Leaders need to prepare for the future of their company. “If that company is part of your identity, why not do succession planning?”, asks Beth Savage, President of PQ Systems, in this video featured on Forbes. Beth was part of a team that built a plan for succession that was implemented when the founder of PQ Systems unexpectedly passed. The [ Read More ]
What if your employees could see behind the curtain of how the company is run? Tony Schroeder, as shown in this video, took this approach with surprising results. “They know every line item on all those financial statements have a story," and Tony expected them to know it. For 22 years, Tony has led Choice One Engineering, a civil [ Read More ]
"Why should I do business with you?" That’s one of the toughest questions for business owners to answer. Customer service, quality, or the ability to partner with other companies are all important factors, but those are factors that just allow you to be in business, says Tony Collins, Aileron Business Coach and owner of TurningPoint Strategy. In order to [ Read More ]
In an ever-changing world, we’re tasked with staying relevant and profitable. Often, leaders turn to books, lectures, and workshops to stay current. This is the traditional approach. But what if I actually told you, for you to have a more abundant personal and professional life, you actually have to adopt the philosophy of continuous unlearning? This might strike you [ Read More ]
In looking to create great results, we have to balance getting results in the near-term with building our organization’s capability to maximize results in the long-term.But what are the methods and ways in which we can help encourage this kind of continual improvement within our organization? And how can anyone, no matter their role or authority level, create value and [ Read More ]
The hardest resource to give is your time. As a leader, when we're giving our time to people, we're giving them love and we're encouraging them,” says Scott McGohan, CEO at McGohan Brabender. We sat down with both Scott and John Meredith, President and Owner of SaverSystems, to talk about the power of giving back, including how part of taking [ Read More ]
While it is not as easy as it once was before the Great Recession, all banks and other lenders still need to loan money to small business. The key is to know how to do it and get the best terms. Here is a simple 7 step process: Step 1: Start before the loan is needed. It is critical [ Read More ]
Gary Grefer, President and CEO of Atlantic Foods Corp., had just successfully reinvented his company. After losing a large account that represented the majority of the company’s business, Gary had led the company during its quick and successful turnaround. “With the help of Aileron, we redefined the company, we recreated the culture, and we restructured the organization. We went [ Read More ]
Beatles lead guitarist George Harrison once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” His point is, obviously, that if you don’t have a vision of where you want to be, there’s no right or wrong next step. When you think about strategic planning, the same idea applies: If you don’t have a [ Read More ]
New news? Recently, some of the top newspapers are covering the topic of “performance reviews” and how they are becoming extinct as science was recently released that shows they actually cause a decline in employee morale. Is the science cutting edge or just catching up to what Deming has been teaching us since the 1970’s? Ratings and quantitative metrics [ Read More ]
During my years of consulting with family-owned businesses, I have encountered a number of mistakes made by the older generation when they have tried to transition their company to the next generation. During the transition, they were not aware of making any mistakes, only to find out in later years they had wished things were done differently. In consulting [ Read More ]
