Posts by Micah Ray
The Best Way to Challenge
As a manager or leader, it’s important to calibrate your leadership approach to include support and challenge. (To learn more about The Support Challenge Matrix, check out our free instruction guide and tool.) But they can’t be generic. Both have to be specific in nature and feedback if you are going to develop into a…
Read MoreWhy Do We Not Train New Managers
I came across an article recently that caught my attention for more than one reason. The article was “Do We Still Need Managers?” published in Fast Company in February 2022, and the answer to the question was “Most workers say ‘No’.” Interesting. The subtitle on the article was “What we need from our managers has changed. But…
Read MoreKnow Yourself To Lead Yourself
“The toughest person to lead is always yourself.” – John C. Maxwell “You never graduate from the school of self-awareness.” – Steve Cochram Know Yourself to Lead Yourself These two concepts come together in a tool called “Know Yourself Lead Yourself.” I find it to be the foundation of so much of our work in…
Read MoreGradual Learning Is Best
Our impatient human nature often leads us to want to get the answers as quickly as possible. That’s why I think all-day training events can be tempting for us. However, research has shown that the best approach to learning is to acquire knowledge in smaller units and to learn to apply it as you…
Read MoreNC Idea Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Summit 2019 – Day 2 – PM session
After lunch, the first big group session focused on entrepreneurship in the community college environment. Thom Ruhe said that if you want to know what is happening in the business in a community, go ask the community college folks. Straight Out of School Amy Nelson, CEO Venture for America, led the first session of the…
Read MoreNC Idea Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Summit 2019 – Day 2 – AM session
Well rested from last night, we began with opening remarks from Thom Ruhe and Patti Gillenwater. Governor Roy Cooper Governor Cooper starts by saying how important entrepreneurship is to our state and its citizens. His vision is for our people to prosper financially and in their health. NC is on pace to set a record…
Read MoreNC Idea Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Summit 2019 – Day 1
I heard about the NC Idea Summit a few weeks ago in a business meetup with Daryl Shaw of Royalty Marketing. (Thanks, Daryl!) It is a statewide meeting of organizations who are working hard to promote entrepreneurship in North Carolina. By design, it is an ecosystem to support, nurture and grow businesses across the state.…
Read MoreBusiness Process Improvement – Getting Started
After you have read and understand the overview of what Business Process Improvement is, you can start to think about how it can positively impact your organization. Even though business process improvement and continuous improvement have many tools and processes you could use, the list below is a simple way to get you…
Read MoreBusiness Process Improvement Overview
The term “business process improvement” can be very overwhelming if you think about all that it can apply to in your business. It is a very broad term but one that can have a critical impact in many areas. “Process” in this context essentially means, “how you get work done.” In all types and sizes…
Read MoreVisual Ideas
To get the most out of a brainstorming session, you need a good way to capture and record the ideas when they get to flowing. Just to have people talk about their idea is not enough. They are too quickly forgotten or misunderstood. That’s why you have to practice making your ideas visual. The best…
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