You hear it a lot ..."be vulnerable". Why is this so important for a business owner to understand and do? Listen to this conversation with Sonny Hobbs, Founder of Culleoka Company, as he explains. He clearly outlines that it is a work in progress along our journey through life.  

As we, Gray Solutions, work with business owners across many industries, we find that those that work hard at being vulnerable and authentic with their teams generally have built a better culture. The trust in the organization is allowed to flourish and grow to levels of high-performance. 

We talk about culture being the great differentiator from one business to another. One of the key components of the best cultures is the ability of the leaders to be vulnerable. While being vulnerable to some may sound weak, it actually takes strength and courage to exhibit vulnerability as a leader. It's admirable. 

Listen in and learn more. In this episode we talk about the following as he...

The Stages of a Business

In our work over the years, we have outlined three general stages that a small business will go through as it grows. They are the Technician, Owner and CEO phases. While each of these phases can be broken down into further segments, we will focus on these three overarching stages in this article.

When speaking with Shannon Miles, CEO and Co-Founder of Belay Solutions, we discussed her and Bryan's (husband) journey through these stages. They experienced a three year start up phase. At that point, they had to make some changes in their mental approach to get into the Owner stage. Now they are clearly in the CEO stage. Listen to the episode to learn more. 

While these stages exist and are clearly defined on paper, they may actually blend into each other. There is a definite difference in the skills needed in each stage as well as the mental approach. It will be important to learn, hire and/or develop the skills needed first for you as a leader and...

 What is a Leadership Pipeline?

Your business will always have to recreate itself at best and may even go backwards if you don't have a leadership pipeline established. What exactly is a leadership pipeline you ask? It is a pipeline of talent filled with future leaders of your business. It is the inventory of talent being trained and groomed to be the next level of leaders of your business. They are your future. 

Why a Leadership Pipeline?

A leadership pipeline allows you to build bench strength. As you fill the pipeline with talent you need to hire for culture fit, attitude and character above all else. Of course you must also consider the job role and personality match as well. To be sure, future leaders need to be hired that have a future of growth with the company. So in essence, the leadership pipeline is the bank of future leaders learning the business and gaining key insights while working for the organization. 

What are the Benefits of a Leadership Pipeline?...