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

Are You Using the Concepts of Profit First in Your Business? Most business owners I meet run their businesses in the traditional way. And by “traditional” I mean they look at their business and think about their business from their CPA’s or bookkeeper’s point of view. But there is a different way to think about your business finances. And I believe it’s a BETTER way for a business owner to think a...

Are Your Rewards Programs Aligned with Your Performance Expectations? Today I want to talk about ALIGNMENT as it relates to your business.  Just like the wheels on your car or your spine, if your rewards programs aren’t in alignment with your performance expectations, you won’t get the kind of results and great performance that you need or should expect.

How Fired Up Are You about Your Business Right Now? No matter your situation, we ALL find ourselves questioning our resolve from time to time.  Somedays we ARE Fired Up and other days we couldn’t light a fire if our life depended on it! So what should you do and how should you react?  That's what we're going to address here today.

Are Your Team Members ENTHUSIASTIC about Serving Your Customers? We decide every day whether we’re going to show up with a POSITIVE attitude or a NEGATIVE attitude.  And how we show up sets the tone and the expectation for how our TEAM shows up. Your job, as the business owner, is to inspire, display and demonstrate how a POSITIVE approach wins over a neutral or negative approach.

Do Your Vendors and Suppliers Know and Respect Your Performance Standards? As more and more businesses narrow their focus to become “experts” in one specific thing, they often times make the decision to “outsource” some of their non-core activities.  The idea is that by not having to do EVERYTHING, they can get REALLY GOOD at the one or two things that they can become EXPERTS in. Anyone and everyo...

Do You Focus More Time and Attention Helping Your Team Get Better or Identifying Where They are Falling Short? This week I want to focus on a pet peeve I have with many business owners and senior leaders – how we perceive our role in providing performance feedback.

What FEELINGS do your Customers have when they do business with you? Most consumers chose where to shop or where to get service or where to eat based on their FEELINGS about the people, the place, and the setting they will be in.  In fact, the statistics are that 85% of a buying decision is based on EMOTION (or feelings).  This suggests that only 15% of a buying decision is based on LOGIC (or pric...

Is Your Team Ready to Play in the Big Leagues? Your team is an extension of you.  How they show up, how they behave and how they execute says a lot about you, the business owner.  So you need to be INTENTIONAL about how you put your team together and the expectations you set for your team. Today I’m asking if you believe that your team has the behaviors and characteristics of an “A Team” – a team...

As a Leader, are you a Multiplier or a Diminisher? There are fundamentally two kinds of leaders:  Multipliers and Diminishers.  Multipliers use their intelligence to bring out the intelligence and ability of everyone else around them.  Diminishers rely on their own intelligence because they think intelligence is a rare trait and they are one of the few individuals who have it. Which reflects YOUR...

What would it take to 10X your business growth? The notion that growing your business size, your income level or your revenue stream by a multiple of 10 is EASIER than simply doubling the size (2X growth) seems just plain wrong. Here’s your assignment – get the book 10X Is Easier Than 2X by Dr. Benjamin Hardy.  Then read the book and identify the first 2 or 3 things you’re going to change in your...

How do you celebrate when your customer achieves a big win? If you’re like most business owners, you’re probably more focused on YOUR business success than you are on your CUSTOMER’s success. Not that you don’t care, but let’s be honest – you’ve got your hands full worrying about whether YOUR business is growing and being profitable. So here’s a challenge for you - take advantage of your ability t...

How do you honor the most impactful person in your life? This past week marks the 10th anniversary of my dad’s passing.  When I realized this week that it had been 10 years since my dad died, I found myself being very reflective and thinking a lot about what I learned from him and how much he meant to me. So I want to honor my dad today – for the lessons he shared with me and the friend he was to...

Do Your Team Members Know What Future Roles Will Be Available In Your Business? Do you have clarity on what your organization will look like 3, 4 or 5 years in the future?  If you don’t know what you want your business to look like in the future, how will you ever achieve your goals and dreams?

Do You Allow Friendly Fire from Those on Your Team? This week I want to introduce a concept that will get you thinking differently about how you and your team act and behave in your business.  My challenge to you this week is to be especially tuned in and aware of the conversations happening in and around your business this week.  Be mindful and watchful for anything that resembles “friendly fire”...

How Do You Measure Your Business’s Financial Health? Can we all agree that if we want our business to be successful over the long term that our business MUST be in good financial health?  Well, I think the same thing is true about your business. There are certain things that we should track and measure that are indicators of whether our business is financially healthy or not.

Is Your Team Your Greatest Competitive Weapon? This week I want to talk about the power of transformation – and specifically the power that comes from transforming the individuals who work for you into a team of people who are your most powerful competitive weapon.

Do You and Your Team Live “Above the Line” or “Below the Line”? I titled this episode “The Line of Choice” because each day, each hour, and each encounter we have with our team, our customers, our suppliers, or our community at large, we have a “choice” on how we are going to “show up”.

Do Your Team Members Take Pride in the Work They Do for Your Customers? This week's question is a key indicator of how “radically engaged” your team members are.

How Often Do You Over-Deliver On the Promise To Your Customers? It’s an interesting question that often leads to some interesting discussion about their job responsibilities and the authority they have been given, but mostly, the responses tell me a lot about the mindset of the business owners.

How Good Are You at Math – Not Just ANY Math – Business Math? You see, I believe that ANYONE can be successful in business – whether you think logically or are more feeling-based – whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert – whether you like things or you like people. But there is one thing you MUST be good at – and that is understanding the MATH of business.

How Often Do You Call Strategic Time Outs? This week I want to reflect a bit on the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament that just finished.  In basketball, just like in business, there are teams that seem to be unstoppable – until some unknown team steps up and puts a stop to them!  But what should we do about it and how can you keep it from happening to YOUR business?  By calling more “strat...

What Truly Sets You Apart from Your Toughest Competition? You may have heard this referred to as your value proposition or your unique differentiation.  No matter what you call it, it is important that you purposely and intentionally answer the fundamental question – how can you separate yourself, in a meaningful way, from any other competitor in your industry?

What Progress Have You Made in Making Positive Changes to Your Most Critical Processes? This week, your assignment is to do just that!  Identify 2 or 3 critical processes that could use a good "tune up", get a few of your team members together, and brainstorm ways you could “mistake-proof” those processes.

What Strategies are you using to Increase Customer Loyalty? It is far easier and far less expensive to KEEP an existing customer than it is to find a new customer.  This is why I believe there are two very specific metrics you should be tracking in your business on a regular basis to confirm and validate that you are building customer loyalty the right way. Today, we're going to explore these metr...

How Well are You and Your Key Leaders Doing at Pacesetting? You’ve heard it said that you’re only a leader to the extent that others will follow you.  Well, today I want to put a slight twist on that saying and phrase it this way – “You’re only a leader to the extent that others are ABLE to follow you”. To be a great leader you’ve got to be a great mentor and coach.  This means you need to set the...