Tony Kubica

Management Consultants and Business Performance Improvement Specialists Sara Laforest and Tony Kubica have 50+ years of combined experience in helping small and large businesses accelerate their business growth in record times. Failure to properly motivate your team is just one way that you can be sabotaging your business. Get the full report on Self-Sabotage in Business.

Talent Integration Problem - Why Most Companies Hiring Retention Is Rate Less Than 50%

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Posted on 2011-11-03

The hiring retention success rate is disheartening with some studies reporting a rate lower than 50%. Through more than 50 years of combined experience 50+ in helping organizations improve their business performance, we (Tony Kubica and Sara LaForest) have uncovered three reasons why most companies and organizations fail to hire and retain top talent.

The First Reason Why Most Companies Hiring Retention Rate is Less Than 50%!

In the movie "Field of Dreams" , Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) hears a voice as he walks through his cornfield—"if you build it, he will come". Over the years it has since become part of our lexicon of misused quotes. It has even seeped into the talent integration and talent management world.

Many CEOs, executives, managers and HR directors believe if you hire them (or promote your employees) they will contribute. Well, to use another well- known phrase—"not exactly".

Why would you believe that hiring or promoting...

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Business Exit Planning - Can Your Business Survive If You Could No Longer Manage It Tomorrow?

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Posted on 2011-09-02

How much time do you spend thinking about business exit planning?

If you're like many of the small business owners we meet - not much. That's okay as long as you don't care about supporting yourself and your family when you retire or leave the business, and if you are not attached to what happens to the business, your employees and your customers after you leave. But in truth, the business professionals and small business owners we meet do care.

They care a lot - they just haven't done much about it yet.

Unfortunately, many business owners believe that their business will just dissolve when they exit, and don't believe or understand that their business could have value for sale.

Two Reasons Your Business Can Have Value After You Leave the Business

1. If you setup your business so it can be sold at a later date, then your company can help grow the acquirer's business by allowing them to add a new service or product line to their...

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Creating a Culture and Brand That Makes and Actually Keeps Brand Promises

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Posted on 2011-07-20

It's one thing to make a promise. It's quite another to keep it. Yet, businesses make promises every day. Some keep them. Some companies like AT&T, Bank of America and US Airways have good intentions, but can't keep them because their strong culture and strong brand are misaligned. And, worst of all, some businesses have no sincere intention of keeping them at all, regardless of what they say.

How are you and your business at keeping your promises?

Well, how you answered this questioned just defined your brand and your culture. Yes the two are connected, and this connection can be either:

. Strong and reinforcing - they are in alignment
. Strong but negatively reinforcing - they are competing or demonstrating dissonance
. Weak because they have not been defined and developed

Creating the Promise - Your Brand

To grow your business, you must identify your target market. This is the market niche you want...

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3 Options for Managing Change Plus 7 Steps Organizational Leaders Should Take When Facing a Challenge

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Posted on 2011-05-18

We've all heard it before - "if it we haven't thought of it then it isn't worth doing." "No one knows our business better than we do." This attitude is referred to as the "not invented here" syndrome. Consultants have seen it for years. Department managers and employees use it to fend off outside influence from other departments or intervention from consultants or advisors. Regardless of where the invasion is coming from, protectionism is the defense.

"Not invented here" is a cliché. But like many clichés or popular beliefs, we tend to think there is truth in the statement. However, "not invented here", is a problem and it serves as a form of organizational resistance to change. "Not invented here" conveys an important message - "if I am not involved with defining the situation and working on solutions, then I am not interested in your ideas, opinions or solutions."

When an organization is facing a challenge, it has 3 options:
1. Do nothing...

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Small Business Growth Quiz – 7 Market Focused Questions You Must Ask To Help You Grow

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Posted on 2011-03-30

There is a lot of attention directed at small businesses this year. President Obama talked about the need to help and support small businesses in his State of the Union address. And one outcome was the launch of Startup America. Also, states are talking about easing regulations and the tax burden on small businesses in their quest to reduce unemployment.

Is this the year of the small business?
Possibly.

Is this an opportunity for you as a small business owner?
Maybe.

Now, a Warning to Small Business Owners...

As a small business owner, however, it is not a good strategy to hope that the federal or state governments will pass the right legislation and write regulations, which will help you succeed in the next 12 months. Hope may spring eternal, but it is not a good business strategy.

Be wary of generalizations about how the economy is doing: who the winners are and who the losers are or will be. It's distracting and frankly,...

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Adopt a People-Centric Approach to Improve Customer Satisfaction and Profitability

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Posted on 2011-03-30

Does a leader need to be the smartest person in the company to achieve growth and customer satisfaction? No.

In fact, being the smartest person in the company can actually impede growth. Some leaders just can't get over "themselves." Yet unfortunately when you suggest that they could be the problem, it's often met with one of the following responses:

* Confusion (i.e. you talking to me?)
* Dismissive (i.e. you have no idea what you're talking about)
* Shock (i.e. how dare you talk to me that way)
* Anger (i.e. you're out of here)

After all, they are the smartest person in the company. They know the problems, they know what needs to be done, and they will do it.

We have a (perhaps unwelcome) secret to share...

No one is that smart. No one can do it all exceptionally alone (at least for long.) And talented employees want to contribute and show their talent.

The greatest risk in this self-delusional thinking is...

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How to Influence without Positional Authority and Improve Employee Morale Using 3 Simple Strategies

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Posted on 2010-09-01

We know what you're thinking... "Influence without positional authority" sounds like an oxymoron and if uttered in the organization, you believe you will have employees wondering about your sanity.

Everyone knows that the only way you will get things done in an organization is to use your authoritative position as a reason for your employees (and others) to listen to you.

Right?

Well - no.

We're telling you right now, influence without positional authority is not only possible, it's essential if you want to achieve anything meaningful in your organization. And, you must exercise it to evoke positive change.

And yes, it can be used with your employees, but it can also be used with you peers and with your boss. We all live in a 360-degree organizational world. We have yet to meet one executive who can achieve the results desired solely by using positional authority

As you delve deeper within this article, you will soon realize that you can...

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Succession Planning: How to Meet Future Talent Needs

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Posted on 2010-06-20

Many leaders believe succession planning is just a replacement strategy. They think of it as another exercise, a means to an end or a human resources task. They couldn't be more wrong!

Succession planning is a talent and organizational improvement initiative that enables your business or organization to grow and thrive now and in the future.

Why?

Because businesses and organizations can neither succeed nor grow without management talent. It's really that simple. If you want to build your business and organization, you need to start developing, nurturing and grooming your talent pipeline starting right now.

3 More Reasons Why You Need to Immediately Implement a Succession Planning Strategy

Reason One: Replacement for Key Employees

Replacing a CEO and key executives is clearly one of the reasons to do a succession plan. However, if you want to grow your business or organization than you need to have replacements identified (...

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Managing the Transition: How to Face Employee Resistance Head On When Introducing Workplace Changes

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Posted on 2010-06-20

A preponderance of managers and supervisors are overly familiar with long sighs and disheartened groans from their employees when they introduce yet another organizational change or a new initiative. And in the aftershock of a devastating recession, the sighs and groans are turning into fear.

While supervisors do not have the authority to reject or the power to deflect organizational change, they do have the opportunity (and, we believe, the specific responsibility) to clearly and truthfully communicate the reasons for change.

Similar to a stool with three legs, three easy steps can greatly assist managers in creating a sound platform for transition during periods of change:

3 Ways Leaders Can Face Employee Resistance Head On to Make the Transition Easier for Everyone Involved...

1. Managers need to be convinced that the change is indeed needed. For example, the change is either opportunistic or required to ensure ongoing business...

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How to Influence Employees to Get Things Done Correctly on Time Without Using Positional Authority

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Posted on 2010-06-20

Can you achieve results without authority?

The simple answer is yes.

The challenge is how to do it.

Each of us have a limited amount of authority. And the positional authority that comes with our title enables us to have some influence, but far less than what is required to get the work done. In order to get things done on time and with the highest quality expected so you can meet the demands and expectations of our customers and those with whom we work, we need to rely on others. And to do that, we need influence - but the right kind of influence.

Influence is a Leadership Quality and a Management Skill

Influence is the ability to achieve our objective (to get work done) when we do not have complete control or enough authority to accomplish our objective. Influence is not manipulation. Done well and done right, influence is also not:

* A demonstration of power
* A method to gain greater control
* A way to promote...

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