I liked this blog post by Marshall Goldsmith (www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com) so much I am now using the exercise with my teams. I didn’t change a word so thank you Marshall for bringing feedforward into the light. Stats show more and more people are quiting their managers not their companies. Feedforward is the perfect way to solve that issue should it show up in your company!

Providing feedback has long been considered to be an essential skill for leaders. As they strive to achieve the goals of the organization, employees need to know how they are doing. They need to know if their performance is in line with what their leaders expect. They need to learn what they have done well and what they need to change. Traditionally, this information has been communicated in the form of “downward feedback” from leaders to their employees. Just as employees need feedback from leaders, leaders can benefit from feedback from their employees. Employees can provide useful input on the effectiveness of procedures and processes and as well as input to managers on their leadership effectiveness. This “upward feedback” has become increasingly common with the advent of 360 degree multi-rater assessments.

But there is a fundamental problem with all types of feedback: it focuses on the past, on what has already occurred—not on the infinite variety of opportunities that can happen in the future. As such, feedback can be limited and static, as opposed to expansive and dynamic.

Over the past several years, I have observed more than thirty thousand leaders as they participated in a fascinating experiential exercise. In the exercise, participants are each asked to play two roles. In one role, they are asked provide feedforward —that is, to give someone else suggestions for the future and help as much as they can. In the second role, they are asked to accept feedforward—that is, to listen to the suggestions for the future and learn as much as they can.

Exercise – simple but effective

 The exercise typically lasts for 10-15 minutes, and the average participant has 6-7 dialogue sessions. In the exercise participants are asked to:

• Pick one behavior that they would like to change. Change in this behavior should make a significant, positive difference in their lives.

• Describe this behavior to randomly selected fellow participants. This is done in one-on-one dialogues. It can be done quite simply, such as, “I want to be a better listener.”

• Ask for feedforward—for two suggestions for the future that might help them achieve a positive change in their selected behavior. If participants have worked together in the past, they are not allowed to give ANY feedback about the past. They are only allowed to give ideas for the future.

• Listen attentively to the suggestions and take notes. Participants are not allowed to comment on the suggestions in any way. They are not allowed to critique the suggestions or even to make positive judgmental statements, such as, “That’s a good idea.”

• Thank the other participants for their suggestions.

• Ask the other persons what they would like to change. 

• Provide feedforward – two suggestions aimed at helping the other person change.

• Say, “You are welcome.” when thanked for the suggestions. The entire process of both giving and receiving feedforward usually takes about two minutes.

• Find another participant and keep repeating the process until the exercise is stopped.

When the exercise is finished, I ask participants to provide one word that best describes their reaction to this experience. I ask them to complete the sentence, “This exercise was …”. The words provided are almost always extremely positive, such as “great”, “energizing”, “useful”, or “helpful.” One of the most commonly-mentioned words is “fun!”

What is the last word that comes to mind when we consider any feedback activity? Fun!

Eleven Reasons to Try FeedForward

Participants are then asked why this exercise is seen as fun and helpful as opposed to painful, embarrassing, or uncomfortable. Their answers provide a great explanation of why feedforward can often be more useful than feedback as a developmental tool.

1. We can change the future. We can’t change the past. Feedforward helps people envision and focus on a positive future, not a failed past. Athletes are often trained using feedforward. Racecar drivers are taught to, “Look at the road ahead, not at the wall.” Basketball players are taught to envision the ball going in the hoop and to imagine the perfect shot. By giving people ideas on how they can be even more successful (as opposed to visualizing a failed past), we can increase their chances of achieving this success in the future.

2. It can be more productive to help people learn to be “right,” than prove they were “wrong.” Negative feedback often becomes an exercise in “let me prove you were wrong.” This tends to produce defensiveness on the part of the receiver and discomfort on the part of the sender. Even constructively delivered feedback is often seen as negative as it necessarily involves a discussion of mistakes, shortfalls, and problems. Feedforward, on the other hand, is almost always seen as positive because it focuses on solutions – not problems.

3. Feedforward is especially suited to successful people. Successful people like getting ideas that are aimed at helping them achieve their goals. They tend to resist negative judgment. We all tend to accept feedback that is consistent with the way we see ourselves. We also tend to reject or deny feedback that is inconsistent with the way we see ourselves. Successful people tend to have a very positive self-image. I have observed many successful executives respond to (and even enjoy) feedforward. I am not sure that these same people would have had such a positive reaction to feedback.

4. Feedforward can come from anyone who knows about the task. It does not require personal experience with the individual. One very common positive reaction to the previously described exercise is that participants are amazed by how much they can learn from people that they don’t know! For example, if you want to be a better listener, almost any fellow leader can give you ideas on how you can improve. They don’t have to know you. Feedback requires knowing about the person. Feedforward just requires having good ideas for achieving the task.

5. People do not take feedforward as personally as feedback. In theory, constructive feedback is supposed to “focus on the performance, not the person”. In practice, almost all feedback is taken personally (no matter how it is delivered). Successful people’s sense of identity is highly connected with their work. The more successful people are, the more this tends to be true. It is hard to give a dedicated professional feedback that is not taken personally. Feedforward cannot involve a personal critique, since it is discussing something that has not yet happened! Positive suggestions tend to be seen as objective advice – personal critiques are often viewed as personal attacks.

6. Feedback can reinforce personal stereotyping and negative self-fulfilling prophecies. Feedforward can reinforce the possibility of change. Feedback can reinforce the feeling of failure. How many of us have been “helped” by a spouse, significant other, or friend, who seems to have a near-photographic memory of our previous “sins” that they share with us in order to point out the history of our shortcomings. Negative feedback can be used to reinforce the message, “this is just the way you are”. Feedforward is based on the assumption that the receiver of suggestions can make positive changes in the future.

7. Face it! Most of us hate getting negative feedback, and we don’t like to give it. I have reviewed summary 360 degree feedback reports for over 50 companies. The items, “provides developmental feedback in a timely manner” and “encourages and accepts constructive criticism” both always score near the bottom on co-worker satisfaction with leaders. Traditional training does not seem to make a great deal of difference. If leaders got better at providing feedback every time the performance appraisal forms were “improved”, most should be perfect by now! Leaders are not very good at giving or receiving negative feedback. It is unlikely that this will change in the near future.

8. Feedforward can cover almost all of the same “material” as feedback. Imagine that you have just made a terrible presentation in front of the executive committee. Your manager is in the room. Rather than make you “relive” this humiliating experience, your manager might help you prepare for future presentations by giving you suggestions for the future. These suggestions can be very specific and still delivered in a positive way. In this way your manager can “cover the same points” without feeling embarrassed and without making you feel even more humiliated.

9. Feedforward tends to be much faster and more efficient than feedback. An excellent technique for giving ideas to successful people is to say, “Here are four ideas for the future. Please accept these in the positive spirit that they are given. If you can only use two of the ideas, you are still two ahead. Just ignore what doesn’t make sense for you.” With this approach almost no time gets wasted on judging the quality of the ideas or “proving that the ideas are wrong”. This “debate” time is usually negative; it can take up a lot of time, and it is often not very productive. By eliminating judgment of the ideas, the process becomes much more positive for the sender, as well as the receiver. Successful people tend to have a high need for self-determination and will tend to accept ideas that they “buy” while rejecting ideas that feel “forced” upon them.

10. Feedforward can be a useful tool to apply with managers, peers, and team members. Rightly or wrongly, feedback is associated with judgment. This can lead to very negative – or even career-limiting – unintended consequences when applied to managers or peers. Feedforward does not imply superiority of judgment. It is more focused on being a helpful “fellow traveler” than an “expert”. As such it can be easier to hear from a person who is not in a position of power or authority. An excellent team building exercise is to have each team member ask, “How can I better help our team in the future?” and listen to feedforward from fellow team members (in one-on-one dialogues.)  

11. People tend to listen more attentively to feedforward than feedback. One participant is the feedforward exercise noted, “I think that I listened more effectively in this exercise than I ever do at work!” When asked why, he responded, “Normally, when others are speaking, I am so busy composing a reply that will make sure that I sound smart – that I am not fully listening to what the other person is saying I am just composing my response. In feedforward the only reply that I am allowed to make is ‘thank you’. Since I don’t have to worry about composing a clever reply – I can focus all of my energy on listening to the other person!”

In summary, the intent of this article is not to imply that leaders should never give feedback or that performance appraisals should be abandoned. The intent is to show how feedforward can often be preferable to feedback in day-to-day interactions. Aside from its effectiveness and efficiency, feedforward can make life a lot more enjoyable. When managers are asked, “How did you feel the last time you received feedback?” their most common responses are very negative. When managers are asked how they felt after receiving feedforward, they reply that feedforward was not only useful, it was also fun!

Quality communication—between and among people at all levels and every department and division—is the glue that holds organizations together. By using feedforward—and by encouraging others to use it—leaders can dramatically improve the quality of communication in their organizations, ensuring that the right message is conveyed, and that those who receive it are receptive to its content. The result is a much more dynamic, much more open organization—one whose employees focus on the promise of the future rather than dwelling on the mistakes of the past.

Have FUN!,

Kathy

Today CBC.ca offered us some interesting stats for Small Business Week. This one really caught my attention.

With the baby boomers reaching retirement age, a large number of companies will likely change hands in the coming years. According to TD Waterhouse’s early October Business Succession Poll of 609 small business owners, just 24 per cent of small business owners surveyed said they had a succession plan worked out for retirement.

Of those polled, whether they had a formal plan or not, 23 per cent said they would simply close their business when it came time to retire; 20 per cent planned to sell their business to a third party; 18 per cent expected to transfer it to a family member; 12 per cent said they’d sell to a partner or employee; and 27 per cent said they were not yet sure what they’d do with their business.

Succession planning is not on ENOUGH Small Business Owners minds!

Why you ask? Well in my experience as a small business owner all my adult life, we are so busy working in the business that we forget to work on the business. Succession planning lives in the working on the business part.

Recommendation: Get a group of your trusted colleagues or mentors together and form a personal Board of Directors for you and your company. Sit down and create a succession vision (see the steps below) of where you want to take your company, by when and what needs to happen along the way in order for you to reach your goal. Then take that to your Board of Directors and let the conversation begin.

So here is a step by step way that Teamswork likes to focus on in order to help our clients with involving succession planning into their Strategic Business Plan.

Excerpts from Work Force and Succession Planning Guide (New York State Department of Civil Service)

There you go…a complete guide to succession planning. Now you have no excuse. Canada needs it’s small businesses. As CBC.ca pointed out:  The total number of registered employer businesses in Canada (businesses with at least one employee on payroll) as of December 2010, the most recent figure available: 1,138,761

Cheers, Kathy

It’s easy for the BIG companies to get talent these days while SMALL/MEDIUM businesses struggle to keep theirs. A stigma of lower pay has long been attached to SME as their pockets are simply not as deep. So smart business owners are turning to new ways for keeping their staff by introducing such things as employee benefit packages, cash or points reward incentives and flex hours.  

Where these companies are missing the boat is in employee engagement!

Getting your staff involved by having a voice in your strategic plan will ensure greater buy-in from the get go. They will know what they signed up for from the beginning rather than you trying to get the message heard loudly and consistently which is time consuming.  Nowadays employees like to work for companies who care about the world outside their own doors. Companies are looking for ways to fully engage their employees which reduces absenteeism and sick days.

One of the benefits we think companies small, medium or large can do way more of is including leadership development to that list. Bringing a coach into the business to work with your team will increase the trust, commitment, accountability, productivity, and positive attitude. Having a coach work with your top employees creates greater sustainability for the company.

A by-product of both or either of these initiatives is happier people and a happier work environment.

By 2012, organizations will be called upon to think differently as the number of 45 to 54 year old workers will increase by more than 50% while the number of workers between the ages of 25 to 34 will decline by 9%.

Bottom line: be pro-active rather than reactive before it’s too late!

Cheers, Kathy

A terrific article in the Globe and Mail (Toronto, ON) “Development assistance is a sign of employee potential” last Friday Oct. 6th, 2011 caught my attention.“More Canadian companies over American are embracing coaching as a way of keeping and growing their top talent and seasoned veterans according to the article. It goes on to mention that sending their management to generic leadership seminars don’t take into account the individuals personality, how they learn and how they lead day to day. Ultimately it is why one on one leadership development coaching works! “

It’s what I’ve known for years! 

A weekend leadership seminar basically stays in the room where you take the course.  Typical of most training seminars once you return to the office, life goes back to where it was before the seminar – only busier.

A leadership development program usually a year long builds a special bond between the manager and their professional accredited coach. Sure the bond is based in mutual respect, deep trust, holding accountability, partnership, understanding and challenges for growth, but most of all it is based in real life in the moment work issues that get scrutinized immediately so the manager can make solid decisions with positive productive results. And feels good about the decision and the people it impacts.   

That’s why recently I sat down and considered what I bring to the relationship with my clients that no one else does quite like me. 

And the TIALD programs were born.   Teamswork’s Inspiring Authentic Leadership Development “Leader” or “Team” programs.      Go to www.teams-work.com for more information.

A year-long leader or team development program takes my clients from mediocre to high performing, high producing and fully engaged individuals and teams.  I’ve got the testimonials to prove it!

Next time a leadership seminar comes along – give it a pass and call me!

Cheers, Kathy

Read the entire Globe Article  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/development-assistance-is-a-sign-of-employee-potential/article2193636/

Read the entire article http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/development-assistance-is-a-sign-of-employee-potential/article2193636/

These last two months have been a whirlwind of activity and I have packed up and moved from my home of 21 years into a new apartment.

WOW who knew I had accumulated so many things? Memories are attached to each and every item given to me; by family, friends, clients, gifts purchased in exciting travel destinations and even odds and ends from a failed marriage.

And by the way, what self respecting professional Coach doesn’t have every kind a book out there? I even I had two copies of some!!

I now have books in my office, my livingroom, my bedroom and even my bathroom. I swear I cannot let go of any of them. It would be like getting rid of my kids (well it would have been I am sure had I had any (?))

It made me think about the Life Lessons I learned during this move.

Here is my Top Ten List:

Here’s to New Beginnings….after all it is Spring

Yours until we meet again, Kathy

Those words jumped off the page when I read them in the December issue of ‘O’ Magazine. I wondered why they resonated so much until I thought about what I had been doing during the last week of 2010 and the first of 2011!

If you are anything like me – you were looking back over the last year and thinking about what you loved about it and what, well, wasn’t so lovable. A Year End Review is really powerful and I do one each year. It is interesting to remember the myriad of achievements I forgot about a minute after they occurred. Focus is all too often on the events that didn’t work out. Typically, in our culture, celebration of our achievements is rare, however flogging ourselves for regrettable mistakes is all too common. An excellent reason to hire a Professional Coach. Overall, the process is cathartic.

On the heels of my Year End Review comes the Look into the Future. Each year I get out my crystal ball and dream my dreams. I even create a vision board to visually lock in those dreams.  See my blog on 10 Reasons Why Vision Boards Work http://www.teams-work.com/2010/03/24/10-reasons-why-vision-boards-work/

This year I did it a little different.

This year I went looking for my biggest picture of self for the next ten years – me at my most magnificent.  I wrote a letter to God (Universe/Great Spirit/Source) and made a note of all that I desire.

Now get this. It is really, really deep work not the mundane fluff or the stuff other people want for me – these were things I rarely said out loud to anyone including the dream that seems impossible. Think CNN and the story of the homeless man in Ohio, discovered panhandling along the roadside, with this amazing radio voice. There is a now a bidding war on for his voice services - the next James Earl Jones perhaps?  - YES the dream is that BIG!

This year I looked through the lens of the Laws of Prosperity. Thoughts, feelings and mental pictures radiated out into the Universe constantly and consistently.

Catherine Ponder’s book “The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity” suggests: Prosperity is the result of deliberate thought and action. There is a magical power in thinking one’s desires, expressing them constructively by writing them down, stating the time by which you wish their fulfillment, and then praying that God’s good will be done in the matter.

So I wrote the letter AND I dreamed on my crystal ball AND I created my vision board. I put the letter in a safe place to be opened again at the end of 2011…I only hope I will remember where that safe place is!

Here is one of my favourite affirmations from Catherine Ponder book.

“I am an irresistible magnet, with the power to attract unto myself everything that I divinely desire, according to the thoughts, feelings and mental pictures I constantly entertain and radiate. I am the centre of my Universe! I have the power to create whatever I wish. I attract whatever I radiate. I attract whatever I mentally choose and accept. I begin choosing and mentally accepting the highest and best in life. I now choose and accept health, success and happiness. I now choose lavish abundance for myself and for all humankind. This is a rich and friendly Universe and I dare to accept its riches, its hospitality and to enjoy them now!”

Here is a link to my Year End Review and Look into the Future.

Not too many years ago I discovered that I had walls!  I built them to surround my castle (a metaphor for my life as I don’t actually live in a castle.)  The castle kept me feeling safe on the inside and the walls were to keep the bad things on the outside.   I didn’t realize that the walls were rock and they not only kept the bad things out, they kept the good things out as well.

My life had become very rigid.

I soon learned that I had to lower the draw bridge and allow life to flow into my castle.

One of my greatest lessons along this journey has been learning about boundaries. I’ve learned that there is more than one kind of boundary and that depending on the situation, timing or my own peace of mind my boundaries are tested on a minute to minute basis.

According to Nina V. Brown, Coping With Infuriating, Mean, Critical People – The Destructive Narcissistic Pattern – 2006, there are four types of psychological boundary:

• Soft – A person with soft boundaries merges with other people’s boundaries. Someone with a soft boundary is easily manipulated.

• Spongy – A person with spongy boundaries is like a combination of having soft and rigid boundaries. They permit less emotional affect from others than soft boundaries but more than rigid. People with spongy boundaries are unsure what to let in and what to keep out.

• Rigid – A person with rigid boundaries is closed or walled off so nobody can get close to them either physically or emotionally. This is often the case if someone has been physically, emotionally or psychologically abused. Rigid boundaries can be selective which depend on time, place or circumstances and are usually based on a bad previous experience in a similar situation.

• Flexible – This is the ideal. Similar to selective rigid boundaries but the person has more control. The person decides what to let in and what to keep out, are resistant to the emotional affect from others or manipulation and are difficult to exploit.

I learned that boundaries can be permeable whereas walls are hard and inflexible.

Next, I started to think about ways to remove my walls and create healthy boundaries.  These are the steps that I followed:

1. I looked again at my core values – integrity, authenticity, being grounded, heart/compassion, relationship & connection, and co-empowering my inner wisdom.
2. Using my value of integrity as an example for this exercise I asked myself these questions:
   A.  what are the beliefs I have about integrity?
   B.  what are the acceptable behaviours for those beliefs? Or what is the evidence of these that I do in my life.

Here is my reflection for you to use as an example. Thank you Janet Frood for coaching me through this process.

In closing, now I am able to set my personal boundaries to align with the acceptable reflection of my values. I finally have a measurement stick to judge by and it feels fabulous!!!

As a bonus, I began to make my personal and business decisions through the eyes of those values using the beliefs and behaviours as a guidance system.

Yours until next time, Kathy

What a ride these last 9 months have been! WOW, did I just give birth? Well there is a first for everything…

Those of you who know me will know that I am always yakking on about …go inside and listen to what your body says…well I have been taking my own medicine for 9 months and here’s what’s up.

I quietly stepped away from my role as CRRGlobal’s Co-Director of the Global Community Initiative – the thing I most miss about this role is the fabulous community calls we did together. With pleasure I remain on CRRGlobal faculty and will always believe in Relationship Systems Intelligence. www.CRRGlobal.com

I went inside of myself and found that Spirit lived within me (who knew!) and that I could trust myself (to live in joy, fun, happiness and still work!). So I set about going to the next level (there is always a new level isn’t there?) I took an interesting course at the Toronto Shaman Institute called Pattern Shifting (only to discover I was in therapy) where we studied addictions. Core beliefs came up as the foundation of all addictions so I knew it was time to really look hard at what my core values are (integrity, authenticity, relationship/connection, heart/compassion, groundedness and clean & clear). All this happened and so much more. As I said it was like giving birth.

I believe all of us do this work at some level – all too often alone – and it is hard and deep work. There are BIG Questions and there are awesome answers. When you find yourself doing this work, please be willing to ask for help. It was my biggest learning. People jumped at the opportunity to support me when I thought to ask. Thank you – you know who you are!

I can call this 9 months (although it is not over) a journey with my Relationship with God and my Relationship with Myself.

The timing is curious with the release of the movie Eat, Pray, Love. I have checked my compulsive EATing by listening to my body (our emotions live here) rather than the VOICE in my head and joining OA, I have learned to PRAY (thank you Unity Church and Rev. Helen) and meditate (although I didn’t go to India only my second bedroom for that) and LOVE – well I went on a date for the first time in years – and I didn’t try to fix him. He was lovely and we will go out again.

What became so apparent to me when I was able to trust myself again (another long story) was that I was afraid to get into relationship with yet another wrong man. Now I trust ME first, I know I will make good decisions and I am perfect just the way I am. Big, bold and beautiful! A side note here is that BIG in my books means presence rather than size. You can be size 0 and still have a BIG presence.

Above all I have fallen more in love with myself!

My final words are of thanks to you my community for holding me and loving me (you may not have been aware but you did). If you connect with what I have said have a look at my past blogs – you will see my journey.  You can also sign up for my newsletter.

Finally, I hope are enjoying your journey!
Warmly, Kathy

Surrender has many faces! It can look as simple as 4 different women over a month long period telling me “You have got to read that new book, “Women, Food and God” by Geneen Roth. OK, fine, enough already…so I go to Amazon online and purchase four books only to realize that I forgot to buy the one I went online to get! Crazy, eh! I know, I could berate myself for being foolish, if not down right stupid, yet I surrendered to the belief it was supposed to be this way.

So I grabbed my purse, threw in my writing journal as a last minute thought and headed over to Chapters. This time I did buy the book! Instead of returning home, I wandered around until I found an empty seat in the coffee shop and watched people. I realized I have been isolating myself for months and I gave myself permission to enjoy the moment. Surrender? Absolutely!

Remembering my intention this week to catch up on my blog writing I took out my journal and penned three blogs in a matter of 30 minutes. On a roll, I also completed more of my upcoming newsletter. I surrendered to the creative process and it paid off in a big way.

What does surrender look like in your world? And why is it important?

Isn’t it interesting that in both spirituality and psychology surrender is defined as: a believer completely gives up their own will and subjects their thoughts, ideas, and deeds to the will and teachings of a higher power.

Last November, I started surrendering to ME. Yes, that’s right. You see my dream is to Empower Women Around the World to find their own voices and raise them together in Harmony for Health, Happiness and Wholeness. Yet this blog lives on my corporate identity. I was conflicted for years and felt I had to have two websites one for corporate and one for women’s empowerment (www.Be3how.com Be Big, Bold and Beautiful)

After years of trying to be two people, I realized my life’s work was to integrate both. I surrendered. Once I did, I realized that I bring the Bigness (presence) and the Boldness into all the teams when I work with them. Without that empowered part of myself, the work I do with teams was not as powerful.

Five steps to Surrendering:

1.    What are the things that are trying to get your attention at work or at home?
2.    Is there a common thread?
3.    If you are thinking of surrendering to something – what are you noticing in your body?
4.    What is the cost to your mind, body and soul if you do not surrender?
5.    Trust yourself – trust in a higher power and surrender into the unknown

Watch for my next blog on Creating Boundaries Not Walls!

Every so often I get to see a TV series which really catches my imagination.  One such show appeared on Sunday nights – Undercover Boss. The story line sees the CEO of a multi-national American company (ie. Roto-Rooter, Seven Eleven) go undercover into the grassroots of their own organization.  Working in jobs beside their own employees, they toil under the conditions of the everyday Joe or Jill, experiencing first hand realities that they are far removed from at the CEO level.

Always a surprise to me was that fact that the employees never recognize their boss.  Would that be true in your company? How well are you known by your staff and for that matter how well do you know your staff?  What level of interaction do you have with your employees – do you know each name and what is happening in their life.  Ask yourself: Why is this important?

Back at the Undercover Boss.  There was always a heart-warming story in each episode when the CEO, having returned to their position at the top, was able to make a few employees an example of what he learned through his experience.  More often than not, a company-wide policy was created so the viewer knows it had impact on many employees rather than simply that one individual.  Sometimes more responsibility within the company or training, was gifted – in other words, the CEO didn’t deliver a one time for one person quick fix.

Recently on the series highlighting 1-800-Flowers, we heard their CEO’s motto – Relationship First – Business Second.

This is the pivotal point of the program and this blog!

Does your organization put Relationship First with their employees? It is equally as important as putting Relationship First with your customers. All too often as owners we get focused on our customers and forget that our own people are equally, if not more, important. Not only are they vital ambassadors for the company – they are human beings and they need attention and acknowledgment too. It takes so little time to have a conversation yet without them the results can and will be impactful.

One of my favourite leadership quotes is
“Go to the people. Learn from them. Live with them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. The best of leaders when the job is done, when the task is accomplished, the people will say we have done it ourselves.”
Lao Tzu

By putting your relationship with your own company employees’ first, business will come naturally second.