YOUR BUSINESS CORE VALUES DETERMINE THE SUCCESSS OF YOUR MISSION

The business core values of the future de-emphasizes the traditional idea of "boss/employee"
and encourages more mutually beneficial partnerships.

Most companies manage their employees with a traditional sense of coercion and control. 

These new partnerships are not bound by the traditional hierarchical definitions of status, rank, and
location, but rooted in values and goals.

To improve quality assurance you must harness these types of partnerships in your business now. They
must become a main piece of your business core values if you want to differentiate yourself and expand
your influence.

Differentiation Vs. Your Business Core Values

Understand the thing you can be best at in the world. Also understand the thing your team or business
can be best at in the world. These keys help you get to the core of your business.

Most businesses try to win by competing with other similar businesses by being better than them in the same
arena. Great businesses don't compete like this. They choose a specific trait that differentiates them and they can
be "best at". Then they operate from this "core" business characteristic.

You must stake your claim on how you are different, then back it up. This gives you the solid bedrock on
which you need to compete.

Having core values like this also allows you team the flexibility to act within both a rigid and a fluid
environment. As long as you don't break the core values of the business you can adapt to any situation.

"Every great organization is characterized by dual actions; preserve the core and stimulate
progress." --Jim Collins

The Value of Letting Go

Most leaders (most people for that matter) want to believe they are indispensable. The best leaders and
the best teams, put mechanisms in place so they can thrive without a specific person.

If you're seeking greatness in your business, strive for this core value.

People need to be a part of something. Knowing this can be beneficial to you as a leader. If you align the
business core values of your team with the values of the team members then their decision to belong and
contribute becomes much simpler. Really not a decision at all.

Mechanisms of Success
Trust and accountability become the core ingredients to building a unified group of people that is self-
sufficient, inter-dependent, and self-directed.

Your core values list become the binding force behind your organization's consistent growth, and continue
to expand without outgrowing its foundation.

Ask yourself these important questions as you build or rebuild your team.

 What core values define you?

  What experiences led you to owning those values?
 Are these values working in your life or are they ineffective?
 Do your values conflict with your current team?

Answering these questions (in writing!) about your core values becomes a valuable exercise to establish
clarity and alignment in your business, your team, and in your life.

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT AND REASON FOR BEING

One of the most important aspect of QA business management is choosing the type of employee to work
for you.

Most QA Managers will tell you they want "good employees"

"Good" usually means:

 They show up (or at least call when they're faking being sick).
 They don't cause (more than their "fair share") problems.
 They're productive (or at least they "fake it" well enough for you to look the other way). 

What's Your raison d'être? Are you a slave to your employees?

 Ask yourself, "What are some more traits of good employees and team members?"
 What does this have to do with business management jobs? Everything.
 As someone in charge or at least with some influence on hiring and firing decisions, you must have
a very precise profile in mind before you ever start looking for employees.
 Then you should find the most profitable employee you can find.
 Too many businesses exist without a raison d'être. . . A reason for being. What's more, they
manage employees who have no reason for existing (at least in a work capacity either).
 This may sound harsh, but to effectively manage a team or business you need to take the kid
gloves off. You must identify why your team, you, and your team members exist in the first place.
 If you said "businesses exist to employee people," you're fired.

Can You Manage People Locked in a Cage?

Boiled down, business management means determining your needs, building your team, assigning
responsibilities, gauging effectiveness, and ultimately holding the "right people" responsible for the
results.

You must determine how things are to be done, or else. . .

You’ll have the inmates running the cell block.

No vapid boring employee manuals, we're talking nuts and bolts greasy information

If you demand your employees tie their shoes a certain way (you're a little weird) you make that clear,
but you show them how you expect their shoes to be tied, then you hold them accountable.

If you're serious about business management for maximum profit, you cannot tolerate unacceptable
behavior.
Here's proof You Better Set the Rules Early or Your Team Will Do It For
You
Early in my career, I was working for one of the largest providers of lawn care in the country.

I started with this company at the same time as another kid, he was 19 or 20.

Well this kid set the entire sales floor on fire. Within a week he out sold the best salesman on the floor by
nearly 2 to 1. A month after his hiring, he brought in more business in a week than me in over a month.

Everyone, including our sales manager, was really in awe of this sales wonderkid.

But, unfortunately bad habits started to show.  He couldn't make it to work on time or at all. When not
selling, he past time on the phone with his girlfriend. Since he brought in so much business, the boss
overlooked his tardiness, rudeness, and absenteeism.

After all, he made our sales manager look like a genius. We were far and away the highest producing sales
team in the entire national organization (thanks much in part to this kid). . .

. . . This went on for four months. All the while the lateness and absences continued. As you can guess,
the general moral on the team waned.

Never Accept the Unacceptable

Left and right, senior management layed off salespeople for not meeting their sales quotas. This kid held
on because he really only needed to work a couple of hours to hit his quota for the week.

But all around him chaos ensured. People started coming in late; one guy came in wearing shorts; some
folks stopped showing up at all.

Needless to say, we were no longer the #1 sales team in the country! By this point, the sales manager
had the brass breathing down his neck and a full-blown sales team mutiny on his hands.

Just by looking the other way from one star employee's unacceptable behavior, senior
management reassigned (somewhere in Siberia I think) my sales manager to sell lawn care somewhere
else , and the star employee ended up going to jail for stealing a car.

What was the final outcome? I don't know, I quit long before that forth month was up. I knew I didn't
want to be part of that dysfunctional organization.

Business management is a slippery slope.

After all managers are people too. They have the same desire to be liked by the people they work with as
well. So often they accept the unacceptable from their employees. Don't let the inmates run the prison.

TEAM COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Developing effective team communication skills starts by instilling ownership. . .

Creative people, like you and me, want to feel a sense of ownership in our day-to-day work lives. We want
to "buy in" to the system and the team within which we work.
This "buying in" is initiated by good communication. . . the way we communicate the ideas, strategies,
and frameworks by which we work.

Our Ideals Can be Our Friends or Our Enemies

As a leader, get to know what makes the individuals on your teams tick on a personal level. Then begin
the dialogue by establishing a working relationship on that level.

Large corporate teams invest in significant time, resources, and energy to establish relationships.  But for
small business teams, with limited resources, time and energy must make up the difference.

The rewards are worth it. . .

On small teams, the ability to make meaningful personal connections with your fellow team members is
easier because you must work closely together to accomplish your goals.

Even on Small Teams the Principles of Leadership Still Apply:

You must:

 Model the Way

 Inspire a Shared Vision
 Challenge the Process
 Enable Action
 Encourage the Heart

Keep these principles in mind while communicating collectively with your team, or individually with the
team members. These develop deeper relationships by getting your employees to "buy in" to your
organizational concept.

For us, the shared sense of ownership in the workplace truly empowers. You feel the swell of pride when
you realize your team and organization represents what you stand for individually. Your identity doesn't
have to make adjustments for the actions of your organization.

This concept begins with the words you use individually, at the team level, and an organizational level.
Good effective communication unlocks true organizational performance.

But still, how do we ensure effective communication on our team? And how does our communication
impact how people perform?

In a team setting, effective team communication skills come at a huge premium.

Studies have shown, through good communication we can get more done, more effectively, and quicker
than when the lines of communication breakdown.

Be the Guy in the Middle of the Network

By making deeper, more meaningful, connections with more people on your team and nurturing those
connections you start true beginning of effective team communication skills.

Using these skills you'll inspire higher quality work from individual team members, make more
connections, and leverage the collective value of your entire team. By modeling right action, you inspire
your team to do the same.
With open lines of communication, information flows back to you like a river because you'll find yourself
more connected to the sources of feedback and "centers of influence' within your organization.