As we looked at the cost of a poor promotion, I shared some stories with you about a few different rockstar employees I had worked with over the years. One of them had been an assembly line lead for close to four decades but absolutely refused to even consider taking the next step into a...

If we really are tuned into what our team members are looking for from us as their leaders, we need to be intentional about providing them with the support they’ll need to accomplish their goals. Some of those goals tie right back to daily, weekly, or monthly productivity but those goals...

Setting crystal-clear objectives for the changed behaviors we need to see after training and the results those behaviors should be yielding is certainly critical but stopping there will still leave quite a bit of profitability left unclaimed! A stark reality every leader will need to face is that...

Whether it’s the technical skills a new team member needs just to become competent in our respective industry, the leadership skills that are so very needed for anyone with responsibility for getting results through a team of people, or even the skills that are critical for our best...

Now that we’ve looked how much profitability is wasted when an organization spends money on the wrong training, or even training that isn’t absorbed or applied, let’s get serious about an approach we can take to make sure we’re providing the right training for our team...

Several years ago while working with a group of extremely skilled employees in a construction company, one of the most senior guys was grumbling about some of the new folks who had been hired. He was frustrated because they didn’t know everything he expected them to know right away and...

As I mentioned before, painting the picture of the tools you can provide a potential team member to grow within the organization once they come onboard can play a significant role in the recruiting process. Failing to make good on those promises though, sooner than later, will be a direct...

To this point, we’ve looked at a number of profitability killers that are affecting nearly every business. Through this process, I’ve been intentional about making a case for how effective leadership - while often viewed as something soft or intangible - can make an immediate and...

If we’re going to build profitable succession plans, creating advancement opportunities that are a bit outside the traditional approach of promoting (read: pushing) our best team members into supervisory or management roles primarily based on their technical expertise and work ethic will...

As the foundation was being laid for what I believe is still the greatest nation on Earth, Thomas Jefferson penned these words:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are...

If we’re going to have any real shot of avoiding the cost of a poor promotion, recognizing the right candidate to promote isn’t just a nice idea, it’s something we have to do effectively time after time. Not only will that help capture so much of the profitability that’s...

While Joe was outstanding at pretty much every technical aspect in the department, there was one thing he didn’t have to worry about when he accepted the lead role; he never seemed all that bothered about alienating long term friendships. I think that was largely a result of him being able...