if a strategic plan is well-written, beware: Management practices that work well in the early growth of a small firm often cause problems later, according to a series of articles in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) by Dr. Larry E. Greiner. He believes such managers fail to take into account “present events or market dynamics.”

“Creative activities are essential for a company to get off the ground. But as the company grows, those very activities become the problem,” Dr. Greiner wrote in a 1998 HBR article, “Evolution and revolution as organizations grow.” His thesis is still accurate.

Red Flags

Business expert Neil Delisanti agrees that managers often fail to solve red flags: “There are forces inside the organization that they control; forces outside the organization over which they have little, if any, control; and probably most important, red flags in themselves, about which they may or may not be aware. A good manager must be constantly aware of the impact of all these forces. One of the common failings in managers is that they blame all sorts of things for their failures, rather than admitting they didn’t have a good handle on what’s happening.”

Mr. Delisanti has gifted insights because he speaks from both an academic and solid mentoring perspective. He was a faculty member at both the University of Puget Sound and The Evergreen State College. As the guru for the Small Business Development Center in Tacoma, he counseled more than 2,000 companies.

Mr. Deslisanti believes too many small business owners micro-manage: “Many folks start a business and believe it is their inspiration that made it a success. Although this is sometimes true, what we find on closer inspection is that it was their perspiration and natural management ability that was more responsible. They have invested a lot, money, time, and sanity, in their enterprise and find it hard turning it over, often even small parts, to someone else to possibly blow it. Any business can grow to where the owner just cannot physically, mentally or emotionally, do it all.”

Does he believe managers limit their business growth by poor human-resource management techniques? “Often, yes. This is particularly true of a company that starts with an owner and spouse sitting at the dining room table. Not only are there innumerable government restrictions on what is legal, we have to look at what the workforce expects from employers today. The management of people isn’t as simple as the old my way or the highway anymore. Diversity in all areas requires that SBOs have to look at differences in age, gender, race, ethnicity, education, background and experience – just to mention a few facets that have to be considered.”

When to start HR function

“I strongly recommend that as a business gets above the 15-20 employee range, the owner set up some sort of human resource function, and get some assistance in designing job descriptions, recruitment policies, pre-tests, application forms and very importantly – interview policies and procedures,” he suggested.

To underscore his concerns about HR precautions, I agree. I’ve been called upon to help two businesses:

1. A cable TV company was fined $15,000 by U.S. District Court for sexual discrimination of an applicant. The company’s law firm asked me to provide a three-hour seminar on Equal Employment Opportunity laws as part of the sentencing to close the case.

2. An interstate trucking firm was fined $100,000 and required to design a new wage and compensation plan (Note: the company’s pay system worked fine when it was smaller).

In both cases, the bosses were nice people unaware of the dangers in a litigious society.

Because small businesspeople often seem to feel they’re under siege, Mr. Delisanti suggests: “Have a vision or goal and incorporate it into a strategic plan, which is different than a business plan. This can come in many forms, but it should be organized and written. Identify your vision and then develop a list of goals that will let you succeed, quantify them, put some time frames on completing them. Most important – assign some responsibility to someone to get it done. This will have you on a course of your choosing and let you become proactive instead of reactive.” 

Premature growth

He says some companies grow too fast: “This happens when growth gets out of control when you can’t fill the orders, due to a lack of materials, equipment, people or cash. This can also happen when the company gets too big for the owner to handle.”  

Others grow too slow to cover added costs and expenses: “Usually, this is a result of overly optimistic forecasts that bring about expenditures that far exceed revenues. Many reasons cause this, such as an SBO’s enthusiasm; level of success with business on a smaller scale; and non-credible or insufficient marketing research,” he said.

Mr. Delisanti warns about unforeseen situations in the external environment: “Even the best forecasting can’t predict a tsunamis, earthquake and the level of destruction that natural disasters can wreak upon an industry. Consider skiing in the Pacific Northwest some seasons – there can be a bad time to open a new ski shop.”

He says challenges result from miscalculating factors in what he calls an “uncontrollable” industry environment: “When a business conducts an opportunity-threat analysis, it should look closely at a number of factors and make its decision, based on what it thinks will happen and how the chain of events will impact its goal attainment. If the business thinks incorrectly, it might lose the competitive advantage over somebody thinking correctly. Remember: Everybody can’t win. If you look at all the data and think that interest rates will go up 9 percent and take the actions that will best help you achieve your goals under those conditions, but if they only go up 2 percent, other companies will probably have an advantage over you.”

So, there you have an overview – how to grow your small business – in a three-part series.

The two previous columns:

Marketing Essentials on a Shoestring Budget

10 Scholarly Solutions for Selling More Products

From the Coach’s Corner, for more free counsel, he suggests that you contact the nearest SBDC office.

HR Management: It’s a Mistake to Overlook Succession Planning

December 20, 2009

 

Bank of America is among many businesses teaching us valuable lessons about leadership in succession planning. From the stakeholders’ point-of-view, B of A took an exasperating long time to name a new CEO. The delay suggested that the B of A board and outgoing CEO Ken Lewis bungled by not succession planning.

Critics point out the significance of the job and why it’s important for a new CEO to get a running start.

But Brian Moynihan walks into his new position facing a barrage of problems: The investigation into B of A’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch, friction with regulators, opponents in Congress who have questioned his leadership, and cultural issues within the company.

Succession planning should be an ongoing strategic process. It’s vital for identifying talent and building a reserve bench for development. However, delays in succession planning result in a perceived lack of competence – image problems in the marketplace, among shareholders and internally with employees.

To empower shareholders as a policy matter, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a nonbinding legal bulletin calling for transparency in management succession. 

So it isn’t surprising that activist shareholders are going after the likes of B of A, American Express and Whole Foods regarding their succession plans. That includes the 500,000 member Laborers’ International Union of North America. The union is targeting 14 companies and asking them to disclose their succession plans in detail.

More than 1,ooo executives admit their problems with succession planning, according to a study by search firm Egon Zehnder International. It showed none of the responding executives believe they’re good at succession planning. Forty-seven percent admit being mediocre in the process of succession planning and 53 percent disclose their ineffectiveness.

“The global financial crisis has resulted in high CEO turnover. This fact combined with the recent SEC announcement that would allow shareholders to challenge the Board to disclose more information about plans for CEO succession, makes developing a succession plan even more critical,” says George L. Davis, Jr., an executive at Egon Zehnder International.

Responding were 1,092 senior executives in every business sector from a total of nine nations.

While the situation is untenable in the U.S., it’s worse overseas. Seventy-one percent of UK responders believe they’re just so-so in succession planning while 80 percent of French executives say they are unsuccessful.

But it isn’t bleak everywhere abroad. Fifty-seven percent in India believe they’re doing well. Seventy percent in Germany say they’re successful.

For small family businesses, succession planning is complicated by the federal estate tax. Also derisively called the death tax, it’s 45 percent after a $3.5 million threshold on heirs of family estates. The tax won’t be imposed in 2010, but will make its return in 2011.

Not to mention the time-consuming preparation for a business owner who is advanced in age, the estate tax is a nightmare for family businesses with considerable land, such as farms, or manufacturing equipment.

The tax jeopardizes the business. Because of cash flow, many heirs have to sell company assets to pay the tax.

Yes, some business owners incrementally transfer assets before their passing to avoid the harsh tax. But often some find they lose control of the business to their heirs while they’re still alive.

So don’t emulate B of A. You can do better in succession planning. And yes, it’s important in the public sector and nonprofits.

From the Coach’s Corner, some small business owners erroneously believe a will constitutes a succession plan. Not true. They’re not the same thing.

New businesses don’t need a succession plan. They should start thinking about a succession plan when the business starts to grow in value.

Professional guidance should be obtained.

Not to oversimplify, every case is different but here some basic elements to consider:

• If children are involved, first learn if it’s feasible for them to be involved in the family business.
• Get a sense from every family member regarding the business’ future.
• Give summer jobs to children that will expose them to all areas of the business. Not all kids are interested in eventually taking over. That’s disappointing to parents, but the sooner they know the better.
• If you have a partnership, you’ll need to draft a buy/sell document that includes an agreement on the business’ value so one partner can buy from the other. A shareholder agreement is customary for corporations.
• A vision for the business will be needed in case of death. To be decided – what should happen to the business and who will own the firm whether it’s a family member or partner. If the heir is not a relative but there are family members involved, an instrument should be devised in case the partner will buy out the shares of the surviving family members.
• After developing an agreement on the succession plan, then decide on insurance matters for liquidity purposes.
• Review the succession plan on a regular basis and update it as needed.

Finally, a word of caution: More than 90 percent of family businesses typically don’t succeed past the second generation.

Poor planning is often the reason why inherited businesses do not succeed. And unless the children invest or buy the business from their parents, it usually doesn’t work. It’s often better if they don’t receive the business as a gift.

Not to be cruel, but the heirs simply don’t have the passion or ability to successfully operate a business founded by their parents.

Stunning News: Eliminate Sales Quotas to Make Profits

 

In every industry since the Great Recession began in December, 2007, it’s become twice as hard to make a dollar. But as a sales manager, you already know this, right?

All things being equal, there are four reasons for your sales demise:

1. The economy – there are no more boom times – markets aren’t expanding. Competition is tough. You really have to hustle.
2. There are simply too many products chasing too few dollars. Most of your sales come at the direct expense of your competition.
3. Technology and social media. If your salespeople are not harnessing social media – for customer research and word-of-mouth sales – they, and by extension, you, are behind the times. Web sites, radio, TV, newspapers, direct mail and the telephone directory to a certain extent no longer suffice to create a buzz. The Digital Age has created a mega consumer and businessperson information-overload. Not only are companies expected to brand themselves, so are salespeople. Generally, that means getting on MySpace to create sales opportunities if you sell inexpensive products and Facebook for higher-end inventory. And don’t forget possibly using Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, Flickr and YouTube.
4. Not enough face time and customer appreciation. You need to ramp up the in-person exposure to customers. Too many salespeople do not see enough of their prospects and customers. And they commit a bigger sales-sin by showing too-little appreciation to customers. Seventy percent of customers buy elsewhere because they feel taken for granted.

For these reasons, sales have become a zero-sum game. In this downturn – more than in any other economic cycles – you can only gain when your competition loses.

So how do you motivate your sales team?

Unless you hand them sales leads, you need top performers to prospect and convert leads into profitable business relationships, and continually develop solutions to solve customers’ business problems. That can only come when they find needs to fill, target the right prospects, and create a happy buying environment while showing enthusiasm for their customers.

There are two other important considerations: How do you compensate them? How do you set goals?

All of these factors make sales forecasting more challenging.

OK, you’re thinking, “Tell me something I don’t know.”

New Sales Research

Sure, let’s consider research by a pair of marketing professors: Harikesh Nair of Stanford University and Sanjog Misra at the University of Rochester. Their research concludes that profits come easier if you end sales quotas. What? That’s tantamount to blasphemy in sales management, right?

The professors’ 2009 research at an unidentified Fortune 500 company – a contact lens manufacturer – shows a compensation plan sans quotas “resulted in a 9% improvement in overall revenues, which translates to about $1 million of incremental revenues per month,” according to a press release from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

“The fundamental problem is that managers never know exactly how much time and effort their salespeople are putting into their work,” says Stanford’s Dr. Nair. “In the absence of such knowledge, they can only base payment on agents’ output, not their input.”

The school says an aggregate $800 billion is paid each year in sales compensation – nearly 300 percent higher than companies spend on advertising. But is it a good investment? Perhaps not. The professors’ test-subject company enjoyed a $1 million a month increase after dropping sales quotas.

You have been paying commissions and possibly bonuses based sales-quota performance. The idea, of course, is that salespeople are incentified to work harder to achieve goals.

But let’s face it: Salespeople sandbag – they game the system, and often postpone sales to look good later. So do sales managers.

Sales Confession

Yes, I also sandbagged in the 1970s as a young field representative for a group insurance company in California. I recall being the company’s No.1 producer in the northern California sales territory for nine consecutive months. One month during that stretch, I sensed my sales would be slower the following month. So I held off in submitting some car and home insurance policy applications. I turned them after the first of the following month, and led again. Why? I felt pressure to meet sales quotas.

My sales track-record earned the attention of two other well-known insurance companies that recruited me, and I quit seeking to climb new sales mountains.

As a new insurance agent at a competing company and despite a sterner sales quota system, my enthusiasm helped me to sell a surprising large number of policies in my first month on the job. My two managers were beaming. Then, I was very pleased when my regional boss bought a $100,000 whole life insurance policy and gave me credit for the sale by naming me the agent-of-record. The commission would be huge. I naively thought he was rewarding me for my first month’s sales achievement. I was overjoyed and salivating over my anticipated commission.

But I soon plummeted toward earth. I forgot the company was in the middle of a life-insurance sales contest. When the contest was over and within the 30-day free-look window, the manager canceled the policy. Then it hit me: Even C-level executives sandbag. But this time, it disillusioned me because it hurt my pocketbook – one of my early lessons in “what goes around comes around.”

Also, I learned too late about the quota differences between the two companies, and the impact on my performance. With a lower morale and reduced respect for the company, my sales decreased.

In the Professor Nair and Misra approach, they developed models in relation to the behavior of the manufacturer’s salespeople. The mathematical models determined the design of the compensation plan to forecast sales while evaluating the costs of inefficiencies associated with sandbagging.

The net result was the 9 percent increase in revenue. Whoa!

Motivating Salespeople

A side-benefit: Salespeople loved the new compensation model. “Most salespeople do not like quotas,” says Dr. Nair.

Amen.

But he admits the elimination of sales quotas may not work for every business. “What managers need to do is evaluate more carefully how the system is functioning for their own organization,” says Dr. Nair.

He suggests companies research the salespersons’ responses to various facets of the compensation plan and that they determine the impact on sales. “That can give a company a good base by which to evaluate what can happen if they do change the compensation system,” he explains.

“Dynamic programming” is what they call their mathematical approach in increasing profits.

“Firms now operate in an increasingly complex and data-rich environment,” says Dr. Nair.  “Those that understand how to harness the power of this data to cut through this complexity will enjoy a lasting competitive advantage.”

Agreed.

From the Coach’s Corner, ever wonder why your customers feel like a number?

Here are some Biz Coach strategies on compensation and motivation techniques:

1. Keep your compensation plan simple.
2. Make it easy for your salespeople to track.
3. Keep an open mind – test, test, and fine-tune your sales program’s effectiveness as conditions warrant.
4. Instead of a set quota for sales numbers, emphasize footwork. That’s right, emphasize footwork over quotas.

In requiring a certain number of sales calls each day along with a high-level of customer service, there has always been a noticeable difference whether I was in sales, management or as a consultant to clients. That’s been true in different economies – good or bad. Specifically, 15 sales calls a day – in-person as much as possible – have always improved morale and dramatically increased sales at the expense of competitors.

Related reading: The Seven Steps to Higher Sales, a link to the Biz Coach secrets for sales success.

This includes seven steps to higher sales, five value perceptions that motivate customers to buy, and the three-step process for overcoming sales objections.

Keys to Economic Development: Managing Ignorance

 

Here’s a premise on which most businesspeople and educators probably can agree: the legendary Dr. Peter Drucker – as a writer, teacher and consultant – was the ultimate as a business-role model. He surprisingly had some periodic critics in education. He preferred Claremont Graduate University, www.cgu.edu, and reportedly turned down four professorship offers from Harvard.

At the age of 95 in a published interview in 2004, he was asked if he had any regrets about his work.

His response:

“There are many books I could have written that are better than the ones I actually wrote. My best book would have been “Managing Ignorance,” and I’m very sorry I didn’t write it.”

He was a voracious reader, wonderful inspiration to millions, and he lived a long, rich life. As one of my heroes, I selfishly wish he lived longer – he passed away Nov. 11, 2005. His teachings have particular significance for me.

If given the opportunity for an interview, with great delectation I would have relished the visionary’s analysis on numerous fronts regarding the economy.

That includes these four developments:

No. 1: Decrease in educated Americans. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education has issued some disturbing news in its policy alert, which is entitled, “Income of U.S. Workforce Projected to Decline if Education Doesn’t Improve.” It calls on the 50 states to do a better job in education to prevent a projected decline in worker skills in order to brighten the future of America’s economy.

The public policy group, www.highereducation.org, contends the American workforce is undergoing major change; especially the core of workers, age 25 to 64. Until at least 2020, the study shows worker wages will continue to decrease. Simultaneously, the number of workers with high school and college diplomas will decline exponentially.

Why? The number of educated white workers will drop from 82 percent to 63 percent while the number of less educated minorities will increase from 18 percent to 37 percent. (The center’s study is available at http://www.highereducation.org/reports/pa_decline/index.shtml)

No. 2: Decline in math and science. America’s expertise in science and technology is fast deteriorating, according to a study by the National Academy of Sciences, www.nationalacademies.org. The report was written by a group of top corporate executives, educators and scientists and is entitled, “Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future.”

In essence, the panel of experts set four goals:

• Improve math and science education in grades K-12.
• A more cordial milieu for science for college and post graduate studies.
• Increase federal funding for scientific research.
• Encourage the growth of family-wage jobs in evolving industries with tax incentives and other fiscal tools.

It wasn’t surprising that the report identified two Asian countries, India and China, as among the nations that will surpass the U.S. in job creation and innovation. (The report is available in a PDF file at http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11463.html.)

No. 3: The quandary over China. The U.S. is appeasing China to excess, according to economist and professor of international business at the University of Maryland, Peter Morici.

“These policies impose huge trade deficits and unemployment on the United States, create enormous imbalances in the global economy, and contribute importantly to the Great Recession,” he wrote in a commentary Oct. 8, 2005.

He is on a quest to educate America about China’s approach, as evidenced in this 2005 e-mail to me: “To secure its supply of oil, extend its influence and solidify internal security, the Chinese government is building a blue-water navy and spending massively to modernize its army

By even us advocates of free trade, it is hard to ignore the professor’s conclusions.

“That means targeted trade sanctions if China does not revalue its yuan and does not respect intellectual property, and if it exploits worker rights to achieve export advantages or otherwise breaks the norms and rules it acknowledged by joining the World Trade Organization, International Labor Organization and other international organizations,” he said.

“It’s time to face up to the fact that China, rather than evolving into a democratic society with a market economy, could just as easily morph into a fascist menace with global reach,” he said. “Appeasement didn’t work for Britain dealing with Germany in the 1930s, and it is not working for America with China now.”

Could Dr. Drucker have related to Dr. Morici’s analogy? Who knows? But when the Nazis banned and burned one of his essays in the 1930s, Dr. Drucker fled to England. He argued against the appeasement of Germany by England.

No. 4: Creation of jobs. Three-fourths of all the planet’s new jobs will be generated by just 9.8 percent of new businesses, according to a research organization, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), in its assessment of entrepreneurship in 39 countries.

While women entrepreneurs are a major force in America, most of these anticipated startups are to be launched by well-educated men aged 25-34 years with high incomes in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Ostensibly, monetary trade issues and the pressures of an uneducated workforce will apparently vex a major economic engine – the world’s startup entrepreneurs. (GEM entrepreneurship reports are available at www.gemconsortium.org.)

So, how would Dr. Drucker analyze such developments? Good question. For clues, I’ll re-read his books in my office.

For starters, consider:

In his book, “Managing for results,” he wrote: “Waste runs high in any business. Man, after all, is not very efficient. Special efforts to find waste are therefore always necessary.”

And while training the board of directors of an organization, I was reminded once again that his writings are a great resource. In answering a question about how I continually evaluate my efficiency, I told the audience that I never end my day’s work until I assess my activities. That is one of my daily efforts thanks, in part, to the management pioneer.

In “Management Challenges for the 21st Century,” Dr. Drucker suggested that it is important for a manager to know the answer the question, “Where do I belong?”

But to answer that career dilemma, he pointed out it is actually necessary for a person to know the answers to three questions:

1. What are my strengths?
2. How do I perform?
3. What are my values?

What a wonderful scholar. In my experience as a business practitioner, I know he was right.

Candidly, as a management consultant, I meet few managers and staff in the workplace who innately know to ask and answer such questions. But after they’re trained in how to accurately assess their strengths and weaknesses, they benefit from an average 30 percent increase in self esteem. As a result, organizations progress nicely as their managers and workers perform much better.

By the way, for many years in HR training classes, I’ve quoted this Dr. Drucker statement: “Arrogance is being proud of ignorance.”

In other words, continual study and evaluation will help a person to avert complacency.

If every businessperson practiced these principles, promoted education and focused on managing ignorance, the economic outlook would be brighter.

From the Coach’s Corner, 58 percent of small business managers and owners believe the economic climate will worsen according to an Aug. 2009 study by Small Business Research Board (SBRB).

Salient SBRB conclusions include:

• Fifty percent of businesspeople in the northeastern part of the nation believe the worst is over.
• The least confident – 62 percent of respondents in the western U.S. fear the worst is ahead.

To read more, visit www.ipasbrb.com.