Loichinger Advantage

As I age I become less tolerant of those who blast their ego towards everyone around them.   Even worse, I have found myself pushing a message and decision into the face of people I admire and like.  I am not the best model all the time.  Who is?

Great question!  Those who believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ as their lord and savior have an obvious choice.  I have surrundered.  While there is no better model, I struggle because I fall short in every way, and at times, fall into a bit of dispair given our Lord’s perfect image and life.

We’ve completed our walk through strategic planning and are moving into the heart of organizational success - leadership.  We start this series by interviewing Kendall Dahmen, General Manager of the Fish Hatchery Zimbrick dealerships.  He has 9 direct reports, 35 managers and 310 associates.

DL:  Help our readers better understand your role with the Zimbrick organization.

KD:  I began working for the Zimbrick family in 1993 as part of the sales team.  Since then, I’ve been offered more responsible sales positions, until 2004, when I was offered the General Manager role.

DL:  So, sales are still in your blood?

The reality is that the marketplace offers us so many choices for leadership & management development.  How do you know which one is right, once you’ve done your due diligence? 

Perhaps the best place to start is at the beginning.  Obvious I know.  Ask youself questions like:

• What do you expect of this person? 
• How well and how consistently do they need to perform?
• What does success look like?
• What skills or competencies will drive that level of success?

Our firm recently asked leaders what the most effective & reliable tools within their leadership toolkit have been.  The results are in! The broad base of business leaders from the Capital Region provide their insight.

So much comes across our desk every day – brochures, seminars, university courses, consulting offers.  How can you separate the value from the trash, so that your investments in staff and leadership, offer lasting solutions and results?

Short of staffing and centralizing your own workforce learning and training function, the business leaders we surveyed provided the following great insights to us, and to you.