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Here is a timely message from my friend John Ratliff that really tees up our workshop on Friday. I thank John for letting me share his spot on thoughts.

I love talking about employee culture, and really enjoy dispelling a lot of the myths that surround how to create a great culture.

One of the biggest is “I’ve got to get my people more motivated.”  You hear it all the time. I always imagine the same visual when I hear that quote - an overzealous manager trying to be “rah rah!” and give a great speech and high fives. All while the employees are rolling their eyes behind the scenes.

Here is the dirty little secret…

A cornerstone of scaling up is having a solid team in place. It can be difficult for an executive to relinquish some duties and delegate. Still, it just makes better business sense to pass on lower-level tasks because their time is valuable, sometimes even priceless. Like a child suffering growing pains associated with a rapidly developing body, so too can businesses and stakeholders suffer a bit in the process of scaling up.

Once you’ve determined the division of labor and defined job roles, set priorities, it’s time to hire your dream team. 

1. Well-defined job descriptions. In this instance, less is not

One of the very first things I do when coaching business owners and executives is to identify the organization’s core values. As a major part of the Scaling Up method, the concept of core values is pretty straightforward. Basically, core values are a handful of rules and guidelines defining the culture of the business DNA. These rules are reinforced every day by each employee of the business. This includes the leaders of the organization to the newly hired administrative or support staff. Failure to identify and adopt core values can have several serious negative consequences for your business. One such consequence, that we will discuss in more detail is having a cancel culture as opposed to a vibrant culture.

As a Scaling Up coach, I focus on the 4 pillars – people, strategy, execution, and cash. It is no surprise to me that people is the first pillar. Why, because businesses are comprised of people, and people make it all happen. As Patrick Lencioni says in his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, “Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare.” As a huge fan of Lencioni, I agree wi

I previously wrote a blog discussing the Four Pillars necessary for businesses to succeed and grow. This blog focuses on one of those essential decisions – People Decisions. After all, organizations are built and run by people. Before worrying about having the best product or service, you need to make sure you have the right people for the job. When you have the right people in the right roles doing the right thing, execution is 80-90% solved.

When assessing