The Business Thorcast: Business Improvement | Business Strategy | Leadership | Business Agility | Continuous Improvement | Team Building

Joel “Thor” Neeb sits down with Mark Paske of VMware for this week’s episode to discuss how Flawless Execution brought success to the tech company’s sales team and culture. In a marketplace where the expectations are changing every day, you have to keep your team one step ahead of the competition and rate of change. Understanding the importance of alignment and team communication became the backbone for VMware’s sales team that allowed them to thrive in a turbulent environment.

An often-overlooked component to any team’s success is their long-term vision, also referred to as the High-Definition Destination. Many leaders are too distracted by the problems they face in the present to focus on the future. In this episode, Joel "Thor" Neeb discusses the importance of creating a pull culture in order to engage your team towards success. Thor acknowledges the opposite theory of a push culture or compliance and admits its successful on occasion, however, he uses his personal experience of working with a $40 billion tech company along with other experiences and examples to prove “action without engagement is a nightmare.”

You hear a lot about Job Security and how to ensure your employability in a volatile and uncertain job market. But how often do you hear about Job Insecurity? In this tell-all exposé, Executive Consultant, Otis “Hoop” Hooper, publicly Debriefs the big-boss here at Afterburner. Hoop still can’t believe Thor is moving forward with launching this episode of The Business Thorcast… Can you? Subscribe and listen now!

In pilot training, the first thing you had to do before you ever left land was practice in an emergency simulator. You would be put in the most catastrophic situations and have to figure out how to keep yourself safe. How were we always able to stay safe and calm in these situations? By using our checklist and contingency plans. 

Business can also use contingency plans to build confidence with their team. To keep the team focused on the goal instead of wondering if the worst will happen. In this episode, we bring back Will “Q” Duke to talk about the critical role checklists and contingency plans play on elite military teams and in business.

Everyone is talking about technology as a strategic resource. In this episode, Thor and Murph discuss the trends they see and what you need to know in order to lead through the disruption of the digital transformation. 

Organizational culture is a hard thing to change. It’s not enough to say you are going to change it, you need to have a strategic business plan behind the goal. In this episode, Jamie Temple, EUC Program Manager VMware, shares how her organization utilized strategic business planning to merge two cultures to create a successful team.

In the second part of his interview, Fred Kofman, Vice President of Executive Development at LinkedIn, shares with The Business ThorCast host, Joel “Thor” Neeb, why he thinks the key to a successful team is the alignment of your team around a common purpose and a set of shared standards.

Doing the best for the team doesn’t always mean doing the best for yourself.  In part one of his interview, Fred Kofman, Vice President of Executive Development at LinkedIn, discusses why it’s important to connect your team to a higher purpose to achieve company goals.

You can’t tactically work your way out of a strategic problem. When your team is facing a big shift in strategy, you must gather your team to build a new strategic plan, align the team around that strategy and establish an execution rhythm for accomplishing the goal. Afterburner COO, Joe “Gusto” Connolly, shares his mistakes and lessons learned from leading teams through challenging situations.

When the worst-case scenario occurs or when the big call comes in, is your team ready? Former astronaut, Bill “Borneo” Gregory, tells the story of his space mission that could have never happened but how he was prepared when it did. He shares the simple, logical techniques business teams can use to ensure they are prepared for the predictable threats and once in a lifetime opportunities.