I was up at my lake house recently, looking forward to a very quiet early morning cup of coffee. I like to put canned milk in my coffee, but I just could not find the can opener. Of all the simple things! I have this can opener that’s manual, just a little triangular opening thing that lets you open the can of milk and enjoy your coffee. But I couldn’t find it, and I didn’t want black coffee this morning. I was scrounging around for the thing, thinking, “Okay, do I puncture this can with a knife? What if it slips and I stab myself?” [Read more…]

We are already into the 4th quarter of 2018! As business owners, most of us are already thinking about what to do better or differently in 2019. Many business owners have already cultivated the habit of setting aside time for reflecting and visioning. At Broad Insights, we applaud and encourage proactive patterns like that, and we want to encourage you to consider adding another level of intentionality to your planning. [Read more…]

One of the things we try to do at Broad Insights is begin by diagnosing situations. I was working with a hog farmer up in Ohio, and I wanted to take the time to have him walk me through his process. So we started with the small piglets and sows, followed through to the weaned pigs, and so on. I walked through all the barns, and I had all this gear on to make sure I didn’t contaminate anything (they have to be very careful of diseases). When we got to the end of all those barns, I turned to the farmer and said, “Ed, do you ever get used to the odor?” He looked at me quizzically and said, “What odor?” Of course, that made us both laugh. [Read more…]

You probably travel quite a bit by air, as I do. One of the things I enjoy is looking for landmarks as I’m flying into my local airport. I try to find one landmark that tells me where I am relative to my destination. It’s interesting to me that until I find that first landmark, everything looks the same. There have been times, especially on cloudy days, when I didn’t even know the direction of my approach. And when I find that one landmark, everything begins to clarify. Oh, okay, there’s that water tower. I know that shopping center, that neighborhood, etc. But until then, I’m very lost. [Read more…]

If you’re like most of the business owners we work with, you spend a lot of time focused on the hard day-to-day work of growing your business. But all too often, that hard work goes down the drain when the time comes to sell or to pass business leadership on to someone else. If you want your business to survive beyond you, you need a good succession plan, and for a successful and smooth transition, that planning should start sooner than you think. Whether selling or transferring to the next generation, you’ll encounter challenges, many of which we’ve seen again and again in other companies we’ve coached. Most business owners find those challenges daunting and, consequently, completely avoid the topic of succession. That’s natural, but it’s bad for you and bad for your business. [Read more…]

When you think about seizing opportunities, do you first think of new business opportunities? I think most people do. After working with so many businesses, I think seizing opportunity is really about being proactive as a leader. Here are some of the ways you can seize more opportunities. Last Friday, I was with a new client of mine and I called together the whole production team, about 10-12 people. I introduced myself as the new coach and then asked, “What could we do to get a little bit better? What things frustrate you? What is it that you can’t believe we’re not doing right now as a company?” I received a lot of great ideas, and the next day I had a conversation with some of the leadership about the ideas. I often meet with clients and have these types of conversations. As a leader, you have to seize the opportunity to get better, seize the opportunity to have a conversation, seize the opportunity to empower your people. Your team has thoughts, opinions, and ideas that could help your company grow. [Read more…]

Being a leader isn’t based on someone naming you a leader. It’s about whether you have followers or not. The most effective leader sets the direction of the company and provides clarity. Sometimes I’ll talk to business leaders and they act like people are showing up to work and trying not to follow their lead. The truth is, very few people wake up in the morning and head off to work with the intent of doing their jobs incorrectly. So instead of looking around trying to figure out where things are going wrong, we need to look in the mirror. [Read more…]