Leadership Archives

Creating a Smooth Transition: How Keith Smith Company Built a Succession Plan and Thriving Legacy

Brent Welborn2022-03-17T09:49:07-04:00Community, Leadership|

After years of working in the family business, Jim Smith suddenly became CEO of Keith Smith Company, America’s largest independent producer and provider of broiler hatching eggs, in the early 1990s. Looking for support and guidance in his new leadership role, Jim eagerly connected with Aileron’s founder Clay Mathile through a mutual acquaintance and began his professional management journey [ Read More ]

Gaining Control: How Carlton Construction Turned Runaway Growth into Intentional Evolution

Brent Welborn2022-02-09T11:27:19-05:00Community, Leadership|

Growing revenue and growing the life you’ve dreamed of are common goals we hear from new founders and seasoned entrepreneurs alike. For Matt Carlton, CEO of Carlton Construction, growth was great – until it was outpacing what he could handle. In 2018, the company experienced the best revenue year in its history, having doubled revenue for two consecutive years. [ Read More ]

Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast: How HEAPY Transformed Their Entire Business by Prioritizing Culture

Brent Welborn2022-01-27T12:43:12-05:00Community, Culture, Leadership|

Management consultant and author Peter Drucker is known for saying culture eats strategy for breakfast. Anyone who’s run a business can attest to the power culture has over all areas of the business. Underlying cultural struggles can make collaboration, recruitment and retention, and growth difficult or even impossible. Said differently, unless your culture is in working order, no strategy [ Read More ]

What is Conscious Leadership?

Brent Welborn2022-01-20T11:57:09-05:00Leadership|

Regardless of our title, status, age, or experience level, we’re all leaders. The question is not whether you lead, but how you lead. At Aileron, we believe the best way to lead is consciously. Conscious leadership is an approach to leading the self and others that emphasizes radical self-awareness, energetic responsibility, and a we > me mindset. Traditional vs. [ Read More ]

Three Business Activities to Get on Your 2022 Calendar (Plus One to Rethink)

Brent Welborn2022-01-26T10:04:00-05:00Leadership, Strategy|

The start of a new year often brings renewed energy and commitment to your business and its goals. As you look to the year ahead, consider scheduling time now for these best practices for professionally managed organizations so they don’t get lost in the shuffle. 1. Time to work on your business, not in it If you’re like most [ Read More ]

3 Thoughts to Inspire Curiosity, Connection, and Compassion This Holiday Season

Brent Welborn2021-12-15T08:47:53-05:00Culture, Leadership|

As many people prepare to gather with loved ones, visit distant relatives, and even meet new members of the family, it’s a great time to prepare to make the most of these interactions. No matter the climate around us or the difference in our own beliefs or values, we can always choose to show up positively and productively. [ Read More ]

Bridging the Leadership Gap: How RetireMEDiQ’s Marisa O’Neill Navigated Stepping into the Shoes – and Mentality – of a CEO

Brent Welborn2021-12-02T15:08:33-05:00Community, Leadership|

Doing the work of a CEO is one thing; feeling like a CEO is a whole different ballgame. We hear that sentiment a lot at Aileron, especially from young leaders who are fresh in their roles. While imposter syndrome – the self-limiting belief that you’re not as capable as you are – can contribute to not feeling CEO-ready, other [ Read More ]

3 Insights Mailchimp’s CEO Learned in Course for Presidents

Brent Welborn2021-11-29T10:20:34-05:00Aileron News, Culture, Feature, Leadership, Strategy|

Aileron sees business owners from all walks of life and all industries come through our doors. We’ve seen professional management transform $2M family-owned small businesses as well as $200M large corporations. Recently, Course for Presidents alumni and CEO of Mailchimp Ben Chestnut was featured in NPR’s How I Built This. During his conversation with Guy Raz, [ Read More ]

How to Make Every Conversation a Powerful One

Samantha Johnson2021-08-10T09:20:08-04:00Culture, Leadership, People Development|

Thoughts from Aileron Business Advisor Wes Gipe The average person says approximately 16,000 words per day. That’s an average of 3 hours per day spent talking. To put this in perspective, every two days, we speak enough words to write a long novel. How much of those three hours per day is spoken with true intent? One of my favorite workshops to facilitate is Leading [ Read More ]

What is the Least Valuable Work You Do? Here’s How to Find Out.

Samantha Johnson2021-09-07T09:28:19-04:00Leadership|

Your time is valuable. In order to successfully plan and execute work, we must intentionally use our time in a way that produces the most value. How do you determine what work you do is most valuable, and what is least valuable? Isn’t everything you do valuable at some level? Yes – but that value varies significantly. If you were asked to put an hourly value [ Read More ]

Financial Flashback: Looking Back at the Financial Forecast of 2020

Samantha Johnson2021-02-03T10:36:57-05:00Aileron News, Business Structure, Culture, Leadership, Strategy, Uncategorized|

Thoughts from Lindsey Bahr, Director of Finance and Administration Leveraging the power of transparency to release fear in uncertainty When the COVID-19 pandemic began, many of us were thrown into uncertain and stress-provoking situations. Those situations can stir up fearful and worrisome thoughts: Am I going to lose my job? Will there be enough cash to make it through [ Read More ]

Celebrating Shifts: 4 Lessons We Learned in 2020

Brent Welborn2021-02-02T10:53:18-05:00Culture, Leadership, Strategy|

At the start of 2021, the Aileron team held a “Celebrating Shifts” kick-off meeting to celebrate the ways we adapted to unprecedented uncertainty and change in 2020. Here are four of the lessons we learned. #1 Shifting to Virtual Doesn’t have to Jepoardize Connectedness – It Can Empower It In a year where most of our team moved to [ Read More ]