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JACQUES LORRAIN: BUSINESS SKILLS
Jacques Lorrain is an executive coach and management consultant. He can be reached at jarin_ltd@sympatico.ca.
of leader you are than anything else. Your subordinates are watching you all the time. In other
words, you are always on duty. Employees will
make up their minds about you if they see a disconnection between what you say and how you
act, and they will act accordingly.
A true leader:
Your attitude will also set the tone in the
company and/or department you are running.
Be, know and do
And you choose your attitude minute to minute,
day to day, task to task.
Leadership is an art and a science, and it’s
hard work because you are dealing with people,
their dreams, their fears and their emotions. As a
leader you must be asking yourself questions
such as “What’s happening?,” “What should be
happening but isn’t?,” “Why are these things
happening?,” and “How can I get my team moving toward the goal?,” etc.
IMAGEZOO
WE ALL KNOW that leadership starts at the top
and has a lot to do with the character of the
leader. A true leader is one who can move from
memorizing a creed to actually living it. That’s
why a leader must at all times be, know and do.
A smart
savings plan
It’s not enough to simply be and/or know
and not do. You can’t be a great leader until you
apply what you know, until you act and do what
you must.
Because leadership is all about getting other
people to do what you want them to do, communicating becomes a very important skill for
supervision, team building and counselling. You
can hardly use one without the others.
Whether it’s a corporation, an institution
or even public governance, all of this applies
to the leader as it’s the same true north on
the compass.
ONE WAY TO keep good
employees—and attract topnotch new ones—is through
an attractive benefits package.
The Canada Business Network
Leadership is basically seeing the forest for
the trees. C
( www.canadabusiness.ca)
says one smart benefit that
business owners can offer is
the Canada Savings Bonds
Payroll Savings Program.
As a leader, the test of your competence
comes when you act and do all those things
required of a leader. You must remember that as
a leader your actions say more about what kind
More in archives
On Costco.ca, enter “Connection.”
At Online Edition, search
“Jacques Lorrain.”
The program provides a
convenient way for employees
to save by using automatic
payroll deductions. The
savings plan is:
; Affordable. Employees
can contribute as little as $2
per week.
New ways of attracting customers
; Risk free. The investment
is fully guaranteed by the government of Canada.
IT’S CLEAR THAT the traditional ways customers
locate businesses, such as the Yellow Pages, direct
mail, newspaper advertising and radio, are being
used less. Instead, if a company wants business,
customers need to be able to find
it through the Web, via smartphones and tablets.
page is free, and if you keep a personal page you
already know how it works. Facebook even provides guidance on how to use Facebook for marketing ( www.facebook.com/marketing).
; Convenient. No bank visits, no paperwork, no hassle.
Employees can sign up, contribute and redeem online.
Costco members and authors
Paul and Sarah Edwards ( www.
elmstreeteconomy.com) offer several alternative ways of getting
your business noticed, a number
of which are free.
; Get a free listing on Google
; Start a blog to serve as a website and attract search engine attention. Since only one in 20 small
businesses has a blog, this is a marketing tool that makes you stand
out from others. Leads that come
from a blog cost less than those
from other inbound and outbound
methods, and a blog can substitute
for traditional publicity techniques.
From an employer
perspective, there are several
reasons to offer the program.
The plan is:
; Easy to administer.
Plus Local ( www.google.ca/places).
You can supplement your listing
with locally targeted advertising
through Google Ad Words
The two most popular blog
software platforms are WordPress
( wordpress.org and wordpress.com)
and Tumblr ( www.tumblr.com).
Participating companies are
provided with all the necessary
promotional materials and email
templates. It is also designed
so that employees can manage
their own plans using an online
account.
Express ( www.google.ca/adwords/
express).
; Sign up for Google Plus’
ARTVILLE
WordPress.com provides free software and hosting; WordPress.org
has free software but not hosting.
; Appreciated by employees. Employees benefit by having access to this convenient
savings tool.
Business Pages (https://plus.google.
com/up/start). It’s free and easy to use, and puts
you on the map. You can relate to customers
through the Circles function.
Tumblr appeals to younger custom-
ers and is both a micro-blogging and a social net-
working site, where you can post short text entries,
photos and videos from your phone or wherever
you are.
; Free. A no-cost program
means you can provide a valued
benefit to your employees while
working within the limitations
of your budget.
; Create a Facebook page for your business
( www.facebook.com/pages/create.php). These pages
are distinct from personal pages. As with a website,
you’ll need to add fresh content, but a Facebook
With tools like these, you can create a presence
and be found in today’s electronic universe for less
time and less cost than you might think. C
If you are interested in adding the Payroll Savings Program
to your employee benefits package, visit csb.gc.ca/employers
for more information. C
