Consulting

Engineering Empowerment and Growing Your Talent

Companies that show sincere intention to grow their employees and provide opportunities to do so has a direct impact on employee retention and improving the health of the culture. The goal isn't merely to provide a class, seminar or conference that is a single-use learning opportunity, instead, create an environment and culture that spurs knowledge sharing, encourages growth and delivers a feedback loop to discover blindspots.

Product/Project Planning and Development

Start Strong, Finish Strong

Any new effort or project is both exciting and scary. Scary? If it isn't a little scary, then you have to ask yourself if your goals aren't big enough. The success of a long-term project will be a direct reflection on the success of early planning. Your plan needs to be solid: strategically thought out, with room for tactical changes when new discoveries are made. Your plan will change, and depending on the ecosystem of your business, your forecasted future may only be realiable over a few months. You need to plan for this inevitability and build confidence levels into the plan.

If you need help breaking down a large project into consumable phases, preparing thorough documentation, defining facts and risks, evaluating the plan, assembling the teams and talent to execute, then contact me.

Process Improvement and Documentation

Just Enough Process

Process improvement is a bit of an oxymoron. Every process, by definition, comes baked-in with a continuous improvement procedure that organically evolves to fit your needs as they change. Hence, the focus is not on process improvement itself, but rather, defining each process that improves upon itself by regularly cadenced reflections and retrospectives.

My patent for a process analysis tool I built:Method, Code, and System for Business Process Analysis

Knowledge Management

Knowledge sharing is key to longevity and success of any business. Tribal knowledge and experience matter, and passing this on to others is critical. Yet, knowledge that isn't discoverable is useless. Knowledge that is out of date or no longer relevant (aka misinformation) is worse than having nothing at all. Your knowledge management system needs to be structure, relevant, and regularly curated. If your systems of knowledge looks like a dumpster fire, it's time to give me a call.

Employee Retention

It is every leader's priority to retain and grow talent. In the world of freelance and remote work, it is no longer common to stay at a company long-term. Why is this? I can name dozens of reasons before needing to blink, and the reasons to stay can be much shorter. Retention starts with employee engagement and having a community to thrive in. Employees need challenges and opportunities for growth. Employees need to celebrate success and learn from their mistakes. Employees need leaders they can trust and be confident that leadership genuinely cares about their personal growth and contributions.

These comments may sound obvious, but it is how we enact these objectives that matters.

Remote Leadership - How Leadership Practices have Changed

I agree that leadership is learned, not taught. Leadership within a physical office is more tangible and felt, while working remote allows a leader to be completely invisible - much to the dismay of every direct report. The requirements of leadership and the needs of our employees has not changed, but how we enact leadership practices has dramatically changed.

If you are starting a remote-first company, or your physical location has gone remote, then it's time to understand how to maximize the benefits of remote, while minimizing the complexities and challenges.

Read my Working Remote Guide to get started, and I hope to have more resources in the near future.

Hiring, recruitment and onboarding

These three responsibilities are commonly linked together and for good reason. When executed effectively, you maximize the potential of finding the right hire, set them up for success, and minimize the productivity impact when training is required. How do you feel about your current strategy? You may ask yourself:

• Am I using the right tools to discover top talent?
• Does my hiring strategy get the candidate excited about working here?
• Does my hiring strategy ensure they have the skills necessary?
• Does my hiring strategy test for proper fit and emotional intelligence?
• Are my hiring practices consistent for candidates applying for the same role?
• Do my new hires have the proper resources available to be self-taught?
• Do my new hires have clarity of expectations, responsibilities, and clear vision of our goals?
• How much time, effort, and money am I expending to recruit, hire, and train?

Leadership Coaching

Everyone needs a coach. Having a coach is not an indicator of weakness or that you are doing something wrong. Leadership can be lonely, and at times, you need to discuss sensitive topics and are not able to brainstorm with those in your inner circles who may be impacted by your decisions and have their own biases. Coaching comes in many forms and I attempt to fit the need of the leader. Some leaders need a sounding board for new ideas or current problems while others want guidance, techniques and strategies that have worked well in the past.