Author: William Dellecker

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William Dellecker

William (Bill) Dellecker is the Chief Development Officer of HeartLand LLC, which is dedicated to building relationships and delivering exceptional service through leading commercial landscape firms across the Mid West and Mountain West. You can learn more about Heartland at http://heartlandcompany.com. Bill also writes regularly about business culture and leadership on his personal blog, cultivation(s).

Leading: Resolutions made and kept

As the days tick down on 2017, this holiday season provides the ideal time to pause and reflect on resolutions made and kept during the past year. That’s a wise next step to take before declaring your 2018 resolutions. I shared thoughts last year at this time regarding the elusive nature of resolutions. The reality […]

Leading: Growth matters

Growth for the sake of growth is not a worthy goal. But growth matters, and I’ll share some reasons why with you. If a tree isn’t growing, something is wrong; it could be the soil conditions, nutrition, disease, improper planting or something else. If you’re an arborist, you’re going to evaluate both the tree and […]

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Leading: What to do when something goes wrong

Leading, and managing a business within that broader concept, is challenging enough when the economy is strong, your labor force is plentiful and motivated, resource pricing is stable and customers are hungry for what you have to offer. It’s fun to lead when that revenue and earnings chart is pointed upward and to the right. […]

Leading: 3 things a leader can adjust to keep the business on course

I’ve kept this picture on the corner of my desk for quite a few years. It serves as a daily reminder to me, and to those who come meet with me, that it’s necessary for us to continually make adjustments to reach desired goals. The art of sailing teaches that concept in a most tactile […]

Leading: How do you sustain company momentum? Reward results

Once you’ve assembled your talented team, focused them in pursuit of a compelling purpose, dialed in the details, then figured out how to measure what matters, there should be massive energy and forward motion in your business. A great deal of deep thought and determined effort are required to get things moving the way you […]

Leading: How to measure what matters

It’s exciting to lead a talented and energized team, working together in an environment of mutual respect and trust. For the leader to get the most out of all that effort, however, requires a conscious effort to measure what matters. Without clarity regarding goals and what constitutes “success,” a team cannot sustain a high level […]

Leading: Seven genres of business communication

  The essence of leadership lies in a person’s ability to communicate ideas and information in a manner that inspires and guides others. Business communication is more art than science and lends itself to being classified into genres, as with other art forms. The applicable genre for the art of business depends upon the situation. […]

Leading: Set the tone

You’re being watched. No, not by the NSA, or some other clandestine agency. It’s your employees, and your customers, who have their eyes on you. They watch what you do and know it’s much more important than whatever you say. As a leader, you set the tone: Good, bad or indifferent. When you’re a leader […]

Leading: Look and listen

You can’t lead from behind a desk—or over the telephone. If you want to be a leader, you need to personally look at the front-line reality in your business, where your employees meet your company’s customers. In the military, it’s what leaders would call learning the “ground truth,” which can be very different than what […]

Leading: Details, always

  The third crucial leadership skill is paying attention to the details, always. Once you’ve assembled the right team (People First) and galvanized them into a cohesive group focused on your shared vision (Purpose Second), the key to achieving success is embedded in paying attention to the daily details that add up to make a […]

Leading: Purpose second

  Once you’ve put People First and have assembled the right core team, a leader must assure that he or she is working in sync with other team members toward shared goals. This depends on having a crystal clear vision of what you’re seeking to accomplish. Purpose Second. It’s not enough for an owner or […]

Leading: People first

I learned a few things about business as an undergraduate in college, plus a few more in grad school. The combined curriculum of finance, accounting, economics, marketing, management, statistics, organization theory, business law, communications and other courses all provided me with a useful foundation for effective business analysis and decision-making. It wasn’t until I dove […]

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