Xtra Mile Resources

We worked with two high-potential businesses this week; reaching for their $5MM breakthroughs. Strong foundations are built and the potential for growth in their markets is very high in 2023. Their major obstacles for next-level performance are leadership capacity, leadership capability, and caring too deeply. Obstacle 1: Technical mastery ≠ Leadership ability. To get to the next level, these owners need leaders […]

I had an up close and personal look at a high-performing team last month. I observed them working together almost non-stop for 18 days, 24 hours a day. You see, a fluke crash on a mountain bike nearly took me out and I watched this all from my hospital bed. In spite of the painful […]

Following a bad leader can be a nightmare. Untrained and incompetent leaders can cost your company scary amounts of money. The most obvious impact will be in turnover. A recent survey on LinkedIn showed that, out of almost 100,000 votes, 71% left their current jobs because of bad management/work culture. Most young/new leaders and managers […]

When we achieve massive growth in our small business, the owner’s leadership role must evolve quickly. The team needs to be dynamic as well. Technology has eliminated the role of the 1960’s era secretary. The more modern title of Executive Administrator (EA) is also too stagnant for the needs of our fast-growing, small business, clients. […]

Eight skills SMB owners and leaders need to master to make their businesses one of the best places to work in America. Story Telling (Vision, Sales, Inspiration, Recognition). Building Relationship Capital => Influence. Focusing time and attention on results that matter. Effective DELEGATION of work. FEEDBACK: Accelerating team performance and human potential. Conflict Resolution. Instigating […]

We are working with a new client that is addicted to speed. Her clear vision, intense competitiveness, and new funding are leading to rapid growth in multiple states. The Dilemma. Accelerated growth and rapid evolution are out-pacing many of the leaders on the team. In several locations the teams are not effectively engaged; high […]

(Part 4 of our 4 part series on leadership in the SMB space) Early in our 31-year marriage, my bride and I were struggling with communication around mostly small things. It turns out this two-joined-together-as-one from the marriage vows is easier to say than to do. At some point our tense conversation went something like this: Ross: “I […]

(Part 3 of our 4 part series on leadership in the SMB space) We had a rising star on our team that had just been promoted to team leader when we hired a new Administrative Assistant. During a leadership huddle I asked our newly minted leader about progress on a couple key initiatives. When we found […]

(Part 2 of our 4 part series on leadership in the SMB space) Lie #1: It’s just easier if I do it myself. Lie #2: I am the only one who can do it. Lie #3: My people don’t care as much as I do. XM Truth: Most of us suck at basic delegation; these […]

Overwhelmed. When we have honest conversations with ourselves as business owners, 10 out of 10 of us would like to spend less time with ‘overwhelmed.’ (We have precise data on this.) One way to fix ‘overwhelmed’ as a SMB owner is to hire and train leaders. When we place an entire process and team under […]

Have you made any changes in your accountability approach based on the two XM Truths from last week’s blog? In our wide range of SMB clients, most human performance problems are missing these components. We want to share two more hot tips that will help leaders make delegation and accountability positive and powerful. Hot Tip #1: […]

We have been wrestling with the elusive topic of ACCOUNTABILITY with several business leaders this week. We know we need it, and though it is easy to talk about WHAT, it is very difficult to execute HOW. Accountability is a complex human interaction that takes time and effort to master. XM Truth #1: Accountability is impossible without clarity. Simple […]

Have you ever heard the term, benched? Sitting on the Bench. Riding the Pine. All negative terms/analogies for being taken out of the game. This week we want to introduce you to a positive bench analogy, one of the most forward-thinking tools for the SMB owner. We call it the Virtual Bench. When a small business […]

Business owners, there are two things we owe our employees, besides a paycheck. A leader who WANTS to lead A leader who KNOWS HOW to lead In most small/medium businesses, the front-line leaders are often the teammates who have been there the longest. When promoted to a leadership role we are giving them a tough assignment; becoming the […]

Almost all of our clients are rebels to some extent. They have a better idea, a more compelling vision, an insatiable desire to disrupt the status quo. If they followed our #XtraMile guidance in January they put a plan together for an economy that came back faster than expected. As we hit 2021’s midway […]

Ready to plan? Start here. Start now. While the coronavirus resurged in December and January, we were deep in the middle of the 2021 planning process with our clients. We challenged our clients to make two different plans for this year. Plan A was a hold the line plan. Keep running with strategic pivots, maintain profitability, […]

If you know anything about dare etiquette (The Christmas Story), only in the most extreme circumstances can you go straight from the dare to the Triple Dog Dare. Today, we too are going to break etiquette, because we strongly believe in the power of this tool/process to unleash next-level performance. For over a […]

What Is Vision? VISION is one of the most diluted words in the business/strategic planning conversation. For example, we have a BIG WHY (Purpose): To make small/medium businesses the best places to work in America Some organizations call this a MISSION STATEMENT. We refer to this statement frequently as our aspirational vision. […]

The most rewarding experience at XM Performance is when our work empowers and inspires humans to perform at levels they didn’t even know were possible. One of our teammates who said she would never do sales is the #2 revenue generator at XM Performance. A scrappy master trade technician is becoming a great leader, encourager, and developer of […]

“I wish I had learned some of this shit 25 years ago, I would have been a lot better at my job.” General Superintendent for a $300MM per year General Contractor. Forgive the language, we have been heavily engaged in the construction world for the last 5 years. A competitive, high-stress industry with many unique […]