Enhance Business Success by Building A Deep Bench

Cathie Leimbach • June 27, 2023

People often talk about the merits of sports teams having deep benches. Ensuring the teams’ players have a breadth and depth of skills is seen as preparing for a successful sports season, but many businesses aren’t following suit. Let’s consider how workplace managers could benefit from adopting some common practices of sports team coaches.


Sports coaches build deep benches by recruiting talented individuals, focusing on further development of their abilities, fostering a winning attitude, and instilling accountability. They prioritize enhancing individual skills and strategically rotating players to determine their best-fit position. Open communication and constructive feedback are emphasized, creating a collaborative environment where athletes feel valued and motivated. Coaches also encourage teamwork and learning from one another, promoting healthy competition and pushing everyone to excel.


When business leaders and managers follow suit, their organizations tend to flourish.  They hire people with potential and provide training and coaching to prepare them for success. They give them a variety of opportunities and monitor their performance to determine the best fit position for each position within the company. As a result, employees feel supported and are positioned to be successful, increasing employee loyalty and the company’s bottom line. 


When managers invest in developing people around them, they are ensuring operational continuity by having employees prepared to address unexpected challenges or promptly fill a vacant position. This mitigates the risk of spikes in workload or long vacancies in key positions. Development of a deep bench also fosters a culture of growth and development. People are equipped to be flexible, adaptable, and resilient allowing the company to quickly respond to market changes and seize emerging opportunities.


What is one thing you can do to build a deeper bench that will enhance your organization’s  success in our ever-changing business environment?

4 Leadership Behaviors That Drive Trust, Performance, and Accountability

By Cathie Leimbach • March 31, 2026
Most leaders don’t struggle because they lack knowledge. They struggle because leadership opportunities show up in daily conversations —and those moments are easy to miss. The difference between average and high-performing teams often comes down to four leadership behaviors: 1. Build Trust Through Everyday Conversations Trust is built in small moments. Listen to concerns Ask thoughtful questions Follow through Address issues quickly and respectfully 🤝 Trust grows through consistent, everyday conversations. 2. Reinforce What Good Looks Like People repeat what gets recognized. Be specific: “I appreciated how you handled that client issue quickly—that made a difference.” 🔒 Clarity + recognition = stronger performance. 3. Address Problems Early—Kindly and Clearly Avoiding issues creates bigger ones. Keep it simple: What was expected? What happened? What needs to change? 👥 Clear, timely conversations reduce drama and improve results. 4. Support People So They Can Succeed Your role is to help your team succeed. Clarify priorities Remove obstacles Provide resources Coach progress 🔍 When people have clarity and support, performance follows. The Real Lever: Conversations None of this requires new systems. It happens in everyday interactions— 1:1s, quick check-ins, and follow-ups. Better conversations → better results. Quick Reflection Which one would make the biggest difference for you right now? Build trust Reinforce performance Address problems early Support success 👉 Join our next 60-minute Leadership Conversation – Inspiring Employee Performance on Monday, April 6, at 3:00 pm ET. Not a webinar. A working session with other leaders looking at what’s actually happening on their teams—and how small shifts in daily conversations change performance fast. If you're curious what even a 10% shift in consistency could look like for your team… this is a good place to start.

Three Small Shifts That Change Everything

By Cathie Leimbach • March 24, 2026
You don’t need to make big changes in your leadership practices to get better results. Often, it’s small shifts in everyday leadership conversations that quietly change how work gets done. Here are three that work:  1. Make priorities clear Start meetings by stating current priorities. That creates focus right away and helps conversations stay on topic. 2. Ask instead of solve Instead of answering an employee’s questions, ask, “What are your suggestions?” Such questions encourage employee thinking and stronger follow-through. 3. Hold short monthly one-on-one check-ins Meeting with each employee one-on-one allows the regular review of goals, progress, and obstacles. These short conversations surface issues early and keep everyone aligned. These small habits keep teams steady and focused. Your challenge this month: Pick one shift and try it. Notice what changes in clarity, buy-in, or accountability. Sometimes the difference between teams that struggle and teams that move smoothly comes down to a few simple leadership conversations happening consistently. 👉 Join our 60-minute Leadership Conversation on March 30th at 3:00 PM to see how small shifts in everyday leadership conversations can quickly improve clarity, ownership, and results.