Leadership Insights.

"I can't find good people. Nobody thinks for themselves anymore." Here's the reframe you're not going to like. By Jessica Klatt · Behavioral Leadership Strategist, Be Industries — Hudson, WI "I can't find good people. Nobody thinks for themselves anymore." If you've said some version of that out loud recently, here's the reframe you're not going to like: it's not a hiring problem. It's a training problem. And when you're asking why is my team full of order-takers, the hones

The rules we were handed weren't rules for living. They were rules for staying small. By Jessica Klatt · Behavioral Leadership Strategist, Be Industries — Hudson, WI I've been an observer of life since I was a child. My thoughts and intuition on this have been there for as long as I have memory. And now, in my middle years, I find myself watching the great deconstruction of the world we were taught to know. I'm Gen X, technically. Born in 1979, I sit right on the cusp of be

There are 5 real reasons — and the 5th one is why a better hiring process will never actually fix it on its own. By Jessica Klatt · Behavioral Leadership Strategist, Be Industries — Hudson, WI Why is hiring so hard for small business owners? If you've asked yourself this, you already know the surface answer: you're wearing another hat. As the owner, hiring isn't your full-time job — it's the thing you squeeze in between everything else. That alone causes most owners to wait

Your brain isn't broken. It's efficient. And that efficiency is exactly what's running the pattern. By Jessica Klatt · Behavioral Leadership Strategist, Be Industries — Hudson, WI If you've ever wondered why do I react instead of respond, the short answer is this: your brain isn't broken. It's efficient. It's built to predict what happens next based on what's happened before, and it moves faster than your conscious thought can keep up with. That efficiency is exactly why yo

It's not the labor market. It's not the generation. It's the environment you've built — and that's actually good news. By Jessica Klatt · Behavioral Leadership Strategist, Be Industries — Hudson, WI Why can't I find good employees? It's the question I've heard more than any other in the seven-plus years I've been working with small businesses — usually from someone who's struck out on hiring again. Again. The go-to explanation is that people simply don't want to work anymor

Trust is one of the most misunderstood concepts in leadership — and control is the fastest way to destroy it. By Jessica Klatt · Behavioral Leadership Strategist, Be Industries — Hudson, WI Trust is one of the most misunderstood concepts in leadership. Many leaders believe trust comes from authority. From policies. From having the final say. From making sure everyone follows the rules. It doesn't. You cannot control people into trusting you. And the sooner leaders understan

Why unclear standards in leadership — not your team — are the real reason performance keeps falling short. By Jessica Klatt · Behavioral Leadership Strategist, Be Industries — Hudson, WI Many businesses are struggling with performance, and I hear the same thing from leaders over and over. "I have really high expectations." They value having high standards. They believe they communicate those standards. Yet they're constantly frustrated because their team isn't meeting them.

"Those people are toxic." But alliances on a team are seldom the root cause — they're the warning light. By Jessica Klatt · Behavioral Leadership Strategist, Be Industries — Hudson, WI When I begin working with a business, one situation comes up over and over again. "Alliances are forming." Usually, the next sentence sounds something like: "Those people are toxic." But here's the reality. Alliances on a team are seldom the root cause of toxicity. They're a symptom. And if l

The real problems in your business aren't operational. They're personal. And your business has been trying to show you that all along. By Jessica Klatt · Behavioral Leadership Strategist, Be Industries — Hudson, WI Many people feel their business is what needs the "help." But underneath that is the truth. It's not the business that needs the help. You may have hired some wrong people, missed some opportunities, failed in some marketing, made some bad investments — but that'

Most team problems don't start loudly. They start quietly — and leaders who miss the early signals pay for it later. By Jessica Klatt · Behavioral Leadership Strategist, Be Industries — Hudson, WI Most team issues don't arise from major incidents in the workplace. They arise from the moments that happen quietly — the things that get overlooked, dismissed, and pushed aside. This is where great teams can start to slide in the wrong direction, leaving owners, leaders, and mana