Are you looking for strategies to grow your business and your people? Are you committed to being a leader and organization focused on putting your people first? Do you want tools to achieve your business goals by putting your people first?

Our special guest Lori Kaiser answers these and other questions about people first leadership, culture and business growth.

Lori Kaiser is the Founder and CEO of Kaiser Consulting, which she founded in 1992. Lori is a chief executive, corporate leader, and business strategist with a proven track record in assessing risk and creating solutions for Fortune 500 Company C-Level Executives and Boards. Kaiser Consulting is an international professional services firm specializing in accounting, finance and IT consulting with 80 finance and accounting professionals.

Most important, Lori and Kaiser Consulting have grown the business on the simple premise of putting their people first.

In fact, Lori and Kaiser Consulting have built and grown a business based upon what you may think a crazy approach – ask your people what kind of career and practice they want and then deliver it. In 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020 Kaiser Consulting was named a Columbus “Best Places to Work”.

The Leadership Junkies Podcast is brought to you by Cardivera.com.


Show Notes

Episode highlights…

  • Building, growing and running a business based upon your people’s optimal schedule
  • The death of the 40-hour work week and the benefits of having flexible schedules for your people
  • You can run a people first business and still deliver high value to all clients (including large corporations)
  • Building and nurturing an attraction model for building your team
  • The importance of cultural fit with your team members
  • Creating and using a success factor grid for your business and team
  • Interview questions to help you assess cultural and success factor fit
  • The importance of training and developing your people
  • The value of providing a training and development allowance for your people (in addition to in house training)
  • The challenge in offering flexible schedules is worth the returns
  • Get clear on the skills that are needed for your people to advance their career (and support them in growing those skills)
  • Using internal processes to continually evaluate your people’s time and schedules (avoiding overwork)
  • Keys for growing and advancing your people based upon the skills needed for the next level (not just their current level)
  • Every person is different which requires enhanced listening skills to understand each person
  • The clearer you are about what kind of people you want, the clearer it will be who’s not a good fit
  • When you put your people first, they will serve your clients well
  • Be willing to fire clients that don’t treat your people well
  • Be willing to say no to potential clients that don’t fit your people first model
  • It’s essential to understand and use your key performance indicators
  • Ask your people and make it safe for them to tell the truth and even say “no”

Resources:

Special Guest

Lori Kaiser

Founder of Kaiser Consulting

Your Hosts

Jeff Nischwitz

Author, speaker, coach, consultant, and
Chief SHIFT Officer of Cardivera

Craig Mathews

Strategist, innovator, consultant, and
CEO of Cardivera