I’m sure you have all heard the old folk warning of the frog in boiling water. Put a frog into a pot of cold water, turn up the heat, and the frog will sit there until he becomes frog soup, not sensing the severity of his situation until it’s too late to take action. However, throw that same frog into a pot of water that’s already boiling and he will somehow get out before his feet hit the bottom of the pot, the seriousness of the situation being painfully obvious. Well, in many ways, you are likely in a pot…

When you change your client value offering and your sales model, you have to change the way the company supports these new efforts. Taking the time to evaluate your current structure and making changes to support the new model is critical to successfully executing on and delivering on your new value proposition.When you make the commitment to what the new structure is going to be, you’ll have to take on the possibly daunting task of implementing on it. And it might not be fun because many people don’t like change – it’s unknown and that can be scary. Anticipate the…

I live in St. Louis and, while I’m not the biggest hockey fan, I do try to keep up with how the Blues are playing.  The season did not get off to a great start.  In fact, the head coach lost his job and was replaced with Ken Hitchcock.Since Coach Hitchcock took over, the Blues improved to the point that, as I write this, they have the best record in the NHL.  While I could certainly write about how having the right leader in place makes all the difference, I will instead focus on something I heard the coach say…

Wendy’s previous post about employer entitlement got me thinking about a related issue, employer responsibility.The behavior and reaction described in her post is all too common and, as bad as it is, the related issue is just as unacceptable (maybe even more so).  What I’m talking about is allowing employees who are allowed to hang around too long when they are clearly no longer fit to work at the company.I have spent my career in the independent agency industry so perhaps we aren’t as unique as I think.  However, based on my experience, agencies are absolutely horrible at making the…

All businesses experience turnover. How you deal with that turnover says a lot about your attitude, your values, your willingness to learn. And it says a lot about your future potential for attracting new employees. Got issues? I see employers who clearly have morale issues and do little to nothing to uncover the source of the problem. Or if they do find the source, they choose to do nothing about it. Then, when employees leave, these employers are shocked. And then they get mad. They get mad at the employee for “deserting them”, or being “disloyal”, or “using them” and…

Changes - they're generally things we’re either excited about and committed to accomplishing, or they’re things we feel we should do and only put forth a modicum of effort to attempt the changes.One way will likely include planning and commitment to the end goal, a lot of hard work, reality checks along the way, plan adjustments, and hopefully an end result that is somewhat in line with the original vision.The other will likely include a half-hearted attempt to describe “an ideal scenario”. This will be more wishful thinking than an actual goal. The effort will lack commitment and will eventually…

For regular readers of our blog, this list may be familiar.  Unfortunately, the strategies listed are all too familiar and, given the time of the year, we thought it a good time to share once again. Here we sit in January with all the promise of a new year ahead of us, convincing ourselves that this is the year that we will make “X” happen.  Don’t get me wrong, I love that kind of optimism, but I also want you to take an honest assessment of whether or not you have built a plan that will make “X” happen.  In…

Managing the performance of your employees is the key to maximizing their productivity.   A Hacket Group study backs this up showing that companies who excel at performance management post earnings that are 15% more than their competition who are less effective at managing performance, they show a 22% improvement in net profit margin, and they spend 6% less on HR overall.As important as they should be, almost nobody likes performance reviews.  They’re uncomfortable for the giver and the receiver, largely because managers aren’t adequately trained in how to make performance reviews meaningful.  While I would certainly encourage you to make…

When introducing a new initiative in your organization, you understand the need to get your team motivated behind the cause.  After all, the success of the initiative is going to be largely dependent on their level of support.All too often, when we introduce an initiative, we only focus on why it is important for the company that the initiative to be successful.  While I am certain that your team wants the company to be successful, the Company is only one of five primary areas of motivation for the individuals on your team.  The other four are Society, Customer, Team, and,…

As a leader in your organization, I am certain you have a clear picture in your mind of where you are going.  Whether you lead at a team, department, or organizational level, it is almost a certainty that you spend a significant amount of time thinking about the team, department, or organization that you must become.  But here’s the question – does the rest of your team, department, or organization know what that looks like?  A shared vision is the key to their ability to get you there as quickly and easy as possible.  If they don’t know the vision…