Archive for the Leadership Category

Engaging Your Employees for Success

Engaging Your Employees for Success

You’ve probably heard the term “Employee Engagement” used to describe a best practice within an organization. But what does it look like, and how do we know when our employees are engaged? In a somewhat simplistic sense, employee engagement is a focused approach in the workplace that results in happy employees, committed to the organization, who are giving their best each and every day. These employees believe in the company, are proud to work there, and are committed to the success of the organization. It is up to employers to set the stage for a culture of employee engagement – by creating the right conditions so employees will strive to reach their individual potential, and create successful outcomes for the organization. There are several ways to tell if your employees are fully engaged in their work and in the company culture. How is their attitude? Engaged employees are generally very positive and upbeat. They look forward to coming to work each day, and actively seek out opportunities for contribution. They are eager to discuss ideas and work to inspire those around them. Engaged employees are great to have on a team, because of their positive attitude and the fact that

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Growing Profits in 2018

Growing Profits in 2018

Growing profits does not necessarily mean you have to work harder.  Sometimes, we just have to work smarter. Look at how your salespeople are earning new business – are they actively communicating with potential customers or have they settled into being “order-takers”? What is your sales model? Do your salespeople all work from a process or a selling system, or are they each left to fly by the seat of their pants? Are you confident that your salespeople are communicating the unique value proposition your products or services offer? Do the research, and create a list of “Top-10” prospective customers – what would it take to earn their business? Find out who currently serves these customers and determine if and how you could better serve their needs. Reach out to lost customers. Find out why they left you if you don’t already know, then ask straight out what it would take to earn back their business. Express an honest and sincere desire to understand how you can best serve them. The key is being sincere. People will see right through a fake attempt to appear concerned, and that breeds mistrust. Take some time to actually have conversations with some of

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Why Leaders Get Stuck (and how to get unstuck!)

Why Leaders Get Stuck (and how to get unstuck!)

It is very common for business leaders to talk to me about feeling stuck. I get comments about how they are working really hard, but feel like they aren’t getting to where they want to go. Or no matter what they try, revenues don’t budge. Or they feel like the same issues keep arising over and over. There are lots of reasons that business owners can feel stuck. Here are two of the big ones.  I see leaders get immersed in the weeds of their business – they are too busy working in their business that they don’t take the time to pull back and take a strategic view of what is happening. How does someone get unstuck from this? Go back to your business plan. Spend time reviewing your vision & mission. Make sure they are still relevant today. Look at the objectives. Are these measureable, and have you been tracking to them? Is your data captured and up to date? Are you capturing the right metrics for your business? Anything you could begin to monitor? Strategies are important to review. These will outline how you are going to build your business over time. What strategies can you put

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Good Leaders Know How to Apologize

Good Leaders Know How to Apologize

I know of an individual who thought that just because he held the title “CEO” all of his direct reports (and their direct reports) would automatically respect him. This person did not pay very much attention to how he would EARN that respect; he thought he deserved it just because of his title. There is some amount of truth to that – we do need to respect the POSITIONS in an organization, and there is a certain amount of respect automatically due a CEO. However, to earn respect at a deeper level , as a true leader, takes a bit more work than just sitting in the corner office. I learned early in my career that CEOs, Presidents and Executive Directors all have one thing in common. They are human. Inevitably, humans make mistakes. It’s what happens AFTER someone makes a mistake that matters. In the case of the CEO I mentioned earlier, he consistently refuses to admit to any weakness, mistake or error of judgment. He goes so far as to blame others for his mistakes or misjudgments. If a project goes awry, or doesn’t bring in the intended results, he chastises the project owner, and even disavows any

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