Why Business Teams Fail & How to Avoid It : Strong Leadership Skills For Employee Engagement & High Performance

What Is Holding You Back from Your Ideal Future? 

To be honest, we could all benefit by spending a bit more of our time thinking about what we want our ideal future to look like.  Far too often, as a business owner, your focus is on the here and now.

The only thing that is holding you back from the Ideal Future you are dreaming about is determining what needs to be worked on, setting some priorities, focusing your actions and setting an aggressive deadline.

What Could we Learn from Watching Professional Cycling Teams Compete?

I’m not sure if you’ve ever paid attention to a professional cycling team, but I’ve spent MANY hours watching, observing and analyzing what they do and thinking about why they do it.  The more I watch, the more I see things that I think EVERYONE in business should be doing – even if their business has NOTHING to do with cycling or any kind of sport.

Are You Using the Concepts of Profit First in Your Business?

Most business owners I meet run their businesses in the traditional way. And by “traditional” I mean they look at their business and think about their business from their CPA’s or bookkeeper’s point of view.

But there is a different way to think about your business finances. And I believe it’s a BETTER way for a business owner to think about their financials – and that’s the PROFIT FIRST way.

Are Your Rewards Programs Aligned with Your Performance Expectations?

Today I want to talk about ALIGNMENT as it relates to your business.  Just like the wheels on your car or your spine, if your rewards programs aren’t in alignment with your performance expectations, you won’t get the kind of results and great performance that you need or should expect.

How Fired Up Are You about Your Business Right Now?

No matter your situation, we ALL find ourselves questioning our resolve from time to time.  Somedays we ARE Fired Up and other days we couldn’t light a fire if our life depended on it!

So what should you do and how should you react?  That's what we're going to address here today.

Are Your Team Members ENTHUSIASTIC about Serving Your Customers?

We decide every day whether we’re going to show up with a POSITIVE attitude or a NEGATIVE attitude.  And how we show up sets the tone and the expectation for how our TEAM shows up.

Your job, as the business owner, is to inspire, display and demonstrate how a POSITIVE approach wins over a neutral or negative approach.

Do Your Vendors and Suppliers Know and Respect Your Performance Standards?

As more and more businesses narrow their focus to become “experts” in one specific thing, they often times make the decision to “outsource” some of their non-core activities.  The idea is that by not having to do EVERYTHING, they can get REALLY GOOD at the one or two things that they can become EXPERTS in.

Anyone and everyone who engages with your prospects and customers should be living up to YOUR standards.  It’s one of the big benefits of owning your own business.  Don’t leave this to chance.

Do You Focus More Time and Attention Helping Your Team Get Better or Identifying Where They are Falling Short?

This week I want to focus on a pet peeve I have with many business owners and senior leaders – how we perceive our role in providing performance feedback.

What FEELINGS do your Customers have when they do business with you?

Most consumers chose where to shop or where to get service or where to eat based on their FEELINGS about the people, the place, and the setting they will be in.  In fact, the statistics are that 85% of a buying decision is based on EMOTION (or feelings).  This suggests that only 15% of a buying decision is based on LOGIC (or price).

We’ve got to think about this far more often, validate the feelings we are giving on a more frequent basis and share our intended feelings with our team on a regular basis.

Is Your Team Ready to Play in the Big Leagues?

Your team is an extension of you.  How they show up, how they behave and how they execute says a lot about you, the business owner.  So you need to be INTENTIONAL about how you put your team together and the expectations you set for your team.

Today I’m asking if you believe that your team has the behaviors and characteristics of an “A Team” – a team who can compete and win against ANY other team.