How to revamp your culture – Commitment (part 1 of 3)

May 22, 2013 in Uncategorized with 3 Comments

There is no arguing that the past six years have been a really difficult for most people. But, take heart! The DOW is over 15,000 and as reported last week, consumer sentiment has risen to its highest level since July 2007. We’ve finally turned the corner!

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So, companies and their leaders are starting to raise their heads above their cubicle walls, catch their breath, and assess the employee sentiment after managing their way through a grueling recession. It’s no surprise what they are finding. Most see employee populations desperate for a thank you, a signal that things are going to be ok, and confirmation that great times are forthcoming. Others will certainly find a mentally spent and exhausted workforce pining for a positive spark to rekindle the company culture, passion, and spirit.

So, what’s the best way to restore that positive vibe and rekindle a positive corporate culture? Today’s post on commitment is part one of a three-part series on how to restore culture and create a positive environment through commitment, gratitude, and authenticity.

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How to make a huge change in your life

May 1, 2013 in Love with 3 Comments

My post from six weeks ago, Five Words I gave myself permission to say…out loud, spawned a LOT of questions from readers and generated some really fun discussions with colleagues, family, and friends. That post revealed a great deal about the tremendous changes Justeen and I made in our lives and our personal journey over the past two years.

FlowersWell, we definitely awoke some dormant desires to make big changes in my readers’ own lives. And, do you know what?

THAT IS TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY AWESOME!

Most of the questions and discussions were around “how did you do that?” And, two friends asked “how did you even have the courage to start?” They are both great questions. In thinking about the answers, it reminded me that we approached these changes differently than any big change we tried to accomplish in the past. Here are the five steps we believe led to our success. Continue Reading…

Strangest of bedfellows: the CMO and CSO

April 16, 2013 in Growing Companies, Leadership, Sales and Marketing Strategy with 0 Comments

As recently as five years ago, few would’ve predicted the unification of Chief Sales Officers (CSOs) and Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs). They didn’t speak the same language, often with differing definitions of terms as fundamental as “what is a lead?” They fiercely competed for budget… the CSO wanting to hire more sales people and the CMO wanted to fund additional marketing programs. They blamed each other for shortfalls in revenue. The CMO was the creative type and the CSO was the customer relationship expert. Although they sometimes sat in adjacent offices, they couldn’t have been farther apart.

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So, what has changed that will finally unite CMOs and CSOs? Answer…The buyers are back in control. Today’s post explains what this means and the four steps CMOs and CSOs must take (together) to stay relevant.

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When do you burn the ships?

April 9, 2013 in Growing Companies, Leadership, Love with 7 Comments

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On April 21, 1519,  Hernando Cortés and just over 500 Spanish soliders arrived by ship near the site of Veracruz, Mexico. With conquest in mind, Cortez knew that his small force would encounter Aztec warriors, who outnumbered the spaniards by 300 to 1. To remove all thoughts of retreat from his men, Cortez burned his ships before taking his soldiers into the fight.  The message was clear: we succeed or we die.
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Four honest questions that separate a winning strategy from a losing strategy.

April 1, 2013 in Growing Companies, Leadership, Sales and Marketing Strategy with 2 Comments

When we are truly honest with ourselves during the planning process, we make better decisions and we create better strategies.

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Living in the country, its so easy for Justeen and me to get caught up in the excitement of 1,000 new project ideas to better our property. Ideas are a dime a dozen and have included: “Let’s raise chickens, so we can have fresh eggs every morning,” “Let’s plant an orchard, so we will have apples in the fall,” “Let’s move the kitchen to the great room, so it’ll be bigger,” “Let’s build a HUGE cut flower and vegetable garden,” and “Wouldn’t it be pretty to have horses in the pasture?” As we are learning (the hard way) it’s easy to focus on the benefits of the desired outcome, rather than to do an honest assessment of everything that it takes to achieve that outcome. More importantly, it’s easy to discount or dismiss all the obstacles that can and will arise along the way that will affect the outcome.

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Five words I gave myself permission to say…out loud

March 27, 2013 in Growing Companies, Leadership, Love with 6 Comments

Moving to the country and the road we traveled turned out to be so much more than a change in geography for Justeen and me. Our journey became one of discovery. Before two years ago, I never really gave any thought to the following five words. And, I probably never spoke them out loud.

  1. Love
  2. God
  3. Debt-free
  4. Meditation
  5. Vegetarian
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The Road to the Country

Perhaps its just a societal norm, but uttering these words can come with a fear of being considered “weak” or even “unmanly,” especially in a business setting. In the past year though, these words have become very strong change agents in my life and have shaped both my self-identity and leadership. Perhaps it was all the success associated with moving to the country that has opened my mind (or lowered the perceived risk) to considering a number of new ideas. Not only am I no longer ashamed to speak these five words aloud, they have become a critically important part of my relationships with Justeen and friends, my life, my client work, and now my writing.

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Four rules on building endurance

March 19, 2013 in Growing Companies, Leadership, Sales and Marketing Strategy with 15 Comments

While I was attending a conference in Charlotte last week,  an audience member asked one of the speakers, “How do you build endurance?” Honestly, I didn’t like the speaker’s answer, so I won’t repeat it here. But, while out riding my bike on Saturday, I gave it some thought.


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Here are the four rules I came up with on how to build endurance:

  1. Don’t stop to rest while pedaling uphill
  2. Don’t stop to rest at the top of the hill
  3. And, don’t stop to rest while pedaling downhill
  4. When approaching the next hill, repeat steps 1-3

Why?

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Love is a business term…finally

February 21, 2013 in Growing Companies, Leadership, Love with 12 Comments

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Leaders and aspiring Leaders,

About once every five years, I come across a book that makes a deep and lasting an impression on me. And that’s exactly what happened when I read “Love Works” by Joel Manby, president and CEO of Herschend Family Entertainment. Seriously. Whatever book you are currently reading, put it down. Start reading this book instead.  How deep an impression did it make on me? You need look no further than the menu at the top of this page. I made “love” one of the four cornerstone categories of suits2boots.net. How do I really feel about it? You’ll see when you get to the final three paragraphs of this post.

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I’d like to think that I’ve always been a practitioner of at least some of the principals in “Love Works”. So, I won’t say that Manby changed my leadership. He’s done something much more profound. He has wedged his foot in the mahogany boardroom door that I hope will forever change what happens inside. He attached a label to a leadership style  and had the courage to publish an almost forbidden word in business…that word is love.

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Hiring a Guard Donkey

January 15, 2013 in Growing Companies, Leadership, Love with 10 Comments

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My wife, Justeen, and I moved to the country about a year ago after 12 years of living in the middle of Atlanta. I learn new things every day about how things work…in the country. And I can’t help myself but apply what I learn to my client work. Here’s a good one.

Did you ever notice when you drive by a cow, horse, or sheep pasture, chances are there’s a donkey in there? I never thought twice about it, even growing up in rural Ohio where cows are a-plenty. I figured that the herds’ owners just happen to own lots of cows or horses AND a donkey. Well, I learned recently that there’s a reason for that donkey. They’re actually standing guard over the livestock.

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A lesson from Yale on business plan writing: dumb it down.

November 12, 2012 in Growing Companies, Leadership with 0 Comments

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Today’s post is a critical reminder for all those entrepreneurs seeking an investor to fund their idea. To get funded, you’ll need a business plan…one that investors can understand!

The best advice I ever received on writing business plans may have also been the most obvious.  The advice came from David Cromwell, a 30-year veteran at JP Morgan. For six of those years, he was the CEO and president of JP Morgan’s Private Equity division. He is now a professor at the Yale School of Management. Since my time at Yale, I’ve used his insights into writing business plans with great success

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