Category Archives: Guest Blog

Back to Basics: How Your Leadership Style Can Fit Any Team

The following is a guest blog from Tim Tucker, a Chamber member and franchise owner of Express Employment Professionals. All of the views and opinions expressed in this post are solely Tim Tucker’s and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. To submit a guest blog e-mail DeJohn Rose for more information.

Employees often have similar objectives: career growth, fulfillment, getting the job done. But achieving optimal results in a way that’s agreeable to everyone can be a major challenge. Goals may align, but their successful completion is partially determined by the day-to-day interactions that form individual leadership styles.

What makes a leader?

You’ve heard the saying that leaders are born, not made, but that’s only partially true. Integrity and intuition may be inherent, but people skills are sharpened through experience.

Establishing trust, resolving conflict, and being an effective listener are just a few of the many traits that can be developed through time and teambuilding. While some people’s skill sets are simply better suited for dealing with certain challenges, being able to handle diverse situations and personalities is part of most job descriptions.

Identifying your leadership style and understanding its strengths and weaknesses can help you decide what’s working and what needs improvement.

What’s your leadership style?

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) identifies three common styles: authoritarian, democratic, delegative. Beyond employee productivity, these varied approaches affect workplace ambience and morale.

Authoritarian

Strengths: Organization is the main skill of the authoritarian leader. His or her priorities are clear and employees are fully informed of expectations. These leaders work best with passive co-workers.

Weaknesses: Authoritarian leaders can be seen as micromanagers instead of team players. Neglecting to seek feedback and collaborate in a personable way can isolate peers and conflict tends to arise with differing opinions.

Democratic

Strengths: Communication and creativity are this leader’s strengths. The democratic leader wants to hear others’ perspectives and welcomes a variety of solutions. Their sense of priority allows them to focus on the details without losing sight of the main objective.

Weaknesses: Decision-making is sometimes problematic for the democratic leader. Too many viewpoints, heightened by a desire to please all parties, can complicate the process. Impartiality may also waiver as the employee becomes more emotionally connected to individual co-workers.

Delegative

Strengths: Delegative leaders instill confidence by allowing others to manage their respective tasks with minimal input. Their leniency allows for creativity and work best with those that are highly motivated.

Weaknesses: Priorities sometimes seem unclear to others, as the delegative leader is often more focused on the big picture than the details of how to accomplish it. The tendency to shirk from responsibility sometimes gives co-workers the impression that they are “on their own.” Delegative leaders can seem disengaged, which contributes to a sense of chaos.

Back to basics

Managing employees is a process unique to every organization and its corporate culture, but here are some guidelines to keep in mind:

  • Be flexible: Capitalize on your strengths, but be aware of others’ needs. Although you should strive to be consistent, tailor your approach in response to each employee and his or her personality.
  • Focus on the person, not the issue: Respect is the foundation of every great relationship. No matter what your management style, basic civility is always imperative. Remember that every employee is a human who deserves your respect; you are working with someone’s wife, father, daughter, or friend.
  • Find out what motivates your co-workers: Show genuine interest. Find out what they’re seeking in their current position and do what you can to facilitate their goals, whether you’re a supervisor or a peer.

Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your leadership style will help your team achieve optimal results. True leaders recognize that communication is a two-way street. Seek dialogue with the people around you to find out what’s working and what you can improve. Ask for pointers from a mentor and accept that all change takes time. Work on issues gradually to become the leader your team trusts.

Getting Back in the Job Market

The following is a guest blog from Tim Tucker, a Chamber member and franchise owner of Express Employment Professionals. All of the views and opinions expressed in this post are solely Tim Tucker’s and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. To submit a guest blog e-mail DeJohn Rose for more information.

There’s no time like the present to lay the groundwork, start networking, and update your résumé to get back in the job market.

Research indicates that hiring trends are on the upswing. A national hiring trends survey of employers conducted by Express Employment Professionals shows commercial and clerical positions will likely see continued hiring increases for the third quarter. Express surveyed 10,181 current and former clients across the company’s more than 550 locations in the United States and Canada. Thirty-four percent of respondents plan to hire full-time light industrial positions in the third quarter, while 28% plan to hire for administrative positions. The survey also reveals that 13% of respondents plan to hire for engineering positions and 11% plan to hire for information technology positions.

According to CareerBuilder and USA Today’s latest nationwide survey of employers, 41% of hiring managers plan to hire between July and December. One in five managers plan to hire full-time employees in the third quarter. The survey showed that employers are primarily focused on recruiting for customer service, sales, and information technology positions. Continue reading →

Scott Wise

Social Media, Scotty Wise, and his Brewhouse

The following is a guest blog from Scott Wise, a Chamber member and owner of Scotty’s Brewhouse. All of the views and opinions expressed in this post are solely Scott Wise’s and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. To submit a guest blog e-mail DeJohn Rose for more information.

Since opening the first Scotty’s Brewhouse in Muncie in 1996, I have experienced the highs and lows of the restaurant business.  After the initial success of Scotty’s, I opened a fine dining restaurant in 1998, where I lost nearly a million dollars in three years. Needless to say that was one of my low points, but I think I learned more from that failed venture than I’ve learned from any of my successes.  When we closed that restaurant down, we opened our Bloomington Scotty’s Brewhouse location in 2001. West Lafayette opened in 2004 and the northside Indianapolis (96th Street) location opened in 2007. We opened our downtown Indianapolis location (at Virginia & Pennsylvania Streets) in 2009. Scotty’s Lakehouse just opened this summer and we’ll be opening our Brewpub, Three Wise Men Brewing Company in Broad Ripple in late 2010. We also have a project we are planning to launch in 2011 in Fort Wayne.  We’re looking to locate in left field of Parkview Field, home of the Minor League Fort Wayne TinCaps.

A big part of our recent success and expansion, despite the down economy, can be attributed to our presence on social networking websites. A year and a half ago, when the economy crashed, we were looking for ways to cut costs without laying employees off. At the same time social media was really taking off, so we eliminated every single piece of outside advertising, no print, no radio, no other types of traditional media, and shifted our focus to e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. In the past, we would spend about $250,000 each year in football ads, newspaper, and radio during Christmas time to promote gift cards. We eliminated all of that.

I realized that without a marketing budget, my use of social media was the only way to get our message out. You can’t walk into a business and say, “If you spend $500 on this ad, I can promise you that you’ll generate X amount of dollars back”, that’s why marketers rely on impressions and views and all of those similar metrics. The reason that social media has been so successful and the reason I jumped on board was not just because I had to, but I felt that the world had already shifted over to social media. Recently I gave a talk to a young professionals group in Muncie about social media and I asked the attendees to raise their hand if they subscribed to the newspaper. Of the 50 people I was talking to, only 2 raised their hand. Then I asked them to raise their hands if they had a Facebook account. Every single person raised their hand. I said “You guys just made the point for me – I could leave right now and this would be a successful talk”. The world changes and you have to change along with it. Continue reading →

Print: The Original Wireless Communication

The following is a guest blog from a Chamber member. In no way does it represent the views or opinions of The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. To submit a guest blog e-mail drose@chamberbloomington.org for more information.

For many years, the paper industry has been criticized with environmental claims of deforestation, excessive energy consumption, and crowding landfills. The exact opposite couldn’t be truer. Paper from today’s world comes from renewable resources. It not only is recyclable and biodegradable, but paper is even responsible.

Misleading claims of deforestation has generated a negative image for paper and aided the digital age into an up-roaring. Paper is composed of cellulose fibers, generally coming from trees, but that should not automatically mean they are destroying the forests of our world. It is in the paper manufacturers’ best interest to ensure sustainability for the longevity of their business. In fact, did you know according to the USDA Forest Service four million trees are planted daily in the United States? Of that, 1.7 million trees are planted by the paper and wood products industry. Once trees are harvested, the sustainable forestry practices ensure several more trees are planted, or regenerated naturally in their place. Continue reading →