Tag: Business

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The Formula For Success

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STRIVING. PERFORMING. ACHIEVING. Those three words say a lot. When you STRIVE, you work hard and exert yourself, often against the tide of conventional opinion, competition, and your own complacency, doubts and fears. When you PERFORM, you are using your skills and abilities to do something…to execute and to get results. Ultimately, when you ACHIEVE, you are living a purposeful life. You reach a level of performance that is indicative of true success: you’re achieving your goals and dreams!

We understand that success is a journey and a way of living purposefully, not a destination. The foundation of our business coaching work is represented by The Formula for Success:

A ( S + K ) + G = PBC      IR (O, P)

Attitudes plus Skills & Knowledge directed by Goals delivers Positive Behavior Change which yields Improved Results, both Organizationally and Personally.

Let’s look at each component of the Formula, working from right to left…

IR

The first thing we look for is how our clients define success. We start out by asking what improved results (IR) our clients want to achieve in their organization or in their personal lives, and how that will be tracked and measured. The importance of a thoughtful definition of success is that it provides a target toward which everyone can aim. Everything else we do is specifically geared around achieving those results.

PBC

Wouldn’t you agree that if that target is different than where you are today, then you must do something (behave) differently to get there? PBC represents positive behavior change. A definition of insanity is doing the things you’ve always done, but expecting different outcomes.

G

G represents goals. Goals provide focus, otherwise there is no direction. Doesn’t it make sense that if people had goals on which to focus their energy, it would be easier to change their behavior in a way that can be sustained? Goal setting is the tool that generates the activity necessary to turn ideas into strategy, strategy into plans, and plans into reality.

S+K

S+K represent the necessary skills (the how to do something) and knowledge (the where and when to do something). Our process focuses on development of behavioral management skills, meaningful communications, influencing or selling skills, problem solving, decision making, organizing time, disciplining, developing subordinates, delegating authority, motivating others, appraising performance, etc. Everyone needs to be very competent in these areas, but especially in the workplace, where more than 50% of any manager’s job involves using these skills.

A

The A stands for attitude (the want to). Our coaching approach is based on a result-oriented philosophy that first involves developing a goal-oriented attitude among people. Attitude is more of a multiplier of skills and knowledge that will directly influence the goals they set and achieve. People will directly determine in many cases whether they turn a problem into an opportunity, or succumb to it; whether they behave in ways that benefit the entire organization or maintain fiefdoms; whether they expand the client base and services provided or allow atrophy to set in; and whether they diligently look for continuous improvement, or remain satisfied with the status quo.

The results we get depend upon our behavior and attitudes toward the people or events involved, and toward ourselves. If attitudes are basically negative, goals will be set low, and it will be difficult to progress. Growth and promotion will be all but impossible until a positive mindset is developed.

There are many ways and opportunities for individuals and organizations to better focus on results, attitudes and behaviors, skills and knowledge, goal setting and achievement. If you are interested in taking an important first step, let’s chat.

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How Many Partners Do You Have?

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“I want to take my business to the next level. We need to grow by 40% this year and 150% over the next 3 years.  But…”

I heard this from a business owner just last week. His “but” was his concern that his staff wasn’t prepared to get it done. They didn’t follow procedures, spent time on unimportant tasks, didn’t think out of the box and looked to him for all of the important answers.  With those issues, taking his business to the next level will be difficult if not impossible.

What he needs are some partners. When I say “partners”, I don’t mean legal partners with a financial investment in the business. I mean people who have an emotional investment in the business. He needs to find ways to make people feel like owners even though they’re not. As the true owner of the business, he may never have a team that’s a passionate as him about growing the business. However, there are things he can do to dramatically increase his team’s level of ownership and passion. By doing this, he can create a team that feels ownership, even if they’re not true owners.

Here are some ways to make that happen:

1.       Conduct Joint Planning & Goal Setting – Typically, goals are set by leaders and passed down to the “rank and file”. Since the team had no hand in setting these goals, there’s never total buy-in. What’s worse, when goals aren’t met, the team blames unrealistic goals, rather than their own performance. Leaders should give their team enough information (company goals, historical performance, strategic objectives, etc.) to set their own goals. Of course, leaders should still be responsible for approving all goals; challenging those goals that are either too aggressive or not aggressive enough.

2.       Help Employees Understand the WIIFM – Most leaders try to motivate by rallying the troops around what’s important to the company. That’s important…but there’s something much more important. People are more motivated by What’s In It For Me (WIIFM). It’s not that they’re selfish, it’s just human nature.  Work with your team members to understand how they’re personally impacted by the business goals that have been set. Notice I didn’t recommend you tell them how they’re impacted. Everyone is different. You (and/or your leadership team) need to work with each team member to find their own unique “why”.

3.       Don’t Have All The Answers – Don’t let your ego get the best of you. Stop dictating decisions to your team and ask your team for advice. This doesn’t mean “management by consensus”. Ultimately, as a leader, you need to make the final decision, but it’s critical to make your team part of the process. Even if you think you know the answer, ask your team what they think first, before dictating a decision.

4.       Encourage Conflict – Does your team get along great? Do you always seem to agree with each other? Do you have trouble remembering your last major team conflict? This may seem strange, but if you answered yes to these questions…you’ve got problems. A team needs conflict to evolve. Think of it as Darwin’s theory of evolution for business. If good ideas don’t crush bad ideas, and great ideas don’t crush good ideas, a business (and its employees) will grow stagnant and die.

Implementing these ideas will certainly allow business owners to do a great deal more than just increase revenues. Having additional “partners” in a business will also increase productivity, improve morale, enhance customer loyalty, increase margins and maybe most important of all, reduce stress.

How are you cultivating partners in your business?

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How Do My Goals Contribute To The Strategy?

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Strategy and goals should influence everyone’s behavior in the organization!

The work at the top of the organization in creating strategy and goals is intended to influence behavior that drives results. Unfortunately, it’s not unusual for the primary impact of the work to remain at the senior management level. It’s kind of like having a car with an engine and no wheels. Despite the importance of driving the strategy and goals deeper into the organization, the messages as to how the strategy relates to execution typically become unclear and confusing the further down they go.

Passing goals down without creating meaning causes frustration…

The responsibility for creating clarity around what the strategy means at the business unit, team and individual levels, and for ensuring that the strategy is executed is a shared management responsibility.

There are many dynamics within fast paced changing organizations that contribute to the lack of alignment. However, the biggest obstacle appears to be “a lack of understanding.” Why is this? Repeating the company strategy is easy enough, but without translating strategy into relatable actions with those who are expected to execute at every level of the organization, has limited impact. When managers involve people and teams they lead in these discussions, SMART goals can be written that connect everyone’s contributions to the strategy. It also improves sustained commitment through the ability to measure ongoing results.

Planning backwards focuses on results…

Managers can facilitate the process by asking three questions:

  1. How does the strategy affect our unit?
  2. What must we accomplish?
  3. How will we accomplish it?

Through this process a shared language and framework for how to think and talk about alignment occurs among the team/department enabling them to match their behavior to a set of commonly understood goals and actions. To create focus on the truly critical goals to your team and the company, apply the following questions as a litmus test to each of the existing goals: 

  • What is its economic impact? – How will this goal contribute to company performance?
  • Is it aligned with the company’s strategy?
  • How will it satisfy stakeholders?
  • What is my level of passion, talent, and energy for it?
  • Do we have the resources? 

If people in the organization don’t understand how the company is supposed to be different and what opportunities they are to pursue, how can they make the tough choices that they have to make every day? (Porter, 1980)

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DON’T Use Business Metrics…At Your Own Peril

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They say what you don’t know won’t hurt you, but nothing could be further from the truth when you run a small business. If you operate based on “gut instinct,” or you make assumptions on how your business is performing without knowing the facts, you can run into problems quickly. Fortunately, there is a simple solution. By monitoring a few key business metrics, you can quickly gain a handle on your business and start on the path to improving your profitability.

Business Metrics
Business metrics, or measurements of business activity, have long been seen as the exclusive tool of the pure number cruncher, the bookkeeper, and the statistician. That’s no longer the case. In today’s increasingly flooded marketplace, the mantra must be: “You can’t manage it if you can’t measure it.” By defining the metrics that are important to your business and monitoring them closely, you gain three key benefits:

– Focus. Defining the metrics that are most important to your business allows you to tune out everything that isn’t related to those key measurements. As a result, you’ll find that you and your business are much more efficient.

– Better Vision. Companies that monitor metrics can spot threats and opportunities faster than companies that don’t. Your metrics will give you keen insights into what’s happening within the four walls of your business as well as overall trends in your industry.

– Better Decisions. Metrics provide a framework for making business decisions. With the numbers in black and white, you can make well-reasoned decisions on how to proceed. If it improves your key metrics, consider it. If not, move on.

Implementing Metrics
Getting started with metrics is easier than you might think. Many small business owners don’t understand how simple it can be to collect and analyze these important numbers. A simple seven-step process gets you started.
1. Define Your Goals. Make a list of business goals. Goals might include sales objectives, target profit margins, or success at signing up new customers.
2. Define the Metrics. For each business goal on your list, write down a metric that will help you track your progress to success. For example, if your goal is signing up new customers, your metric might involve stating the number of meetings you will have per week with perspective customers.
3. Benchmark Current Status. Now that you established your metrics, you need to measure them. You must determine exactly how your business is doing, even if the truth is hard to swallow. By establishing the current value of each metric, you will be able to track your improvements in the future.
4. Put in Place a System to Monitor and Report Metrics. You may need to add new business processes that will help you calculate and report your metrics. For example, is the number of your customers who view your customer service as being “excellent,” then you may want to survey your customers every month and ask them how you are doing.
5. Communicate Metrics with Employees. Once you’ve defined the key metrics that are important to your business, be sure to let your staff know. Then, everyone can make decisions that help improve the metrics.
6. Review the Metrics and Make Decisions. With your metrics in place, you have greater insight into which strategies work and which don’t. Review the metrics and take steps to improve your results.
7. Promote Successes. When your metrics improve, let your staff know and reward everybody that helped make things better.

Effective use of business metrics can have a profound impact on your business. As you gain a better understanding of your business and move closer to achieving important goals, your day-to-day work will become easier and your staff will be more accountable to the metrics that matter. You’ll make better decisions, based on data, and you will have a powerful new tool for managing your business.

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Using THIS Four-Letter Word Can Help You Get More Sales

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Do you remember the last time you went to a dealership to buy a car?  Over the years, my experience never varies.   I pull up at the dealership, and a sales person literally runs over to my car and tackles me before I can even get out of the front door.   The sales person’s first question?   You guessed it:   “What would it take to have you drive home in this new car today?”

In sales, we call that type of question a “closing question.”  Any good sales person (or any good attorney for that matter!) will tell you that you shouldn’t ask a closing question until you are sure that the answer will be “Yes!”  And, to get to a “yes” answer to the question of whether your client wants to buy whatever you are selling, you need to first determine what that client needs and wants.

I once heard a statistic that less than 20% of all sales people actually take the time to ask questions of their prospects before asking for the sale – before asking that closing question.  So, if you are in sales, keep reading.   Today, we’ll share with you a simple formula for asking great questions that will put you in the 20% of sales people who take the time to understand their prospect’s needs and wants as a part of the sales process.   That formula is a four-letter word:   GRCO.

(OK, so it’s not really a word, but actually an acronym, but it’s a terrific mnemonic aide to help you remember this  formula for asking questions.)

Let’s set the context for a typical sales call or meeting.   You would first build some rapport and trust with your prospect. This might include a warm welcome, some opening questions about them or their business, good eye contact, and other such techniques to establish a productive relationship at the beginning of a sales engagement.   Once you have established some trust, your next step is to ask the GRCO questions.   Let’s take them one at a time:

G stands for “Goal” Questions.   When talking with your client, start by asking them some questions about what matters most to them.  What are they trying to accomplish?  What are the important measures for the business this year?  What will make them consider the year a success?   What do they personally want to accomplish in X time?  Goal questions allow your client to talk about their envisioned future, about what they really need and want, and allow you to laser-focus on what is most important to them.

R stands for “Rewards” Questions.   Now that you know the goals, ask your prospect questions that tell you more about what is in it for them when they achieve those goals.  Good questions to ask include, “What is the benefit of achieving that goal?” or “What will be different when you achieve X?”  Rewards questions give you a sense of the value of the goals, which can often tell you a lot about how much the client may need your help to meet that goal.

C stands for “Consequences” Questions.  These are the reverse of rewards questions.  What will happen if X is not reached?  If the client/business can’t achieve whatever the goal is, how will that impact the business?  What is the downside of not achieving the goal?  Many people say that most sales happen in order to avoid a problem, rather than in order to achieve a particular target.   Understanding the consequences for your client is critical to your ability to then map your solution to their needs.

Last, O stands for “Obstacles” Questions.   What would keep the client/business from achieving the goal?  What is standing in the way of success?    What challenges are they running into?   These questions are very powerful tools in your sales arsenal, since they often point to problems that the client cannot overcome themselves.  That’s why they need you!  If you can identify internal challenges and obstacles, and whatever you are selling can help them get past those issues, then your ability to sell just got easier.

Armed with the answers to these important GRCO questions, you are now ready to show how your product or service is perfectly positioned to help the client achieve the goals, overcome the obstacles, achieve the rewards and avoid the consequences related to that goal.   The next time you walk into a sales call, take a minute to write the acronym GRCO at the top of your note pad.   If needed, draft some GRCO questions in advance so that you can use them with your prospect.   Then methodically ask these four types of questions and let the client tell you exactly what they need to be successful.   If your solution aligns to the GRCO answers, you are then ready to ask your closing question – and get a “Yes” response. 

Good luck!   Let me know how it works for you – I’m always interested in hearing about your experiences.  

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Argh! Do I have to go to another meeting today?

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Which of these situations has happened to you?

  • In your last meeting, did you walk out without a clear idea of what you were supposed to do?
  • Have you looked around a meeting and wondered why all those people were invited?
  • Have you calculated how much money your organization is “spending” waiting for meetings to start?

We all know that business can’t operate without meetings – meetings to plan, meetings for updates, meetings to keep communication lines open.   However, effectively-run meetings are often hard to find in the workplace.  A survey by Hofstra University projected that over $40 billion is wasted on mismanaged meetings every year.   Since there are between 11 million and 33 million meetings conducted in the United States every day, the business of meetings is critical to everyone’s continued success.

As a result of discussions with a cross-section of employees and organizations, we’ve put together a Top Five list of tips for effective meetings. 

Tip #1:  Communicate the goal and the agenda for the meeting.  Publicize that goal when you schedule the meeting, and then evaluate every topic against that goal – if the discussion doesn’t support the goal, then it shouldn’t be in the agenda.   At Intel Corporation, they keep a poster in every meeting room that says “Do you know the purpose of this meeting?”  How many meetings actually include a firm agenda that is published in advance to all the attendees?  An agenda should clearly state the topics, an approximate length for discussion, the “owner” of each topic, and action steps for each topic. 

Tip #2:  Identify the meeting participants.  Recent research shows that after the first seven participants, every additional person lowers the productivity of the group in a meeting.   Wow!  Consider your own meetings – how many do you go to that have more than seven participants?  Consider who really needs to attend based on the agenda.  Also, remember that the more people invited to the meeting, the longer the meeting will take.

Tip #3:  Establish the ground rules for the meeting.  Some typical items to include in the ground rules are when agendas are due to participants, the use of technology in a meeting, and start and end times.  Designate a time keeper who is not the meeting organizer.  One of the biggest time wasters is meetings that don’t start and end on time – wouldn’t you agree? 

Tip #4:  Use a Parking Lot.   A Parking Lot is a place to put topics that fall outside the meeting agenda – or that should be postponed for later.   Some meeting organizers use visual Parking Lots – such as a piece of large paper posted on the wall where ideas can be posted during meetings so they don’t get lost.  Some meeting organizers simply record parking lot ideas on a pad of paper – or assign someone to capture them and send the list out for inclusion in future meeting agendas.  The disciplined use of a “parking lot” will keep your meetings on track and on agenda.

Tip #5:  Set Clear Action Items.  Establish what is next, how will it be done, who is responsible, and deadline details before you leave the meeting.   How do you hold people accountable in your meetings?  Even if you are not the meeting organizer, you can still push for accountability – remind the host to set clear next steps and timelines.

Bonus Tip:  Evaluate Your Meetings.   Periodically, take the time to review the regular meetings in your organization.  Do they all still have a clear purpose?  Are they the right length?   Are the right people attending?  What needs to change in order to make your meetings more effective?

As a final thought, consider this quote from Patrick Lencioni’s book, Death by Meeting, “Most executives I know spend hours sending email, leaving voice mail, and roaming the halls to clarify issues that should have been made clear during a meeting in the first place … I have no doubt that sneaker time is the most subtle, dangerous, and underestimated black hole in corporate America.” 

What is your biggest meeting challenge?  We want to hear from you.  Write to us and share your stories and your ideas.   And if you want to dive deeper into this topic – and especially how to make your meetings more effective even when you are not in charge of them, email us at mgoldman@pb-coach.com.

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Moments of Truth In The Customer Experience

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Nancy complains, “Why can’t they get their act together? This is so frustrating. The first person I talked to wasn’t even nice. The second person was much nicer but couldn’t make a decision. I got sent to a technician and got lost in their phone system. It turns out they don’t have the fix I need. Then when I try to return what I bought, it sounds like the person in accounting doesn’t even know what to do to give me a credit.”

Has this ever happened to you? Not a pleasant customer experience.

Each organization’s moments of truth are when it touches each customer. Is the customer experience delightful, positive and successful? The whole point of all the company’s strategizing, structuring, systematizing, training, employment practices, service/product creation and testing, marketing and sales efforts, is to get that customer to buy and to buy multiple times. Most of us have heard that it takes 5 times as much money to get a new customer as a repeat customer. Also, we’ve heard that raising customer loyalty by 5% can increase profitability from 25-100%. So creating that positive customer experience (first time and every time) is the focus of everything we do when we build a business. Whether or not we’re thinking about ‘total customer experience,’ the customer is always thinking:  Do I like this? Will I stay? Will I come back? Is the product/service good? Is it worth the hassle if other parts of the experience are not good?  Will I tell other people about my good/bad experience?

So if your organization’s total efforts are not leading to good customer experiences, you are missing the boat and leaving money on the table.

What goes into the Total Customer Experience?

Let’s look at Nancy’s complaint and the ‘moments of truth’ that are revealed. What does it mean ‘to get their act together?’

Emotional Connection – The first person wasn’t even nice. People buy from people they know, like and trust. If someone isn’t personable, caring and relating to Nancy as a unique human being, your company isn’t even getting to first base.

Empowered Decision Making – Too bad Nancy had to get passed around.  It’s frustrating to get passed from person to person until there is finally someone who has any authority.. Companies who are recognized for their superior customer experiences empower the person who answers the phone to make most decisions. In order to make this happen, they recruit wisely and invest in developing their people to make good decisions, to buy into the company’s values and vision, to understand the customer’s needs, to gather feedback. 

Infrastructure – The phone system, the staff’s capabilities using phone and technology, availability of information about each customer (customer relationship management), knowledge database,  technology to track trouble tickets or complaints. This kind of infrastructure allows caring staff to do a better job with the resources they need. It allows for quicker troubleshooting and availability of information on a broader basis for more empowered decision making. It would have allowed Nancy to find out sooner rather than later that ‘the fix’ she needed wasn’t available. But even better it would collect information about how many customers were having the same issue so the company could create ‘the fix’ sooner and take the issue off the table.

Systems – If the accounting team had a documented system for handling returns and credits, and each person was trained in it, then Nancy would not have had such a terrible experience. In fact, if the processes were really systematized and the right infrastructure was in place, the initial person who took the call could have handled it himself.

These are just a few of the things that companies who manage the total customer experience look at. Of course, it all starts with leadership. Leaders who get their heads out of the sand and recognize the importance of the customer experience want to infuse attention to the customer experience as they do strategic planning, diagram the organizational structure, create systems and processes in all departments, design their internal reward and recognition structures, and recruit, develop and empower their personnel. That’s what Nancy’s comment about ‘getting their act together’ is really all about.

If you have a story about a really great customer experience, please share it here along with your thoughts about the components that came together to create the delightful experience you had. Thanks for sharing.

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The Golden Rule Doesn’t Work!

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Do you adhere to the adage that all employees should be treated equally? If so, your team will never achieve their true potential, and never be truly happy in their work.
 
I’ve just made a short video that will change your perpective on your long held beliefs about the Golden Rule.
In this video, you’ll learn  
  • Why the Golden Rule doesn’t work
  • What you need to know to motivate your yourself and your team
  • The principle of “acceptance” and the platinum rule
 
Be sure to watch the video right now. Just click here or on the image below). It’ll only take you about 2 minutes and it will dramatically improve your business and your life.
 
After you watch the video, be sure to check out the tools (coaching and products) I have available to help you take the next step.
 
Break through and make it happen!
 
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Keep Your Motivation Engine Running

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I was running late for an appointment last week and jumped into my car and turned the key .The nice smooth sound of ignition I was so used to hearing was replaced by the horrible grinding sound of an engine just about to turnover. I kept turning the key thinking that by some miracle it would stop the grinding noise and just start. Instead it drained what was left in the battery and silence followed. I was dead in the water.

How many times have you found yourself ready to go but unable to move? You lack the spark and or energy to move forward. Where did it go? You might have started out on your goal, journey or project with plenty of good intentions but for whatever reason it dissipated or just stopped. As a student of human behavior and a Business Coach I am brutally aware of the difficulty of keeping ourselves motivated to get to where we want to go. The traditional motivation methods most of us have experienced are motivation by incentive or fear. The boss tries to scare you into action by threats that range from firing to demotion. The next day in a change of heart the boss offers you the promise of bonuses, promotion or equity if you achieve the goal. Clearly both can have an impact, and often do, but the results are usually short term at best. Threats lose their veracity if they are never acted on. Incentives are only effective if you believe the goal is achievable but lose their long term impact once achieved. Neither approach has a long lasting motivational impact.  So what is one to do if you want to change or achieve a difficult goal but can’t seem to stay motivated to do what is necessary to get to your destination?

I believe part of the answer is in finding what sparks us or excites us. If you can discover what you are passionate about and harness that passion you can access an unlimited battery of inspiration energy to keep you motivated and moving forward. Discovering your passion can be difficult since most of us have followed the career scripts provided to us by well meaning parents, educators and society.  A simple way to start would be to list all the activities you do in your present job that you enjoy doing and are good at. The next step would be to ask your peers, friends, clients and family what they think your greatest strengths are.  You should get some clarity on what you are passionate about and what truly motivates you. Finally, a good book that gives some insight to the power of connecting your passion to business is “Crush It!” by Gary Vaynerchuk

Aligning your passion with the behaviors necessary to convert that passion into results assures you a consistent spark that will keep your motor running!

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Creating a Culture That Drives Personal Innovation

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This blog post was written by Tammy Kohl of Resource Associates Corporation

Improvement is evolutionary where innovation is revolutionary. “Innovation is about creating breakaway differentiation, it’s about creating superior economic returns and it’s about creating what author Geoffrey Moore describes, as ‘an outcome competitors are either unable or unwilling to match’.” (Peter Lefler founder of The Spruance Group)

In order for a company to achieve innovative ideas the company needs to foster a culture of personal innovation. Every employee, team member, or contributor within your organization can enable innovation. They are living every process, talking with every customer, working on every production line, so they know very clearly what works well and what does not work. And, if asked they can tell the organization how it can be done better! The question becomes what process does your management team have in place to ask your employees what they believe the organization can do better?

Innovative opportunities are constantly squelched by poor organizational goal definition, poor alignment of actions to goals, poor participation in teams, poor monitoring of results, and poor communication as well as access to information. Help your people be part of the solution and contribute to a higher level of organizational success.

In a recent project with an insurance company, a cross functional team was brought together to evaluate, rework and present a low cost, no cost solution to shorten their policy approval process which was currently 13 days. They knew the industry average was 12 days. The team worked together for five days. By Friday afternoon the team was presenting to management a no-cost, reworked process taking the existing process of 13 days down to three days. Once the team was given the objectives they went to work and as a team saved the organization 10 days and a significant amount of money. They did not just present improvement … they innovated the process.

Allowing your employees to contribute means they are participating and taking responsibility for accomplishing goals. It’s important for each team member to have a clear understanding of his/her part in helping the team accomplish its goals. Utilizing employees with different strengths creates high performing and innovative teams. The key to employee contribution and innovation is in creating a culture in which people are encouraged to challenge, question, and try new things.

Creating an innovative culture is not a switch that can be flipped overnight. There may be resistance at first because changing a culture is never easy. However, in this case the change and the results are worth it. Communicate the organization’s goal and objectives and communicate the details of those goals frequently. Put a process in place that offers a safe way for employees to share ideas for improvement and innovation and always provide feedback. Establish cross-functional teams to evaluate important business processes and listen intently to what they have to say. If management stays committed to the cultural change, you will see the insecurity and resistance dissipate fostering some of the best innovate and revolutionary ideas your company may ever have seen.

Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in helping businesses achieve sustainable results through management consulting, strategic planning, leadership development, executive coaching and youth leadership. For information on creating a leadership succession plan visit www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.