Professional Growth for the Entrepreneur

Ronald G. Shapiro, PhD, LLC

by Ronald G. Shapiro, Ph. D.

As part of a series focusing on Rhode Island small businesses whose mission includes helping organizations, their owners and employees grow throughout 2016, I’ll be profiling my own business, Ronald G. Shapiro, PhD, LLC this month. I am a speaker and consultant in career development, leadership development, learning and designing systems to be safe, easy and fun for people to use. I offer Education by Entertainment TV game show style programs which are applicable, educational, entertaining and a ton of fun! My programs are for professionals to Grade 4.

“Always be thinking about what you can do to improve learning and education for yourself, your family, your business, and your community.”

Based on my experience as a manager and consultant I would like to offer the following recommendations to business leaders aspiring to grow professionally.

• Develop your employees, all else will follow. As you find new projects and new clients, think of innovative ways to perform work, and ways to better serve your customers always think about how you can use these opportunities to help your employees develop.
• At least once a year work with each of your employees to identify their aspirations, discuss your business objectives for the next year and beyond, identify skill gaps which need to be closed for the employee to achieve their aspirations and for the business to meet its objectives. Develop a detailed plan to meet these objectives including monthly target dates. Meet periodically to be sure everyone is making progress on their development and to asses any changes which may need to be made due to shifting business climate, employee aspirations, etc.
• Participate in programs such as Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day®² (April 28, 2016) to involve you employees’ families in your business. It is a way to demonstrate commitment to your employees. Additionally, your employees may be more attentive to what you are saying to their children than if you were speaking to them directly.  Never know, you may be training a future employee, too!
• After you complete every project, document the title of the project, a brief description of the project and your individual accomplishments on the project.  Keep this document in a safe place.  You never know when you may need this documentation for a future bid or a resume if applying for a new job.
• Always be thinking about what you can do to improve learning and education for yourself, your family your business and your community. For example, you may wish to participate in a career night at your high school or help to lead a youth group.

I also wanted to share one of the community projects which my business led. I secured a grant to organize a networking event for High School Psychology Teachers in Rhode Island. (There are possibly 1, 2 or 3 high school psychology teachers in schools which offer Psychology Programs, thus the teachers may not have much opportunity to network with other psychology teachers.)  At the event teachers had the opportunity to network with other teachers. The teachers present really enjoyed the event and want to have future events two to three times per year.  Since we offer Education by Entertainment programs, we also included a few of our favorite activities in the program for teachers to use, and also to see an example of what we might offer in our programs.

Need a professional recommendation? To arrange a business relevant educational program which is fun and for personalized recommendations for your business or professional development needs feel free to contact Ron Shapiro by email,  DrRonShapiro1981@SigmaXi.Net or by phone, , (401) 272 -4664. Visit http://www.EducationByEntertainment.com for more information.

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