Which is worth more to your company; a great employee, or a perfect fit client. I think for most of us, the answer is simple; I’ll take a new client (revenue) over a new employee (expense) any day! But before you answer, think about one of your top team members; how much do they improve…
“Well this is garbage, we’ll have to start this over from the beginning…” When I heard my client, Trish, say that to one of her team members my heart sank. I immediately looked at the designer’s face and saw that she was barely holding back tears. Trish was trying to be helpful. She didn’t see…
I want you to think about the best team you’ve ever worked with. The team that had you engaged; that got the most out of you; where you accomplished more than you thought you could. Got it in your mind? I’ve asked a ton of people to tell me about their “best team,” and when…
We talked on Tuesday about how “doing the thing” holds you back from the changes you need to make to grow your business. If you want to make substantial changes to your business (you know, the kind of changes that scare you), you need to let go of delivering services to clients. Let one of my Mastermind Group member’s stories…
Tuesday I wrote to you about “Joshua,” a young employee who had taken the initiative to make himself several different roles within my client’s company. He was filling holes that he saw in what needed to be done, sometimes dropping some balls in the process. My client was frustrated with his performance. I used Joshua’s…
“He’s been with us from the beginning. I think he was the fourth employee hired in the company!” This is how the conversation started with one of my clients who was telling me about his “problem employee.” “Things started great.” Joshua came to them through a friend, and when they met him, they could see…
Whenever I work with a team on strategic planning eventually someone says, “Yeah, well, this is all well and good, but halfway through the year we’ll have forgotten all of this and be working on like a million OTHER things…” The sad part is, they aren’t wrong. They’ve likely seen that pattern played out a…
You know what I mean when I ask, “How many adults are there on your team?” Right? How many people on your team …without being told to do it? Stop for a minute and go through your team: Is he an “adult”? Is she? When I ask business owners this question in a team of…
As the boss, you get to see daily progress. When a deal closes, or a project finishes up, you know it. When a client is excited about the changes you made for them, you hear their praise. You have access to a lot of positive feedback that the rest of your team doesn’t see or…
I frequently tell business owners, “A CEO’s job is to break things. Just don’t break them faster than your team can fix!” I do believe that — someone in every organization has to push the limits to achieve the “next thing.” Someone has to call out the stuff that’s not done well and advocate for…