If you want something, and you haven’t dedicated time and/or money to it, it’s a wish. A wish is something you hope someone else (the universe?) will make happen for you.

When it’s on your calendar and in your checkbook, then it’s a priority. Priorities get done, wishes don’t.

I’m hiring an assistant to work with me on every aspect of my entrepreneurial, business management, investing, and consulting activities. Responsibilities will span a wide range from small tasks such as scheduling appointments and billing clients to challenging projects such as researching potential acquisitions and marketing our offerings.

This job is a unique opportunity to learn entrepreneurship, business, leadership, and investment hands-on alongside me.

The position is full-time, on-site at my office in downtown Champaign, IL. Some travel opportunity is likely.

Send interested applicants to www.aardsma.com/apply.

Thanks!

It’s easy to let staff meetings turn into routines that don’t confront the tough questions and don’t move the team forward. We try to make them count. A few questions we ask at staff meetings at my companies:

How’s everybody doing personally?

What are our big-picture goals for this company and are we achieving them?

What in your area is going well? What in your area can improve?

What do our dashboards and key numbers say about how we are performing?

What have we learned lately?

How do we intend to win versus our competitors?

What will we each commit to doing before the next meeting?

It’s nearly impossible to get anywhere without trust. It’s the core of intimate relationships. It’s the lifeblood of teams performing toward a common goal. It’s the heart of making a sale. Even something as simple as paying at drive-through window #1 and getting your food at drive-through window #2 is based on trust.

We trust people who listen to us, tell us the truth, and do what they say they will do. We trust people who look out for our best interest even when they have the upper hand. We trust people who admit when they are wrong and do what they can to make it right.

Earn deep and broad trust by consistently doing those things. It’s probably the most valuable investment in your future you can make.

Every team must answer this question. What’s the official answer, and what really happens in practice? New members of the team will be feeling around to find out. Sometimes long-time members of the team aren’t sure either.

Here are the major options:

1. Whoever has the most expertise and/or authority will decide. The best decision is the smartest decision.

2. It’s a team decision, a democracy. The best decision is the one that has the most consensus behind it.

3. It’s moral authority, not the leader’s authority. The best decision is the right thing to do ethically, for the cause or for the customer.

A related question: Where’s the line between what our team is authorized to decide and what must be decided above us?

Team performance is highest when all members have the same expectation about how decisions will be made. As leaders it’s our responsibility to clearly communicate, and model, the answer.