The Eagles and Apprenticeships
Are you thinking about apprenticeships? It doesn't have to be as dramatic as an untimely death; there are many reasons you should be thinking many years down-the-line with your apprenticeship programs.
Put Your Eagle Eye on What’s Key to Success-Leadership
Effective and successful leaders have the ability to formulate a company vision and also translate that vision into execution. Leadership will make or break your business. Put your eagle eye on ensuring success in this arena and you’ll thrive. The two core tasks of a leader are 1) to set strategy, [...]
What You Don’t See
Missing important clues at work because they’re not obvious or visible is as good as going around with blinders. Part of having an eagle eye is knowing what you don't see. I've found that being observant while walking around a manufacturing or distribution facility can yield many hidden gems. [...]
It Begins and Ends with Leadership
Employees trust and follow proven leaders — those that motivate, communicate, and know what they’re talking about. As a tribute to my HR mentor who recently retired after a long and successful career in organizational development and HR (congrats Debra), I have to tip my hat (if I wore [...]
How to Select Priorities
You’re in danger of spinning your wheels aimlessly by having too many priorities. Focus on the priorities that truly impact your business and are aligned with your strategy. I've yet to meet a client that didn't have FAR too many priorities for what could be achieved successfully. Instead of [...]
Best of the 100: Systems Pragmatist
Rushing forward without pertinent tools and processes can hinder your business goals. A systems pragmatist will gain traction by strengthening fundamental areas. As I've been going through my hundreds of articles to put together the 100 tips, it's become obvious as to which topics resonated with me as essential [...]
Watching Metrics Trends
Collecting lots of data isn’t enough to improve service levels. A successful manager tracks relevant metric trends and puts the information into action. One of the keys to success for any business is to watch metrics trends. In my experience, if a client watches key trends, they tend to [...]
Why are Communications So Difficult?
Communications can get muffled in a busy work environment, but effective leadership makes information delivery a key component in daily operations. In my almost 25 year-career in manufacturing and distribution, I've yet to see a company with "perfect" communications. I've seen a few stars (unfortunately the 20% of the [...]
Metrics Rule!
You can't give attention to work priorities to grow a more profitable business if you aren't collecting data, measuring variables and tracking trends. I refer to one of my core service lines as "Eagle Eye" since I've found that selecting the right priorities to work on is half the [...]
The Skills Gap Issue is Growing
With an increasingly complex business environment, businesses need to know how to resolve skill gaps in their workplace The skills gap is a rapidly growing issue for manufacturers and distributors. Almost every day that I go into a client, go to a trade association meeting or talk with colleagues, [...]