Xtra Mile Resources

Click here to check out our video this week – describing two types of Bad Apples that bring sour dysfunction to our SMBs. Our full prescription if you’re considering letting an employee go is outlined below in four steps: Step #1: Love Them. Care about the humans in your business enough to be present and make sure they are okay. […]

Check out our video Not Another YOU for a 1-minute paradigm shift on building your bench for maximum impact. In a scene from Bill Watterson’s classic comic Calvin & Hobbes, the anti-hero, Calvin, decides to build a duplicator. His theory: if he can create another Calvin, the duplicate can be responsible for the chores, homework and other […]

This is Strategic Planning Question #4. Check out our intro video to the idea of SWOT. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats: The SWOT analysis for “Where Are We Now?” We were working with a driven and passionate entrepreneur on a Strategic Planning Retreat with her team. She is a fast-paced, no-nonsense, high-D personality. Before I had even interviewed her leadership team, she […]

New Toolbox Series: Episode #4 (Check out the Conductor Video) In my final assignment as an employee, I ran a $20MM-a-year sports lighting joint venture for General Electric. On my team were structural engineers, a master electrician, lighting designers, a CFO, and manufacturing and quality managers. Most of these leaders had a decade or two […]

Flustered business owner, “I am not making any progress because my back-office manager is underperforming, so I have to keep doing his job.” XM Performance, “Where did you get him?” Flustered business owner, “He is my wife’s, best friend’s, cousin.” True story and all too common in the world of family-owned small businesses. Is […]

Values drive Culture; Culture distinguishes your business in the market place. Well defined and intentionally lived culture will also determine the long term fit of your employees. Our experience shows longevity is driven more by culture than the employee’s technical competence, or the employer’s compensation package In our small business DNA class, we define a […]

My parents were raised in a culture of “children should be seen, not heard.” I was from the latchkey generation and had a lot of autonomy with my time from a young age. My wife and I made intentional decisions to invest in our kids, teaching them to speak up, think for themselves, and ask […]

“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 […]