Being a leader can be an exhausting experience at times. There may be instances where we feel buried under all our obligations; therefore, developing ourselves can take a back burner.

That's why I love leadership quotes. They are a quick lesson in practical leadership principles that can help sharpen our saws, even during the busiest times.

Here are a few that caught my eye recently. I've wrapped them around an experience I had early in my leadership journey to further illustrate their power.

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A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and help those who are doing well to do even better.  -Jim Rohn

At one large company I worked for, I had been in my position for a while, had accomplished great things, but I didn't see any possibilities for challenging work on the horizon. I was performing at a lower level than I was capable of because I was bored with the status quo.

That's when the best boss I ever had stepped in. He presented me with the idea of running a Voice of the Customer process team for the whole company, and I accepted his offer. This new role instantly energized me, and through the process, I gained additional skills that were key to launching my consulting firm after I left the company.

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A leader takes people where they would never go on their own. - Hans Finzel

My boss instinctively knew that I would not volunteer for such a role because I lacked confidence in my ability to lead during that phase of my career. Offering this role signified that he was confident in my ability to excel, which paved the way to my success.

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Leaders instill in their people a hope for success and a belief in themselves. Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals.  -Unknown

Not only did offering the role boost my confidence, he told me I'd do a great job. His belief empowered me to lead with excellence. Not only that, the experience I gained gave me the skills to later on down the line launch my own business.

You never know how one simple decision can change an employee's life trajectory!

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If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. John Quincy Adams

My boss demonstrated this truth by living out these principles. As leaders, if we can do the same with those that follow our lead, we will have led well.

How many times have you said you would do something for a client or colleague, and you didn’t deliver as promised? Ugh, it’s certainly not a great feeling, especially if you lost their trust or even their business.

There is a better way! You can help prevent similar situations from occurring again by doing two things. I’m sure you’ve heard these “two things” many times before, but I know for me, I like to listen to things repeatedly to remind me of their importance.

Here they are:

Under-Promise and Over-Deliver

There are a couple of ways to go about this:

1. Deliver More than What's Expected

Here’s a good example:

I worked with a local manufacturer to develop a Voice of the Customer process for product development purposes. We had developed the process and realized that automating it would be optimal. At the time, we hadn’t planned on doing this. The CEO asked me to look for process automation platforms that would work for our application.

When we investigated the currently available platforms, there were no cost-effective options. My client wrote off the idea; however, I saw how important this was to them, so I told them I’d try to create a semi-automated one.

For a very reasonable price, I created a PDF process map with links that sent them to whatever documents or systems they needed in the process so that they’d have everything they needed right there at their fingertips.

The CEO was so thrilled with the result! It wasn’t anything they expected, and that made me very happy as well!

2. Deliver Earlier than What's Expected

This idea is self-explanatory, but here’s another example:

Whenever I’m buying something on eBay, I’m always thrilled when it’s something I needed yesterday, and I get it much sooner than promised. If you can do this with your clients, they’ll most likely love that as well!

3. Deliver More and Earlier Than What's Expected

Who doesn’t like getting something beyond what they expect before they expect it? Providing both aspects with your deliveries, especially regularly, will help drive customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.


So, in the end, the philosophy of under-promising and over-delivering your products and services to customers can reap enormous dividends for your company. And who doesn’t want that?

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One thing that makes me super happy these days is the workflow automation platform I sell called Accelerate. If it had been in existence when I was working with my client back in the day, I would have highly satisfied them even more!

If you’re not sure what these platforms are like and would like a quick-read introduction, then check out our brand-new book, No-Nonsense Digital Transformation. It provides an excellent overview of these platforms and discusses their benefits.

If you’re interested in learning more, click the button below.   

Whew, what a week it has been! A LOT of effort goes into launching a new book, but it’s definitely been worth it.

And Michael Cantu and I are excited to announce that our book, No-Nonsense Digital Transformation, ranked as the #1 New Release and #2 Best Seller in Information Technology on the first day! We're pretty pumped!

Now I can rest a bit.

Ah, but wait, I have a newsletter and blog to create, and it’s Friday night at 6:00 pm. What do I do now?

Well, I’m going to try something different this time since no tips nor lessons learned (that I typically write about) are coming to mind. Instead, I’ve decided to write a free flow of consciousness from this brain of mine to yours. I'm not even sure what words will come out as I type this, so this could prove interesting—for you and me! 

One thing I do know—my heart is overflowing with gratitude. I am truly a blessed woman. I recorded a podcast today, and the host asked me what I'm grateful for on my entrepreneurial journey. It got me thinking--

First, I've had so many people who have helped me out on this book journey and my whole entrepreneurial journey, in general. There have been quite a few lean times over the past seven years of Kent Business Solutions being in existence. Thankfully, I’ve had so many coaches, mentors, referral partners, and colleagues that have been my cheerleaders. I'm grateful for all of them, some of whom are reading this now. Without all of their help, I'd probably be working a 9-to-5 job, which is not my cup of tea anymore!

I'm also grateful for the personal growth I've experienced over the last seven years. One thing I do know, I’m not the same person I was when I first started. I’m more confident, grateful, wiser, and now I’m having the time of my life! It’s certainly not been an easy journey, but I wouldn't change anything. The lean and challenging times of being an entrepreneur can either make you or break you, and you can get better or bitter. I've chosen the upside, and it's made all the difference in the world!

Finally, I’m grateful for meaningful work that challenges me every day to be my best self and help others in the process. Helping others is what life’s about, and I’m thankful I have the opportunities to do just that.

So, that’s where I’m at tonight, at 6:40 pm on Friday, November 19, 2021. I hope you enjoyed my stream of consciousness from my brain to yours!


With Thanksgiving around the corner, I’ll leave you with this one question:

What are you grateful for in your life?

If you’d like to share your answer with me, leave a comment below! Or, reach out to schedule a chat! Click the button below to get something on our calendars.

By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions

How does a business leader transform their culture for success?

Many executives, unfortunately, don't have an answer to this question, but knowing the answer is all-important, especially when undertaking digital transformation initiatives.

A recent study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) discovered that organizations that emphasized culture were five times more apt to achieve breakthrough performance than those that ignored culture. Yet, many business leaders are unsure of how to create these types of cultures.

That’s why my strategic partner, Michael Cantu of Accelerate, suggests the following three things a business leader can do to help transform your culture for success.

By the way, if you’re not a fan of digital transformation, these ideas can help any organization!

1. Encourage Your Team to Talk About Everyday Matters

Let your team members know there won't be any repercussions for talking about what’s on their minds. Companies do best when they’ve created a culture where employees can come to management anytime and talk about their concerns or ideas.

2. Create an Expectation You Will Be Asking Your Team for Feedback

Ask your employees regularly for ideas on the best way to do something. Doing so helps them understand that their feedback is vital and requires them to participate within the business actively.

3. Act Upon Those Items

It's a good idea to talk with your employees about why you can't necessarily do what they're requesting right now. Then, make sure you give them a why. You would still want to keep their suggestion as a viable option and revisit it over time.

Other Things to Think About

Radical Acceptance

One over-arching aspect companies would do best to keep in mind is practicing radical acceptance of their employees. Everyone has differing thoughts and ideas, and many people are afraid of voicing their own opinions or beliefs. This discipline involves accepting each team member's uniqueness.

How to Handle People Stuck in Their Ways

Have one-on-one conversations with employees who appear that they don’t want to change. During these meetings, it's crucial to create a safe place for them so you can discover reasons for their unwillingness to comply. You may be surprised to learn that some are willing to change. There may only be a disconnect in leaders’ minds.  

Next, ask them how you can help them become more adaptable to change. Some answers may be out of their control, but it's helpful if you can redirect them to what is within their power.

If they refuse to change, consider looking for replacements. Bringing in others who champion the type of culture you want can help make your DX efforts run smoother than otherwise.

Before you start replacing people, Michael Cantu has some advice:

“I’ve rarely seen anyone that has been closed off when you talk to them, from a managerial perspective, who didn't open up when they realized their job could potentially be on the line. Either they have started looking for another job—because they don't want to change and do what's required—or they stepped up.”

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Are you interested in learning more about this topic? Well, you'll a perfect opportunity to do just that!


Michael Cantu and I are excited to announce that our new book, No-Nonsense Digital Transformation, will be launching on Amazon on Wednesday, November 17!  We talk about this very topic in the book, including how to build exceptional teams that deliver what's promised.

One final note: if you purchase before November 17, you can still catch the pre-buy sale price of $2.99. Don't miss your chance! Click the button below to get started! 

Wow, what a week this has been with the launch of Michael Cantu’s and my new book, No-Nonsense Digital Transformation!

The results have been pretty incredible: at its peak on Amazon, our book was a #1 New Release in Information Technology, #2 Best Seller in IT, and #4 in AI & Semantics. There’s still room to grow sales because the official book launch is November 17, 2021.

Still, I must admit I wanted to be a #1 Best Seller, and I was disappointed that didn’t happen. I kept questioning whether I could have done something different to achieve the #1 Best Seller ranking.

Then I realized how silly I was acting!

That’s when I decided to leave those thoughts in the dust.

Out of this experience, I thought I’d tell you what steps I followed, to share strategies that might help you more effectively deal with disappointment.

1. Look at the Big Picture

When I zoomed out to look at the big picture, I saw how fortunate I was to have done so well.

This book was our first one. We were learning the ropes as we went along, and the results were beyond what we had initially expected. Now we’ll be more prepared to launch the next book!

In the end, seeing the big picture made it easier to let go of my expectations and the disappointment attached to them.

Lessons Learned: When we zoom out to look at our situations as a whole, this helps curb the tendency to get stuck focusing on just one piece of the pie. And when we can let go of that pie piece, we’ll experience more freedom to be fully present in our circumstances.

2. Be Grateful

This step builds on the first one.

It was so exciting to watch our numbers climb the first day! It helped me realize how blessed I am to be able to bring this book to the world. I’m also blessed to have friends, family, and mentors who have supported me, cheered me on, and helped with the launch. Gratitude became a natural outcome as I reflected on the good things that had happened.

Lessons Learned: Latching onto disappointment and stewing over what could have been often takes away from the good things life offers. Being grateful for what we already have gives us a greater capacity to let go, bringing more enjoyment and beauty to life.

3. Talk to Good Friends

I talked with a couple of friends about this situation, and one suggested that it was too early in the process to arrive at any conclusions. The other said I needed to let go of achieving the #1 position, using the kindest words possible.

By the way, she inspired Step #1!

Lessons Learned: Our friends can often give a different perspective than we would otherwise see. It’s a great go-to strategy, particularly if we’re not in a place to practice Steps #1 and  #2.


I hope these steps prove helpful for navigating through disappointments. They certainly worked for me!

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If you’re interested in learning more about the book, click the button below to get started!

How many of you sometimes find it difficult to slow down and collect your thoughts when under stress? Or, you get so excited that it negatively affects your ability to sleep? Or, on occasion, you experience both but at the same time?

Well, that’s where I’ve been living off and on lately, for a good reason!

Michael Cantu and I are excited to announce that the pre-buy sale of our long-awaited book, No-Nonsense Digital Transformation, is tomorrow! We are pumped, to say the least!

There is so much involved in publishing a book; stress levels (and excitement) have been challenging to manage at times! Thankfully, there are several things I’ve been doing to help stay grounded. Since these are fresh on my mind, I’d like to share them with you!

1. Practice the 5-Senses Grounding Technique

When I’m too excited about something or am stressed out, and my brain is going 90 mph, practicing these grounding techniques helps me. I’ll find a quiet space to focus intently on these five steps, moving slowly from one to the next.

5: Acknowledge FIVE things you see around you. ...
4: Acknowledge FOUR things you can touch around you. ...
3: Acknowledge THREE things you hear. ...
2: Acknowledge TWO things you can smell. ...
1: Acknowledge ONE thing you can taste.
When you finish, you’ll hopefully feel calmer and more present in your circumstances.

2. Share Your Life with Friends

If you’re anything like me, I work from home with no one but my dogs and bird to keep me company during the day. The isolation can sometimes get to me.

Since I am an external processor, I make it a point to reach out and share my life with friends to have in-depth, authentic conversations. Doing so helps me to stay more centered. And even in times of excitement, it’s so fun to share your recent experiences with friends. That can even uplift them!

3. Journal

I’ve been journaling since my late 20’s, and it has been a lifeline for me. If you have a myriad of emotions you’re experiencing, working through those with pen and paper can be therapeutic. It’s certainly been that way for me.

And there’s proof of how powerful journaling can be. Studies show that journaling can reduce the adverse effects of stress, decrease the symptoms of chronic health conditions, improve clarity, and help with problem-solving.

If you’re not sure how to start, there’s no set formula. Just start! You don’t have to think about what you’re going to say. Just let the words flow.


I hope these tips will help you reduce your stress levels! If you have a chance to try them out, I’d love to hear how they worked for you!

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If you’re interested in learning how to buy our book, email me at kathy@kent.solutions or click the button below to schedule a short chat. Either way, I’d love to hear from you!

By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions

How many of you are trying to determine your next best steps during these ongoing, uncertain times?

You’re not alone! With so many unknowns plaguing business owners and leaders these days, it can be challenging to know how to best position businesses for success—to thrive, not just survive.

That’s why I interviewed Dawn Zerbs of Dawn Celeste. Her focus is on Executive and Leadership Team Coaching. I wanted to get some ideas from her on how we can best navigate the days ahead. And she's well qualified to speak on this subject! Her background includes a broad range of functions, including General Business and Leadership, Change Management, Communications, Strategy, Operations, Technology Implementations, Marketing, and Business Development.
 
Here are three areas or “buckets” she suggests business leaders focus on. If you’re leading a business or team, check out these three tips:
 
1. Determine What Your Customers Need

If your business has suffered from post-pandemic fall-out, the best thing to do is listen, ask and anticipate what your customers need during this time. They likely have needs that are entirely outside of your business. That's okay. Don't bother them, but also don't underestimate the power of being there and listening. Who knows, you may find that you know someone else that can meet their needs!
 
2. Focus on Your Core Competencies

Ask yourself how you might pivot your core skills to meet a current need. Many manufacturers and other businesses are pivoting to meet immediate needs as well. Get creative!
 
3. Think About Your Team

How you approach this depends on what you learn from your customers and a review of your competencies. If you can't pivot, think about how you can continue to help your people.
 
Some Bonus Tips
 
Take the Long View

This interim may be difficult, but think about what your business will look like after the end of the current challenge, e.g., do we start another business, pivot, etc. It's important not to make decisions while in panic mode.
 
Give Others and Yourself Grace

Dawn suggests that we all would do well to take it easy on others and ourselves as we navigate these challenging times. We are all dealing with situations we’ve never faced before! In the meantime, if we can make a daily decision to give ourselves and others grace, this will help us to keep pushing forward to figure things out. This will lessen stress and free up creative juices to find solutions to our challenges.

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Speaking of challenging times, could you use an outside perspective on improving your business? Then I can help! I’d love to be a sounding board or help brainstorm some solutions to your challenges.

If that would work, click the button below to schedule a time to chat!

By: Guest Blogger Gordon Tredgold, CEO & Managing Consultant at Leadership Principles LLC

I always thought I knew what accountability was and what it meant to be accountable. To me, to be accountable was to take responsibility for the situation, to be committed to the outcome and to take ownership result. I always had a strong sense of self and looked to take personal accountability for the situations I found myself in or the results achieved. I never looked to blame anyone else or tried to find excuses for poor performance.

I loved the quote by Rudyard Kipling. We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.

No Excuses

To me, that epitomized accountability.

But all that changed when I was made captain of my House Swimming Team at school. My House team had an excellent record. We competed against three other Houses and in my time at the school, we had always been the best.

I took my role as captain very seriously, ensuring that we had good candidates for each event and were well represented. One of the reasons we had a great team is that one of our swimmers swam for the county. He was head and shoulders above the others, and he would swim in and win at least five events.

On the day of the swimming event, sadly, he called in sick. It was a bit of a blow because now I had to find adequate replacements for all the events he would swim in, which would seriously jeopardize our chances of winning.

About an hour before the event started, Miss Etherington, our Head of House, called me to her office to update her on the team. She knew that our best swimmer was out and wanted to know how I was handling it.

I told her that I had managed to find a replacement for four of the five races Paul would be swimming in, but it was impossible to find someone for the individual medley.

She looked at me and said, “as captain of the team, I am sure you know what you have to do.”

I said, "Not really because we need someone who can swim butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and front crawl, and we don't have anyone that can swim all those four."

She looked at me again, smiled, and said, "as Captain of the team, I am sure you know what you have to do." I looked at her and said, "but I have never swum a length of butterfly or backstroke in my life, so I am not sure if I could do it."

She just smiled again and said, "as captain of the team, I am sure you know what you have to do."

The Buck Stops Here

The individual medley was the last event, and as I stood on the starting blocks waiting for the start, I had no idea what I was going to do.

I knew both strokes. I had seen them, and I had even tried them. But I had never successfully swum either for more than 5 meters, and here I was getting ready to start with 25m of Butterfly followed by 25m of Backstroke.

As the starter said, "on your marks, get set and go," I could feel the panic rise, but I just dived in, arms wheeling in what I hoped was a Butterfly motion. I somehow managed to complete the first 25m, but I was knackered. A combination of nerves and poor style meant I was a good 10 meters down on the leader. I had no energy left to try and make up the lost ground and barely enough left to complete the remaining three strokes.

I found the backstroke easier than the butterfly, but I still lost another 10-15 meters to the leader. By the time I was onto the breaststroke, I was a good length behind and effectively out of the race and knew I would finish dead last.

So I slowed down and just focused on finishing because I would still get points for the team if I kept going.

When I got out of the pool, Miss Etherington came up to me and said, "Congratulations."

I said, "Congratulations, but I finished dead last."

She said, "Yes, I know, but given that only two teams put swimmers in for the event, your second place gives us the points we needed to win the trophy. If you hadn't swum, we would have finished second. So, congratulations."

She smiled and said, "I knew I could rely on you to do the right thing, to find a solution, to be accountable and step up and do it yourself if you couldn't find anyone else."

Swimming Lesson

This experience was probably the biggest lesson I learned in school, and it helped me redefine my definition of accountability, especially in terms of being a leader.

The buck stops with us; we should never ask someone to do something we are not prepared to do, and if there is no one else, then it’s up to us.

There may be forty million reasons, but there are no excuses.

By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions

Many people are reeling with all the crazy things going on in the world and our business lives. It's not surprising many people are struggling with indecisiveness.
 
So how do you rise above these challenges to become more decisive?
 
Here are four tips:
 
1. Delegate
 
Do a scan of all your responsibilities and determine what you can delegate to others. And if you're finding it hard to let go of some hands-on responsibilities, that may be part of the issue. Ask yourself:
 
Why am I reluctant to let go of _______?
 
More often than not, understanding and dealing with why you're reluctant to delegate makes it easier to start offloading responsibilities. 
 
2. Develop and Use a Standardized Process for Making Tough Decisions
 
It's helpful to build a process that considers all variables. Here's an example:
 
When your team members come up with new ideas to implement, have them fill out a standardized form that includes:

• Background info on the idea
• Rationale
• Resources needed
• Projected financial impact

 
That way, your analysis will be minimal, a simple "yes" or "no."
 
One of my clients followed this approach, and it made the approval process much more streamlined. As a result, more ideas became a reality, which benefited the company.
 
3. Construct Your Process to Prevent Repetitive Decision Making
 
When you create your standardized process, make sure it prevents the tendency to make the same types of decisions repeatedly. 
 
Here's a real-life example:
 
I teamed with a brand-new Business Development organization to develop a sales process. Sales employees were making decisions based on "gut-level instinct," while they ignored significant opportunities. Pursuit decisions were one-offs, causing repeated conversations with the Director for approvals, even for low-dollar volume opportunities.
 
The team and I got to work. We created a robust process that allowed for some opportunities to fly under the radar with little oversight, while others required higher-level approvals and more monitoring. For example, a $100M opportunity would need approvals by a VP, while a 1st level manager could approve a $500K opportunity.
 
The results were outstanding! Over a period of nine years, the process resulted in an increase in sales from $85M to +$300M.
 
Another thing you can do to elevate your business processes to the next level is to automate them. Doing so can take even more manual decisions and activities out of the equation. A tool like the Accelerate Platform is an excellent example of this.
 
4. Take Good Care of Yourself
 
Taking care of ourselves is an area where many of us struggle. But what if we made this a priority? It's a known fact that taking better care of ourselves contributes to better decision-making. If we would do this regularly, could you imagine the positive impacts of all the decisions we'd make? That's a great foundation upon which to build a business!
 
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If you'd like to make that foundation even stronger by improving your processes, I can help with that!
 
Click the button below to schedule a virtual coffee. I’d love to learn more about your organization and explore potential ways to take it to the next level!

By: Guest Blogger Henning Schwinum, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Vendux

In a recent conversation with a Sales Leader, she shared her frustration about a new executive team member who was using executive team meetings to question many of the established practices. For example:
 
“Why do we have this step in our sales process? It does not advance the sale and is wasting our reps' time."
 
Her go-to response was to dive deep into the history, explain how the process was built, and why this step had to be part of it. In short, she was becoming defensive. And increasingly so with every question raised.
 

I have been there. I have owned processes that I helped to build in a business that I considered mine since I had been there from the very beginning. It is really hard to shed those blinders labeled "experience" and be open to a suggestion from a newcomer, aka an outsider.
 
Jory MacKay describes this well: “The hardest thing about all of this is that it’s almost nearly impossible to see. We create our worldview through our past experiences and hardwire our brains to assume that future events will mirror the past. In this way, our experiences can easily become blinders, blocking us from seeing the endless (and often better) options just out of sight.”
 
Pride and ego do not help, either. The pride of having built something, of having seen it perform well, of having solved a real problem and contributed to the growth of the business. All of this stands in the way of innovation. It is easy to say, “what worked well yesterday does not automatically work well today.” But it is really hard to put it to work.
 
The recommendation I gave to the Sales Leader was to simply respond by saying:
 
“Thank you. Let me think about this and get back to you.”
 
This is not a deflection, and I encouraged her to definitely get back to the executive within a day or two. However, it avoids becoming defensive and allows for reflection. And whether the response includes a change to the sales process or not, it allows the Sales Leader to own the change. It allows her to report back on the review and the possible changes, why the action was taken, and how it bettered the business.
 
Instead of appearing defensive and change-resistant, she now is the hero.
 
In their new book, the Friedman's call to action is this: “Identify a cause that you are passionate about, accept responsibility for it, surrender, and then step up to get involved.”
 
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If you’re wanting to get involved in your business to help improve it, but you or your leadership may not know where to start, that’s where I can help!
 
Our FIRM Fitness Assessment, a 100% virtual tool, gauges your organization's fitness and then pinpoints precisely where to start to make improvements.

Interested? Then take my FREE business assessment! It will give you a high-level feel for what the assessment covers, yet it can give you actionable intelligence to get started on making your business better.

Click the button below to get started!
 
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Jory MacKay - Your Past Experiences Are Blinding You
Sylvia Yu Friedman & Matthew - Be the Hero: Be the Change