“The wisdom of the decision has nothing to do with the power of the position," says Clay Mathile, Founder and Chairman at Aileron and Former CEO and owner of The Iams Company. When you train and empower everyone to make decisions that serve the company’s strategy, that's when innovation and problem-solving can happen regardless of someone's role within the company, says [ Read More ]
“A good plan today is better than a perfect one tomorrow.” – General George Patton Many entrepreneurs start their company wanting to build the perfect product or service for their customer. This is a big mistake and here's why. Perfect can take too long to develop. Most entrepreneurs have a limited amount of development funds before they need to [ Read More ]
“The great thing about a partnership and having a sounding board is you may not have tunnel vision completely go away, but at least your ‘tunnel’ is expanded from a few other points of view,” says Stacy Sheldon, Managing Partner at POMIET, a company that provides customized web and mobile solutions in the healthcare space. “[With multiple owners,] hopefully we're [ Read More ]
Planning and setting direction for the future of your business is integral to professional management. As a result, succession planning and sustainability are a natural part of implementing the DOC model.Even though many business owners/founders produce a forward-looking vision for their company, fears or uncertainties can hold back the process of planning for a successful exit. If you don't figure [ Read More ]
“How can you not invest in people?” asks Mark Thompson, a former Business Coach at Aileron. “It’s your only difference,” he says in this video also featured on Forbes. Ed Eppley, Course for Presidents Facilitator at Aileron, agrees that high-performing companies are those that invest in their people. Ed says that it’s in a business owner’s best interest [ Read More ]
Although commonly used, sports are a weak analogy for thinking and talking about business. Mark Thompson, an Aileron Business Coach, explains why a symphony is a better analogy for how we develop and support people in an organization. It’s More Than High Performers Sports analogies often glamorize motivation coming from a coach or a team leader. But high-performing organizations [ Read More ]
How do you respond when you learn an employee has made a mistake? As a leader, are you more likely to advise her on what she should have done—or, do you take a moment and ask the employee, “What did you learn from that?” Practicing empowering questions—rather than just giving someone a flood of advice, as discussed in this [ Read More ]
In this video, Jim Sever, fifth generation business owner, shares how connecting the company’s core values to every day decision-making improved the bottom line for his $30M machinery moving, rigging, and crane rental company. We sat down with Jay Meyer, President of JMeyer Strategies, to continue exploring the topic of core values. As a former business owner, Jay now [ Read More ]
“When there is trust, conflict becomes nothing but the pursuit of truth, an attempt to find the best possible answer.” –Patrick Lencioni Wes Gipe, founder of Agil IT, knows this quote all too well. At one point in time, Wes explains, “[we] had plenty of conflict, but we didn’t have very much trust, and so there's wasn't a lot [ Read More ]
It took patience, but Bernard Dalichau, in this video also featured on Forbes, shares how he was able to cultivate an environment in which open communication became one of the driving forces of Lavender Home Care Solutions’ success. Joe Calloway, an author of seven books on business performance, a keynote speaker, a consultant, and an advisor who helps great companies [ Read More ]
When Beth Savage became the owner of PQ Systems, the first thing she did was put together an outside board, she says in this video. “Why not have a board that is there for the sole reason of helping you and your team succeed?” says Beth. Many business owners are reluctant to create an outside board. Some believe that [ Read More ]
“There will always be 20 things that you're not doing,” says Srujal Sheth in this video featured on Forbes. Srujal is President and CEO of Vana Solutions, an information technology services company headquartered in Dayton, Ohio. “Either they go away, or you ask somebody else, or you get your team to do it,” she says. Learn to Delegate Successfully [ Read More ]
