This is the House That YOU Built, Jack.

You built your empire from the ground up. That’s right: You are the pillar of strength for your organization, so what’s going to happen when it’s time to sell? How are you going to ensure that the structure of your organization not only stays standing but remains sturdy once your shoulders aren’t there to handle all the weight?

• Identify which of your employees are load-bearing.

Whether you are planning to sell your company to an outside owner, family member or key employee, your load-bearing employees are essential to maintaining the structural integrity and value of your business. How will the weight that you are carrying be distributed after you are gone? Who isn’t going to buckle under the pressure or bow with the passing of time?

• Keep them (even after you’re gone).

Offer incentives to load-bearing employees especially if you see the potential of passing on your torch to them in the future. Keeping them invested in the business as if it was theirs already, builds commitment and capacity.

Ingenious benefit incentives help to ensure that your exit strategy operates like a blueprint instead of a pipedream. Collaborate with your financial adviser to design benefit incentives that will motivate the growth of your employee’s loyalty to the organization and to their personal futures. Don’t give them a reason to seek another career opportunity. The longevity of your load-bearing employees will heavily influence the longevity, and ultimately the sales value of your organization.

You wouldn’t make a major change to the structure of your home without reaching out to an architect. Why would you make the biggest change your company will ever know without the help of an appropriate trusted advisor?

And if you need a recommendation on a financial service professional to help you identify incentive benefits, call me (Abby: 336.458.9939 or email: Abby@LeadershipLegacyGroup.com). As the founding chair of the Succession Planning Roundtable, credentialed financial services providers with expertise in succession and exit, I can help you find the right resource for your particular situation.

How are you retaining your load-bearing leaders?

Tip # 45: Finding Your Courage

Time for another sneak peek into my new book: 128 Tips to Make You a More Effective Leader. And the best part is, sixty seconds a day is all it takes to make changes that matter!

Don't believe me? Take out your timer and see for yourself!

Ready...set...go!

Tip #45: Finding Your Courage

During times of challenge and stress, we often look to great leaders to model for us how to rise above the challenges. But I recently found this quote…which reminds us that sometimes we can best meet challenges in this way:

“Courage does not always roar. Sometimes it is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I’ll try again tomorrow.’”-Mary Anne Radmacher

Find your courage and try again tomorrow.

I don't know about you, but that came in just under  17 seconds on my end!

I often wonder how many people give up on their goals just before they would have achieved them.

Why do we stop?

What extinguishes that gentle little voice nudging us to try again?

Laugh if you must, but that little voice is hope.

Hope is what courage feeds on.

And as awkward as it may be for you to hear this…hope isn’t cultivated in the brain.

It is cultivated in the heart.

I know for all of us that work with balance sheets and P&L’s that calculating what it would take to reach the opposite end of the universe can sometimes feel more realistic than making the 18 inch journey from our heads to our hearts.

I’m not saying it’s easy; I’m simply here to be the bearer of bad news:

It’s the only way.

What courageous step must you take today that will create hope and inspire you to keep moving towards your goals?

Don’t look now…but a mysterious link has appeared below.

Go on…find the courage to click on it…

Shameless Book Plug

Retiring Retirement

I’m just going to say it:

‘Retirement’ is a horrible way to brand “life after work”.

Who in their right mind wants to be associated with a word like retire when it hangs around with synonyms like: resign, quit, vacate, and retreat? Even if the idea of retirement had some grandeur back in the good ol’ days as 65 became the new 50 and leaders envisioned lifestyles that were devoid of worry and full of golf…somewhere along the way it lost its luster. Most business owners I know who are nearing traditional retirement age hear that word retirement now, and it conjures up thoughts of moth balls, rocking chairs, and ‘nursing homes’.

Its origin derives from the French word ‘retirer’: To draw back. At the end of a long and successful career, maybe you want to draw back, but not into moth balls and rocking chairs! We surely can do better than retire! I am calling for a re-brand! I want everyone to strive towards that next chapter in their life that will evoke a sense of pride, respect, and accomplishment. A time to enjoy the fruits of their labor -- the hero’s welcome from a career that was well fought for and won!

There will indeed come a day when we all will stop working, but we should never stop living because we have reached ‘a particular age.’ I assure you, it should be one of the most active and exciting times of our lives!

The only thing that needs to retire here is the word itself.

How do you define retirement?