Start with the recognition that your business culture is what shapes everyone’s behavior. And everyone’s habits and behaviors are what produce the results. So, if you’re not getting the results you need, you need to tune up the culture of your business.

Either you manage your culture, or it manages you!

Working to produce success in a business where the culture is working against you, is very hard work, stressful, and frustrating. There is one thing that you need to transfer to your key staff and managers. It’s the one thing that will give them the training and experiences they need to think and act like an owner. It’s the one thing that gives most employees a great deal of satisfaction and reward, and it’s the one thing that most owners and managers withhold.

It’s the opportunity to solve problems and breakdowns–if the opportunity is offered in the right context.

Counter Intuitive Management: The Fastest Way to A Successful Business is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

It starts with a Culture of Accountability, Accountability at every level of the business. The real power in Accountability is what each person speaks for, what they give voice to.

Many people confuse this with a less powerful form of management where the speaking is done for someone, or work is assigned without the opportunity to choose, nor to speak up and report on results. When you take away someone’s voice, you cripple their productivity, which also impacts their personal job satisfaction. Bringing key employees and managers together to report on results is the most powerful management tool you can employ.

The Right Context for Business Success is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

Because if your daily problems and challenges are offered in the right context, they become the best tool you have to building leadership under you. Becoming masterful at anything requires practice.

The practice of solving problems in a team environment builds leadership skills. Key employees and senior managers need the practice of shouldering the weight of these challenges until they have the competence and confidence to handle anything that comes at them.

Why Daily Problems and Challenges Are NOT a Bad Thing is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

With even just a little Acknowledgment, you can accomplish so much like:
Praise – as in bringing attention to a job well done.
Educate – using a job well done to set a standard for everyone.
Empower – putting attention on someone for something specifically well done.

And the best thing is, if makes you feel good, it makes others feel great,
it makes productivity go up, and…it costs you nothing.

So come on, don’t be a k’vetch. Go find someone to acknowledge right now.

The 2nd Most Powerful Management Tool You Have is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

Building leadership under you…
Are you effectively leveraging this for the highest productivity in your business?

• It gives your employees what they want most — the ability to solve problems for you, the doing of which on a daily weekly basis accomplishes several things.
• It gives them the experience needed to think like an owner, (this is critically important).
• It gives them the challenges they seek for personal job satisfaction.
• And it takes things off your plate, making your day-to-day less busy and stressful.

Many owners feel they don’t have time to invest in this, but the truth is, you really can’t afford not to.

The Most Powerful Management Tool You Have is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

It takes courage, almost always involves some risk, and there’s almost always something you have to give up. Like being comfortable, or waiting for someone else to get it done. Or the notion that you don’t have what it takes, or you’re not the right person.

Here is a good rule of thumb: If you can see something missing, if in your view there is something amiss, if you have the ability to see that there is a problem somewhere, then you have the opportunity to do something about it. Go for it. That rare commodity we call leadership actually lives in all of us.

Some quotes from a great woman…

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

“Never depend upon institutions or government to solve any problem. All social movements are founded by, guided by, motivated and seen through by the passion of individuals.”

“We are continually faced with great opportunities which are brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems.”

— Margaret Mead

You Make a Difference is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

No business owner would plan to sabotage business by inspiring fear with employees. Not intentionally, at least. But often, due to the financial stress of months where business is slow, owners and managers pass on information that de-motivates employees at a time when you most need their best effort. Although it may seem normal to complain about typical business problems, it can have an adverse effect on employees who may take it personally.

Fear is not a good motivator. Scared employees work less effectively. Fear has a very short shelf life, and can lead to resentment and resistance. Fear impedes real thinking, innovation, challenge, and risk taking. Replaced with avoiding responsibility, CYA, and doing the minimal amount.

Instead, talk about what’s working and what you would like to see more of. Acknowledge each person for their best efforts and you will get more of that.

Fear Based Management is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

Most people are probably thinking about the landmark achievements they will accomplish this year, and while that’s a good and necessary thing, it’s not what I see making the biggest difference in successful companies.

It’s all the little things. How the owners and senior managers relate and interact with other employees a hundred times a day, and how those employees in turn interact with customers.

Small acts of kindness demonstrating respect, acknowledgement, appreciation, and a genuine concern only happen consistently when its backed up by owners and senior managers who walk their talk. Only then do more functional behaviors become embedded in the culture.

While the landmark goals and achievements are important, remember it’s the attitudes and behaviors of whatever is there in your business culture that’s driving execution.

While You’re Planning Your Year… is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

There is a whole range of responses you can get when asking another for a commitment. I am not speaking about what they say, I am speaking about the mood in which the commitment is delivered, but you have to listen for that.

Moods and Attitudes can vary from very low on the scale as in annoyance or obligation, or lower, all the way up to challenge, adventure, and empowerment.

To have powerful commitments that you can count on, you need to listen for what’s driving that promise behind the words you want to hear. The most powerful commitments are when there is no gap between the speaker, the speaker’s promise, and their actions. Their experience is one of “I am that I will…”, and you know they will do everything in their power to fulfill that.

What’s driving that Commitment or Promise? is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

When we say “Management”, what exactly are we talking about?
What is Management, if not intervention in some event about to go south?
In that moment, when circumstances argue that the job is not going to get done, how you intervene defines you and your style of management, of which there are many.

The most effective intervention I know is to be very clear on the outcome needed, not the process, not what they need to do, just the outcome. Make the most challenging, but doable, request to the responsible person, and listen for their commitment. It’s all about the quality of their commitment!

“Management,” “Business as Usual” and “Defining Moments” is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates