Our clients frequently struggle handing off work, responsibilities and leadership to their team. “It’s just easier if I do it myself.” “I am the only one who can do ______.” If you hear yourself thinking or saying these things often, your ‘thinking’ may be part of the problem. XM Truth: Your team […]
My first job after my military service was with General Electric. Legendary CEO Jack Welch was finishing up his 20 years at the helm and said this about leaders. “Good business leaders CREATE a vision, ARTICULATE the vision, passionately OWN the vision, and relentlessly DRIVE it to completion.” At XM Performance we often […]
Build yourself out of the day-to-day operations. This helps you work on the activities that cause acceleration, and have capacity to handle the growth when it comes. When owners say “It’s just easier if I do it myself,” they are usually trying to avoid the conflict of holding someone accountable. Or, they have a process […]
Attempting to define effective leaders in a sentence or less is quite difficult. In my years as an Army Infantryman, working inside General Electric, and living as an entrepreneur, the one quality that set apart the top performers is what I like to call Leadership Grit. Grit is a transformational mix of intestinal fortitude, […]
“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.” –Tom Landry With these short and precise words of wisdom, football great Tom Landry unlocks the reason why New Year’s resolutions fail with regularity. Goals are as essential to success […]
Many business owners begin to feel like giving up after running a business for a few years. It’s hard, stressful, and often unrewarding. 8 out of 10 small businesses fail within the first 18 months and another 50% of businesses fail within the first 5 years. These statistics are quite gloomy, leaving us asking the […]
I have been studying the psychology of performance with renewed interest this year, and came across this quote from Abraham Maslow. “The story of the human race, is the story of men and women selling themselves short.” We have amazing work to do at XM Performance. Nothing is more fulfilling than watching men, women, and […]
The business owners who invest in our Leadership Forums often find the process so valuable that they participate in a group for several years. An interesting phenomenon is at work here; people need reminding more than they need instruction. The basics of building a solid, profitable business are simple, but not easy. Our experience […]
We work with so many amazing people and businesses. Frequently after hearing an inspired story of excellence, we look through financials that show years of little or no growth. When asked about Marketing and Sales, we often hear with boldness, “We get all of our business word of mouth.” After making the gentle observation that […]
I have a BS in Mathematics. As an undergraduate, I initially struggled with the liberal arts courses that did not have problem solving and scientific method at their core. After reading a book on study habits, I started making a second, handwritten copy of my lecture notes before the next session of each class. This […]