There comes a time in the life of every business when… You’re doing things that have always worked but can’t seem to grow It’s 5pm and you’ve been so busy putting out fires that you’ve only checked off one thing on your to-do list Strategy meetings that were once productive brainstorming sessions are now status meetings filled with blank stares, puzzled looks and no real purpose. If you’re thinking “oh yeah, I know what he’s talking about,” then guess what… You’ve hit a ceiling in your business! That may feel bad, but it’s really not. Hitting a ceiling is not an indicator of anything a business has done wrong. It is actually an indicator of what a business has done right. It’s a sign that what you’ve been doing has been so successful you’ve actually outgrown that business model. Every successful business hits a ceiling. But not all of them survive.

As part of Social Impact Heroes, I had the pleasure of interviewing Amy Holtz. Amy is a visionary leader and entrepreneur with over two decades of experience leading and growing her own businesses and helping other entrepreneurs, non-profit leaders, and philanthropists build their organizations, reach their personal potential, and create their legacies. Amy is a professional EOS implementer, where she trains her clients how to crystallize their vision, gain traction, and build healthy, cohesive teams with simple, practical, and effective tools and a proven process. When leaders implement the Entrepreneurial Operating System (“EOS”), they are able to get more of what they want from their businesses and their lives. In 2019, Amy co-founded the Jewish Future Pledge, a worldwide movement working to ensure vibrant Jewish life continues for generations to come. Until 2007, Amy co-owned and operated 25 Party City stores. She previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Mosaic

A part of the journey for leadership teams to become their best is learning to run highly effective weekly meetings using the Level 10 Meeting Agenda. During these meetings, I’m often a “fly on the wall,” just observing. Recently, I observed a tooling company that has become incredibly productive during their weekly meetings. After the meeting, I gave them some feedback to improve their meeting effectiveness even more. In fact, I’ve found that most businesses can benefit from similar themes of feedback. These are 11 techniques that highly successful entrepreneurs use to run their business meetings. Try them out and see how they impact your own meetings. Bonus: Find out how to gain traction as a business at this exclusive workshop on October 22! 11 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Weekly Business Meetings 1) Paper copies for everyone Make sure each member of the leadership team has a current paper copy

When I first meet with a small business leadership team, I always ask them to rate how accountable their team is on a scale of 1 to 10. The average among teams is a 4. And inevitably there is a comment or statement made that “I wish our people were more accountable.” The question that soon follows is, “Mike, can you help me make my people more accountable?”   My answer is, No. Accountability Comes from Great Leading and Managing This usually catches them off guard. But the truth is, you can’t MAKE someone more accountable. Accountability isn’t something you do to someone. In fact, your team’s level of accountability is a direct reflection of how YOU lead and manage them. It’s on YOU, not THEM. Being a great leader and a great manager will naturally result in a higher level of accountability among your team. The key is that leadership and

Small business leaders have a lot on their plate. It’s normal to be juggling at least 136 issues at any given moment. Time is a scarce resource. Unfortunately, most small business leaders have their time taken up by reacting in firefighting mode to the latest need or crisis of the day. These items always seem urgent, but usually not enough time is spent to consider their importance. And this pattern happens over and over again. Without clear decision making tools, small business leaders are unknowingly causing inefficiencies and slowing their company’s pace of growth. 7 Signs Your Leading Lacks Decision-making Skills How do your decision-making skills measure up? How many of these pitfalls do you fall into? Relying on consensus decision-making. You’re trying to come up with a decision that makes everyone happy – and unfortunately when this happens, the resulting decision isn’t always in the best interest for your company.