Whether you have 5 or 500 employees, a leader needs to balance a strong culture with performance for sustainable success of the organization.
After watching my home town team get obliterated recently, The Chicago Bears were defeated by the GreenBay Packers, again, the head coach’s comments struck a chord with me. Matt Nagy spoke about the quality of the culture in the locker room. That the players care for one another. That they know what to do on the field. But in the end, the overall performance of the Bears this year will most likely lead to not only a head coach opening but a general manager opening as well.
Small service companies, such as HVAC contractors, building and remodeling contractors. small distribution…
As you progress during the year, how are you doing toward your goals? How are your employees doing toward their goals?
How are you doing with your employees? Staying in touch with them? How are you helping to help them achieve their goals?
For you contractors out there, have you seen your employees this month? (Contractors have always been the definition of remote workers.)
The system of the annual review is far too infrequent to keep tabs on how your employees are doing. With so much going on, the economy, COVID, remote learning, ups and downs of your business, staying…
A couple of months ago I asked about the biggest challenge or obstacle to success that small business owners have experienced. And whether it was during the pandemic or before, the most frequently expressed obstacle to success was finding and hiring employees.
There are a lot of facets to this issue. Available talent pool, type of job — skilled or unskilled, wages relative to unemployment benefits, and more. Having hired and managed employees in a variety of companies, I understand the frustrations of trying to find just the right person. …
The New Year has arrived. For some of us with hopes of a better year on the horizon, it doesn’t look much different.
There was optimism at the start of last year but also a small inkling of something unsettling that was just beyond our reach. Lots of news stories that seemed filled with mostly speculation because so much was not understood very well, if at all.
This year we know the chaos that ensued during the past year. That chaos felt in so many different ways to so many people.
One of the Principles of my upcoming book is…
Year end reviews, especially of this year, can be sobering, but there are lessons there if we are willing to learn.
CBS Sunday Morning just concluded. I especially make sure that I have time to watch the episode that airs on the last Sunday of the year.
Each year they do a segment titled “Hail and Farewell” where they recognize some of the people that had an impact on history or our lives. This year that had essentially two of those segments. The first was dedicated to those that we have lost to the pandemic. …
It started off as a regular incoming sales call, then I told the customer that he wasn’t yet ready to buy our product and he should learn some more before he bought. You are probably saying to yourself “Why would you ever refuse to sell your product to a customer willing to give you money?” I did told the customer that I would sell to him but told him in all honesty that he wasn’t really ready to buy, and that if he bought it now he would regret it.
As you might imagine, the customer was dumbfounded. He couldn’t…
Today’s topic is the value of Prudence.
Prudence teaches us to regulate our lives and actions agreeable to the dictates of logic and reason and to judge wisely and that we should exercise circumspection when it comes to understanding dangers and risks.
The opposite of prudence is rashness — the quality of being careless or unwise, without thought for what might happen or the result.
Prudence is an old word, and it goes back to its first usage in the 14th century. But it might be more notable because of the impersonation by Dana Carvey of President Bush the first…
From the series of Old World Values Translated into New World Business Success.
Today’s value BEAUTY.
Now I’m not talking about how attractive the CEO is or how stunning the headquarters building is or how many design awards that your products have won. I’m talking about the beauty that’s within people, and within the organization.
Here it is, thoughtful and effective leadership is the true Beauty that adorns all important undertakings.
It reminds me of Hannibal Smith of the A-Team who, after the conclusion of a highly successful mission, would say,
“I love it when a plan comes together.”
We…
From the series of Old World Values Translated into New World Business Success.
Today’s value is STRENGTH.
Obviously, buildings need strength to support, but also, your organization needs strength to support its ongoing and sustainable future. Now, I’m not talking about physical strength or strengths that are identified in a SWAT analysis.
What I’m talking about, is Strength of IDEAS and the ability to turn those ideas into real innovation. Each of us has ideas virtually thrown it us all day long. …
From the series of Old World Values Translated into New World Business Success.
The value today is WISDOM.
It is supposed that the leader has Wisdom to contrive, meaning they have the ability to create and develop. Wisdom is the combination, the merger, of both knowledge and experience.
We can substitute the word information for knowledge, and we can also substitute the word context for the experience. It is necessary, to have both. Because information without context is just trivia. And context without useful information is just a narrative.
In search of an example
As an example of the inability…
Frank Spevak
Tired of mediocre, striving for magnificent. Helping others to achieve magnificent by adding value to contractors, small businesses and non-profits.
