I read a good book over the holiday titled “Why Leaders Fail”. It was a short book, but covered the 7 primary reasons that most leaders fail. I thought I would focus on and share the #1 reason with you today. Here it is – pay close attention!

As we start this new year, it is important to get off to a fast start and set the tone for our new year ahead. On this episode I want to inspire you with a powerful quote and ask you a very important and powerful centering question. Are you ready to ride hard? Let’s go!

It’s near the end of another year. While I know we want to “finish strong” we also want to finish on a “high note”! And no better way to do that than to take time to celebrate your wins this year with your team! Don’t overlook this important activity. It matters to those who have worked hard all year long to make you successful. Here are a few ideas.

Far too many business owners NEVER get their plan out of their head and on to paper! But statistics show that 85% of the worlds wealth resides with those who have written plans. So let’s not try to beat the odds. Let’s get on the bandwagon and get our plan out of our head and on to paper! This week’s episode is designed to help you do just that!

The biggest and best breakthroughs in business come when you take time to get away from the day to day of your business to think deeply about new ideas and new strategies for improvement. That’s what this week’s episode is all about – thinking about what is possible if you thought differently about your customer experience. It’s time to transform how you think about your customers. Dive in – your business will never be the same!

Far too many business owners burn too much time and too many calories talking about, worrying about and complaining about their poorest performing team members. But what if you used that time to focus on the big challenges you are facing in your business that could truly make your business significantly bigger, better and more profitable? This episode is designed to encourage you to do just that!

We’ve covered 40 weeks of specific topics to improve your business. We’ve address each component of your bike (of your business) over these past 40 weeks. So what have you done with this? Have you made any changes? What If you took this seriously and made the changes you KNOW you need to make in your business? This week, I am challenging you to do just that!

The icing on the cake in this section of Financials and Metrics is the creation of a Business Dashboard. Having a visible dashboard to display the trends in your financial metrics and your KPI’s is critical to growing fast in business today. Without ready access to the data, graphs and trends, it is difficult to make good decisions. This episode focuses on how to create a business dashboard that allows you to go FAST!

If you’re running a business, it’s important to know what measures will help you predict future success. Most financial metrics are like looking in the rear view mirror. They show you what has happened in the past. But you need to look FORWARD using Key Performance Indicators. This episode focuses on the 4 critical areas of your business that must have KPI’s.

The idea of measurement can be overwhelming. Unless you take time to FOCUS your measurements on the things that matter most! This week’s episode is all about determining the specific financial metrics that you should focus your measurement efforts on. Get these right, and your business will be financially successful.

Far too often business owners are running their business without access to the brakes necessary to control the speed of the wheels. The brakes of a business are the financial controls. Without them, a business can roll out of control and may crash. We don’t want that to happen, so this week’s episode is all about helping you gain control by using your financial controls, your brakes.

Keeping score in business is not only powerful, but they are essential if you want and expect to WIN! But many business owners seem to avoid using their business financials and business metrics to make critical decisions. This week, we are introducing this new topic for discussion and we will be diving in over the next few weeks. Here we go!

It is far easier to KEEP a customer than it is to FIND and new one! We need to remember that and make sure we are doing everything possible to show our current customers how much we appreciate them. This week’s episode will give you some ideas you can use to make sure they know you love them!

Businesses that excel in the area of customer service and customer engagement have done it by setting clear and deliberate STANDARDS on how their team members will engage with their customers. That’s what we want to address today. This episode is focused on helping you think through the critical questions related to setting our Customer Relationship Standards.

Customer feedback is critical for businesses today. Obviously, we all want glowing feedback from our customers, and we want to avoid negative feedback, but far too many times, there is NO feedback from customers – which makes your prospects wonder how good your products or services really are. In this episode we are going to discuss ways for you to engage and get solid, helpful feedback from your customers on a regular basis.

Today we move to a new topic – your Race Fans. In business, we call these our Customers or Clients. But they are truly our race fans – those who cheer us on as we race to win in business. In this episode I will challenge you to think differently and deeply about the relationship you have with your customers. THIS is a game-changer!

If you want to truly drive your team engagement higher, you need to intentionally become the “chief enthusiasm officer” of your business. This week’s episode is all about helping you systematically recognize great performance and regularly celebrate with your team.

Performance Feedback

Team Engagement is arguably the most pressing and urgent issue facing business owners today. Without a high level of team engagement, a business owner will be frustrated, exhausted and ready to throw in the towel! Don’t let that happen to you! This week’s episode will inspire you to take action now to get your team fully engaged!

Many suggest that compensation and benefits do not lead to employee satisfaction – and I would agree with that. But these decisions DO have a significant impact on the culture and motivation of your team. This is a tricky area and as a small business owner, it is important to get it right! This week we will cover some ideas worth considering.

Most everything in your business hinges on your ability to hire and train the right people for your business. It’s a critical competency for any business, especially a small business. This episode addresses the challenges with the typical approach to hiring and lays out a better way to think about and execute your hiring process.

Many experts would suggest that the most important aspect of any business is the Culture they expect, demand and protect. It is the culture that can most easily set your business apart form your competition and position your business to deliver exceptional service and support to your customers. This week’s episode is all about defining and protecting your purposeful culture.

Over the next several weeks we’re going to talk about the fundamental elements of building a Winning Team. This is critically important for the success of your business. Today we’re going to give you the overview, then we will dive into the individual elements starting next week.

In the spirit of continuous improvement, you should ALWAYS be getting better at serving your customers. So how will you know that you are improving in this area unless you are regularly and consistently MEASURING your results? This week’s episode is focused on helping you define and construct your method for measuring your results.