Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger, Adam Weber, Co-Founder and VP of Sales for Emplify. We hope you enjoy Adam’s wisdom and perspective.

Over the years, I’ve talked with hundreds of executives and people leaders about employee engagement, company culture, and leadership. Based on those conversations, it’s become clear to me that there are two very distinct types of leaders...let’s think of them as the old school executive and the modern leader.

The biggest difference between the old school executive and the modern leader is how they view their employees and their expectations for their workforce. Here are two statements to illustrate these very different mindsets:

Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the “purest manifestations of business excellence” according to business guru Tom Peters. “I love SMEs. They create the jobs and are responsible for most of the innovation in our country.”

It’s true. Small businesses, those with less than 500 employees, account for roughly half of private-sector employment. And since the Great Recession, SMEs have accounted for 67% of the net new jobs in the US.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger, Steve Husk, Owner of Circle Health Partners, Inc. We hope you enjoy Steve’s wisdom and perspective.

I recently relayed a story to a dear friend at Gibson about my earliest days managing a department for a large, local insurance company beginning in 1983. I shared that I had figured out how important it was to manage by walking around…little did I know that a similar term had been coined around the same time in the 1980s and recently shared in this blog. I am excited to know it’s not just me. Some very smart authors independently discovered what I did—that you must see it for yourself and poke around to get a complete picture of what is going on in your operation.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger, Ken DeWitt, business coach and Certified EOS Implementer. We hope you enjoy Ken’s wisdom and perspective.

Years ago, I bought my dream car: a three-year-old 1984 BMW 528e. Suddenly, I started noticing other BMWs just like mine on the road everywhere.

Psychologists tell us that this is the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, otherwise known as frequency illusion or recency illusion. This occurs when the thing you've just noticed, experienced, or been told about, suddenly seems to crop up constantly.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger, Bethany Hartley, Director of Diversity & Inclusion at South Bend - Elkhart Regional Partnership. We hope you enjoy Bethany’s wisdom and perspective.

“By experience we find out a short way by a long wandering.” ~ Roger Ascham

Author Tom Peters and his partner Bob Waterman first coined the term MBWA, or Managing By Wandering Around, in the 1980s after visiting Hewlett Packard as part of their research for In Search of Excellence. They noticed that the most successful organizations had leaders who spent a great deal of their time engaging with their teams. By being out in the field or on the factory floor they were closer to the action while building personal relationships with their people. This allowed for better and more efficient problem solving.

Nowadays with company workforces, business units, and even teams spread around the country, literally “wandering around” may not seem as practical. Yet MBWA is really a metaphor for being in touch with your employees, your partners, and your clients. “It’s the discipline of getting out of your office and getting close to where the work is really done,” says Peters.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger, Sue Hawkes, Certified EOS Implementer, Certified Coach, Keynote Speaker, and Best-Selling Author. We hope you enjoy Sue’s wisdom and perspective.

Imagine driving on a highway you’ve never been on before. Preferably you’re driving a convertible and the views are breathtaking. In this scenario, it’s unlikely you’ll notice the guardrails. However, the guardrails are almost invisibly keeping you on track, guiding you safely and efficiently to your desired destination. In your business, your Core Focus™️ functions the same way.

Your company is the vehicle and your Core Focus is the guardrail for your journey; keeping you moving forward, allowing you to focus on what you do best.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger, John DiJulius, Chief Revolution Officer & President of The DiJulius Group. We hope you enjoy John’s wisdom and perspective.

I recently was in Las Vegas to speak to a homebuilders association. The night before at the reception, my host was introducing me to their members as the keynote speaker for the next day. One of the members asked me what my topic was. When I told her it was Customer Service, she responded with, “I need to hear it, because my customers make me crazy.” She went on to give me an example, “One woman was building a 1.5-million-dollar house and you wouldn’t believe how she was losing her mind over the caulk. It is caulk!”

I found this story funny. It is the same story in every industry. Employees are not trained correctly to see things from the customer’s viewpoint. What they are struggling with, their fears and concerns. It is never about the caulk or the shipment being late. Those are just the tipping points to why someone may become irrational.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger, Erik Johnson, Principal at J2 Marketing. We hope you enjoy Erik’s wisdom and perspective.

Businesses start making brand decisions before they gain a single customer. When you plan the interior vibe of your restaurant, you’re making brand decisions. When you choose a logo, you’re making a brand decision. Even the typefaces you use are part of your brand.

There are two pitfalls we’ve seen a lot of businesses run into before they come to us.

1. New businesses often make brand decisions without finalizing their brand.
2. Businesses that have been around a while don’t have established brand standards and overtime, get off track.

In both cases, business owners, brand implementers (like employees, printers, or designers), and potential customers get confused.

A recent article by forbes.com claims that “Consistent brand presentation across all platforms increases revenue by up to 23 percent.”

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger, Steve Gawronski, Founding Partner at Lachesis LLC. We hope you enjoy Steve’s wisdom and perspective.

Earlier this year, the founder of Southwest Airlines, Herb Kelleher, passed away. Mr. Kelleher openly dismissed business strategy, often uttering his famous, sarcastic quote when questioned about Southwest’s strategy: “We have a strategic plan. It is called doing things.” Reading of his passing made me think of some recent conversations I have had with our clients about strategy, operations, and data analytics.

There seems to be an undercurrent of thinking that strategy is one thing and operational excellence is another. Our clients are very much focused on operations, as they should be. They see great merit in getting things done and driving initiatives towards completion. And this is all good and necessary and admirable. But in fact, strategy and operations are so closely interwoven that, in a well-run company, one does not exist without the other. There is no better example of this than Mr. Kelleher’s own Southwest Airlines.