Welcome to the fourth issue of CEE News!
It’s that time of the year again. Just after Thanksgiving and a few weeks before Christmas. We can savor the memories of great food shared with family and friends without panicking about what gifts to get for them.
It’s also a good time to pause and look back on the year before diving headfirst into 2016. Before you get caught up in 2016 goals, take some time to deliberately reflect on where you are today. Here are a couple of quick tips to help you do so.
Appreciate the journey. If you’re stressing yourself out with a ...
Sticky solutions to your everyday business challenges
Queston: I manage a group of people who are mostly around my age, in our mid-30’s. We work long hours together and often go to dinner or drinks after work. Recently, over lunch, an older colleague told me to be careful about making friends with my staff. Am I crossing a line between being a manager and friend?
Answer: There was a time when it was considered best for managers to keep a personal distance from their employees. The school of thought was that friendship was a slippery slope to favoritism. Today, however, we ...
A closer look at companies executing leadership excellence
This section of the newsletter is where we usually focus on one business that is getting leadership right. This month, we are departing from that pattern to spotlight a group of businesses that chose to do something extraordinary this year – they refused to open on Thanksgiving.
In recent years, Black Friday mania has crept further and further into the Thanksgiving holiday. Some stores open at midnight while others open as early as 5:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Although holiday sales make up the lion’s share of annual ...
Welcome to the third issue of CEE News!
Once upon a time, the world was a more predictable, slower moving place. Most companies could operate effectively using the same structure created over 100 years ago to best suit our manufacturing economy. Employees were placed under managers, and managers under executives. Decisions came down from the top and action lived at the bottom—taking days, or sometimes years, to implement.
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Sticky solutions to your everyday business challenges
Question: My manager told me to let my team fail. I am reluctant to let that happen. I don’t want to disappoint our customers or demotivate my team. Do you have any suggestions for me?
Answer: When your manager tells you to “let people fail,” it’s likely meant to encourage you to empower your people, let go of the details, take a step back, and be willing to let your people mess up from time to time. If team members never get a chance to risk failure, you may be too protective of them. Failure can be a powerful ...
A closer look at companies executing leadership excellence
In May this year, Stephan Aarstol effectively doubled the per-hour earnings of every employee at his business, Tower Paddle Boards. Yet payroll didn't budge. Aarsol did this by exploiting the insight that, for startups, time is a more malleable resource than money. So instead of giving his employees salary raises, he reduced the company workday to five hours.
Aarstol, you may recall, is the guy who froze during his 2012 pitch on ABC's Shark Tank, but still walked off with $150,000 from Mark Cuban. Today, he and his team ...
A closer look at companies executing leadership excellence
In May this year, Stephan Aarstol effectively doubled the per-hour earnings of every employee at his business, Tower Paddle Boards. Yet payroll didn't budge. Aarsol did this by exploiting the insight that, for startups, time is a more malleable resource than money. So instead of giving his employees salary raises, he reduced the company workday to five hours.
Aarstol, you may recall, is the guy who froze during his 2012 pitch on ABC's Shark Tank, but still walked off with $150,000 from Mark Cuban. Today, he and his team ...
A closer look at companies executing leadership excellence
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Trust is a hot topic today. In our fast-paced business world, “speed is everything,” says Stephen M.R. Covey, “and nothing impacts speed more than trust.”
Consider this example about the legendary culture of trust at Southwest Airlines. In 1996, leadership expert Ken Blanchard had just published a book with former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula called Everyone's A Coach. Ken was at the San Diego airport to check-in for a flight to the east coast. When he got to the Southwest ticket counter, he realized that he'd ...