Why Business Teams Fail & How to Avoid It : Strong Leadership Skills For Employee Engagement & High Performance

How Do You Welcome New Team Members Who Join Your Team? This week our topic is one that will have a long-lasting impact on your team and your culture – the Process You Use to ON-BOARD NEW TEAM MEMBERS. We all know that when we first meet someone, our first impression lasts the longest.  It’s why when we first meet a prospective customer, we put our best-foot forward.  We want to make a positive fi...

Do Your Team Members Play The “I’m Right – You’re Wrong” Game? This week I want to address a situation that seems to come up far too frequently.  This one has to do with how your team members react and respond to others on your team. This is the game where when two people disagree on how to handle a situation or they have different opinions on what the focus or priority should be, they begin to ta...

How Do You Respond When Your Customer is Dissatisfied? This week I want to talk about something that came up for a few of my clients over this past month that I thought was worth your time and attention.  It has to do with how well we serve and support our customers – something that we are all very interested in – or SHOULD be very interested in. If you’re like most business owners I know, there a...

How Solid are Your Financials and How Strong is Your Team? This week is the third and final week of the three-week Business Tune Up we launched in honor of the 2024 Tour de France bike race.  This week, we’re going deep into the engine and fuel for your business – your Financials and the Team you have assembled to execute your strategy and serve your customers. If you want to be among the ELITE bu...

Are Your Bike Tires Getting Good Traction On the Road? Today we’re covering your Business Tune Up – Part 2.  We’re going to focus on the part of your business where the rubber LITERALLY meets the road – the front wheel and back wheel of your bike – your business.  The front wheel of your bike represents your ABILITY TO WIN NEW CUSTOMERS.  The back wheel of your bike represents SERVING YOUR CUSTOME...

Could Your Business Use a Tune Up Right About Now? This week and then for the next two consecutive weeks, I’ll walk you through the critical parts of your business that need to be looked at and “tuned up” from time to time to make sure your business – and YOU – stays in tip-top condition so you can RIDE HARD and RIDE FAST! As we go through each part or component of your bike – your business – I’m...

What is it that is Holding You Back? This week I want to share a book recommendation that I found to be a resource I wish I had found many years ago.  Each page of the book contained a single quotation and had lots of white space.  He suggested it was a PERFECT book for a guy – someone who doesn’t really like to read novels or lengthy how-to books.  This book can be your “pick me up” boost wheneve...

Is Your Competition Using Your Business as the Benchmark Standard? This week I want to explore the concept of benchmarking and how to best use it to make your business better.  It’s a common practice that most seasoned business owners use to measure how well they are performing against their toughest competition. Today I want to give you a simple 5 step process that you can follow to set the stand...

Is Your Compensation Structure Promoting the Teamwork You Need in Your Business? One conclusion I’ve come to – with little reservation – is that commission-based compensation structures don’t work all that well for creating a business that will be successful over the long term. But you may be wondering – what SHOULD your compensation structure look like – to avoid these 4 negative effects?  Glad y...

Have You Built a Firm Foundation for Your Business? Today I want to share with you the five (5) key elements that I believe go into creating the foundation for any business.  You may want to grab a pen and paper so you can write these down – because when we’re done, you’re going to want to spend some time reflecting on your business and perhaps even adding some details to these 5 key elements in y...

How effectively are you Qualifying your New Prospects? It’s not uncommon for me to hear that the biggest issue or challenge a business owner is facing is the need to gain new customers.  Many businesses have their team assembled, they have their product or service ready to go, and all they need to make the business work is to find and secure more customers. So this week I want to tackle one of the...

How are Your Employees Feeling About the Impact Your Business is Having on Those You Serve? This week, I want to dive deeper into the LEVEL THREE – or as I call it GEAR THREE – statements that every employee is asking and assessing on a daily basis. These Gear Three statements are related to whether the business is serving their customers well and if the business is making a difference in the comm...

How are Your Employees Feeling About their Fellow Team Members and Their Future with Your Company? This week, I want to dive deeper into the LEVEL TWO – or as I call it GEAR TWO – statements that every employee is asking and assessing on a daily basis. These Gear Two statements are related to their supervisor and managers – the leadership of the business – and to their future with the business.

How Can You Keep Your Employees WITHOUT Requiring a Signed Non-Compete? You’ve probably heard the reports that the Federal Trade Commission, better known as the FTC, has issued a ruling that is intended to promote competition by banning all non-compete clauses issued by companies to their employees. I’m going to recommend that every business owner use this warning shot as a reason to double-down o...

How Good are You at Catching People Doing Things Right? No matter how good they are at their job, the majority of employees feel that their immediate supervisor or direct line manager focus WAY MORE on the things they get wrong than those things they do well. Great talent is hard to find.  And when you have great talent, the LAST thing you want is for them to be discounted and disenfranchised from...

Why is it SO HARD to get your Team members to do things the way YOU want and need them to do it? Truth be told, it’s not impossible at all.  In fact, it’s simply a math equation!  That’s right.  Getting someone to do what you need or want them to do is ALL about getting the math right.  You get the math right, and the other person will do what you want, without exception, every time – like magic!

How Good are You at Generating New Leads when Networking? Over 91% of business owners surveyed said that Business Networking was a critical part of their marketing strategies and that Networking had been an integral part of how they grew their customer base. Since everyone is using business networking to grow their business, shouldn’t you take some time to get GOOD at it?

How Effectively do you Clarify the Roles and Responsibilities in your Organization? If you’re like most business owners I’ve met, one of the biggest challenges you’re facing is making sure everyone on your team knows, with certainty, what they are responsible for and what you expect from them in their position. Today I want to share a method that you may find useful – or you may find the concepts...

Would You Like to Avoid the Dumb Mistakes that Sabotage Growth, Profits, and Business Success? Honestly, that’s what we’re doing together – trying to solve the biggest challenges in owning and running a business – and along the way, take the best path toward success – rather than getting stuck riding down the “stupid road” – the one full of potholes, dangers and pitfalls.

Have You Created a Brand That Speaks Clearly to Your Ideal Customers? Today I want to work with you on a topic that probably gets very little of your daily attention but is perhaps the most valuable asset you have in your business.  This “most valuable asset” in your business is your BRAND!  And today I’d like to spend a little time taking you through a little Brand-building exercise.

How Effectively are you using your Financial Metrics when Making Business Decisions? Today I want to look behind the curtain and discuss how you are making important business decisions. It seems that not a day goes by without you, the business owner, having to make at least one if not several important decisions related to your business. When it comes to big decisions that impact the financial fut...

Who’s on Your Speed Dial List When Trying to Grow Your Business? I think as business owners, we need to have a special list of people who are on our “speed dial” list when it comes to growing our business. Let’s be honest, trying to grow your business without the help of other business owners can be VERY difficult and challenging.  

Does Everyone On Your Team Know How Their Performance Will Be Measured? I have found that most business owners find it difficult to start using position agreements in the beginning because it forces them to think through who should be responsible for what and how they should be measured – which is a different way to think about how work gets done in most businesses.

Is Your Value Proposition Driving the Behaviors You Require from Your Team? I want to discuss how critically important it is for you and your team members, that there is alignment between what you have promised to your customers and what you expect from your team members. I believe the BEST way to get your team members to follow your expectations or requirements is to demonstrate to them that your...

How Many of Your Team Members are IDEAL Team Players? Today I want to introduce you to this resource – a book written by Patrick Lencioni.  If you’re not familiar with Patrick Lencioni, and you’re a business owner, you absolutely MUST get his books and make it a priority to read and apply his principles.  I consider Patrick to be one of the foremost authorities on how to build a high-performing te...