Author: India Brown

Insights by India Brown, MBA, PMP

We as business owners are consistently trying to figure things out to answer the question; what’s next?

There is no single answer to that question, so we must ensure we are creating plans that will drive all the right answers to; what’s next.

I have put together a proven 5 step business structure for growth that has helped me achieve success in my business. I want to share that structure with my fellow business owners.  The growth of my business is attributed to multiple reasons, but they can all be tied back to how I set up my business to be prepared for growth and success.

1. Mindset Change – we should focus on how we think about leadership as a business owner and not as a staff member.
2. Business Development – we have to have a  plan design to determine how we need to grow both in our business and in our role as a leader.
3. Scale – we need to understand what it means to expand beyond our current state.
4. Customer Service – we cannot be successful without fully understanding what experience our customers are encountering with our services.
5. Sustain – we will need to ensure we are here for the long haul, knowing how we fit into our industry will bring us sustainability.

If you’re interested in learning how to successfully build a platform for success, reach out to me at info@pmphase.com. Let’s Check In On Your Business.

This article speaks indirectly about the difference between responding vs reacting and how it begins with you. A great example of how to discern between the two is in your work environment.. “ you just received an email from a co-worker that at first sight appeared aggressive” you have two options, respond or react. You get to decide how to proceed !

Read the article on how having difficult conversations all begin with your respond vs react behavior here:
https://loom.ly/bDmUE04

Sources

• https://hbr.org/2017/12/how-to-control-your-emotions-during-a-difficult-conversation

The Legacy Building organization strives to create a network of Black-owned businesses sharing resources, knowledge, and a strong community. Small Business Owners of Central Indiana are invited to register for vending and advertisement space at the Legacy Building Networking Marketplace.

Register today at https://loom.ly/uagDSFo

Typically, a skills matrix is a tool used by leaders to identify their team’s skills and assign tasks based on knowledge and experience. One matrix can conveniently chart where each team member excels and struggles.

Skills Matrices are for more than just rating an employee’s competence. Companies can use data from a Skills Matrix to make pertinent decisions such as initiating a hiring campaign and overhauling their training and development process.

A traditional skills matrix can be transformed for an individual who is looking to change careers or jobs, apply for a promotion, or just maintain a record of their knowledge and experience. Your professional skills matrix should include a mixture of soft and hard skills that you have acquired and those that you wish to achieve.

For instance, you may be a skilled problem solver and an expert at communicating via email. However, you may notice that in addition to those soft skills, you need to improve your emotional intelligence. You may be proficient with hard skills such as the software suites you use regularly and want to learn Spanish and ASL.

After you filled out all of the Skills you have, want to improve, and what to gain, rank them honestly. This ranking system can be as marking an x or checkmark in columns signifying strengths and weakness or more involved.

Skills Matrix
Skill	Strength	Needs Improvement	Limitations
Problem Solving	X
Organization	X
Leadership	X
Critical Thinking	X
Verbal Communication	X
Emotional Intelligence		X
Microsoft Software Suite	X
Adobe Software Suite	X
Google Software Suite	X
Storage Systems & Management	X
Marketing Campaign Management	X
Language – English	X
Language – Spanish		X
Language – ASL		X	exp: course avaialability

Download our examples and use them as a guide to create your own:

PMPHASE Skills Matrix

With the rise of online education and training, work-from-home occupations, and the need for businesses to pivot faster than ever, Instructional Design is becoming a growing field. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the employment of training and development specialists and instructional coordinators is projected to grow 9 percent and 6 percent, respectively from 2019 to 2029. This is much faster than the average for all occupations.

If you are interested in becoming an instructional designer, there are a few basic curriculum designs you’ll need to know:

Download PMPHASE’s Job Aid for Learner-Centered Principles

Source

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1. Do I want to learn how to do something?            

Find a Training Program. Learn to perform a task or function specific to a role.

2. Do I want to learn how to be better at something?

Seek Development. Enhance and grow an existing skill and take steps to maintain that skill.

3. Do I want to learn overall?

Search for an Education Program. Learn to master both your skills and your chosen role.

Look at your desire for your future, then make a learning choice that will get you there! Download our Professional Development Comparison chart to aid in your program research.

How you Respond versus how you React could mean the difference between de-escalating and exacerbating a situation. Join me at the Virtual Torch Talk on Thursday, April 8, 2021. I will discuss the difference that responding rather than reacting can make in both your professional and personal life.

Ambitious business owners can often forget to put themselves first. We want to give you the tools to improve your business and maintain your mental health.

The 10 Day Affirmation Exercise Workbook was created with the intent to create space for daily self-reflection and healing.

Knowing what leadership style works best for you is part of being a good leader. Developing a signature style with the ability to stretch into other styles as the situation warrants may help enhance your leadership effectiveness.

Here are 4 steps you can take to become a better leader:

1. Know yourself.

Start by raising your awareness of your dominant leadership style. You can do this by asking trusted colleagues to describe the strengths of your leadership style. You can also take a leadership style assessment.

2. Understand the different styles.

Get familiar with the repertoire of leadership styles that can work best for a given situation. What new skills do you need to develop?

3. Practice makes a leader.

Be genuine with any approach you use. Moving from a dominant leadership style to a different one may be challenging at first. Practice the new behaviors until they become natural. In other words, don’t use a different leadership style as a “point-and-click” approach. People can smell a fake leadership style a mile away—authenticity rules.

4. Develop your leadership agility.

Traditional leadership styles are still relevant in today’s workplace, but they may need to be combined with new approaches in line with how leadership is defined for the 21st century.