You might be in a position where you want to do everything for everyone. Unfortunately, this lack of focus can lead to a chaotic list of goals that is nearly impossible to keep track of. Whatever the case, your company’s goals are meaningless if you don’t have a united team behind them.

The key to success is alignment. It’s natural for teams that aren’t aligned with their company’s goals to feel disengaged and unmotivated. It is possible for them to go through the motions, unenthusiastic about what they do each day. As a result, morale suffers, output decreases and mediocrity results.

Setting goals early on and aligning your people around them can prevent this negative mindset from developing. Increase your team’s morale, retention, and engagement by fostering a sense of ownership and pride. According to a survey conducted by Robert Half– 88 percent of professionals think goal setting is essential to their work performance.

So, how exactly do you unify a team around your business objectives? 

Start by clarifying team objectives

A deeply rooted sense of mission drives successful teams. Make sure everyone understands the mission from the beginning. This approach emphasizes shared team goals over individual agendas. These objectives help bind a team together and keep it cohesive, even when obstacles or disagreements arise. 

Collaborate on setting goals

Everyone should play a role in achieving your goals, so why not let them set them themselves? Setting goals shouldn’t occur behind closed doors with only senior leaders present; it should be a collaborative effort that incorporates input from employees across the organization. By taking a holistic approach, you can demonstrate your value to employees and ensure the goals you settle on are relevant to all.

Underscore expectations

It is not enough to have relevant goals; there must also be a clear strategy for achieving them. Highlight each department’s unique role in achieving your goals when communicating them to your team. Establish clear expectations for everyone’s performance and explain their responsibilities.

Help everyone participate

It may be necessary for team leaders or managers to step in to provide the right balance of participation. Make sure everyone has an opportunity to contribute by inviting less experienced or quiet members to participate. You might ask their opinions in meetings or steer certain aspects of a project their way. Ensure everyone can be heard on your team. It’s generally fine for top performers to take on a more significant role or responsibility than others. Ensure that your star employees do not feel overburdened – or that other team members don’t feel squeezed.

Track, analyze, and adjust

It is crucial to track your progress over time to identify goals that can be quantified. If, for example, you aim to drive a certain number of visitors to your website over three months, then check your traffic stats daily, share these statistics with your team and work together to find ways to improve if you’re on pace to come up short.

Instill short-term (weekly and monthly) and long-term (annual) goals for your team. Then, during regular check-ins, your staff will feel accomplished when it has exceeded a weekly goal and motivated when it sees its progress toward an annual plan.

Keeping your staff aligned with your organization’s goals will help everyone stay organized, focused, and on track.

The post How to Unify Your Team- In 5 Steps appeared first on Cross Ocean Ventures.

Even the best relationships go through hard times. Whether you are friends, siblings, a couple, or business partners, you’re bound to hit a few bumps in the road.

Despite those inevitable bumps, it can be worth it to start a business with a partner. Research conducted by the Kauffman Foundation suggests businesses started by teams can attract 30 percent more investment than ones started by a solo entrepreneur. In addition, the research suggests that businesses started by a team can increase their customer base quicker, which improves their chances of survival.

But, when the going gets tough, business partnerships, like all relationships, can become strained and even break down entirely, putting the business at risk and–more importantly– putting the relationship at risk.

Sometimes it can be beneficial to seek outside help–and sometimes the best help for business partners can come from a source they didn’t expect: Couples therapy.

If you are in business with a partner, essentially you are raising a child (your business) together and that makes you a family. Before your business family falls apart, consider heading to a therapist’s couch.

Here are four signs you and your business partner may need to have a few sessions with a couples therapist.

1. The details have overshadowed the vision

You and your partner connected with each other for a reason. It was likely that you both brought something to the table that the other lacked and you believed that together you’d be stronger and be able to build a better business than either one of you would be able to build alone. And even though you both brought different skill sets to the table, the one thing you both shared was the vision that drives the business.

If decisions about working hours, salaries, purchases or which services to use are constantly turning into arguments, it might be time to see a therapist. A few disagreements here and there are to be expected, but if every discussion turns into a fight, that’s a sign the relationship is breaking beyond repair.

2. You use “we” instead of “I” too much

This one seems a little counterintuitive. If you’re a team, you should use “we” rather than “I,” right? The answer is yes and no. You should use “we” when you are talking about the partnership or the company to others and especially to your employees so that you’re fostering that sense of team that is crucial to all businesses.

When it’s just you and your partner talking about the business, however, saying: “We must do X” or “We should not do Y,” makes it seem like you’re trying to talk for the other person. In these cases, saying: “I believe we should do X” and “I think doing Y would be bad for us,” is more helpful because you are showing that you’re only speaking for yourself and what you believe rather than trying to speak for both of you.

3. You’re not actually listening to each other

Not being listened to is aggravating for anyone. Even if you’re not talking, you may not actually be listening to a person when you’re conversing with them. If you’re already planning what to say to the other person while they’re talking, you’re not really hearing them. And, obviously, if you’re interrupting them, you’re not hearing them either.

It’s a good exercise to sit and listen to what your partner has to say without interruption and then repeat it back to them to make sure you understood it all. If you can’t do this, then you should consider getting some outside help.

4. You can’t be around the other person without talking business

Unlike a roommate or a band member, you can’t take out an ad for a business partner and just hope you become friends later. You only go into business with friends or other people you already know and trust. That means you had a relationship built on something else before the business existed.

If you can’t go out for a drink or hang out without talking about the business (like, not even for a second), that means the business has overshadowed the relationship. You should be able to hang out as the friends you started out as and put the business aside for at least a few hours and just enjoy each other’s company. If you can’t, that’s not a good sign.

Therapy for fledgling business partnerships can be incredibly helpful for saving businesses and relationships on the brink of collapse. If it’s time to book a session on the couch, do it. Your partnership could depend on it.

The post 4 Signs You and Your Business Partner Should See a Couple’s Therapist appeared first on Cross Ocean Ventures.

Generation Y includes those born between 1977 and 1992, so it encompasses the ambitious 20-somethings just entering the workforce. As children, they were told they were special and could do anything, but this hasn’t made them lazy — it’s made them ambitious. It has given them high expectations for their careers and themselves.

Many employers shrug off Gen Y as a waste of time and miss out on the many powerful benefits these young people have to offer. My experience with Gen Y has been not only enjoyable, but also highly prosperous.

This generation can invigorate a company, but their needs are not widely understood. They have plenty to offer as employees, but you must focus on utilizing their strengths if you hope to retain them over the long run.

What Makes Gen Y Employees Fabulous Assets

Gen Y brings an entirely new skill set to the workplace that sets these young people apart from any previous generation.

They’re highly productive. Baby Boomers often cite Millennials’ desire to work fewer hours as laziness, but Generation Y isn’t so different from older generations. In a survey by Solutions 21, Baby Boomers and Millennials both selected “hard-working” as the No. 1 quality that makes someone successful.

Gen Yers’ attitude of “work smarter, not harder” is what sets them apart as highly productive and efficient employees.

They’re tech-savvy. Members of Gen Y are tech natives, which is a huge benefit in the workplace. Our company is very active on social media, and we’ve developed an app for several products — all because my Gen Y employees told me that we should. They were right, and these developments have only improved our business.

They are diverse. Genera­tion Y is the most ethnically diverse generation in history, with only 58.9 percent of its members identifying themselves as white. Adding this diversity to our team has brought a wealth of new ideas during brainstorming because of the different backgrounds represented.

They are independent. These people do not need to be micromanaged. You can trust them to get the job done, and they love to take initiative to make new things happen. They want to make a difference and create something from nothing.

What Gen Yers Want

Members of this generation want to work hard, but they want to do it for the right company. They seem picky because they’re driven by passion rather than money, and they want to see purpose in their work. They crave a long-lasting, meaningful work relationship — not a ladder to climb.

“Loyalty is synonymous with job security,” says Sara Holtmeyer, one of our Gen Y sales associates. “It means you see a future together.”

According to Holtmeyer, the Millennial job-hopping that many misinterpret as entitlement is the result of a lack of loyalty and reinvestment from companies. To retain Gen Y employees and show them that your company wants to enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship for years to come, here’s what you should offer.

Flexibility

Work-life balance is essential to Gen Yers, and flexibility in when and where they work helps them strike this balance.

Flexibility also makes them more eager to work because it lends a sense of autonomy. Rigid expectations demotivate young employees and can actually stifle their potential, but a little bit of control goes a long way toward encouraging higher achievement.

Meaningful Work

Gen Yers love meaning in their work, and they love assignments that stretch them. They thrive on expanding their minds and challenging themselves with every task.

“We live for a purpose — to make a difference — and having a job or a position that will allow us to infuse our most precious traits and strategies to grow the company and ourselves is the most satisfying feeling,” says Natalie Garcia, store manager at TestCountry.

Even if a position involves a lot of routine tasks, allow room for creativity when possible, and give your Gen Y employees permission to find more efficient ways to complete assignments. They’ll appreciate the challenge and ultimately feel more fulfilled.

Technology

This generation wants to work for companies that are changing and adjusting to current times, especially when it comes to incorporating the latest technology. You don’t necessarily have to go out of your way to use every new gadget or social platform, but if an employee suggests implementing a new tool, why not let her run with it?

Giving Back

Growing up, most Gen Yers had their basic needs met, which allowed them to develop an outward focus. They are big on volunteering and value companies that give back to the community or work toward a larger purpose.

If you’re unsure how your company can incorporate social responsibility, why not ask? Gen Yers are passionate about causes they find worthwhile, and they’re happy to share what they know with anyone who’s willing to listen.

Whatever you do, don’t underestimate Generation Y. My experience with these young people has been nothing but positive, and yours can be, too. Listen to what they want, and make adjustments where you can. This generation will help your business thrive.

The post Gen Y Employees: Your Company’s Most Misunderstood Asset appeared first on Cross Ocean Ventures.

So, seeing as how family is such an important part of the culture here, we can use it to help us understand how marketing and sales teams can work together better.

Mom and Dad

In our family analogy, the sales and marketing teams are the parents, and the products are the children. I will be assigning traditional parental roles to the marketing and sales arms (which are in no way a reflection of contemporary parental roles, so save your righteous indignation for something that’s actually worth getting upset over).

Sales, in our analogy, has the more traditional paternal role; that of the disciplinarian who sees issues as a matter of more yes/no or black/white without the shades of grey and nuances that are always present. He sees decisions as being easy to make, coming down on either one side or the other.

Photo Credit: Drew Hays

On the other hand, Marketing plays the more traditional maternal role; more protective and patient with the sales process and the children/products. Marketing can take things on a more personal level when the Products are criticized and they more easily get upset.

The way Sales and Marketing look at the kids and how they can get ready for life is different.

Life happens, the traditional father, Sales, says, and the kids/Products just have to learn to deal with it as it comes. The more experience the kids have, the better for them, as it will mean they’ll be more prepared for the hardships of life.

And, if revenue isn’t pouring in, Sales is more likely to say there is a problem with the Products than the sales process and believes the Products need to change. Marketing, on the other hand, usually trusts the Products more and wants to see them succeed just the way they are and believes the sales process needs to change rather than the Products themselves.

So, for the parenting to work, and for the family to be happy and for the kids grow up and be successful adults, we can use some good parenting tips for dear ol’ mom and dad; Marketing and Sales.

Have Coparent Unity

This is one of the most important factors in good parenting. Just like a mother and father, Marketing and Sales should convey a unified front.

To help facilitate this, try to have one person from each department understand that they are expected to make sure Sales and Marketing work together cohesively. This will be part of these people’s jobs and they will have a specified goal to work toward. They can be the head of their respective departments and the person that gives them their goal can be the CEO if it’s a small company, or someone a bit further down the ladder if it is a larger organization.

This will go a long way to making both Marketing and Sales understand that they are on the same boat (a luxury romantic cruise, in the case of our parenting team), going to the same place (… let’s say the Bahamas). The point is, their individual success is as good for them as it is for each other and having someone in each department to help steer both their individual and team success will be beneficial.

Proper Two-Way Communication

Just like a marriage, there needs to be civil communication, where both Marketing and Sales can express their opinions and listen to each other. It’s up to top management to create the company culture and mechanisms within the company to make this work.

Part of creating this culture can be organizing team building activities between the two departments. A strong Sales-Marketing team — that is, one that acts like a team — is an amazing asset for any company. So investing time, money and resources in building this with consultants and/or events is well worth the effort.

Also, keep the sales people close to marketing people in the office. Your Marketing and Sales people have to know each other well and they have to enjoy each other’s company (or at least be able to fake it during work hours).

Calmness

Whatever the problems or challenges are, calmness should be present in the family. If you are in a reactive mode, and doing what you do based on stress, it can more easily lead to blaming each other if sales revenue isn’t coming in. Calmness should permeate the entire company in an ideal situation. The constant threat of job loss or being reprimanded if something doesn’t work leads to a stressful environment and finger pointing.

Maintaining a calm environment within the company means the CEO should not practice any favoritism between Sales and Marketing. Even if they consciously try to avoid it, most CEOs will have a hard time with this since they are either more sales or more marketing oriented. But, if the CEO is a fair leader, that will make it much easier for the sales and marketing teams to work together.

Also adding to this calm environment is taking the time to celebrate and recognize achievements from both parents. Especially at the beginning, make sure you don’t miss any chance of recognizing the good team relationship and celebrating victories (no matter how small they might be).

To get some achievements to recognize, it’s not a bad idea to give both Sales and Marketing a little starter nudge by giving them some easy opportunities to be successful so they can see how well they work together. There is nothing as good as the taste of success to make Marketing and Sales want to work together more and aim higher.

A couple of simple starter projects to help the success start flowing are finding old customers for Sales to win back, or having Marketing come up with an insanely attractive offer to get new customers. You just need one or two small successes to bring Sales and Marketing together into a cohesive team and get them in the habit of working together.

A Note on Single Parents

Just like single parent families, you can have companies with only the single function of marketing/sales. For that to work, the single parent must take on both traditional parenting roles. So, a sales team would have to take on the role of marketers or vice versa. Just like single parent families can work perfectly well in real life, the “single parent” sales and marketing function can work perfectly fine within a company provided it’s balanced.

By being raised with a strong, positive and balanced parental influence (whether that be by a team or singular), children can easily grow to become successful and well-rounded adults. And, just like real children, Products — provided they are developed from a sound concept and of good value — can be successful if they, too, have that balanced parental approach from the traditional mom and dad roles of Marketing and Sales to create one happy family.

Photo Credit: Andrew Branch

Love this post? Or just hate it? Do you have something else to add? Please leave a comment below!

The post All in the Family: How to Make Marketing & Sales Teams Work Together Like a Co-Parenting Unit appeared first on Cross Ocean Ventures.