In this episode Tom’s guest is Chris Smith. Tom and Chris discuss the four types of questions that are eating your time away.
The Four Types of Questions
I bet you are asked questions all the time I bet you are asked questions all the time, from everyone, about many different topics. The sheer volume of questions is keeping you “busy” (which, by the way, is the worst four letter word on the planet). When you hear these questions coming your way it’s tempting to simply answer them ...
Episode 104: Managing and Hiring “A” Players
In this episode Tom’s guest is Chris Smith. Tom and Chris discuss the managing and hiring of “A” players for your company.
Managing & Hiring A-Players
Years ago I was invited to sit in on a Vistage coaching session with a group of fellow CEO’s. The guest Speaker was Eric Herrenkohl and he discussed his book How to Hire A-Players. Eric taught the group a simple method to create a list of traits that could be used for a given position to help ensure you found ...
Episode 98: Use Meeting Agendas
In this episode Tom’s guest is Chris Smith. Tom and Chris discuss the value and importance using meeting agendas to make your meetings more productive.
Use Meeting Agendas
Meetings can be problematic: too many, not enough, too long, too short, no takeaways, no agendas. If we start with a simple agenda for each meeting we can make sure we stay on track and efficient. Here are a few ideas to help craft an effective agenda. We’ll focus on a “one-on-one” agenda in this example but you would use ...
Episode 92: Am I Overstaffed?
In this episode Tom’s guest is Chris Smith. Tom and Chris discuss the strategies and tactics to keep payroll in line with profitability.
Am I Overstaffed?
We would all like to run profitable businesses. The largest expense for a business are its people. If we have too many of them compared to our sales volume we can quickly tank profitability. Fortunately there are a few easy things to take a look at to determine if we are overstaffed (or underselling). Once we understand where we are ...
Episode 86: Creating A Training Matrix
In this episode Tom’s guest is Chris Smith. Tom and Chris discuss the training matrix as a way of improving employee performance, self confidence, and advancement.
Creating a Training Matrix
Integrators have technicians of varying skill levels. From integrator to integrator those technicians are completely different in terms of their given skills, certifications, titles, pay scales, etc. Even within an integrator there is usually no clearly defined structure for what defines an Entry Level, Mid Level, or Senior Level Tech. The use of a training matrix becomes incredibly powerful in ...