While watching many of his employees grow and evolve, Marty Grunder noticed that one of his long-time team members seemed to be losing his spark. Marty is President and CEO of Grunder Landscaping Co., a business he started in 1984 with a lawnmower he bought at a garage sale. Today, some 34 years later, Grunder is one of the most [ Read More ]
In our complex world, it's the unintended consequences that hurt us—not the intended ones. This was the clear and painful story when our organization still conducted annual performance reviews. Our reason for doing them seemed innocent enough: we wanted to help people get a clear review of how they're doing, what they can improve on, and what their future [ Read More ]
What has changed for Heather Brown—and the company she works for—since working with Aileron? Heather Brown, now a Production Manager for Ramco Electric Motors, answers that question and more in our latest podcast. During her 12 years with the company, Heather explains how she's worked her way up within the organization. Learn how she learned key tools from Aileron [ Read More ]
Team members at Solid Blend Technologies had a unified vision, but gaps in the company’s operations were starting to show. Solid Blend Technologies is a Dayton-based service water management company established in 1999. A company that’s growing often sees new, unforeseen challenges—and that was no different for Solid Blend Technologies, says Ken Elrich, President of Solid Blend Technologies and his wife, [ Read More ]
When the very first employee was hired at The Greentree Group, Travis Greenwood (now President & CEO of the strategic technology consulting firm), talked to his wife about how to bring the new team member onboard. His wife, Lisa, said, “Let’s send him something to welcome him, like a fruit basket.” So they did, and after 25 years, the [ Read More ]
Several years ago, a customer came to Promotional Spring asking for point of purchase signage. (Promotional Spring is a company that creates experiences and solutions that help organizations to promote their products and services.) Even though they had asked for a specific deliverable, after further conversation, leaders at Promotional Spring realized the customer had 4 different pain points. Those challenges they [ Read More ]
It’s been said that in the knowledge economy, it’s now every individual's responsibility to innovate with the customer in mind. When developing a new product or service, does your organization get feedback from customers along the way? And, do you seek, find, and use those customer-driven insights to shape your products or services? Here are two things to keep [ Read More ]
People picked on my generation. People picked on my fathers’ generation. People are picking on this generation, and I think it’s wrong,” says Scott McGohan, CEO at McGohan Brabender, a company that provides employee benefit consulting, compliance, and health risk management. “We have to understand technology and communication paths that are going to be attractive [across generations], but to pretend [ Read More ]
Your effectiveness as a leader correlates with the amount of trust the people you lead have in you. The less trust they have in you, the more time you’ll have to spend making a case for what you’re trying to get done. If your people trust you, they are going to accept what you’re asking of them without question. [ Read More ]
This Insights post has been updated. For our latest thinking on professional management, see our most recent post here. In the video below a number of small business owners explain—in their own words—how professional management has helped their businesses. Professional management is something that can help you run your business, rather than letting it run you. It [ Read More ]
It's hard enough to define your culture. And it's even harder to align your business to it. Once your culture is defined and aligned, how do you ensure your culture is ready to scale? “When we were a smaller organization, I had a lot more influence on the culture than I do now,” says Sean Kelly, CEO of SnackNation, [ Read More ]
John Werner, President/CEO of White Commercial Corporation, knew something had changed around his organization when, one day, he walked by a conference room and noticed a meeting he was completely unaware was taking place. No invite or no notification—nothing. “We have a big window that you see from the hallway, and it looked like they were really getting work accomplished,” [ Read More ]
