By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions Many of us who live in Kansas City are well aware of the fantastic talents of quarterback Patrick Mahomes. For those of you who aren't, he's not just known for his insane arm strength and jaw-dropping touchdown passes. He's undoubtedly a true leader who exhibits incredible qualities on and off the field! Let's take a closer look at three leadership lessons we can learn from Mahomes and apply to our own lives, both professional and personal: 1. Grit and Determination Mahomes never gives up, no matter his obstacles on the field. These qualities were on full display during the 2022 playoffs when he sprained his ankle, and he didn't allow that to dissuade him from winning the Super Bowl. He has shown us time and time again that setbacks are just opportunities for comebacks. Developing a never-give-up attitude and pushing through challenges with unwavering determination is essential in life and business. 2. Never Out of the Game One thing we've seen in Mahomes' career is his ability to lead comebacks when his team is trailing. No matter how dire the situation may seem, he always rallies his team and turns things around. His never-quit attitude teaches us that true leaders don't give up even when victory seems out of reach. 3. Don't Settle for Mediocrity Mahomes has an unwavering belief in aiming high and refusing to settle for mediocrity. He never sees himself as "good enough" but strives for excellence daily. This mindset pushes him to achieve greatness individually and as part of a team. By setting high standards for ourselves, we can make a meaningful impact in whatever path we choose. So there you have it – three invaluable leadership lessons we can learn from Patrick Mahomes. Let's channel his determination, resilience, and commitment to continuous improvement into our lives! Remember, greatness begins with small steps toward becoming the best version of yourself. # # # Did you enjoy this content? If so, would you be interested in yours truly writing some blogs for you? If that's you, I have a special I'm running—three blogs for $397! If you're intrigued and want to learn more, click the button below to schedule a quick phone call with me.
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By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions Many business leaders face the challenge of keeping their employees engaged and enthusiastic. One excellent method is to foster creativity among your employees. Doing so can lead to innovative ideas and solutions. Here are five strategies to spark creativity within your team: 1. Provide Autonomy and Ownership Give employees the freedom to take ownership of their projects and tasks. When individuals feel a sense of autonomy, they are more likely to explore unique and creative approaches to problem-solving. Allow them to make decisions, set goals, and experiment with strategies. 2. Encourage Open Communication Create an environment where open and non-judgmental communication is valued. Encourage employees to freely share their thoughts, ideas, and feedback without fear of criticism. Regular team meetings, brainstorming sessions, and idea-sharing platforms can facilitate open discussions and the exchange of creative insights. 3. Challenge Assumptions Encourage employees to question assumptions and look at problems from different angles. Create a culture where asking "why" and challenging the status quo is welcomed. Doing so can lead to breakthroughs and innovative solutions that might not otherwise happen. 4. Embrace Diverse Perspectives Foster a culture that values diversity in all its forms. When individuals with different backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints collaborate, it can lead to the generation of innovative ideas. Encourage diverse teams and create an inclusive atmosphere where everyone's input is respected and appreciated. 5. Provide Time for Exploration Dedicate specific time for employees to engage in creative activities unrelated to their usual tasks, such as "innovation time," hackathons, or creative challenges. Allowing employees to explore hobbies, side projects, or areas of personal interest can stimulate their creativity and lead to unexpected breakthroughs. 6. Encourage Breaks and Downtime Recognize the importance of breaks and downtime in the creative process. Encourage employees to step away from their workstations, go for walks, or engage in activities that help them relax and recharge. Creative ideas often emerge when the mind has space to wander. 7. Recognize and Reward Creativity Acknowledge and reward creative efforts and outcomes. Appreciation can occur through formal recognition programs, incentives, or simply acknowledging and celebrating employees' creative contributions in team meetings. Remember that fostering creativity requires a supportive and encouraging environment. By implementing these strategies, you can help your employees tap into their creative potential, leading to innovative ideas that benefit both the individual and the organization. An added bonus is that your employees will love it! # # # Speaking of innovation, what has worked in your company for sparking creativity? What has been your track record in this area? I'd love to hear what's worked for you! And if you're currently experiencing challenges in this area, I'd love to brainstorm ideas about how you could improve your innovation efforts. Click the button below to schedule a chat!
By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions Being a leader these days is undoubtedly a challenge—there are so many balls to juggle that it can be tricky to find time to sharpen your saw. That's why I've compiled a list of 17 leadership quotes to give you some quick inspiration to help you on your leadership journey! # # # Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. — Jack Welch If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader — John Quincy Adams The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things — Ronald Reagan A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. — John C. Maxwell A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. — Douglas MacArthur A boss has the title, the leader has the people. — Simon Sinek If you think you are leading and turn around to see no one following you, then you are just taking a walk. — John C. Maxwell Leadership is an action, not a position. — Donald McGannon Leadership is unlocking people's potential to become better. — Bill Bradley You manage things; you lead people. — Grace Murray Hopper Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple and it is also that difficult. — Warren G. Bennis Real leadership is leaders recognizing that they serve the people that they lead. — Pete Hoekstra A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others see. — Leroy Eimes Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. — Warren G. Bennis There is a difference between being a leader and being a boss. Both are based on authority. A boss demands blind obedience; a leader earns his authority through understanding and trust. — Klaus Balkenhol The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes. — Tony Blair You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too. — Sam Rayburn Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. — Peter Drucker # # # This last quote is significant. A lot of companies may be doing many things, but are they the right things? If you're wondering if your company is going down the right path with potential projects, I'd love to talk with you! I have several resources that can help you determine what your next best steps should be. Click the button below to set up a time to chat!
By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions Have you ever taken a risky leap at an opportunity that was a fantastic experience? At the time, it may have seemed to be a crazy decision, but you look back on it and smile when you think about it. That happened to me when I decided to participate in the "Honeywell Icon" competition (their version of American Idol) at a global sales conference when I worked for Honeywell years ago. I bring this up because I acquired some amazing leadership lessons from this experience that I'd like to share with you around embracing opportunities and obtaining success: 1. You're More Prepared Than You Think You Are I didn't think I was good enough to enter the competition when I first heard about it. I hadn't done karaoke for decades, even though, at the time, I was playing guitar and singing at open mics. Lessons Learned: Many of us underestimate ourselves when we have what it takes to succeed. After examining the opportunity and asking mentors or trusted colleagues if they believe it's worth considering, move on to the next step. 2. Take a Calculated Leap I decided to practice the song I chose (Desperado by The Eagles) to see if it was worth the risk. After that, I knew my previous performance experience would give me the confidence I needed. With the urging of my co-workers, I signed up within 15 minutes of the competition. When it came time for me to sing, I went all in and had a blast. It helped that many in the audience had overindulged quite a bit, so people were over the top with my performance, especially my colleagues. Lessons Learned: If you have the qualifications, go for it! Don’t give into imposter syndrome; embrace the opportunity and make the best of it! If you determine you're not qualified at present and it's something you would love to do in the future, take steps to prepare yourself for future opportunities. 3. Reap the Rewards & Learn from Your Mistakes While singing, I made a slight mistake that I quickly caught before it became significant, so nobody noticed. I pretended like nothing wrong had happened. In the end, I won the Honeywell Icon title. I achieved my 15 minutes of fame and enjoyed every minute of it! Winning this silly competition brought confidence that carried over into many areas of my life, all because I took the leap of faith and succeeded. Lessons Learned: Minimize mistakes along the way so they don't become more prominent and noticeable. Also, be sure to learn what you can from them. When you succeed, celebrate the victory before moving on to the next opportunity. So many times, we forget to do that! Then, translate your newly gained confidence to the following tasks at hand. # # # I am excited to announce that I'm offering a new software platform that helps small business owners grow their businesses on autopilot. It's an all-in-one sales and marketing system, a business in a box, that helps generate more leads and close deals quicker with much less effort. This is especially helpful for those who would like to improve their process for follow-ups. If you'd like to learn more, click the button below to set up a chat!
By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions Many companies are jumping on the digital transformation bandwagon for good reasons. Those who delay doing so face the distinct possibility of being left behind. Here are some eye-opening statistics that prove this point:
With this in mind, companies that don’t embrace DX efforts can experience the following consequences: 1. Inability to Meet Customer Expectations Here’s a perfect example of how not embracing DX can lead to disaster: Years ago, many of us were more than willing to hop in the car to grab a movie at Blockbuster, bring it home, and settle into our favorite armchairs to watch it. Now with a few clicks of a remote, we can watch a Netflix movie from the comfort of our homes. Discerning companies, like Netflix, see the writing on the wall and change with the times. Blockbuster didn’t do this—they refused to go more digital, which led to their demise. 2. Higher Costs Associated with Manual, Inefficient Business Processes Many employees manually fill out forms or use Excel spreadsheets to complete their work. Some of these tasks can be so repetitive that they are mind-numbing. Both scenarios can be time consuming. With automated systems, employees can fill out forms that parse out correct information and tasks to other people next in the work queue. That way, people will know what they're supposed to be doing when they're supposed to be doing it. Furthermore, systems with artificial intelligence and bots running in the background can make repetitive decisions without employee intervention. 3. Higher Costs Associated with Maintaining Legacy Systems Companies that refrain from updating their legacy systems to newer, more efficient technologies waste precious resources by pouring money into maintaining those systems. Organizations may find that the inefficient patchworking of outdated systems could cost more than implementing new, more efficient systems that could provide a greater Return on Investment. Employee frustrations can also run higher around not having more intelligent, integrated systems at their disposal, and keeping employees happy in a tight business market is of utmost importance! These are just a few examples of the consequences companies can face by not embracing DX. Organizations that prioritize DX projects in their budgets, choose the right software platforms to meet their needs, and successfully implement their initiatives are more likely to reap benefits that will help place them at the head of the pack. This last sentence is crucial! Companies must choose the right platform and ensure proper management of the project to be successful. If you're interested in learning how to do this right for your DX projects, check out Michael Cantu’s and my book, No-Nonsense Digital Transformation. It provides a step-by-step roadmap for preparing for and implementing digital transformation initiatives in your business so you can help ensure success even before you start. If you’re interested in learning more, click the button below.
By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO and Founder of Kent Business Solutions Many business leaders are scratching their heads, wondering how to prevent the Great Reshuffle from negatively impacting their organizations. One way to help counteract the exodus of talent is through recognizing and rewarding employees for their service. Here are 10 creative ways to give kudos to your employees: 1. Share Employee Content on Your Blog If you have employees that like to write (and that's not their main role), share their content on your company's blog. 2. Recognize Outside-of-Work Success Share your employees' successes outside of work on social media channels, your internal website, or your company's website. 3. Showcase the Monetary or Volunteer Impact of Employee Efforts If an employee's efforts on a project contributed positively to the bottom line, highlight that in some manner to your employee base. You can also draw attention to employees who support charitable contributions through either donations or volunteer time. 4. Provide Stipends for Long-Distance Commuters Employees living far away or who often experience heavy traffic during their commutes could receive stipends to help pay for gas. 5. Use Gamification Apps to Fuel Productivity and Motivation Gamification gives employees an entertaining way to meet company requirements, such as training. What might often be a tedious process could be transformed into something fun. Check out what Edgagement, Hoopla, and Gametize apps have to offer along these lines. 6. Share Kudos from Customers Create an Employee Wall of Fame to highlight customer feedback directed at particular employees or teams. 7. Share Employee Kudos At the start of your meetings, recognize employees for the small, daily wins. These are often overlooked, but these shout-outs can go a long way towards increasing employee morale. 8. Surprise Employees with Snacks or Meals Bring in or order food during busy workdays. It lets your employees know you appreciate their hard work. 9. Provide Sabbaticals for Long-Timers For employees who have been with the company for five, seven, or 10 years (for example), consider providing them with sabbaticals. That way, they can take quality time off work to pursue their passion and return to work refreshed and ready to re-engage with your company. 10. Use the Power of a Post-It Note I left this for last because it's something you can start doing today! Who doesn't like a personal touch to show appreciation? A simple post-it note with a meaningful message that you place on an employee's desk is a simple act that can go a long way to show appreciation. These are just a few things you can do to recognize and reward your employees. Doing so can help keep employees happy and can also help build a foundation of increased loyalty to your company. And what business leader wouldn't want that? # # # If you or anyone you know are stuck in the middle of a project and don't know how to get it moving forward... OR you want to start projects but don't have the internal bandwidth to undertake them, I'd love to have a chat! I have over 30 years of project management expertise, so I can help accelerate these projects over the finish line. Interested in learning more? Click the button below to schedule a time!
By: Kathy Kent Toney, President and Founder of Kent Business Solutions As a business leader, it can be daunting to plan for and implement a digital transformation initiative. How do you ensure that you start off on the right foot? There is one essential thing to consider…ensuring your team has the right mindset. It’s a vital aspect for ensuring project success and keeping your ideology fit. It’s great to have a good plan, great people, processes, and execution, but if you don’t have the right mindset, successful digital transformation projects will only be a pipe dream. So, what are the qualities of a great mindset? It all starts with team members who:
These qualities are just the tip of the iceberg, so let’s take a deeper dive into some four key aspects of having a great mindset: 1. Honesty and Candor Creating a mindset of honesty and candor is essential to have successful teams. Honesty should never be devalued within your team. Candor involves talking about things in a real way, without negativity, towards other team members. It’s discussing the things that can be done better or how individuals can interact more effectively, without pointing fingers. This also includes Care, which means having an attitude that you are all in this together. It’s involves determining how to best look after team members and being aware of how individual members are doing. Care comes down to active concern for the total person. Case in point—everybody's got a life outside of work. Having an empathetic understanding of what things employees are balancing, to the point that they feel free to share about them, is the goal. Here’s an example. Bob has been working late every night and seems stressed, which is uncommon for him. As a leader, it would be helpful to ask Bob how he's really doing—to show true care to him, making sure he is doing alright. It may also involve “taking one for the team”—giving Bob permission to leave a couple hours earlier the next day, if that seems appropriate. And here’s a further illustration of how having the right collective mindset throughout your team might look like. Bob’s manager could ask someone to pick up the slack for him and a team member would most likely be glad to jump in and help. On the other hand, having negative team mindsets could result in many more problems on a project. Imagine this—team members with a fearful mindset aren’t going to be as forthcoming when something's a mess. And with that type of environment, you’re most likely not going to find individuals wanting to jump into to help when someone’s needs a break. They’ll perhaps be more concerned about not meeting their own work goals while caring less about the overall team goals. Bottom line—it comes down to working with your team to build the right mindset, which in turn, helps create a healthier team culture. 2. Endurance Endurance is one of the most important factors of continued success and is a large part of having a great mindset. This is true for anything, whether you are building a business, a team or your life. Successful teams complete projects over and over again. It has to do with their ability to endure. Every day they come to work and complete tasks, completing one more piece of the puzzle at a time. It involves team members keeping their mindsets positive and making a decision to endure. Of course, great leaders will use the “Care” approach to check on them, as well, to help them in the process if they’re getting stuck. In the end, endurance is the ability do what it takes over and over again with measurable, incremental and positive results, which move you towards a successful conclusion of a project. It’s also about making sure you do what you said you would do. 3. Visibility and Transparency This involves open communication with your stakeholders, whether external or internal. Essentially, it’s all about letting them know that you will have a mindset of honesty, candor and care with them and that you will escalate issues when required. By doing that, you show leadership how much you care about the project, which will pay dividends for you throughout the course of your work. For example, if you happen to miss a deadline, it may look less erratic when you're raising the issue with management. It really is going to make a difference in the way that they view you and how they view the project. But that’s not the only good outcome. Having visibility and transparency amongst all team members can positively affect the end users of the process, and eventually the business as a whole. 4. Change Management How you approach communication of planned changes has a powerful effect on mindset. That’s why a good change management approach is important—employees in an organization really need to understand what's changing. That way, they can prepare themselves for the changes, so that they can achieve the right mindset. This involves communicating the amount of effort required for a project to transition from where they’re at to where they have to be for the business to succeed. Then, it’s asking for their feedback along the way. This removes the outward perception of changing for change sake and casts a vision of the future to help ensure success for the organization. And it really becomes an organizational change/movement mindset. This is vital, because this can change the whole organization’s attitude and help create an environment that is more accepting of digital transformation. When you can do that, you’re well on your way to a more successful digital transformation journey for your organization! **** This newsletter is an example of the content Michael Cantu and I have included in our best-selling book on Amazon, No-Nonsense Digital Transformation. This book talks extensively about creating proper mindsets, building exceptional teams, and creating great cultures, so it isn't just for digital transformation fans. Are you interested in learning more? Then click the button below to get started!
By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions As a business leader, ensuring newly launched projects succeed is always challenging. Unfortunately, projects can still fail despite best efforts. One different way to view these failures is to hone in on what didn’t work in those situations. Flipping the switch on these scenarios can provide valuable insight into what could’ve worked. Along those lines, what are some common mistakes that project managers can avoid to help ensure success? 1. Failing to Think Outside the Box to Avoid Potential Problems Unfortunately, many Project Management (PMs) are so focused on putting out fires instead of thinking outside the box to help prevent the occurrence of possible challenges. Great PMs are tuned into what could potentially go wrong. They are forward-looking, ask questions, and are on the lookout for problems before they ever occur. 2. Prioritizing the Unimportant over the Important Too often, PMs will focus on minutia instead of the most important things: ensuring the client is happy, tracking to budget, and keeping the project on time, to name a few. For instance, it doesn’t matter nearly as much if someone hasn’t updated a chart or properly marked a task as 40% instead of 50% complete. A good PM constantly weighs what’s most important and tackles those items first. 3. Under-utilizing the Best Aspects of the Team When PMs don’t take the time to understand their individual team members’ strengths and weaknesses, this can sabotage the team functioning at more optimum levels. For example, Bob may excel at performing a particular task, but instead, the PM assigns the task to Suzy who isn’t as skilled at that particular job. Also, some team members may require more oversight than others. Finding out these abilities and assigning team members to perform tasks that match those skills can tremendously boost team productivity. 4. Neglecting to Regularly Test Early-On Assumptions At the beginning of projects, PMs often have to make assumptions based on a scarcity of available information. When more data becomes available, it’s important to test and revise assumptions against this information. Failure to do so can result in serious errors that can affect project success. These are a few examples of steps PMs can take to avoid issues that can lead to project failure. Speaking of avoiding failure, Scrum is a wonderful project management approach that helps identify problems before they ever become issues. As a certified Professional Scrum Master, I’ve experienced this reality repeatedly in my line of work. I’ve also seen how the use of Scrum typically decreases the amount of time to finish projects, and it doesn’t matter what type of project it is. If you have any projects that you would like to undertake but have limited internal resources to complete them, or you are stuck in the middle of a project with little hope of moving forward, I’d love to have a conversation with you! If that sounds good, click the button below to schedule a chat.
By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions Imagine the following scenario: Your business launched a highly anticipated new product or service into the market, and results were well below expectations. So much time, money and effort were spent on creating it, and the development team was positive it was going to do well in the market. Disappointed is hardly a word that describes everyone’s emotions. The ramifications were not too pretty as well--one person lost their job, another was demoted, revenues plummeted, etc. Everyone on the team was asking themselves: ”What could we have done differently?” Perhaps you don’t need to imagine this situation, because it unfortunately happened in your business. If that’s the case, here’s a possible answer--your business could have done a better of job of listening to the Voice of the Customer (VOC), before you ever started the development project. If customer requirements were well documented in advance, your new product or service could have been tailored more to meet the customer needs. By doing so, the likelihood of a more successful product or service launch would have significantly increased. So, what are the warning signs that your business could use VOC? Let's dive into that! 1. Product or Service Launch Failures The example described in the previous paragraph is often an indicator that your company needs to use some VOC techniques. Having a robust process should lessen these failures significantly. 2. High Levels of Customer Churn There’s no need to scratch your head, wondering why they left. The best solution is to reach out to them and find out the reasons for their departure. Perhaps a survey or focus group would be beneficial. Then, armed with these insights, you can put together an action plan to resolve the issues. 3. Rising Customer Complaints If you’ve noticed an uptick in your customer complaints, it’s time to start doing a better job of understanding what is making them unhappy. Next, devise a plan to reverse the trend. 4. Depressed Revenues It’s not a far leap to find a connection between less-than-stellar profits and less-than-happy customers. Digging in deep to find out the reasons for their disenchantment can provide actionable insights for your business. 5. No Formalized Method of Gathering, Recording or Acting on Customer Feedback It’s so important to a business’ profitability to have a standardized way of ensuring feedback is properly gathered, stored, and acted upon. In fact, one study proves that companies with VOC programs outperform all others by as much as 22% across a number of categories, including revenue, customer churn, among others. There’s proof that VOC works! If your business hasn’t encountered these warning signs, congratulations! You’re most likely doing a good job of listening to your customers. However, if any of these situations sound familiar, your business could be a good candidate for using VOC techniques. If you’re in this boat, I’d love to brainstorm with you some possible solutions! All you have to do is click the button below to schedule a time on our calendars.
By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions In today's fast-paced business landscape, leaders are juggling so many tasks that they often find little time to develop their leadership skills. To help those in this boat, here are ten leadership quotes to provide a quick dose of inspiration on your journey to becoming a better leader. # # # Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. — Jack Welch A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. — Lao Tzu Where there is no vision, the people perish. -- Proverbs 29:18 You manage things; you lead people. — Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper A leader is a dealer in hope. — Napoleon Bonaparte Leadership is lifting a person's vision to high sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. — Peter Drucker The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it. -- Theodore Roosevelt A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be. — Rosalynn Carter He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. -- Aristotle A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. -- John Maxwell # # # This last quote is powerful. Leaders who know where they are going and take those who follow them on their journey can experience higher levels of success than those who don't. Unfortunately, many leaders don't know how to lead effectively, and their companies suffer because of their inability to adapt, grow, and thrive during challenging times. That's why Michael Cantu and I wrote our best-selling Amazon book, No-Nonsense Digital Transformation—to help business leaders who fall into both categories. And it's about more than just how to digitally transform organizations. In it, we talk extensively about how to shift mindset, change culture, and build great teams. Business leaders who instill these qualities in their organizations have a greater capacity to build stronger foundations, leading to increased productivity and profitability. In a nutshell, we've created a roadmap to effectively manage change in your business. So, the book is for more than just digital transformation fans! To learn more about the book, click the button below!
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