If you are a business owner or plan to start your own business, then you must be aware of the essential business skills needed to become a good business person.
What are the qualities of an entrepreneur or solopreneur to run a successful business?
Recently I completed one of the courses on business skills and here I am going to list down the key takeaway of the course.
These business skills are equally important for all, from an employee to the owner of a business.
1. Self Awareness
Self-awareness is the foundation for knowing yourself and those happening around you because we cannot begin to learn or adapt without it.
The Key Concept Of Self Awareness
- Become Aware of The World Around You: Sharpen your understanding of the immediate environment you are a part of and how this fits in with the world at large.
- Know Your Strengths And Weaknesses: Introspect and seek feedback from those around you to understand what you are good at and where you need to improve, so you develop a better understanding of who you are.
- What You Do Affects How The World Sees You: How you behave and what you do affects how others perceive you, so be more deliberate in what you say, what you do, and how you act.
Tools To Be Used To Become Self-Aware
Active Listening: Understand the message someone is trying to convey, instead of just hearing their words. Maintain eye contact with the speaker, resist the urge to interrupt and ask questions to engage and clarify.
Read Widely: Keep up with global news to widen your perspectives, improve awareness and understand where and how you fit in the world.
Mentor Feedback: Identify experienced mentors who can give direct, honest feedback. This may be difficult to accept but can help you understand yourself better.
Other Big Points To Consider
Be Unafraid To Fail: Taking risks and making mistakes are the secret to learning and moving forward. Without failure, a person cannot truly uncover defining qualities about themselves.
Blind Spots: These are aspects of our personality that we aren’t aware of but that others see. Uncover these to understand how others perceive you. Use the Johari window technique to help you uncover your blind spots!
Small talk leads to big business: Develop the art of conversation and building rapport with someone through small talk. Only once you’ve established a rapport will someone be comfortable talking business with you!
Tips To Improve Self Awareness
Notice how you’re doing. A lot has changed in everyone’s world. Take time to reflect on how you feel; become aware of moments where you need to slow down, re-focus, or take a break.
Understand that people have different experiences. Realize that you do not have a full understanding of what others may need to balance as they complete their workday, and they too would not have the same understanding of your day. Avoid assumptions and judgment.
2. Communication
Most problems in business and in our personal lives are because of poor communication. It’s no surprise that poor communication consistently ranks as a top problem businesses face. Mastering this skill is critical for personal and professional effectiveness – throughout your career! Indeed, research even shows that people with strong communication skills earn more money.
The Key Concept Of Effective Communication
- ‘How’ you say it is as important as ‘What’ you say: A lot of communication happens not through words but through non-verbal cues such as body language, so pay attention to both.
- “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead,” Mark Twain famously said. It’s harder to deliver concise, clear, written communication than communication that’s lengthy and rambling.
- Review before sending: Develop the habit of checking your written messages before sending to ensure you’re communicating what you really intend and what you need to. You must draft and re-draft your message, ensuring you are adhering to the C5 rules. Apply this to all communication.
Tools To Be Used For Effective Communication
The C5 Tool: To effectively communicate, remember to be:
- Complete
- Concise
- Clear
- Courteous
- Correct
Brief Back: To use this tool with your team, select a member at random and get them to repeat your briefing back to you or the others on the team that is involved. This helps ensure everyone pays attention and saves time by preventing miscommunication.
Other Big Points To Consider For Effective Communication
Pen and Paper: Go to meetings with a pen and paper to make notes about important things that need to be addressed. It seems obvious yet is often forgotten. Research shows that when you write things down, your brain is more likely to understand and remember!
Content and Context: Content includes words, symbols and language that’s written or spoken. Context is the way the message is delivered and communicated, including:
- Tone: Warm and friendly or matter-of-fact?
- Emphasis: are some words more pronounced to indicate importance?
- Tempo: slow to indicate being deliberate or fast to signal urgency
- Volume: loud or low/soft
Body language: Body language makes up a large part of how we communicate with others, but we’re often unaware of how important these non-verbal communication cues are. Being conscious of your body language goes a long way in determining the perception others have of you.
Tips For Effective Communication
Organize & optimize communication. In the office, we get updates in real-time and have easier access to people. Now, you may need to put a little extra effort into checking in and updating others. Consider how you can organize communication on a regular basis without interrupting your workflow – or that of others. Setting some rules or regularity to when you communicate can be efficient and effective!
3. Time Management
Prioritization is important now more than ever. Improve your productivity by learning how to take charge of your time and choose which tasks to focus on.
The Key Concept Of Time Management
- Stop doing everything: It sounds simple, but you can only take control of your time if you realize you can’t do everything. Determine what’s worth your time and what you should stop doing.
- Do the important things first: Learn to prioritize tasks by being able to differentiate what is truly important versus what might seem urgent but isn’t important in meeting your goals.
- Do one thing at a time: Focusing on a single task at a time reduces how long you will need to spend completing that task, reduces stress, and increases productivity.
Tools And Techniques Used For Time Management
Prioritized To-Do list/ Use pen & paper: Write down what you need to get done and then prioritize it. Writing this list triggers your brain’s neural pathways, reinforcing the importance of achieving those tasks.
Use the ‘Do Not Disturb’ option: Take your own time seriously and don’t allow others to steal it. Reduce interruptions by changing your online status to ‘Busy’ or ‘Do Not Disturb’, and make sure that others are aware of when you are unavailable.
Use time management matrix: The four quadrants ranking tasks by urgency and importance help you understand that just because something is urgent does not mean it is important.
“What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”
Break down tasks into smaller ones: Consciously break a large task down into smaller elements that are easier to complete one by one. This delivers a feeling of accomplishment, reinforcing your sense of productivity.
Other Big Points To Consider For Time Management
Busy fool syndrome: This happens when you work constantly but still aren’t achieving results or have control of your time. It’s usually a result of poor self-awareness and a mindset that’s driven by effort rather than outcomes.
Interruptions kill productivity: When you multitask, your brain is interrupted, and you spend energy re-engaging on the assignment you have paused. Focusing on a single task saves time, lowers stress and increases productivity.
Learn to say No: In situations such as where taking on more work may prevent you from meeting deadlines, it is important to say no, even to your boss or client.
Planning fallacy: Research shows that most people underestimate the time required to complete a task – they are overconfident of their own ability and time needed.
Attention to detail: Save wasting time by avoiding unnecessary back and forth for corrections.
Don’t let others steal your time: Take your own time seriously and don’t let others distract you or waste your time. If someone is late for a meeting, for example, let them know this is not acceptable.
Tips For Better Time Management
- Keep a clear, uplifting workspace. As far as possible, work in a de-cluttered space that’s separate from where you spend your time offline. This will send a signal to yourself (and others) that you’re in work mode. Boost motivation by surrounding yourself with things that inspire and lift your mood. Books, pictures, quotes, or plants – now’s the time to get creative.
- Take breaks. Positivity is central to productivity, and one way to keep upbeat and maintain perspective throughout a busy workday is to make time for regular breaks. Resting at regular intervals will increase your focus and productivity overall.
4. How To Sell
The ability to market, sell or influence is valuable to any professional and extends far beyond getting others to buy a product or service – selling ideas, concepts or change is important, too!
The Key Concept Of Sales
- Sales is about listening, not talking: Listen to the other person’s needs carefully so you can identify how your solution fits their needs. Don’t ‘talk your way out of a sale!’
- Turn Features to Benefits: Features are the attributes that describe your product or service, but benefits show how they can fulfill a need or solve a problem.
- “Which Means That”: These are the three most important words in sales because they turn any feature into a benefit.
Tools And Techniques Used In Sale
The 4P’s Of Marketing:
- Product
- Price
- Place
- Promotion
Basic Close: This means you just ask for the business in a straightforward way:
- “I’d like your business; let’s do the paperwork?”
- “Why don’t you give us a try?”
Alternate Choice Close: This technique does not give the prospect the opportunity to say “No!” and it can be used in multiple scenarios:
- Selling a pen: “Would you like the Red or the Blue?”
- Scheduling a meeting: “Would you like to meet at 1 pm or 4 pm?”
Isolation Tool: This closing technique involves isolating and solving an objection raised by the prospective buyer in order to close the sale.
Tie-Down Close: It involves building momentum by asking questions that demand a YES response.
Other Big Points To Consider To Close A Sale
Hot buttons: Learn the issues that your prospects may find of importance and urgency before approaching them. Eg. Market forces, competitors, expansion plans, and the latest policies affecting industries.
The language you use: This helps prospects see the benefits of your offer. Helpful words to close a sale are How, Now, Most, and Immediately.
YES momentum: Build momentum to get a YES answer by enabling your prospect to say YES several times! The more you enable your prospect to say YES, the better because one yes leads to another.
The anticipated future: This is when you help your prospect visualize the future benefits of your proposition or solution. E.g. If selling your boss on reducing interruptions, you could ask questions to help them see how much more effective you could be if allowed to focus.
Pro Tips To Close A Sale
- Make sure you are up-to-date and aware. Recent events have disrupted entire markets, individual priorities, and operations. This means you need to re-assess the needs of a prospect or client to understand how their priorities and concerns may have changed.
- Using ‘which means that’. People respond to change differently. Think about how you can frame the need to change by highlighting the benefits of your proposition using these magic words.
5. How To Say “NO”
Always saying YES to your colleagues, boss and clients can often mean saying NO to success. The ability to say no when it is the right thing to say is a critical business skill to master.
The Key Concept
- The ability to say NO is critical: It will be hard to meet deliverables if you accept every request at work. The ability to say No when it is the right thing to say, is a critical skill to deliver work effectively.
- How to say NO: Using the right tools to say No can avoid misunderstandings or disappointments. These tools provide context to why you are saying No, and help the other party understand why you are saying No.
- What saying NO means for a professional: Knowing when to say No, and how to say No is critical to achieving targets and deliverables. Good bosses want employees who have the confidence and ability to stand up for their decisions and explain why they are saying No.
Tools And Techniques To Say No
IF: Use “If” to explain why you cannot accept the request at that time. Example: “if we can extend the deadline for Project A or reduce the deliverables for it, I could work this Project B into my schedule.”
This has three benefits:
- You don’t actually have to use the word “No” in this approach
- You explain why you can’t say yes
- You engage your boss or client to help solve the problem
Having a Chat: Have a direct and open conversation with your boss to explain why saying no is the right answer in that situation.
4 Steps of Saying No:
- Listen carefully
- Re-state the request to ensure you have understood it correctly
- State a contextual No and suggest an alternate solution
- Stay firm, be assertive and work to find a mutual solution if needed
Other Big Points To Consider
Cycle of Chaos: A cycle of chaos happens when there isn’t direct honest communication in a business and people don’t say NO when they should.
Unlearning & letting go: To become more effective, we often need to unlearn and let go of our earlier thinking and behaviors. It involves changing habits that have been conditioned over the years, but this is possible with deliberate practice.
Really meaning Yes: You should only say yes when you 100% mean it and can live up to the commitment.
Pro Tips On How To Say NO
The changes and new requirements of working from home are impacting many of us by increasing the need to juggle multiple “to-dos”.
- Use the ‘If’ tool at home with family and for work with colleagues to explain why you may not be able to take on additional tasks. Staying focused on the most important tasks is as high priority as ever!
- This is also a good time to reflect on what habits or behaviors you might need to unlearn to make room for fresh thinking.
6. Effective Meetings
Meetings are a vital form of communication to achieve business goals but often are a waste of time. It takes good planning and some discipline to have effective, well-run, and productive meetings.
The Ket Concept of Effective Meeting
Asking Key Questions before you start meeting
- What is the goal of this meeting?
- Who needs to be there?
Preparation for the meeting:
- Build a goal-based agenda: this helps structure the meeting.
- Distribute agenda in advance: This helps people prepare.
Tools And Techniques To Say No
Start and finish on time: Always start meetings on time. Don’t be afraid to wrap up early if the objectives are met!
Have a “No Electronic device or distraction” policy: Mobiles should be off and out of sight. Laptops are only for those taking notes! (for an offline meeting)
Stay on topic: If people stray, the meeting chair should steer the conversation back on track.
Use the C5 Tool: Make sure everyone is practicing Clarity, Conciseness, Courtesy, Completeness and Correctness.
Follow Up: Send a summary within 48 hours, that includes:
- Decisions & Conclusions
- Action items & who’s responsible for them
- Open issues
Strong Leadership: Have someone chair the meeting to ensure all guidelines are followed.
Other Big Points To Consider For Effective Meetings
Meetings are NOT good for:
- Giving updates: If the flow of information is one way, e-mail is more productive.
- Getting people on track: Have a one-to-one conversation if an employee is not performing. Don’t embarrass them by pulling them up in front of others.
- Conflict resolution: If there’s a disagreement, deal with the relevant members individually rather than involving the entire team.
Some good advice:
- A Pulse or Micro meeting: It’s a short, crisp gathering – often conducted standing – where all can quickly contribute and then get back to work. The “No Chairs” approach encourages everyone to be concise and direct to the point.
- A 27-minute meeting at 2.13 pm: Set a meeting time that draws attention and sends a message that you need time to be respected.
- Situational Awareness: Be aware of the surrounding environment and body language of all present
Tips For Effective Meetings
- Online meeting fatigue: Wondering why you might be tired more easily recently? Research shows that focus and concentration in online meetings often take more effort and energy than in-person gatherings. Know your limits and ensure you take breaks!
- Virtual working can limit opportunities to build ‘social capital’ through meeting colleagues at lunch or in casual settings in the office. It is okay to reserve some time at the start or end of meetings to invest in relationship-building.
To be continued…
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