Best-Selling Author Dr. Stephen Covey Gives Small-Business Owners Tips on Empowering Workers
Key to success includes taking a team approach, inspiring trust and unleashing potential.
 REDMOND, Wash. (rushprnews) June 24, 2007 -What: Starting and maintaining a small business is not easy. All good entrepreneurs know they are only as strong as their team.

The author of “The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness,” Dr. Stephen Covey, recently offered small-business owners advice on how to take their business to the next level through empowering employees and providing the proper management tools.

The tips, which are part of a free Microsoft® Office Live Web Seminar Series, give small-business owners helpful advice and insights on topics critical to success.

Dr. Covey provides the following advice on how to empower employees:

1.
 Define a purpose. Ensure everyone in an organization understands his or her role and responsibilities. Clearly articulate to employees why their work is important and set expectations ahead of time.
 
2.
 Promote teamwork. When employees are given a chance to contribute ideas, better solutions emerge. Teamwork is best recognized in a culture where everyone’s voice is heard.
 
3.
 Find and inspire trust in others. By recognizing everyone’s contributions to the team, dividing up tasks becomes simple. Understand that every member of a team brings valuable experience. By harnessing that experience, employees begin to feel ownership.
 
4.
 Unleash potential. While policies and procedures are important, following the rules too closely can lead to stifled ideas. Some of the best ideas come from new ways of thinking.
 
5.
 Understanding your employee’s needs. To a leader, the growth of a staff is integral to the growth of the business. When a leader understands their dreams and aspirations, employees feel that they are being heard.
 
6.
 Provide recognition. As a leader, communicate worth and potential so employees can do their best work. Recognize employees for a job well done.
 

Where: Dr. Covey’s entire seminar is available in the Office Live Seminars archives, which can be found at http://www.officeliveseminars.com.

Who: Dr. Covey has taught leadership principles and management skills for more than 25 years to leaders in business, government and education. His consulting portfolio contains more than 150 of the Fortune 500 companies, as well as thousands of midsize and smaller organizations. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on leadership, personal and organizational effectiveness, and family and interpersonal relationships. His book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” was No. 1 on The New York Times best-sellers list with more than 1.5 million copies sold. The tips above stem from his recent book, “The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness.”

For more information: Knowing that most small businesses often have limited resources, Microsoft Office Live is sponsoring the free Microsoft Office Live Web Seminar Series. Microsoft Office Live is a set of Internet-based services and tools to help small businesses establish a professional Web presence and promote their business online.

This series gives entrepreneurs access to some of the most dynamic business leaders through interactive Web seminars that give practical advice on the hottest topics facing small businesses today, such as marketing on a budget, starting a new business and franchising. The series is hosted by Susan Wilson Solovic, CEO and chairman of SBTV.com, a Web-based television network focused on small business.

About Microsoft Office Live: Microsoft Office Live is a complete, affordable set of easy-to-use Internet-based software and services that helps small businesses attract new customers, keep in touch with existing customers and easily manage their business from any location. By combining the power of software plus services, Office Live helps small businesses establish a professional Web presence, stay in touch with their customers, and easily access company information from one complete online location. More information is available at http://www.officelive.com.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.mspx.
 

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Anne Howard www.annehowardpublicist.com writer and publicist