Imagine a world where as an employer you understood how to communicate to your individual team members in a way that ensured maximum performance, and that they in turn understood how to communicate to each other. That world is DiSC.

There are many ways of evaluating an individual's skills or approach, and predicting their likely behavior from the results. At one end of the scale are fairly simple tests designed to evaluate specific skills and abilities, such a driving test. At the other end of the scale lie batteries of personality tests, designed to build as complete a picture of a person's personality as possible.

DiSC lies somewhere between these two. It’s an easy and quick to take test that can be used to predict the behavior of individuals when they work on their own and with others.

The DiSC model has helped over 50 million people in 20 languages over the last 40 years, understanding and effectively using DiSC in an SME will totally transform the communication in any team.

Meetings in SME's are typically ad-hoc events called or cancelled at the whim of the business owners or directors, usually in response to a pressing issue. And yet all successful large organisations know that effective meetings are the best form of communication and have their own clearly defined meeting culture.

Effective use of meetings builds enthusiasm in the business. It generates commitment and a feeling of accomplishment from the participants. Employees feel part of something bigger than just their personal day-to-day challenges. Effective meetings also mean that information can be transferred from the owners/directors to staff in a way that prevents misinterpretation, which is particularly beneficial when delegating tasks or aligning resources.

Next Level can help you create a meeting culture that suits your business, a structure that supports and improves efficiency rather than simply wastes time, and is valued by all the participants.

Vision, Mission and Values (VMV)

Commercially, a vision clearly defines the purpose of the company and gives it a sense of direction in what it intends to achieve. From a vision of what the company aims to achieve will come a 'mission' of how the company intends to get there. A mission is a precise description of the company's key purpose. It is a definition of why the company exists. Values represent the core priorities in the company's culture, including what drives individuals' priorities and how they behave on a daily basis.

All successful large organisations have a form of Vision, Mission and Values in place and see them as critical to their future success, why should it be any different for an SME?

If everybody knows where the company is going, what it needs to do to get there and how they as individuals must behave along the way then you have very solid foundations for effective communication.

Next Level can help you clearly define your vision which will in turn lead you to create your mission and values. This process can be quite challenging as for your vision to have any long-term value then it has to have real meaning, and it has to resonate with the people in your organisation. It cannot simply be a well constructed tag line that looks good in a frame or reads well on a marketing piece.