How are you being more transparent in 2017? - SmartBrief

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How are you being more transparent in 2017?

Entrepreneurs reveal their plans for being more transparent with staff -- and how they'll accomplish this goal.

4 min read

Communication

yec_John Rampton

The Young Entrepreneur Council is an invite-only organization composed of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses. Read previous SmartBrief posts by YEC.

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Q. What is one way you plan to be more transparent with your staff to ensure everyone’s on the same page in the new year? What specific strategy will you use to make this happen?

1. Share numbers

We’ve made the goal as a team to be 100 percent transparent about every aspect of our numbers. We have started sharing the numbers on customers, active customers, revenue, profit, money in the bank, etc. Basically, we openly share with every member of our team exactly how the business is doing. This helps the team stay on the same page and know what’s going on. — John Rampton, Due

2. Give live business reviews

We live-stream a Quarterly Business Review for all employees in which myself and other executives discuss results, new goals and upcoming initiatives. Employees can send in questions before and during the presentation, and the complete video is emailed to employees afterward for anyone who was unable to watch it live. — Chuck Cohn, Varsity Tutors

3. Make people part of the conversation

The new year is a great time to make big changes, but the team can handle them far better when they’ve been a part of the conversation on what could be improved. Devote at least one meeting every month to the idea of process. These meetings are about finding hangups and clearing paths, and the conversations are the basis for the changes we make. — Adam Steele, The Magistrate

4. Use an entrepreneur operating system

In 2017 we’re implementing EOS, or Entrepreneur Operating System from Gino Wickman’s book, “Traction.” By using that system, we will give everyone very clear accountability indicators and make every effort at the organization to be more transparent across departments. By having a system in place that encourages clear goal achievement, no one will be left behind or in the dark. — Peter Kozodoy, GEM Advertising

5. Make your company a democracy

Keep your team involved in every decision that affects them and make sure they’re aware that their opinions and input matter. When there is a big meeting or change about to occur, keep your team in the loop and ask for honest feedback as to how they feel/what they think. — Stanley Meytin, True Film Production

6. Make time for pne-on-ones

We can’t stress the importance of not only weekly team meetings, but manager meetings. Manager meetings give our account executives an opportunity to individually check in with management and relay any issues they may have. Our team meetings get everyone on the same page on all client strategies. We schedule these out, and no matter how heavy the workload is that week, we make time for them. — Bryanne Lawless, BLND Public Relations

7. Hire a communications specialist

We’re hiring an internal communications person for this year whose role is equally split between HR and outbound communications. We’re also hosting town halls, issuing employee surveys, and spending time doing one-on-one with leaders. — Christopher Kelly, Convene

8. Define company core values

My leadership team and I spent several hours last week determining our core company values. Our next step will be to create a short presentation with bullet points under each value so that everyone understands how each one represents the organization. We’ll share this at our next meeting to open a dialogue for 2017. — Ben Camerota, MVP Visuals