Season's Greetings!

It's that wonderful time of year again (where did the year go??) to celebrate with friends and family, spread good cheer and give thanks to those individuals who have enriched our lives in one way or another. To quote Winston Churchill, 'we make a living by what we get... we make a life by what we give.'

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you - my wonderful colleagues and clients for your friendship, support and your ongoing business. I hope that you find time over the holidays for relaxation and spontaneity with your significant others, away from the pressures and stresses of work. To help you enjoy a stress-free holiday, please click on this link: Stress Free to receive a free copy of Insight magazine full of wisdom from leading experts on life, love, health and wealth.

All the best for a safe and enjoyable holiday!

Cheers, Rebecca

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How To Develop Top Talent Within Your Company

Most would agree that any organization is only as good as its employees. Creating a high performance company filled with talented workers has been the Nirvana that most CEO's and other company leaders dream of. This is not easy to achieve by any means, and tends to be an ongoing aspiration. Voltaire said, "Grow your own gardens," and he was right. It is up to company executives to learn to recognize and foster those talented individuals with potential for development within an organization.

Three things that can boost talent and lead to the highest performance are:

· Hiring strong and agile leaders who can easily adapt to change

· Building strong employ engagement so that workers become committed to delivering on strategic goals

· Make collaboration work for your company

In order to give talent a real chance within your organization, it is important to be on the constant lookout for real creativity among your employees. Note those individuals who seek out new and unique methods of problem solving and nurture those approaches with incentive rewards.

Take advantage of the fact that each employee has unique and interesting life experiences, skills, and education. View these diversities as strengths and talents that can be nurtured as company assets. Recognize and encourage entrepreneurial talent within the confines of your company boundaries and put this capacity to work to your advantage too.

It is very important to challenge employees by offering interesting projects and opportunities. This gives them the chance they need to allow their creative ideas to shine. That said it is equally as important to celebrate their innovative accomplishments. Let your workers know they are appreciated and they will reward you, in return, for giving them an enthusiastic environment in which to thrive. The same enthusiastic environment will serve to increase corporate stamina and will even impress people from outside your company.

With so many businesses vying for top talent, it can be difficult to find, hire, and hang on to the right people. However, with a little extra planning, effort and care, you can find superstars who will take your business to new heights and give you an edge over the competition.

All of these talent-development approaches have the potential to contribute significantly to any organization's profitability.

If you have any questions about this article, or about how we can help you with your current talent development, training, or hiring needs, contact us today!

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Mentoring Your Staff/Employees

What better way is there to improve one's working skills than to receive instruction from a seasoned senior team member? Mentoring is the perfect way to help your business take a giant leap up the ladder of success by providing this excellent means of personal and professional development.

How to begin: Post interoffice notice that your organization plans to make mentoring available to those who volunteer to participate. Provide detailed information that explains how the program works and appoint a committee to oversee the program and be available to answer any questions participants might have. Inform both staff members and mentors that each has an advantage by participating. Make it clear that the mentoring process can achieve improved performance and career enrichment. Staff members are able to develop their career goals through mentoring and mentors enjoy the benefit of fresh input and ideas from their charges.

Consider the perfect match: It is important to make good matches between staffer and mentor. Look for compatible personality traits and make sure each couple spends some time together before the final decision is made about who will mentor whom. The efforts will not be as effective if marked incompatibilities exist between your choices. Make sure your choices are conducive to mutual creativity and have similar work habits. Use your profiles & assessments and observational expertise to make matches that are going to work well together and increase your organization's workflow. Let personnel reports play a big role in your choices about which employees will work best together. Pair someone with weak qualities in one area with a person who has strengths in that area.

Encourage open exchanges: It is prudent to observe the discourse between staff members and mentors, especially during the initial periods following the match-ups. Watch for disagreements concerning work habits and stress that both people are there to learn from one another. Encourage new approaches to problem solving and promote the idea that both people are there to learn how to replace inefficient methods of doing things with more productive ones.

It is important to meet with each team individually and to delineate specific goals and time constraints that should be met. Equally important is the creation of a committee to oversee and supervise progress of the mentoring team and to make sure things move ahead as planned and is goal focused.

Mark the successful completion of the program by some type of party or event that will serve both as a springboard for utilization of the new methods and practices learned during the time spent in the mentoring process. Be sure your employees are aware that you recognize and appreciate their efforts.

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Managing Your Staff With Questions

Asking questions is a great way to get your staff involved, motivated, and engaged in their daily jobs. If you make this a part of your daily routine you'll be sending the message that their opinion really matters. In addition you may get some incredible ideas to help your company grow.

§ What part of your job takes too long?

§ Is there anything that caused you to waste your time in order to get a task completed?

§ What else was wasted?

§ What takes too many people in order to complete?

§ Do you have any suggestions or ideas on new products, services, or ways to grow the company?

§ If you owned the company what would you do differently?