The principle of finding your voice is imperative, according to Covey, to success in the Knowledge and Information age. People are hungry for meaning – meaningful work and meaningful living. Meaning is found in part, when the whole person is brought into an experience. All of us have more than one dimension – physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual – and each of these dimensions (or intelligences according to Covey), contribute significantly to who we are and what we give to our jobs, our relationships, and our world. Here’s an example.

If you have a worker who is simply getting his/her physical needs met (i.e. a place to work and a paycheck), you will have a much less productive, loyal, and creative person than one who receives fair pay for their work (physical), has an environment that encourages and supports continuous learning and creativity (intellectual), works in a workplace that fosters respect and kindness (emotional), and is given the opportunity to contribute to something greater than him/herself (spiritual).

Covey says “You find your voice when your talent and passion overlaps what the world needs.” Finding your voice is inherent to finding meaning – and all of us have that desire. You do, and your employees do. So, the first order of business is for you to find your own voice. In 2009, where do you want your talent and passion to go? To your business obviously, but what do you want it to look like? If your goal is sheer numbers – you may be like the worker mentioned earlier who simply collects the paycheck but doesn’t contribute his/her whole self to the success of your company.

Achieving your empirical goals is important, but it is not everything. What will you do to achieve goals intellectually in the coming year - take a course, attend seminars, go back to school, learn a new software program, read a certain number of books, listen to motivational speakers? There are dozens of ways for you to pay attention to this critical intelligence, and doing so will increase your capacity to lead your company well and possibly even raise the bottom line numbers you werehoping for.

Next, how are you paying attention to your emotional self? Are you surrounding yourself with positive people who inspire you to do better, be better? Are you paying attention to nurturing your most important life relationships? Are you cultivating friendships, both in and outside the workplace? This may seem like an unimportant factor in running a business, but there is no doubt that emotional health contributes to business success to a far greater degree than we are often willing to acknowledge.

Finally, where do your talent and passion “overlap what the world needs?” This is the spiritual (meaning) component of finding your voice. It involves leaving a legacy, doing something that serves others, contributing to a cause that is greater than your own self interest. Without this vital component we become slaves to our own vices and avarice, and life has no greater meaning beyond yourself. Where do you see needs in the world? What tugs at your heart – makes you wish you could do something to help? It will be different for everyone (isn’t that a good thing?). Where can you take all that you are, all that you have accomplished and learned, and serve someone else with no thought of how it may come back to you? When those things line up, you will have found your voice. You will have risen to a deeper level of living, and your business will undoubtedly be positively influenced.

But it doesn’t end there. The leadership part comes in the second portion of the definition. Once you have found your voice – Covey says you must be active in helping others find their voice. Leadership is communicating the worth and potential of others even before they come to see it themselves. It means encouraging others to discover and use their own talents and passion and to look beyond themselves to contribute to a greater cause; in other words, to find meaning.

In your business, you may want to ask yourself these questions in terms of your willingness and ability to help your staff in 2009 find their voices:

• Am I paying my staff fair wages for the work that they provide to my company with opportunities for growth?
• Am I willing to provide learning opportunities throughout the year so my staff are challenged and motivated intellectually?
• Do I create a work environment that does not tolerate negativity, sarcasm, put-downs, and gossip? Do I model and encourage a positive attitude, supportive team values, kindness and respect?
• Am I sharing the vision for my business clearly enough so that my staff understand how they contribute to the “big picture” of the company’s success? Am I modeling and encouraging service to others in order that their talents can meet needs in their world?

If you use these questions as a guide to changing things in your business in the coming year, you will be on your way to developing the 8th habit. This is just one small portion of what will take you from effectiveness to greatness in the coming year. Treat yourself to Covey’s book to discover the rest of the principles. You’ll never look at things the same, and your business may see success you never thought possible.

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In many cases, business planning is all about taking your dream and turning it into reality. Many people think that the only reason to develop a business plan is to convince potential lenders or investors to provide financial backing. This view is short-sighted. A well-developed plan can serve as one of your most important management tools. The challenges facing most small businesses economically these days are a perfect reason to sit down and create a plan – just like you did when you started your business – incorporating the new economic realities.

Reason for the business plan. Going through the motions of creating a business plan for where your business is at right now, forces you into an objective space. Instead of running around “doing” everything that needs to get done – you must evaluate from somewhat of a distance, whether what you’re doing is effective. For example, have your marketing plans brought you the results you had hoped? If not, why? What needs to be changed? Has the economy impacted your marketing effectiveness and if so, what needs to change to adapt to the current climate? Or, is the unique selling proposition (USP) you originally came up with still unique? Can you still claim that you are "the only business to….", or that your prices are still "the lowest in town?" Whatever created your unique niche in the market – is it still there or have competition or economic times changed how your business was positioned? All of the elements that are in a business plan ask you to take a hard look at what IS, compared to what you hope it will be. Things have changed significantly in the past six months – and a head-in-the-sand mentality will not move you toward business success in the coming year. The hours you spend creating your plan – given current economic and business realities will give you your best chance for creating success in tough times, and rising above your competition.

Preparing your plan. Putting a business plan together requires you to translate your thoughts about how you run your business (and how it is performing) into a written format. While most business plans share a similar structure and contain similar information about a business, your business plan will be distinguished by those characteristics that are unique to your business. Common formats are available at any bookstore or online. These formats work because they address the basic components of business success – things such as marketing, competition, financial projections, production goals, service goals, USP, to name a few. If you created a plan when you started your business – dig it out and use the same format to create your new 2009 plan. If you don’t have one, find a sample online and follow the template to create your own.

Review, Revisit, Revise. Once you have a documented planning process, make sure it becomes a tool that you use over and over again, improving it each time by incorporating the experience you have gained. The existence of the document and the process enable you to derive the maximum benefit from the work you put into creating the plan. Make your business plan a living, active document that provides you with a map for moving forward in the future. As part of your plan, make sure you have systems in place to gather the information you need to assess how your business is doing. Make sure those systems can provide the information to you in time for it to help. Don’t allow too much time to pass before you address negative trends or downturns. The sooner you realize something isn’t working, the sooner you can change course to correct it and get back on track.

In these uncertain times, every business owner is asking what he or she can do to stay in the game. I can’t think of a better tool than an active business plan to keep you on top in your industry, to help you to realistically anticipate the potential ups and downs and to have strategies in place to deal with whatever comes. While everyone else is hanging on to their life rafts in the turbulent economic waters just waiting to see what happens, be the one confidently steering your ship through those waters to your intended destination, with your business plan as your compass.

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Hire right.

Nothing can replace making the right hire in the first place. So much turnover happens because not enough effort was put into the hiring process. Simply hiring a body out of desperation to fill a position will almost always end badly. Yes it takes effort (and sometimes a bit of money) to create a meaningful selection process, but the investment is worth it. Use all the tools available to you (personality inventories, skill testing, individual and group interviews, test periods, etc.) to ensure you’re hiring a person who not only provides the skills you need to do the job, but who will fit into your business culture, mesh with existing staff, fill skill gaps and buy in to your business vision. A little extra time and effort up front goes a long way toward less stress and aggravation later, when yet another person walks out the door.

Recruit constantly.

Your potential employee pipeline should always be full, and you should be recruiting all the time – even if you don’t have any positions to offer at the moment. Everywhere you go, use the opportunity to network with people. When you meet someone you think would be a good fit for your company, ask them to submit a resume. Be honest and tell them you don’t have anything specific right now, but that you’re always on the lookout for great people and that you sense they’d be a real asset to your business. The more resumes you have on file of pre-qualified candidates, the easier it will be to create a strong short-list when you actually need someone.

Confront your paradigms.

The world is changing, and like it or not, you have to change with it in order to survive. That means changing the way you think, or have thought for perhaps many years. This skill may be the most important one to develop in order to create success for your business - letting go of old ways of thinking and opening yourself up to changing your paradigms. Confront the things you have always believed to be true and ask yourself if it’s possible there’s another way to look at it. If full-time, permanent, 9 to 5 has always been your preference, it may be time to consider flexible hours or job-sharing if it means getting the right people into your business. If you’ve never considered hiring an older worker because you thought they wouldn’t learn as fast as younger people, think again. Older workers have much to contribute to your workplace and can be just what you’re looking for to create a generationally balanced team. Write down all your assumptions or preferences about human resources, and then ask yourself whether any of those can be challenged given new economic realities. This could be the most valuable exercise you do in 2009.

Learn about and deal effectively with gender-based realities.

GenX, Baby Boomers, GenY – what does it all mean and how does it impact your workplace? People in each generation have a specific set of workplace ethics that affect how they perform on the job. You may not agree with them, but they are reality for people in those generational models, and you’d better accept that they are reality for you as well. There’s a lot of information on the Internet about how each generation functions in the workplace, so instead of being annoyed by behaviours you don’t understand, educate yourself. Read up on it and you’ll discover why those 20-somethings are constantly challenging the way you do things. You’ll realize why those 40-50 year old workers will work til they drop and almost always do what you ask, even at their own expense. Understanding the generations at work may be your most valuable tool in finding the right people for the right job, and in effectively communicating with each generation. (Check out the book: Generations at Work; Managing the Clash of Veterans, Boomers, Xers and Nexters in Your Workplace by Zemke, Raines and Filipczak).

Be a leader who cares.

Make a commitment to grow in your leadership abilities this year. Continue inareas where you are strong and grow in the areas where you are weak. An effective leader knows how to empower and motivate people to get the job done in a way that re-enforces his/her care and concern for the individual. It’s a tough balance, but those who are able to achieve it have the most loyal, committed staff.

These are just a few of the important issues you need to consider in the coming year as your business faces the economic realities of employees in the workplace. Your people are your most important asset and if you can bring in the right people, keep them happy and productive, and use their individual differences in an intelligent and collaborative way, you’ll be miles ahead of others whose revolving door just keeps turning!

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