Budgets Communicate

Copyright © 2004 by Don Blohowiak
Don@LeadWell.com www.LeadWell.com

No matter when your organization goes through its budgeting cycle, bear this vital principle in mind: Budgets communicate.

If you say you value increasing employee competence and encouraging great performance, your budget -- and spending --should speak as clearly as your words.

While education and recognition don't necessarily require large investments, they do cost something. So budget for them.

Budgets (and subsequent spending) institutionalize, remind, and signal to all where your true values, priorities, and commitments lie.

Budgets communicate. Loudly and clearly.

ACTION to Take

• Make sure you've allocated some money for employee education and recognition in your current and upcoming budgets.
  
  
• Consider budgeting a fixed amount per employee. You can distribute the funds unequally, but a per person figure gives you a starting point.
  
  
• Tell your employees that you have earmarked money for enhancing skills and to acknowledge achievement. Let them know the basis on which you intend to spend those funds.
  
  
• Spend the money. Wisely. Regularly.
  
• Resist the temptation, when you feel the inevitable budgetary squeeze, to cut out those "soft" budget items. If they were justified at budget time, they are still justified under pressure. Only more so.

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Don Blohowiak, a management consultant and popular conference speaker, is the author of several business books. The executive director of the Lead Well® Institute in Princeton, NJ, he may be reached at http://www.LeadWell.com/.

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Copyright © 2005, Don Blohowiak, Lead Well Institute

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