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 ]
You may have heard that Aileron turned 25 this year. We chose not to make a big announcement, and instead stayed focused on developing services to empower our community of business leaders to thrive during what continues to be a dynamic time for some. We did choose to celebrate this milestone as a small group at our annual company [ Read More ]
When a mistake or problem occurs in your organization, do team members usually blame a person? Or, do they take a step back and look at the system for answers? “Instead of anyone pointing a finger at a person if things go wrong, with a system’s view, we look at the system to uncover answers,” says [ Read More ]
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 ]
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 ]
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 ]
In SnackNation’s early years, CEO Sean Kelly was afraid of hearing raw and honest feedback from his team. “Even though I cared massively about what people were feeling, and how they felt the organization was serving them, I was a little bit scared to get feedback in the most open and vulnerable way,” says Sean. SnackNation delivers healthy snacks [ Read More ]
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 ]
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 ]
2021 is officially here, and with it comes a sense of hope for a new year full of health, happiness, and prosperity. To begin the new year, Aileron held an all-team kick-off meeting where the team was asked to complete this sentence as it applied to their experience of last year: “I can’t believe in 2020…”. The first theme [ Read More ]
Another year has come and gone, and what a year it has been! 2020 has presented many challenges, but it has also presented the opportunity to count our blessings and express gratitude. Before you say goodbye to 2020 and hello to 2021, take a moment to manifest what you want the next year to look like in both your [ Read More ]
Working long hours, not getting enough sleep, eating food based on what’s convenient, and missing out on time with your family… These and other stressors can be draining for a small business owner: physically, emotionally, and mentally. At times, it may even seem you have to keep sacrificing your health for the sake of your business. But health and [ Read More ]
