Archive for the Leadership Category

The Great Huddle: A Meaningful Meeting Another day, another meeting on my schedule! How much time do we waste in meetings each week? I don’t even want to think about it. Let’s take a look at a new way of running meetings that is actually effective and productive! Jack Stack wrote a fabulous book called The Great Game of Business. In that book, he introduces us to something called The Great Huddle. What is a “Great Huddle?” It’s a staff meeting! But it’s not your normal, run of the mill type of staff meeting. Instead, it’s a meaningful meeting where your team will realign themselves to your vision, mission, and values. In the meeting, each staff member has an opportunity to speak so that everyone gets to know each other on a deeper level, knowing what everyone is working on, and what their own priorities are. Following the initial round-robin, you or a member of your executive team will give a leadership briefing which includes the specific things you and your team are working on and the reasons behind it. You’ll share critical financial numbers with your team so that everyone is more in tune with the state of your

Prepare to Pivot In times of crisis, everyone has an increased focus on how to adapt, adjust and make sure their business is in a great position to not only survive the crisis, but thrive through it. A crisis can take many forms. It can be the loss of a major customer, loss of a significant revenue stream, forced closure during a health crisis, or loss of significant employees. The key is to prepare as well as you can to be ready to pivot and change those things over which you have some level of control to meet the current situation. Preparing to pivot involves a few key elements. First, while this might sound simplistic, it is really critical to completely understand your business. What are those things that you do really well? Who are your top customers or clients, and what problems do you solve for them? What is your company known for? What skills and talents do your employees have? This is a time to think about how you can address your most important customers’ needs in an innovative way that works within the constraints of the crisis. Potentially, there are opportunities for providing solutions to new customers

We all know the importance of branding ourselves in the marketplace. It is critical to have a decent level of brand awareness, so that our customers and clients have a sense of who we are and are attracted to us. But – what about branding ourselves to attract employees? Currently, the United States is experiencing its lowest unemployment rate in decades. Great news for our economy – somewhat troubling news for employers. A low unemployment rate means that the competition for qualified candidates is really tough. There are a lot of very good companies out there vying for the same talent pool.  How can you stand out to be an employer of choice? Put yourself in your potential or current employee’s shoes. With multiple opportunities out there, why should they choose your company? What is it about a career with your company that will be different from another company? How you articulate what you have available could make a big difference to an employee making a decision to either come to your company, or to stay with your company. What does your brand say about your company? Often it is the intangibles that make a difference. Poll your current employees

There are a lot of things that compete for your time and attention as a business owner. So much so, that it is easy to lose focus on the growth goals that keep a company going strong. So how do we first find, then hold onto a focus that will move us forward? When we try and focus on a multitude of things at one time, we often fall into the trap of not being able to really focus on anything at all. There are a lot of distractions that go on in any company, and it is easy to spend all of your time putting out fires, chasing orders or dealing with production issues. Before you know it, much of the year has passed! So how do you find focus? Ask yourself – what is the ONE major thing you need to do in order to see success this year? Is it a certain revenue number? Landing a specific customer? Adding a product or service line? Once you have that vision in mind, write it down. Share it with your team. Determine what has to happen to get to that point. What are the things you’ll need to be