ThorTech Solutions

Join Us for a LinkedIn Live Leadership Roundtable! 📅 Thursday, October 31st ⏰ 2:15 - 2:45 PM ET 🌟 Topic: Defining Performance Metrics and Role Scorecards 🌟 Are you looking to enhance clarity and purpose in your team's performance? This LinkedIn Live panel discussion is all about setting clear expectations and defining success for your employees. By using well-defined performance metrics and role scorecards, leaders can ensure alignment between individual efforts and organizational goals. What You'll Learn: - How to create effective role scorecards - Aligning performance metrics with strategic priorities - Driving engagement and accountability through transparency - Best practices for guiding and recognizing team contributions Our Expert Panelists: Jennifer Goldman – Business Operations Transformer & Integrator Eric Thorsen – Tech Entrepreneur & Founder of ThorTech Solutions Bruce Eckfeldt – Strategy Leadership Coach (that's me!) Don't miss this chance to gain actionable insights on creating a culture of continuous improvement. Bring your questions and participate in the conversation! Submit your questions live via LinkedIn comments! #leadership #performancemanagement #rolescorecards #LinkedInLive #businessgrowth

As I look back over the past year, one event that truly stands out is the session I hosted with Lewis Schiff, where we explored “What Keeps Entrepreneurs Up at Night”. In this powerful discussion, Lewis shared his expert insights on the real challenges entrepreneurs face and how to navigate them effectively. The conversation was filled with valuable takeaways that continue to resonate with me and many others in the entrepreneurial community. It was an event that sparked meaningful conversations and offered actionable strategies for business leaders. I’m grateful for the experience and for everyone who joined us. Let’s keep the dialogue going and continue supporting each other on our entrepreneurial journeys! https://lnkd.in/egUPzK_Y #Leadership #Entrepreneurship #LewisSchiff #BusinessChallenges #GrowthMindset #ReflectingBack

Exponential Growth I wanted to talk a little bit about a really powerful pattern that I've used in my business that I've seen work for a lot of other businesses. And that's this idea of using fractional services where you can't really afford to hire a high end CFO or Senior Chief Software Architects or a  CTOs, for example. So one of the things I've seen is you get a business started, especially a service business,  you've got a following, you've got a good customer base, and then what do you want to do?  You want to automate, right? And so a lot of people will go and get some offshore teams because they're really cost effective. And they start to build some software to help provide more automation for their customer base. It's a great plan.  And then what happens? 🔅 Lots of miscommunication 🔅 Lots of missed deadlines 🔅 All kinds of problems with updates causing more problems. And one of the issues is that a lot of these service companies, they're not technology companies. They're missing the role of a Chief Software Architect or CTO that really understands how to prioritize the business objectives and bridge the gap of communication to the technology teams. Most of these companies do not need full time senior software architects. The solution? Use fractional services. ThorTech Solution does for a lot of our customers. We provide fractional Chief Software Architecture services. This winds up accelerating those initiatives that you're already building because things get smoother. 🔅 You stop having misalignment between business objectives and technology.  🔅 You stop having so many problems with deployments. And this model is something that you can utilize in other parts of your business. In finance, operations, HR, etc. So if you are a smaller business that's trying to grow and really trying to accelerate, definitely think about fractional service. It's a great way to  exponentially grow your business. #Leadership #TeamBuilding #Motivation #BusinessStrategy #ExecutiveCoaching

Make sure you're solving the right problem! We often have clients coming to us for help to accelerate initiatives around a technology stack they lack experience with. => Implementing a Serverless architecture for a project. => Setting up Kubernetes for their CI/CD pipelines for deploying software. => Migrating from one relational database to an open source less expensive relational database, etc. Each case above is a specific solution. But, they are not tied to the actual business problem being addressed. We like to ask a lot of questions before moving forward with anything. One of the more powerful ways is using the "5 Whys". Keep asking "Why". For each response, dig deeper. Why do you want to user Kubernetes? => We believe it will speed up our deployments. Why is that important? => Two of our senior engineers are tied up for two days during a deployment that must be done on the weekends. Why is that important? => Since we cannot afford to have them out of pocket for that much time, we limit the number of deployments to 3x a year. Our competitors update their systems weekly. We are also worried about asking them to work more weekends in order to stay competitive... You can start to see that the business problem has little to do with Kubernetes and more to do with resources and staying competitive with the frequency of enhancements to their systems. Having this level of alignment with customer allowed us to provide a solution that addressed their business problem without Kubernetes. (don't misunderstand me - K8s solves many problems really well - it was just not required for this use case). We use this style of probing for most 'solutions' that are proposed....to ensure we are solving the right problem. How do you ensure that you're solving the right problem for your customers? #leadership #aws #consulting #entrepreneur #customersuccess

Creative Energy -> Magic Moments I’ve been working on a fairly large proposal for a very complex multi year project. I brought in subject matter experts, and had my team do some deep analysis of various data points building out modeling sheets to allow us to turn some knobs and dials and assess risk. Great teamwork…great tools. Lots of back and forth with hypotheticals and measuring various risks. Terrific foundation for decision making! …but I was still feeling unsettled… “Move a muscle, change a thought!”   I needed a change of venue…I had to get out of my office… I decided to go to the gym with my wife…and at one point, while scrolling on social media a blurb came up from Patrick Bet-David, author of You Next Five Moves…what was he talking about? How critical is it to discuss critical decisions with other people…don’t go it alone! While I thought I had all the pertinent people involved in the conversation, it was time to open this up to other people in my network. I immediately texted several people in my network asking for help. By midmorning I already spoke to 6 people who each gave me fresh perspectives and allowed me to see things that I was not thinking about. I’m in a completely different place now.  Full of energy to test out some of these new ideas. What a difference! While I am a data geek and think it’s critical to have informed measurability around decision making, the magic moments often tend to come from my interactions with people…my relationships. How do you use your network for creative juice? #Leadership #TeamBuilding #Motivation #BusinessStrategy #ExecutiveCoaching

Defying the Laws of Physics I was recently working with a client who had substantial monetary incentives for a team to hit their numbers….but… The team was nowhere near hitting their goals and they were not bringing up any new ideas as to how to try some new things to change that. The first step was to acknowledge that there are two separate problems here: => Why isn't the team hitting their numbers? => Why isn’t the team self driven towards coming up with ideas on how to improve the situation? For item 1, a reasonable question might be: Are you asking them to defy the laws of physics? I’m being somewhat flippant here but the point is, asking a team to accomplish something that is so far out of reach will likely have the opposite effect of motivating them. It will likely take the wind completely out of their sails, spur disillusionment and possibly detachment from the ultimate goals of the organization. For the second item - why no self directed problem solving? If they are being asked to do something that is totally out of reach and no one is saying anything, there is likely some trust that needs to be fostered between leadership and the team. As a leader, it’s critical to ensure there are several components for teams to be highly effective: Be transparent.  => Tell them what is not working.  In this case, ask them what is blocking them from solving the problem and coming up with creative solutions? => Listen and Achkowledge Assuming your hiring processes are sound, there is a reason these people are on that team. Listen, learn, acknowledge, ask questions, confirm what you are hearing, etc. You're in this together. => Ensure they know their purpose in the organization: Are they connected to the critical role they play in the organization achieving its goals? Knowing the higher purpose can really help drive people in the work they do.    => Ensure clarity around expectations: This is not just about hitting numbers. It’s also about self directed problem solving.  Make sure your teams understand what is expected of them. => Empower them to make decisions so they can affect change. Having autonomy to solve problems can really accelerate getting to resolutions. => Provide support, training and tools to move the needle forward. Make sure they have what they need. => Make sure there is trust that you are there to help them be successful. Build and foster trust both between members of the team and with the leadership. How do you inspire and motivate to create effective teams? #Leadership #TeamBuilding #Motivation #EmployeeEngagement #BusinessStrategy