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April 2012 employment law changes: six things employers need to know

http://www.personneltoday.com/home/

April 2012 employment law changes: six things employers need to know

Every April a host of changes are made to employment legislation and 2012 is no exception. This year, important amendments include those relating to tribunal procedures, unfair dismissal and statutory maternity and sick pay. Personnel Today sets out the key reforms that will affect employers. 1. Employment tribunal procedure reformed On 6 April 2012, the maximum amounts of deposit and costs orders increase with the aim of reflecting more accurately the cost to employers of defending tribunal claims. To minimise the cost of tribunal proceedings to the taxpayer, tribunals have a new power to direct that the parties to a dispute are responsible for paying witnesses' expenses, and employment judges hear unfair dismissal cases alone. To speed up tribunal hearings, witness statements are taken "as read". April 6: Changes to tribunal procedure coming into force What is the maximum amount of costs that a tribunal may order an employer to pay if it loses the case? Will a witness who gives evidence at a tribunal hearing be reimbursed for expenses incurred in attending the hearing? How do witnesses give evidence at employment tribunal hearings? 2. Statutory maternity, paternity, adoption and sick pay increase On 1 April 2012, the weekly rate of statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay increases from £128.73 to £135.45. The weekly rate of statutory sick pay also increases, from £81.60 to £85.85, on 6 April 2012. On 6 April 2012, the lower earnings limit for primary Class 1 national insurance contributions increases from £102 to £107, the income tax personal allowance increases to £8,105, and the threshold at which employees pay the higher income tax rate of 40% is reduced to £34,371. Statutory maternity pay Statutory adoption pay Ordinary statutory paternity pay Additional statutory paternity pay 3. Qualifying period for unfair dismissal increases On 6 April 2012, the qualifying period for making an unfair dismissal claim (in most circumstances) increases from one to two years. The change applies only to employees who start their job on or after 6 April 2012. The qualifying period for the right to receive a written statement of reasons for dismissal, on request, also increases from one to two years. April 6: Qualifying period for unfair dismissal increases from one to two years Qualifying periods for statutory rights Does an employer have to give a written statement of reasons for dismissal? 4. Calculation of staging date for pensions auto-enrolment From October 2012, employers will be required to auto-enrol eligible jobholders into a qualifying workplace pension scheme. The date from which employers must auto-enrol employees (known as the "staging date") is based on the number of employees in their PAYE scheme on 1 April 2012. Employers should check how many people are in their PAYE scheme to determine their staging date. April 1: Determination of employers' auto-enrolment staging dates What changes to workplace pension law will be made by the legislation on auto-enrolment? What is the relevance for employers of 1 April 2012 in relation to auto-enrolment? Pension auto-enrolment - staging dates 5. Accident-reporting requirements change On 6 April 2012, the required period of incapacity following an injury caused by an accident at work, which triggers the employer's requirement to report the accident to the enforcing authority, increases from more than three days to more than seven days. The deadline by which the employer must report the accident increases from 10 days to 15 days. April 6: Changes to RIDDOR come into force Record-keeping - statutory requirements 6. Definition of "independent adviser" for compromise agreements clarified Section 147 of the Equality Act 2010 is amended on 6 April 2012 to confirm that an employee's representative can be an "independent adviser" for the purpose of a compromise agreement. This deals with one of the conditions of a valid compromise agreement, which is that the employee has received advice from an independent adviser about the terms and effect of the agreement. April 6: Definition of "independent adviser" for compromise agreements clarified Full details of all the employment law changes in April 2012 are available in the XpertHR legal timetable and HR calendar.

Paul Champion

Strategic Project Manager

Mobile: 07540 704920

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NCG comprises the following trading entities:

Newcastle College (the Corporation) incorporated under the Further and
Higher Education Act for the provision of education to students and its
trading divisions, Newcastle College and West Lancashire College
and whose registered office is at Rye Hill House, Scotswood Road,
Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE4 7SA.

Newcastle College Construction Limited is a private limited company
registered in England and Wales with registered number 6540850 whose
registered office is at Rye Hill House, Scotswood Road, Newcastle Upon
Tyne, NE4 7SA.

The Intraining Group Limited is a private limited company registered in
England and Wales with registered number 6540854 whose registered office
is at Rye Hill House, Scotswood Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE4 7SA.

Leadership’s Link to Emotional Intelligence

http://www.expertclick.com/NewsReleaseWire/Leaderships_Link_to_Emotional_Intelligence,201239927.aspx

Leadership’s Link to Emotional Intelligence
Contact:

Dr. Maynard Brusman

Working Resources

415-546-1252

mbrusman@workingresources.com

http://www.workingresources.com

For Immediate Release

Leadership's Link to Emotional Intelligence

San Francisco – April 4, 2012 Ever wonder why some of the most brilliant, well-educated people aren't promoted, while those with fewer obvious skills climb the professional ladder?

Chalk it up to emotional intelligence (EI), a term first coined in 1995 by psychologist Daniel Goleman in his New York Times bestseller Emotional Intelligence.

In the United States, experts had assumed that high IQ was key to high performance. Decades of research now point to EI as the critical factor that separates star performers from the rest of the pack.



Defining Emotional Intelligence

EI is your ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others, and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships. It is composed of four core skills that are paired under two primary competencies: personal and social.

Personal Competence - Self-awareness Self-management

Social Competence - Social Awareness Relationship Management

Personal competence includes self-awareness and self-management skills that focus on your interactions with other people.

• Self-Awareness is your ability to perceive your emotions accurately and be aware of them as they happen.

• Self-Management is your ability to use awareness of your emotions to be flexible and positively direct your behavior.

Social competence is your ability to understand other people's moods, behavior and motives to improve the quality of your relationships.

• Social Awareness is your ability to accurately pick up on other people's emotions and understand what's really going on.

• Relationship Management is your ability to use awareness of your and others' emotions to manage interactions successfully.

Note: There is no connection between IQ and emotional intelligence. Intelligence is your ability to learn, as well as retrieve and apply knowledge. Emotional intelligence is a flexible set of skills that can be acquired and improved with practice.

Emotional Intelligence and Performance

The higher you climb the corporate ladder and the more people you supervise, the more your EI skills come into play.

The TalentSmart consulting firm tested EI alongside 33 other important workplace skills and found it to be the strongest predictor of performance, responsible for 58% of success across all job types.

Likewise, more than 90% of top performers in leadership positions possessed a high degree of EI. On the flip side, just 20% of poor performers demonstrated high EI.

You can be a top performer without emotional intelligence, but it's rare. People with a high degree of EI make more money—an average of $29,000 more per year than those with low EI. The link between emotional intelligence and earnings is so well founded that every point increase in EI adds $1,300 to one's annual salary.

EI and Leadership

As a leader, you set the emotional tone that others follow. Our brains are hardwired to cue in (both consciously and unconsciously) to others' emotional states.

People want to know how a leader feels and will synchronize with authorities they trust. When employees feel upbeat, they'll go the extra mile to please customers. There's a predictable business result: For every 1% improvement in the service climate, there's a 2% increase in revenue.

The table that follows, provided by TalentSmart's Dr. Travis Bradbury, contrasts the behaviors of high-EI vs. low-EI leaders:

Leaders with Low EI Leaders with High EI

Measures of EI in half a million senior executives, managers and employees across industries, on six continents, reveal some interesting data. Scores climb with titles, from the bottom of the ladder upward toward middle management, where EI peaks. Mid-managers have the highest EI scores in the workforce. After that, EI scores plummet.

Because leaders achieve organizational goals through others, you may assume they have the best people skills. Wrong! CEOs, on average, have the lowest workplace EI scores.

Too many leaders are promoted for their technical knowledge, discrete achievements and seniority, rather than for their skills in managing and influencing others. Once they reach the top, they actually spend less time interacting with staff.

A 2001 study by Dr. Fabio Sala (www.eiconsortium.org) demonstrates that senior-level employees are more likely to have inflated views of their EI competencies and less congruence with others' perceptions.

Sala proposes two explanations for these findings:

1. It's lonely at the top. Senior executives have fewer opportunities for feedback.

2. People are less inclined to give constructive feedback to more senior colleagues.

The news media have highlighted numerous cases involving failed CEOs derailed by their low EI. You're prone to ethical failures if you overestimate your intelligence and believe you'll never get caught. Arrogance distorts your capacity to read situations accurately.

How to Develop EI

EI can be learned, and it seems to rise with age and maturity.

Developing your EI skills is not something you learn in school or by reading a book. It takes training, practice and reinforcement. The first step is measurement, through behavioral-based interviews and 360-degree feedback.

Executives with little experience in receiving feedback can find this approach somewhat threatening. However, the process brings needed attention to gaps and development opportunities. It may be best to work with an executive coach when working to improve emotional intelligence.

Are you working in a professional services firm or other organization where executive coaches provide leadership development to grow emotionally intelligent leaders? Does your organization provide executive coaching for leaders who need to reinvent themselves? Enlightened leaders tap into their emotional intelligence and social intelligence skills to create a more fulfilling future.

One of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself is "How emotionally intelligent am I?" Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent organizations provide executive coaching as part of their transformational peak performance leadership development program.

Working with a seasoned executive coach and leadership consultant trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-I, CPI 260 and Denison Culture Survey can help you improve your emotional intelligence skills. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become fully engaged with the vision, mission and strategy of your company or law firm.

About Dr. Maynard Brusman

Dr. Maynard Brusman is a consulting psychologist, executive coach and trusted advisor to senior leadership teams. He is the president of Working Resources, a leadership consulting and executive coaching firm. We specialize in helping San Francisco Bay Area companies and law firms assess, select, coach, and retain emotionally intelligent leaders. Maynard is a highly sought-after speaker and workshop leader. He facilitates leadership retreats in Northern California and Costa Rica. The Society for Advancement of Consulting (SAC) awarded Dr. Maynard Brusman "Board Approved" designations in the specialties of Executive Coaching and Leadership Development.

For more information, please go to http://www.workingresources.com , write to mbrusman@workingresources.com, or call 415-546-1252.

Subscribe to Working Resources Newsletter: http://www.workingresources.com

Visit Maynard's Blog: http://www.workingresourcesblog.com

Connect with me on these Social Media sites.

http://twitter.com/drbrusman

http://www.facebook.com/maynardbrusman

http://www.linkedin.com/in/maynardbrusman

http://www.youtube.com/user/maynardbrusman

Paul Champion
Strategic Project Manager

Mobile: 07540 704920

Sent from my iPhone 

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they are received, no responsibility is accepted by NCG or any of its
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receipt or use thereof.

NCG comprises the following trading entities:

Newcastle College (the Corporation) incorporated under the Further and
Higher Education Act for the provision of education to students and its
trading divisions, Newcastle College and West Lancashire College
and whose registered office is at Rye Hill House, Scotswood Road,
Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE4 7SA.

Newcastle College Construction Limited is a private limited company
registered in England and Wales with registered number 6540850 whose
registered office is at Rye Hill House, Scotswood Road, Newcastle Upon
Tyne, NE4 7SA.

The Intraining Group Limited is a private limited company registered in
England and Wales with registered number 6540854 whose registered office
is at Rye Hill House, Scotswood Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE4 7SA.

Business Skills and Buddhist Mindfulness - WSJ.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303816504577305820565167202.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Business Skills and Buddhist MindfulnessBy BETH GARDINER
Business schools are beginning to embrace a practice that has grown popular in the corporate world—teaching and studying mindfulness, the originally Buddhist approach to increasing awareness of oneself and one's surroundings.
In M.B.A. and executive-education courses, a handful of professors offer techniques to help students calm their minds and increase their focus. Such skills, they argue, are crucial for those hoping to succeed in an increasingly frenetic environment where distractions from an always-buzzing phone to pressure for strong quarterly profit reports constantly impinge on decisions.
While the idea of mindfulness originates in the serious practice of meditation, B-school faculty say it has many applications for executives who aren't looking for a spiritual fix but simply want to clear their heads and become aware of reflexive, emotional reactions that can lead to bad decisions.
And it isn't just individuals that can be mindful, they say. Donde Ashmos Plowman, dean of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Business Administration, has examined the mindfulness of organizations, a concept described previously by Karl Weick, at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.







IMD
For CEOs, 'it's the smallest things that they do that have huge ripple effects. Because their lives are so busy...they miss too many opportunities to make either themselves or their organizations different.' –Professor Ben Bryant of IMD

Mindful organizations are those that pay close attention to what is happening within them, are ready to correct mistakes rather than punishing workers who report them and respond quickly to changes or problems, Ms. Plowman said.
She and several colleagues tried to quantify the mindfulness of 180 different business schools, asking deans and other administrators to complete questionnaires. Critics have accused business schools of culpability in the many high-profile lapses of corporate ethics in recent years, and Dean Plowman said studying the schools' mindfulness could indicate whether they are capable of self-correction.
One thing the researchers noticed, Dean Plowman said, was that deans rated their schools' mindfulness more highly than did those working for them.
"It's easy for people at the head of an organization to end up in a bubble," she said. "That really alerted me to say, 'What do I need to do as a dean to improve the way we communicate?'"
Others apply mindfulness at a more individual level.
At IMD business school in Lausanne, Switzerland, leadership professor Ben Bryant introduces his executive-education students to techniques for concentrating on their breathing and becoming aware of sounds and sensations, which he says can help them center themselves at the office or in a business meeting.
"Hard-core meditators are horrified that this word is being used in business," he said. "They think meditation was never meant to be instrumental in making money."
Nonetheless, Mr. Bryant feels it is worthwhile to help those running companies to slow down and think about how best to direct their attention. Especially for CEOs, "it's the smallest things that they do that have huge ripple effects," he said. "Because their lives are so busy and so loaded up with things, they miss too many opportunities to make either themselves or their organizations different."

Jeremy Hunter, who teaches at the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University outside Los Angeles, believes mindfulness should be at the center of business schools' teaching. That, he argues, is because it is about improving the quality of attention, and in the modern workplace, attention is the key to productivity.
"To me, it's fundamental to how work gets done these days," he said. "Basically, that's what work is, attention."
In a series of four seven-week executive-education classes, and a separate course for M.B.A. students, Mr. Hunter teaches what he calls self-management, "managing your insides so you can deal with your outsides better." He often starts class with a brief meditation, and covers topics like managing emotional reactions and dealing with change.
"One of the powers of being at a business school is that you reach an audience that would never show up at a meditation fair" but can recognize the techniques' usefulness, he said.
After a conversation about multitasking, one student became frustrated with a weekly work meeting where staff were more focused on their cellphones than the discussion, Mr. Hunter said. When he returned to the office and insisted that everyone put their phones in a box before starting, his colleagues initially responded with irritation, but the weekly gathering soon became so much more efficient that it was cut from to an hour from 90 minutes, Mr. Hunter said.
At Harvard Business School, leadership professor William George focuses on helping businesspeople to better understand their emotions. He ran a two-day conference in 2010 on mindful leadership with a Tibetan Buddhist meditation master, and has meditated regularly since 1975.
In his executive-education class on leadership development, he instructs students who include CEOs to open up to others about their toughest experiences.
Such conversations can increase self-awareness, which Professor George sees as central to good leadership. It isn't a lack of intelligence that causes executives to make poor decisions, but a lack of awareness of the feelings that drive their reactions, he said.
"It's the inability to admit your own mistakes, or your fear of failure, your fear of rejection, your desire to be seen as Mr. Perfect, or Ms. Perfect in front of groups, that's what leads to failure," he said. "It's amazing to me how executives in their 40s or 50s who are running giant enterprises can get really into this."

Paul Champion
Strategic Project Manager

Mobile: 07540 704920

Sent from my iPhone 

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by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission
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they are received, no responsibility is accepted by NCG or any of its
associated companies for any loss or damage arising in any way from the
receipt or use thereof.

NCG comprises the following trading entities:

Newcastle College (the Corporation) incorporated under the Further and
Higher Education Act for the provision of education to students and its
trading divisions, Newcastle College and West Lancashire College
and whose registered office is at Rye Hill House, Scotswood Road,
Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE4 7SA.

Newcastle College Construction Limited is a private limited company
registered in England and Wales with registered number 6540850 whose
registered office is at Rye Hill House, Scotswood Road, Newcastle Upon
Tyne, NE4 7SA.

The Intraining Group Limited is a private limited company registered in
England and Wales with registered number 6540854 whose registered office
is at Rye Hill House, Scotswood Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE4 7SA.

The Powerful Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs | MacTrast

http://www.mactrast.com/2012/04/the-powerful-real-life-leadership-lessons-of-steve-jobs/

The Powerful Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson has written an exceptional essay for the Harvard Business Review, in which he shares some thoughts on Steve Jobs, and a number of powerful leadership lessons that can be learned from the way Steve Jobs conducted business.

I can think of few people better than Steve Jobs to learn about leadership from. He was an incredible leader with a unique management style, and one of the most successful businessmen of all time. Here are some of the main points in Isaacson’s essay:
Focus
Isaacson points out Steve Jobs’ incredible emphasis on focus – producing a limited number of products, and producing them extremely well. Rather than producing multiple versions of the same product (as Microsoft does with MS Office and Windows), Steve Jobs simplified Apple’s product lineup with solutions that would work for all groups of people. He also recalls a discussion that Jobs had with Google chair Larry Page:
The main thing I stressed was focus,” he recalled. Figure out what Google wants to be when it grows up, he [Steve Jobs] told Page. “It’s now all over the map. What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they’re dragging you down. They’re turning you into Microsoft. They’re causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great.”
Simplify
This one is huge for Apple. Take the iPad, for instance. Rather than releasing a complex and “full-featured” tablet that ran the desktop version of OS X, Steve Jobs created the iPad – a tablet with a much simpler customer experience that appealed to more users.
Simplicity and minimalism have always been hallmarks of Apple’s designs, which is one of the reasons their products sell so well. Anyone can use them.
Put Products Before Profits
Making money should not be the main goal of any company (although it is important in the end). Instead, by focusing specifically and carefully on the products and all of their details, and settling for nothing less than a quality product with a fantastic user experience, the profits will take care of themselves.
Push for Perfection
In Steve Jobs eyes, “pretty good” was simply not good enough. One of the things that set Steve Jobs apart, and in turn, Apple as a company, was that he didn’t settle. When he had a vision for a product, that vision was executed perfectly and exactly. Steve Jobs was not willing to tolerate shortcuts. Isaacson argues that his obsession with perfection, down to the last detail, was a major factor in his success.
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish
This slogan, uttered by Steve Jobs in the commencement address he presented at Stanford in 2005, was a strong element in his personal belief system. This section wraps up all of Isaacson’s points, while pointing out the importance of following your dreams and not letting others tell you how to live your life.
This is only a small sample of the powerful points made in Isaacson’s article, which I highly recommend you read all the way through for yourself. It contains a total of 14 powerful lessons (and probably more if you “read between the lines), filled with all manner of wise observations made from Steve Jobs extraordinary life.


Paul Champion
Strategic Project Manager

Mobile: 07540 704920

Sent from my iPhone 

This message may contain confidential information and is intended only
for the individual(s) named. If you are not the named addressee you
should not disseminate, distribute, print or copy this e-mail. Please
notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail
by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission
cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be
intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or
contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept liability for any
errors or omissions in the contents of this message, which arise as a
result of e-mail transmission. Please note that any views or opinions
presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not
necessarily represent those of NCG. Finally, the recipient should check
this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. Although
this email and its attachments are believed to be free of any virus or
other defects which might affect any computer or IT system into which
they are received, no responsibility is accepted by NCG or any of its
associated companies for any loss or damage arising in any way from the
receipt or use thereof.

NCG comprises the following trading entities:

Newcastle College (the Corporation) incorporated under the Further and
Higher Education Act for the provision of education to students and its
trading divisions, Newcastle College and West Lancashire College
and whose registered office is at Rye Hill House, Scotswood Road,
Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE4 7SA.

Newcastle College Construction Limited is a private limited company
registered in England and Wales with registered number 6540850 whose
registered office is at Rye Hill House, Scotswood Road, Newcastle Upon
Tyne, NE4 7SA.

The Intraining Group Limited is a private limited company registered in
England and Wales with registered number 6540854 whose registered office
is at Rye Hill House, Scotswood Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE4 7SA.

This is truly inspirational : SharedLives Plus - Shared Lives, Small Community Services,Homeshare,

http://www.sharedlivesplus.org.uk/

Welcome to SharedLivesPlus online



 
We have been named as one of Britain's 50 New Radicals, a project between NESTA
and the Observer to find examples of inspirational Britons improving the lives
of people and communities across the country in radical and creative ways.
 

There are 10,000 Shared Lives carers in the UK. They share their family and community life with someone who needs
some support to live independently. Shared Lives carers support disabled adults,
older people with dementia, people with mental health problems, care leavers,
disabled children in transition to adulthood, parents who have learning disabilities.....
 

Homeshare involves matching someone who needs some companionship or a little help to carry
on living in their own home, with someone who is willing to give a little help
and needs accommodation. There are 11 Homeshare schemes in the UK.
 

Micro-enterprises are very small community services, set up by front-line workers or people with
support needs and their families. They may offer activities, transport, hot meals,
advocacy or home help - the list keeps growing as people find creative solutions
to help someone they know live a full and independent life. There are thousands
of micro-enterprises in the UK.
 
Shared Lives used to be known as Adult Placement. We used to be called
NAAPS UK and changed our name following the UK Conference
in 2011. 


Paul Champion
Strategic Project Manager

Mobile: 07540 704920

Sent from my iPhone 

This message may contain confidential information and is intended only
for the individual(s) named. If you are not the named addressee you
should not disseminate, distribute, print or copy this e-mail. Please
notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail
by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission
cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be
intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or
contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept liability for any
errors or omissions in the contents of this message, which arise as a
result of e-mail transmission. Please note that any views or opinions
presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not
necessarily represent those of NCG. Finally, the recipient should check
this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. Although
this email and its attachments are believed to be free of any virus or
other defects which might affect any computer or IT system into which
they are received, no responsibility is accepted by NCG or any of its
associated companies for any loss or damage arising in any way from the
receipt or use thereof.

NCG comprises the following trading entities:

Newcastle College (the Corporation) incorporated under the Further and
Higher Education Act for the provision of education to students and its
trading divisions, Newcastle College and West Lancashire College
and whose registered office is at Rye Hill House, Scotswood Road,
Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE4 7SA.

Newcastle College Construction Limited is a private limited company
registered in England and Wales with registered number 6540850 whose
registered office is at Rye Hill House, Scotswood Road, Newcastle Upon
Tyne, NE4 7SA.

The Intraining Group Limited is a private limited company registered in
England and Wales with registered number 6540854 whose registered office
is at Rye Hill House, Scotswood Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE4 7SA.

Fall In Love With Your Business, Not Your Business Plan

Fall In Love With Your Business, Not Your Business Plan

http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/80497/Fall-In-Love-With-Your-Business-Not-Your-Business-Plan.aspx

OnStartups
Fall In Love With Your Business, Not Your Business Plan







That business plan, that business plan,
I do not like that business plan.
I do not like the writing part,
I do not even like to start.
I do not like them at a bar,
I do not like them from afar.
~Dharmesh (with h/t to Dr. Seuss, who I read every day to my son)
My feelins on business plans varies: from extreme dislike to just mild irritation.
I don't think business plans are completely useless, just mostly so. And sometimes, they're even dangerous.
Here's why…
1. Business plans are energy-depleting exercises. When I went to MIT Sloan for business school, I took what was (and is) one of the “definitive” classes for entrepreneurs “New Enterprises”. The class was oriented around coming up with ideas, forging a team of classmates around that idea (you had to actually sell them) and then having that team write a business plan during the course of the course. All of this was intermingled with some presentations and some guest lectures. All around, I loved the class but hated the writing of the business plan. It was painful. I had a great team — and it was still painful. We had a real business (what later morphed into my current company, HubSpot) — but it was still painful. And, took a lot of time. I'd much rather have been talking to potential customers or building product prototypes — both of those activities, unlike writing business plans, are energizing.
2. You should be committed to your business, not your business plan. As a way to capture your current plan and thinking about the business, business plans are inefficient. Shortly after you're done writing it (or editing it), you will realize that the plan is a little out-dated and does not reflect your current reality. Startups change constantly, especially in the early days when you're trying to find product market fit. The market changes, you get more feedback from your customers, and your understanding of the opportunity changes. Even more simply, you might just change your mind. In the early days, your startup is likely changing so frequently that going through the effort of making sure your business plan keeps up with your latest thinking is frustrating and futile. You're much, much better off spending that time and energy talking to customers and making the product better. Business plans are often dangerous, because you become overly committed to what you've written down. The risk is that you revise the plan so much, have toiled so many nights getting it just right that you actually start becoming emotionally attached to the plan. It becomes your baby — not the business itself. This can be fatal. You want to stay pragmatic and willing to change. If you have a 100 page tome that you've poured your heart and soul into late into the night, you'll have this small piece of you that begins resisting the change to the plan. That's a Very Bad Thing.
3. Business plans are written in the waterfall method, and you need to be agile. Some entrepreneurs take the “classic” approach to a startup. Have idea. Write business plan. Rewrite business plan. Rewrite busines plan. Pitch plan to investors, team maters, etc. Keep pitching until you get money or fall into the dark abyss. If you raise money, go out and start “executing” on the plan. Later discover that some of the core elements of the plan were flat out wrong. Does those sequence of things sound familiar? If you're a developer, it will sound to you an awful lot like the “waterfall method” of software development. And, in that case, you just listen to your instincts to run screaming in the other direction. Agile is not just for software development, it's for startup development too.
4. Nobody will read your business plan. If you enjoy the act of writing a business plan and like having it, that's fine. Perhaps you like sleeping with it under your pillow because it gives you comfort. That's cool. As long as you don't have some delusional idea that anyone is going to actually read it, you're fine. It's when you expect potential investors, team members and other unsuspecting victims to read your masterful work of brilliance that you have a problem. Once you get through the first few iterations, it's likely that even you won't want to read the plan anymore. You'll become sick of it.
5. It's a work of fiction. The executive summary can be useful (but can be manifested in much better ways), but a lot of the marketing sizing, financial projections and long narratives around go-to-market strategy are usually complete works of fiction. Some plans have more reliable market data than others. Some include more realistic projections than others. But, they're all works of fiction. All that varies is the degree to which the business plan resembles the truth and the degree to which the entrepreneur believes the fiction.

6. Write a blog, not a business plan. Although I advise against writing the classic business plan, I'm not against writing down your ideas and describing them in a way that is consumable by other humans. In fact, I'm a big fan of that. Just not in the form of a business plan. Instead of writing a business plan, which nobody will read, write a blog instead. Unlike a business plan, a few people will actually read your blog. The blog has the added value of being interactive. People can leave comments on your blog. They can poke at your ideas, tell you about these other 3 startups that sound like they're working on something similar. They can call you an idiot. All of that is useful. The earlier in the process you can get feedback from places other than the voices inside your head that talk to you at 1am in the morning after a long day of work, the better off you are. Unlike a business plan, a blog is useful forever. It pulls people into your business (through things like Google search). It helps people visiting your website to get a better understanding of what's going on in your head. It serves as both a vehicle for crystallizing your thinking and as a tool for marketing. In fact, it's one of the most important inbound marketing tools at your disposal. Every startup should have a blog.  
What do you think? Have you tried writing a business plan? Do you know of a "friend" that tried to write one, because they thought they needed one for some reason?What's your take?
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Posted by Dharmesh Shah on Fri, Mar 30, 2012

BBC News - UK in talks to sell part of RBS stake to Abu Dhabi

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17514390

UK in talks to sell part of RBS stake to Abu Dhabi

26 March 2012
Last updated at 23:54












By Joe Lynam
Business correspondent, BBC Newsnight





The government owns an 82% stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland


The UK government is in talks to sell a significant stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to Abu Dhabi, the BBC has learned.
The government, which controls 82% of RBS, has for months been negotiating with Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds.
It could sell up to a third of its stake to Abu Dhabi, one of the seven states of the United Arab Emirates.
This is likely to to be a loss-making sale, as RBS shares trade at much less than the UK government paid in 2008.
In 2008-9, the UK government invested £45.5bn of taxpayers' money in RBS, to prevent the bank from collapsing. RBS was close to running out of money after its near ruinous takeover of ABN Amro.
The Treasury bought the RBS shares at an average of 50p each, almost double the current share price.
Long-term plan
The news that it is in serious talks with Abu Dhabi to sell a sizeable portion of the bank at a loss will come in for vocal criticism - not least of all at a time of austerity.
The deal could see at least 10% and up to one-third of the government's stake sold. At current prices, it would mean that taxpayers could potentially suffer losses of £1bn for every £2bn paid by the government.
However, the selling of part of the bank could stoke further private sector interest in RBS and push up its share price towards break-even point.



Abu Dhabi is home to the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world

It would also send a clear signal to both the markets and RBS staff that the government does not want to be a long-term owner of a major bank.
A Treasury spokesperson told that the BBC that the government's aim was "to repair and return RBS to full health so that it is able to support the UK economy in the future, and the current strategy is working to achieve that".
"The government's policy has always been to return RBS to the private sector, but only when it delivers value for money for the taxpayer," the spokesperson said.
Deal by Christmas?
Another advantage of a deal for the government is that it could deflect political pressure in the run-up to the next contentious bonus season. The government could then argue that major decisions, such as executive pay, were no longer just up to the Treasury and UK Financial Investments (UKFI), which manages taxpayers' stakes in financial institutions including RBS, Lloyds Banking Group and Northern Rock Asset Management.









Shadow financial secretary Chris Leslie: "A hasty firesale... could leave the taxpayer billions of pounds out of pocket"


While no deal is imminent, the government hopes that one can be agreed before Christmas.
The news comes a fortnight after Jim O'Neil from UKFI told MPs on the Treasury Select Committee that it would consider selling a portion of RBS at a loss.
RBS has so far declined to comment, but senior managers are likely to welcome the government selling a stake.
The bank has been subject to intense public and political pressure over pay and bonus levels of its senior management. Its chief executive Stephen Hester turned down a share bonus worth almost £1m after a public campaign and the threat of a House of Commons vote on the issue.
And RBS bosses are also likely to be keen on the idea as most of their remuneration is in shares, which have remained in the doldrums since the near collapse of the bank in 2008.
A spokesperson for RBS said any possible sale of the government's stake was "a matter for UKFI and the board of whatever company is thinking of buying shares in RBS".
Backlash
Finalising the deal could take at least six months, because of concerns on the government's side.
The coalition knows that it will face a furious backlash from many quarters, not least of all from Labour, for selling a sizeable part of the bank at a loss.









Andrew Tyrie MP, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, thinks the sell-off process should not be delayed


Add this to the sale, also at a loss, of Northern Rock to Virgin Money and the coalition will be open to the charge of giving away the family silver.
And then there is the plan floated by Business Secretary Vince Cable to break up RBS and turn part of it into a dedicated business bank, lending to those small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that struggle to get credit from other lenders.
If the sale of a sizeable stake to a sovereign wealth fund proceeds, Mr Cable's idea is less likely to ever materialise.
Abu Dhabi has the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world. According to an estimate by the Economist it is worth about £550bn ($875bn).
Between its various investment funds, Abu Dhabi has bought stakes in a number of companies including Daimler, Virgin Galactic and the Mercedes F1 team. Sheikh Mansour, a member of the ruling royal family in the UAE, owns the football club Manchester City.
In late 2008, Abu Dhabi invested £1.2bn in Barclays when the British bank, like so many others, was on the verge of collapse. It doubled its investment as Barclays recovered and has since sold most of its stake at a profit.
More recently the investment company Aarbar, controlled by the Abu Dhabi government, took a notable stake in the struggling Italian bank Unicredit at the start of the year, which has jumped by a third since then.
Abu Dhabi has a good reputation for corporate governance in those businesses in which it has invested, is not known for meddling in the day-to-day running of those companies and has yet to have a high-profile clash with managements or boards.
Follow Joe Lynam on Twitter - BBC_Joe_Lynam - and watch his full report on Newsnight on Monday 26 March 2012 at 2230 on BBC Two, then afterwards on the BBC iPlayer and Newsnight website.




Paul Champion
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14 Ways To Be A Great Startup CEO

http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/34321/14-Ways-To-Be-A-Great-Startup-CEO.aspx

14 Ways To Be A Great Startup CEO
14 Ways To Be A Great Startup CEO







Everyone thinks that being a startup CEO is a glamorous job or one that has to be a ton of fun. That's what I now refer to as the "glamour brain" speaking aka the startup life you hear about from the press. You know the press articles I'm talking about... the ones that talk about how easy it is to raise money, how many users the company is getting, and how great it is to be CEO. Very rarely do you hear about what a bitch it is to be CEO and how it's not for every founder that wants to be an entrepreneur. I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about what it takes to be a great Startup CEO that is also a founder. Here are some of the traits I've found.
Be A Keeper Of The Company Vision
The CEO is the keeper of the company's overall vision. I'm not talking about the vision for the next few months, but the larger road ahead. The CEO needs to be able to keep things on course for the current quarter to make sure that the large overarching vision of the company can be achieved. The takeover the world vision of a startup usually can't be achieved in one year or even in some cases, like Google, in a decade. It takes a great startup CEO to keep the company on track to achieve that vision. A great startup CEO will often judge upcoming initiatives to see if they fit in as a piece of the large puzzle for the bigger vision.
Absorb The Pain For The Team
A startup CEO needs to be the personal voodoo doll for a startup. They need to be able to take on a strong burden of stress, pain, and torture all while making level headed decisions. You can't have the troops stressing and worrying about the difficult challenges at hand. A good startup CEO will absorb the stress, so the rest of the team can carry on. He also needs to be able to mask this pain and stress. Not that he should hide or lie to the team- I'm not encouraging that. Most of the day to day nuances+stresses of a startup aren't worth having the entire team worry about and the CEO needs to bear that pain.
Find The Smartest People And Defer On Domain Expertise
A startup CEO has a great knack for finding talent. The key is finding people that are smarter than you on specific topics. It might be technical team members/leaders or it might be a new VP of Biz Dev. A startup CEO has to have the ability to find these people and make relatively fast decisions to hire them. They also have to be able to show the fire and passion to convince them to leave what is most likely a better paying and more secure job to join the company. The real key to hiring as a startup CEO comes after the hire. A great startup CEO will be able to trust the hires that they make and defer to them on areas of domain expertise. It's hard to let go, but you have to learn to, especially when the company grows.
Be A Good Link Between The Company + Investors
Whether you want to believe it or not, you are not an investor's only portfolio company. Even if you are a superstar, they have a handful of other companies to help and a ton of incoming potential portfolio companies. A good investor will pick 2-3 new companies per year to work with. A good startup CEO will be a good link between progress, issues, and areas where they need help with investors. A good portion of early stage startups that raise money will have a board comprised of 3 people: the CEO founder, the investor, and an independent board member. You are the lone representative for your cofounder and other employees.
Be A Good Link Between The Company + Product
I have this unwavering belief that the best companies are those that keep a founder as CEO for the long haul. Not because the founders have the right to be CEO, but because the CEO needs to be close to the product vision of the company. Founding CEOs understand this the best and can carry out that same unified vision over time. To fill in the management gaps a great COO, other board members, and heads of divisions will come along. It's a strategy that Facebook has employed and why Apple has had a great resurgence with Steve Jobs at the helm. It's all about keeping the CEO as close as possibly linked to the product.
Be Able To Learn On The Job
Most startup CEOs didn't start out with an MBA or some background in growing a company from nothing to something. The best have an ability to learn along the way and embrace their failures to become a better leader. Zuck started when he was 19 and now 7 years later, runs the most powerful internet company. Don't worry about whether "you're qualified" as it's hard to put typical qualifications on the job. You'll learn the really core stuff along the way. The best startup CEOs will surround themselves with smart mentors to be a sounding board along the way.
No Experience Almost Preferred
It's almost better to have a blank slate of zero experience as a startup CEO. If you come in with preconceived notions and block out the scrappy methods of a startup founder, it actually hurts you. Traditional education often trains you to be CEO or manager for a much larger company, not for a startup of under 50 people. It's a different kind of leadership and company.
Have An Uncanny Ability To Say No
You will be inundated with a list of requests from potential partners, investors, employees, and more. They will all sound absolutely wonderful. As you grow, you will also have the resources to execute more of them. Don't. It's easy to say yes, but so very hard to say no. By having an uncanny ability to say no, you can keep your company on track with the large vision you maintain. It will also keep your team members (notice I don't like to use the word "employees") laser focused and feel more rewarded as they are able to focus on one thing for a good chunk of time. I've seen too many startups sink because the CEO keeps changing what the head of product and engineering should be doing.
Have Some Technical Knowledge And Skillset
A good startup CEO shouldn't be afraid of a little bit of code and a text editor. They don't need to be diving into the source code on a daily basis, but they need to understand the technical requirements. It's easy to say "go build this", but it's a whole other ball game to understand how to build it. What seems simple may be a huge mountain of a technical feat that just isn't feasible with the given resources and deadlines. It can also help lend some street cred with hiring early technical team members too.
Be Able To Break Things Down Into Sizable Chunks + Milestones
Remember that huge unwavering vision that you are the keeper of? Odds are it only makes sense to you and your cofounder. You will need to break it up into sizable chunks and milestones for the rest of the team to understand it. You also need to be able to pick when and where to conquer things strategically. What is the past of least resistance so you can gain traction? What can you do first with your given resources?
Have The Ability To Call An Audible
Nothing goes according to plan. Things fall through, people quit, shit happens, servers crash, and other random things go bump in the night. You're going to have to deal with it and fast. This is a football term:
"Seen when the quarterback goes up to the line of scrimmage, sees a defensive alignment he wasn't expecting, and adjusts by yelling out a new play."
You're going to come up against things that you didn't expect and just be able to call an audible. Launch faster, spend more money here, or even abandon a project.
Can Motivate The Team Through Despair
People love to talk in this business. People love to talk even more when you're company isn't fairing well. A great CEO will be able to take those moments of public despair and keep the company focused. They will be able to debunk the rumors or even approach them head on by keeping the members of the company focused on the bigger mission at hand. It can come in simple 5 minute talks or motivational emails. The worst thing you can do is avoid the situation and be passive aggressive. I repeat: DO NOT WUSS OUT.
Be A Great Communicator
You need to be able to portray the energy and passion that you feel into others...over and over and over and over and over and over again on a daily basis. As a startup founder you need to communicate the vision and hope for the future of your startup to the rest of the world. You need to be able to break down the overall vision of the company into something that mere mortals can understand. You can't speak in crazy technical jargon or industry terms. It needs to be simple, clear, and compelling. You also need to be able to argue your point. Many will pick "fights" with you just to see how strong willed you are. Be respectful, but be very confident in your answer. Often wrong, but never in doubt my friend.
Don't Be A "Fake CEO"
Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, makes a strong case for not being a fake ceo. In short, worry about things that produce results, not fame. If it's between going to a conference/doing an interview or completing a deal, get the deal done. Don't "leave it to someone else". You need to get your hands dirty every single day.
By no means is this an exhaustive or definitive list. In some cases, the traits listed above might be counter-intuitive. What are some traits you've seen in great founding startup CEOs? Not the glamorous job you thought it was, eh?
You Should Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jasonlbaptiste, Friend me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jasonlbaptiste, Email Me: jbaptiste@onstartups.com, or even call: 201.305.0552Love startups? Join the OnStartups community on Facebook.

Posted by Jason Baptiste on Tue, Dec 28, 2010

Paul Champion
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Policy Watch – Budget 2012. What did it tell us? | Pearson Centre for Policy and Learning

http://pearsoncpl.com/2012/policy-watch-budget-2012-what-did-it-tell-us/

Policy Watch – Budget 2012. What did it tell us?
Introduction
George Osborne’s third Budget speech lasted just over an hour this week but much of it was fairly predictable. There were three reasons for this. First, overall fiscal policy had been clearly set out in the Emergency Budget and Spending Review of 2010 and as ever, the Chancellor continues to make a virtue out of sticking unerringly to the path already set. Second, most of the issues for debate had been pretty much aired in the weeks building up to the Budget: mansion taxes, the 50p rate, Vince Cable’s ‘open’ letter all were obvious examples. And third, current economic conditions continue to provide the Chancellor with little of that ‘wiggle room’ that Chancellors often need. Indeed, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR,) who offer the independent forecasting on which the Chancellor relies, confirmed that little had changed since their last Report four months ago. “Our overall assessment of the outlook and risks for the UK economy is broadly unchanged from our November outlook.”
Any big new surprises in the Budget for the world of education and skills?
Perhaps two, if not big at least interesting announcements to note.
One was the intention to pilot “later this year” a system of enterprise loans to help young people start up and grow their own businesses. Just how much money will be available isn’t yet clear but it’s a welcome addition to the package of measures being launched in the form of a Youth Contract in a couple of weeks. There’s been growing support for such a move for some time. Sir Richard Branson, for example, has been campaigning for a couple of years for a Youth Investment Fund to provide enterprise loans for young people on the same lines as the HE student loan model. In addition, the think tank Policy Exchange have recently published a set of proposals that included an Enterprise Kick off Fund for young people aimed at providing small scale start-up loans on commercial terms with the Government acting as back up.
The other announcement of interest was the proposal to create a £100m research fund for UKHE. Intended to draw in private co-funding, this fund will target large capital projects and may counter balance some of the worries about future funding that the sector has been facing.
What about education and skills and the Growth Strategy?
The Chancellor confirmed that the Growth Strategy launched at last year’s Budget and essential to the ‘compelling industrial vision’ that Vince Cable has been promoting, is firmly on course. This is supporting growth in a number of key sectors such as advanced manufacturing, digital and creative industries, health and lifecare sciences and professional and business services.
One of the features of the Growth Plan is the emphasis on raising skill levels and on creating what the Government calls “the most flexible workforce in Britain.” Currently, the Government has adopted 12 education and skills measures to support this and in an accompanying document to the Budget Report, updated progress in this area. One measure, setting up the HE Global online portal, is now complete, another, Project Enthuse which is intended to improve the quality of science teaching in schools has just started, while progress is under way in the other ten.
Just as a reminder, the other ten, an essential part of the current skills agenda, include: improving the quality of apprenticeship programmes; speeding up the apprenticeship vacancy advertising service; endorsing the Ofqual/OFT review of the operation of the qualification market; publishing destination data on 16 and 18 year olds; funding to support the development of work experience models in FE and elsewhere; employer kitemarking of STEM courses; an improved careers portal as part of the new Careers Service; piloting of undergraduate STEM ambassadors; and focused funding for adult literacy/numeracy courses.
What other measures were announced that might be of interest to education and skills?
Most of the other related measures covered business support activity in varying degrees and included:

Ultrafast broadband coverage. While investment (£100m) remains to support the development of ultrafast broadband in a number of super-connected cities, an extra £50m will be made available to fund a second wave in ten smaller cities
£60m will be provided to help establish a UK centre for aerodynamics
Two new catapult (growth and innovation) centres covering Transport Systems and Future Cities will be established
There’ll be a further Treasury led review to help develop the concept of employer ownership
Lord Heseltine will lead a review to look at how best public-private investment can support future growth activity
£100m will be made available to help support non-traditional lending for small businesses
The recent recommendation for below inflation rate increases to the average National Minimum Wage will be implemented
Of interest to teachers at present, the Treasury is presenting further evidence to Pay Review Bodies on the introduction of regional, as opposed to national, pay structures
Welfare reform. The Government is looking to cut welfare spending by £10bn a year over the next spending review cycle

Individual Depts will provide statements about what the impact of these and any other Budget measures will mean for them as they continue to develop funding changes for the future.
Finally, how’s the economy looking generally?
No reference of course to green shoots but based on the figures provided by the Independent Office for Budget Responsibility, the Chancellor offered an optimistic albeit cautious set of predictions about the future. Key indicators include:

GDP growth. 0.8% for this year, (so up 0.1%,) 2.0% next year (slightly down on earlier predictions on the basis of concerns about export demand and oil prices,) 2.7% for 2014, 3.0% for both 2015 and 2016
Unemployment. Due to peak at 8.7% this year and then fall back to 6.3% by 2016. This is in line with current forecasts from both here and abroad but errs on the side of caution
Inflation. Due to continue to fall throughout 2012 and be close to the 2% target by 2013

And what about other reactions?
Generally along fairly traditional lines.
The Opposition has argued that this Budget brought to a close the figment that ‘we’re all in this together.’ Ed Miliband led with the line: “wrong choices, wrong priorities, wrong values.” The CBI was broadly pleased but disappointed that more had not been done to ease regulation. The TUC was concerned about the prospect of regional pay for public sector workers, the FT called the Budget, “an audacious gamble,” the Guardian criticised the Chancellor for “misplaced priorities” while the Daily Mail headline simply read “Not bad, Mr Osborne, but not good enough.”
As for the world of education and skills, attention will arguably now focus on two questions: have we got what the FT called “a 21st century industrial policy” with the skill levels to go with it and secondly, has enough been done to help young people progress into the world of work?
Steve Besley
Head of Policy (UK and International)
Pearson Centre for Policy and Learning

Paul Champion
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Why You Should Encourage Your Employees to be Entrepreneurs

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-you-should-encourage-your-employees-to-be-entrepreneurs-2012-3

Why You Should Encourage Your Employees to be Entrepreneurs

Are you worried about keeping employees in your workplace happy and engaged as the economy picks up and competitors start to hire? Are you concerned about maintaining your competitive edge in terms of innovation and industry leadership? One way to accomplish both of these challenging goals is to encourage entrepreneurship in your workplace.

At first glance, fostering entrepreneurial employees might seem like shooting yourself in the foot:
“Why should I encourage employees who are just going to start their own businesses and leave? They might even work on their own businesses on my time—and dime. No, thanks.”
But the benefits of encouraging entrepreneurial individuals in your workplace more than outweigh these risks. For decades, big corporations have sought out and nurtured “intrapreneurs” within their ranks. These employees, who have many of the self-motivation and leadership skills associated with entrepreneurs, are used to start and head new divisions, initiatives or projects within the company—and in doing so, they give big companies some of the advantages that smaller, more nimble entrepreneurial businesses enjoy.
A recent post on the Harvard Business Review blog drew an interesting distinction between two types of people: entrepreneneurial-minded people (EMPs) and serial entrepreneurs (SEs). SEs are what we think of as traditional entrepreneurs. They have a desire to own their own businesses, are highly individualistic, want to be in control and have a “sense of urgency.”
EMPs share some characteristics of traditional entrepreneurs, but are happier within a company and working with a group toward a goal. They like organization, consistency, and working in teams. Clearly, a lot of these desires aren’t compatible with the often chaotic, lonely and ever-changing lifestyle of the true entrepreneur. But the good news is, as an entrepreneur, you can benefit from the entrepreneurial mindset of these employees.
Identifying EMPs in your workplace shouldn’t be too hard. It’s easy to spot the employees who like to be told what to do, follow rules and go home at the end of the day. But what about the employees who want something more—who want to come up with their own ideas, take charge and pursue them with a passion? These employees are also easy to spot—and should be encouraged.
Here are some ways to test and nurture your EMPs:

Ask them to come up with ideas for a new product, service or way of doing things.
Put them in charge of a project. Give them a goal, and let them figure out how to accomplish it.
Tie reward to their accomplishments via a bonus or pay-for-performance structure.
Let them lead a team.

EMPs can be found at any level, from your managers to your front-line staff, and should be encouraged at any level, too. Even an entry-level employee can be handed a goal and allowed to figure out how to achieve it, asked for new ideas, or rewarded for accomplishments. No matter where they are in your company, EMPs are eager to stretch, so challenge them!
Along the way, you may find some of your EMPs are really SEs. And yes, one or two may leave your business. But if you keep them happy and challenged, you will benefit enormously from their contributions while they’re with your company. And that’s really the most you can hope because, as you know yourself, you can’t keep a true entrepreneur in a cubicle.
How are you encouraging entrepreneurship in your workplace?

Encourage Employees Photo via Shutterstock


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Paul Champion
Strategic Project Manager

Mobile: 07540 704920

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