Xtra Mile Resources

“Sigh, Let’s be blunt. I’m a little distracted. What do you want? Headaches and bad faith Are all that I’ve got. First, I misplaced the ending Then I lost the plot.” Song Lyrics, Lost the Plot by the NewsBoys Fog of War lesson #1 focused on cutting through the fog with your TEAM. This […]

We have been on calls and video chats with nearly one hundred business owners, managers, and leaders over the last 2 weeks. I don’t know how you are feeling, but Q1 didn’t exactly wrap up as we expected in the beginning of March. The government mandated closures and stay home orders are saving lives and reducing the […]

Leaders, do you want your team performing on the #XtraMile? It is our job to know what they need and adjust our style to meet those needs. You don’t have to work with someone for 2-3 years to really understand them. We have powerful tools, a virtual ‘easy button’, to help you understand, connect, motivate, […]

College campuses are powering back up, my social media feed is full of ‘first day of school’ pictures and stories. Something about beginnings that fill us with hope, positivity, opportunity. In the business world the start of school also means the end of summer vacations, partial teams, covering for coworkers. Right now we have 100 […]

Conflict can’t be avoided, and it can’t be won (see our previous blog). Arguably the most complex of human interactions, we have all experienced poor conflict skills in our families, neighborhoods, and at work. Here are a few simple rules to follow that will lower conflict and drama in your teams. #1 Make sure they […]

Last week we discussed the challenges of keeping business partnerships afloat. But there is another partnership that needs attention in the small-medium business world, the employer-employee partnership. We call this a partnership because each person has a decision to make about working together. Each player has expectations, needs, and requirements that must be negotiated and […]

I love the Farmers insurance tag line on their new commercials. “We know a thing or two, because we have seen a thing or two.” Our competitive advantage is a decade of experience helping organizations create breakthroughs. Though many of us believe we are on an island no one else can understand, the challenges of […]

The third in our series of building better teams We started this series of blogs (Blog #1) with the truth that high performing (Xtra Mile) teams don’t miraculously gather and deliver results, someone leads them there. After we have built respect and trust, and removed disruptors (Blog #2), what can a leader do to build a […]

We have interesting conversations with business owners all the time. A couple of weeks ago our interactions served up these two gems. “The constant opportunity for loss is very stressful.” -Service business owner “I guess I am having a mid-life crisis.” – Exit interview for one of our clients, departing employee age: 19 What about the constant […]

Small Business Owners, what does your HR department look like? For a lot of us, it looks like the person we see while we brush our teeth. With no HR professional, no budget to pay for pricey recruiting, and hard pressed for time as we grow our business, how can we recruit great talent and […]

Over the past two weeks I have dealt with a harried realtor who wasn’t keeping up with his commitments, a busy executive who has convinced herself she is the only one who can manage an out of state project, and a chiropractor with big ideas for new services, but no time or finances to expand. […]

Snowflakes, fragile, entitled, narcissistic…the youngest members of our workforce, the Millennials, sure have a bad rap.

“Sometimes we mistake the edge of our rut for the horizon.” – Unknown I had lunch last week with the 2nd generation owner of a decades old business. He was feeling stuck. Early this week I had coffee with a woman in her 30’s, who leads a three-year-old start up with her husband. Very […]

“At work , our sense of commitment and control depends more on our direct boss than anyone else. When we have a supportive boss, our bond with the organization strengthens and we feel a greater span of influence.” Adam Grant, The Originals We have talked about this for years at XM Performance, but from the […]

Episode #1: Crappy Delegation Business Owners do you ever catch yourself saying these things? “They know what to do” “If I could just find the ‘right’ people” “Be an adult, figure it out” “I can’t get ‘these kids’ to do anything” We hear these statements repeated in offices every week. Effective Delegation is really quite […]

After leaving the Army in 1996, I worked in management at a ‘piece work’ union plant in Erie, PA. These hourly workers had incentive pay that was based on their personal productivity. Very difficult to manage in a 3 shift operation that builds locomotives. No one can build a locomotive alone. With everyone looking out […]