Grow Your Business Through Your Employees Not Your Customers

Mar 6, 2012 | Leadership Development

You've cut prices, you've refined your target customer base, you've increased your advertising and still --- business is so slow it's dangerous. The economy is not good, but other companies seem to be selling similar products and services. How are they able to survive (and yes, thrive) while your sales are tanking? They've focused on growing their businesses through their employees, instead of through their customers alone. Successful companies have realized that if they better educate, train,...

Just One Thing

Dec 20, 2011 | Leadership Development

Being a manager or leader is a 24/7 proposition. There's very little if any down time. Yet to be an effective manager and leader, you need to be on the look-out constantly for opportunities to improve and enhance your own performance and that of your team. How is any mere mortal supposed to do all of this? Be smart. Be strategic. Be realistic. Identify just one thing at a time to enhance. Just as Curly, in the movie City Slickers indicated, the secret to life is THE one thing each of us...

So You Say You Coach Your Employees

May 21, 2011 | Leadership Development

Sound familiar? "Oh yes. Our employees are our most valuable asset." "Given the way things are these days, we work very hard to retain our employees." "We've provided coaching and mentoring training to all of our management staff!" Well good for you. But why is it that your staff seems nervous and slightly on edge when you're around? Why is it that your staff doesn't know what's happening in other departments or with the company? Why is it that your staff looks with skepticism when they hear:...

Plot Your Succession Plan

Mar 27, 2011 | Succession Planning

I was recently asked by an executive team, "How do we start pulling a Succession Plan together? We believe we have many of the pieces already, but we don't know what to do with them." That's a great question and a great position to be in. The answer though, requires you to first be clear on what you really want your Succession Plan to do for you. Once you're clear on that, you can then better appreciate how to start. When most people think of Succession Plans, they imagine some document that...

Who Is The Project Manager?

Feb 17, 2011 | Leadership Development

A brilliant and gutsy move for leaders is to continually develop his or her managers' project management skills. When this happens, the leader is ensuring the organization's future. The leader is creating a deep, talented pool of managers capable of initiating, planning, executing, managing, and closing strategic projects. These managers are then an integral part of the leader's team in moving the organization forward towards its vision. However, I'm still amazed at the limited project...