Home » leadership

Tag: leadership

image of woman pointing at sign about national volunteer month and business mentoring

The Good Karma of Being a Business Mentor

April is National Volunteer Month, a time to recognize the people who give their time and talents to benefit others. At SCORE, our volunteers are the lifeblood of our organization as they enable us to fulfill our mission of helping entrepreneurs start and grow their small businesses.

 

SCORE Maine’s volunteer business mentors have provided guidance and resources to more than 3,768  entrepreneurs in 2019. In 2019, SCORE Maine volunteers helped create 356 businesses and 923 jobs. Our clients aren’t the only people who reap the rewards from mentoring, though. Our volunteers also gain some valuable advantages through doing their good work.

 

If you have thought about volunteering as a business mentor but haven’t quite decided whether you want to get involved, consider the following ways mentoring enriches volunteers personally and professionally.

 

Instills a sense of personal accomplishment.

Being a mentor brings a sense of achievement as you help aspiring entrepreneurs and existing small business owners overcome uncertainty and obstacles. Whether you’re assisting someone to navigate the uncharted territory of launching a startup or offering guidance to help an established company market itself more effectively, you gain the satisfaction of knowing you’re making a positive difference in the lives of people within your community who are, in turn, improving the local economy.

Provides camaraderie.

As a SCORE mentor, you are part of a dedicated and accomplished team of more than 130 Maine volunteers who share your passion for seeing small businesses succeed. Mentors draw from each others’ strengths and proficiencies as they help entrepreneurs tackle their challenges. SCORE has 300+ chapters across the United States where mentors meet face to face or virtually, to collaborate, learn from each other and build lasting friendships.

Strengthens communications skills.

Mentoring can help you fine-tune your ability to communicate clearly with others. Through in-person mentoring sessions with clients, leading workshops, conducting roundtable groups or getting involved in other initiatives, you can become stronger and more confident when speaking and writing.

Enhances leadership skills.

As a business mentor, you have many opportunities for honing your ability to lead others. Not only can you develop your leadership skills by providing guidance and feedback to clients, but you can also participate in other roles (such as heading a committee) that allow you to engage and motivate other volunteers.

Expands connections within your community.

Mentoring opens the door to meeting a wide variety of individuals and organizations. From community leaders to chambers of commerce to economic development groups, you’ll diversify and expand your personal and professional network, which could lead to new opportunities.

Offers continued learning opportunities to enhance your own business acumen.

As you guide business owners, you also expand your own expertise. Every SCORE client brings unique questions and situations to the table. While mentoring, you will learn and continually stretch the boundaries of your entrepreneurial know-how through your work with clients and the educational resources available through SCORE, SBA and other organizations. SCORE’s webinars, local workshops and online business resources are marvelous professional development tools.

Provides a point of distinction on your professional resume.

If you aspire to advance in your career, serving as a SCORE business mentor will give you a credible and highly regarded community service talking point for your resume. Mentoring demonstrates an ability to lead, solve problems and collaborate productively with others—all traits employers value in prospective job candidates.

 

As you can see, mentoring generates some good karma. Not only is it a win for the entrepreneurs SCORE serves, but also for the volunteers who enhance their own knowledge, skills and connections through the experience.

Thinking about volunteering?

National Volunteer Month is a perfect time to find the best volunteer position for you. SCORE invites you to join our community of dedicated business mentors so you can enjoy the benefits that come from volunteering while helping small businesses succeed. Become a SCORE volunteer today.

Are Your Employees Delivering?

Small business owners invest a lot of time, energy, and resources to onboard employees in hopes that new hires will become long-standing, productive team members. Unfortunately, sometimes things don’t work out. Occasionally, there may be an employee with a poor attitude or qualities that don’t suit the workplace culture.

 

However, sometimes there may be an employee who has potential but isn’t quite reaching the expected performance level. How can business owners who have hired a “diamond in the rough” get that new hire up to speed?

 

As you start and grow your business, you will likely encounter this situation. So, let’s take a look at some of the ways you can help underperforming employees become the team members you need them to be.

 

9 Tips for Dealing with Underperforming Employees

 

1.  Don’t wait.

 

 The longer you wait to have a conversation, the more difficult it will be to broach the topic. Employees may not even be aware that they’re not doing as well as you expect them to. The longer their underperformance continues, the longer it will have adverse effects on your business.

 

2. Write it down.

 

Document what’s lacking in their performance. But also make notes about some positive traits so that you can offer some good feedback with the not-so-good.

 

3. Provide specifics.

 

Be clear about what employees need to do to improve. For example, “We need you to pay more attention to detail” is not as clear as “We need you to double-check your math when closing out the cash register at the end of your shift.”

 

4. Keep emotions out of the equation.

 

Plan to talk with underperforming employees at a time when you can approach the topic calmly without yelling or appearing overly frustrated. Remember, you’ve decided the person is worth keeping around if they can improve in some areas; it will be counterproductive if they feel attacked.

 

5. Determine if external or internal factors are at play.

 

Ask questions. If a performance problem suddenly appears, there might be a personal situation creating distraction temporarily. Or perhaps within your company, there hasn’t been enough training, or there’s an interpersonal issue with another employee. Knowing what might be contributing to the poor performance will help you understand what can be done to get over the hurdle.

 

6. Get a pulse on what motivates them.

 

Sometimes, employees need some incentive to step up their game. It might be as simple as getting more feedback and encouragement regularly or having a discussion about what opportunities exist in the future if they excel in their position.

 

7. Make a plan.

 

After you’ve assessed underperformance situations, create a plan for getting employees to a higher performance level. Map out how training, additional practice, webinars, more constant feedback, etc., whatever you’ve determined you need to provide, will happen. Set a timeline for when you will re-evaluate performance, and explain the next steps if performance continues to be sub-par.

 

8. Follow-up.

 

Provide feedback as your under-performing employees follow the improvement plan. Also, keep an open door for them to ask questions and discuss challenges.

 

9. Ask a SCORE mentor for guidance.

 

SCORE mentors provide business consultation to entrepreneurs in many industries and can provide helpful insight. Mentoring is free and can help you overcome whatever challenges you’re facing in your business. Contact us to set up a time to meet with a mentor.

Cultivate Your Leadership Skills

 

As a small business owner, strong leadership skills make or break your company’s chance of success. Without them, you risk missing your goals and not gaining the cooperation you need from employees and project partners.

Not everyone is a born leader but with some effort, you can develop essential and improve upon essential leadership skills.

Here are several leadership skills you’ll want to hone as you build your business:

 

  • Listening

As important as it is to share your guidance and thoughts, listening to what others have to say is equally—if not more—important. Your customers and the people who work with you have valuable insight that can help you make decisions that can improve your business. Want to learn how to be a better listener? Forbes has some helpful tips for strengthening your listening skills.

 

  • Communication

The importance of expressing your goals, guidance, and vision clearly and professionally should never be underestimated—whether through email, phone, face-to-face interactions, or in presentations. Improving communication skills requires a multi-focused effort involving attention to: organizing your thoughts, keeping emotions in check, refining grammar and spelling, and more. This list of 17 tips offers ways you can give your communications skills a boost.

 

  • Time management

Without a grasp on how to effectively manage your time, critical tasks and responsibilities can fall through the cracks. The keys to time management are being organized and knowing how to prioritize your to-do’s. Although there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for managing time, these six tips provide a good foundation upon which to improve your ability to make the most of your time.

 

  • Delegation

Even if you’re a solopreneur, you can’t always do everything on your own. Whether you have employees or opt to use subcontractors, there will be tasks and responsibilities that should be done by someone other than yourself, so you have time to focus on critical business-building objectives.

While this Harvard Business Review article addresses delegation from the perspective of larger companies, it provides many takeaways that small business owners can consider for improving their delegation skills.

 

  • Motivation and self-discipline

Leading also requires maintaining enthusiasm and embodying the drive to accomplish what needs to be done. When you’re the boss, you’re responsible for motivating yourself and staying on track. Contributing editor Geoffrey James at Inc.com has shared an interesting perspective and helpful tips to help entrepreneurs strengthen self-motivation skills. This thought from his article might help motivate you to become more self-motivated: “Use self-motivation to make yourself successful at life rather than just at work.”

 

Don’t believe “leaders are born not made.” While leadership is easier for some small business owners than others, you can get better at it with effort and practice. If you need guidance on ways to become a stronger leader, contact us about talking with a SCORE mentor. Our volunteers have a wealth of knowledge about all aspects of starting and growing a business.