Designing the BEST Org Board for your Business Flow
September 1st, 2010
Want to know how to increase production, accountability, improve communications and reduce expenses? Look into how your organization is set up, how business flows and what each area is truly doing.
In 12 months we helped a business take their investment with us and create a return-on-investment of 30 times. We helped another client increase their top line by 10% and decrease their expenses by 35% in under 3 months.
We achieve these results by utilizing organization structure and change. When you break a business down into a system and process it becomes clear where the gaps and duplications are. Then we use our methods of change management to restructure the business to optimize performance.
Want to learn more about how we do this? Contact Us Today…Click Here!
Leaders and Managers Need to DO Less!
June 1st, 2010
Don’t show up to your office and tell them that you are not working anymore and still expect to get paid after reading our title! In today’s business world our managers are more hands on than ever. They are not managing and leading others to maximize production.
Here is our list on how to maximize staff production through Delegation and Inspection:
- Trust your team – You must have the trust in your teams capabilities and that they will fulfill assignments and tasks
- Strengths and weaknesses analysis – knowing who works for you and what they are great at will allow you to manage to their strengths and never to their weaknesses
- Issue orders, assignments or to-dos to your team and let them run with it. Do not control them…remember trust
- Inspect your staff along the way to make sure they are on schedule, not in need of help, and moving forward
- When things go right and your team is successful, it is because of your team! When things go wrong and projects blow up, it is your fault as the manager or leader.
- Becoming a better leader or manager starts with you, not your team. If you do not have your act together you can not expect your team to.
- Did you give your team your Best? Can you leave the office everyday answering Yes to this question?
Here is an example: We spent some time with a client who runs a small office of 6 employees. The owner had a big vision to grow into multiple locations by using his existing business model as an example for operations. He had the success, processes and systems in place to grow, but their was one thing limiting his ability to break through into a second location. That one thing was Him! He wanted to stay in place as an operational part of the company. He is the president and needed to lead the business and not get bogged down in an employee position. He was not ready to trust his team and trust the systems he built. So we coached him out of the barriers in his head, dragged him away from the office and put inspection systems in place to manage his staff from a distance. He has now positioned himself to spend more time with his family and prepare for opening multiple locations. All because of proper delegation and inspection.
Businesses are in need of “Our Best”. Leadership in business needs to be more black and white with high standards.
Welcome back to work from the long weekend!
We need more Leadership!
April 1st, 2010
Definition of Leader: A leader is anyone who by virtue of assumed role or assigned responsibility inspires and
influences people to accomplish organizational goals. Leaders motivate people both inside and
outside the chain of command to pursue actions, focus thinking, and shape decisions for the greater
good of the organization. -US Army Leadership Manual
We all want to lead and we all want to follow at certain points in our lives, but I am worried about the types of leaders we have in our society. We see this is small business. Political correctness has taken over much of our society which means that we can no longer have frank and blunt discussions with people. It also means that when you do have those types of discussions the other person can’t handle confrontation so things go bad.
Definition of Leadership: “Leadership is the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation while operating to accomplish the mission and improving the organization.”
I am tired of seeing small businesses fail or watching business owners struggle. I am tired of CEO’s not stepping up to fulfill the obligation, privilege and gift they have been given to lead others. Step up and lead your team and if you don’t know how to; that’s okay to as long as you ask for help. I do not want to see great businesses fail because of leadership.
I will leave you with this, again from the Army Leadership Manual:
Stepping Up to Lead
In the early days of Operation Anaconda, members of the 10th Mountain Division
were sent into the Shah-e-kot Valley in eastern Afghanistan. Their mission was to
seal off and destroy pockets of Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces. Members of the Afghan
National Army assisted by U.S. Special Forces would attack from the north.
CPT Nelson Kraft and his Soldiers from Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry
Regiment were part of the group that would land in the south and wait for them. As
soon as the Chinooks carrying the troops landed, the unit found itself in the midst of
100 or more enemy fighters, heavily armed and dug into the cragged mountainsides.
First Platoon was sent up the ridgeline. From their position above the valley, they
could hear the mortars advancing closer with each volley. One round hit close to the
platoon leader, Lieutenant Brad Maroyka, and wounded him. He gave the order to
move, but the next round hit his platoon sergeant. With both leaders out of
commission, Kraft radioed SSG Randal Perez, a supply sergeant turned infantryman,
and the senior Soldier left standing and told him to take charge.
Reconnaissance photos and intelligence reports had failed to identify this enemy
stronghold, but the men of Charlie Company knew they could not run, so they dug in
and continued to fight.
Perez did a quick assessment, finding nine of his 26 men wounded. He knew he
needed to get them out of the area where they were pinned down. He and five others
laid down heavy fire to allow the rest of the team to move to safer ground.
Even though he too was injured, the company first sergeant watched from his
position below to see how Perez was handling the pressure. He was glad that the
many hours spent at Fort Drum mentoring Perez and teaching him infantry tactics
were paying off.
All during the fight, the newly appointed leader controlled his rates of fire, called in
targets and kept his men reassured by going helmet to helmet. He rose to the
challenge, doing the job of an officer with years of training.
You never know what leadership ability is in you until you step up and try.
The Interaction with Your Audience!
March 1st, 2010
The Olympic committee did an outstanding job of creating a really strong connection and interaction with the men’s hockey tournament. The anticipation leading up to last nights game was intense and the game delivered everything hoped for. This was one of the very few games that truly got me engaged and exc
ited.
Is it too hard for marketing to create that level of intensity for all sports play off games? What was different in the way this was marketed? There were many tie backs to the 1980 Gold Medal Hockey Game, which is considered by many to be the greatest hockey game ever played, and these tie backs linked the gold medal game of 2010 to the excitement of the 1980 game.
I went to get my hair cut at 2pm yesterday and every single person in the place was talking about the gold medal game coming on at 3pm and how they had to rush home for it. Maybe this is how people are with football in Texas, but I have not seen this level of excitement over a hockey game in decades.
What was done differently? How do you feel the marketing and presentation of these games made such a difference? According to NBC this was the most watched game in the history of Canada! Bye-bye Gretzky, bye-bye Bruins vs. Montreal, bye-bye Curling. This Olympic Hockey series did something different than any other since 1980….what was it?