Friday, March 24, 2017

#FridayReads

If you're like us, you love some light reading material on leadership, business, and motivation! Where does the team at TL Direct Acquisitions go to find such material? Check out our favorite sites below!





ENJOY!

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

3 Ways to Decentralize Management and Boost Productivity

By DUSTY WUNDERLICH
Founder and CEO, Bristlecone Holdings

Facilitating collaboration between departments such as engineering and marketing helps employees understand how their work assignments fit together in service of their audiences. Startup leaders can use the following strategies to create decentralized businesses:

1. Rethink structure.

Forget about traditional hierarchies, especially in the early days. There may come a time when a more traditional approach works for an organization, but the startup stage is not it. Hierarchy-induced stress has long been linked to heart disease, among other health issues, and it increases voluntary turnover by 50 percent.

So, avoid these stress-related pitfalls; organize employees into autonomous squads that can work across disciplines.

Foster a sense of equality by encouraging conversations among staff members of all experience levels. My company practices department shadowing, in which founders and executives learn what people are doing throughout the organization.

When the concierge receives visits from the COO, and the VP of marketing sits in with accounting, employees understand that we’re all part of the same team, pursuing shared objectives.

2. Create a team of "intrapreneurs."

Startup employees make the best intrapreneurs. Because they’re involved in so many areas of the business, they have unique views on what types of products will resonate with their markets. Google’s intrapreneurship program, for example, empowers team members to pursue their ideas without getting approval from their bosses.

They can partner with colleagues to explore concepts and potentially create new products for the company.

Cultivate a similar mentality by inviting employees to build new solutions and collaborate with their co-workers on ideas. Trust them to take initiative; don’t require them to get a manager’s green light before acting. Not only will this spur innovation even as the company leaves the startup stage, it will also inspire employee loyalty and enthusiasm.

3. Rally around a common goal.

Shared goals are a great way to bring people together and drive results. And while 75 percent of employers in one survey by Queens University in Charlotte, N.C., rated collaboration as “very important,” 39 percent of employees reported that their organizations didn't collaborate enough.

My own company decided to emphasize sales volume one year, and every department worked toward specific origination goals. Not only did each team's members want to perform the best, they didn’t want to let one another down. No one wanted to be the reason we fell short, so everyone worked harder to ensure we hit the target.

We also created opportunities for cross-collaboration, so different departments could gain insights into one another’s processes as we pursued the goal. People work together best when they understand what’s happening within each department and empathize with the unique constraints and pressures their colleagues experience.

A shared goal helped us foster more empathy and camaraderie between and among groups. We enjoyed our best sales year ever and saw an increase in proactive behavior throughout the company.

In sum, the flattened structure approach enables startups to run on all cylinders at all times. Employees can burn out when working in silos because they feel that the success of a particular project falls on them alone. Alternately, flat teams share responsibilities and energize one another through collaboration. The personal, innovative nature of holacratic startups makes them more agile and better equipped to take on their markets.

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Philanthropy at TL Direct Acquisitions


At TL Direct Acquisitions we love to support charitable organizations by putting together events, fundraising, and community involvement.  Considering the fact that our day to day business operations include speaking face to face on behalf of our clients, communication and people skills rank high here at TL Direct Acquisitions. We believe with great success comes the great responsibility of giving back to the community and who better to represent those in need than our team of professional communicators.


Our team spreading the word about Operation Smile!Operation Smile, our company’s favorite charity, is an organization that provides surgeries to repair cleft lips, palates and other facial deformities for 3rd world children. We recognize that we take for granted all the medical health benefits offered to us here in the United States and have chosen to help those in need in other countries receive the smiles they’ve been missing since birth. Through rallying our community and raising donations as a team, TL Direct Acquisitions hopes to change the lives of dozens of children per year. 

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

TL Direct Acquisitions is Hiring!

TL Direct AcquisitionsTL Direct Acquisitions is currently hiring for an Entry Level Account Manager position. We’re looking for individuals to start in an entry level role with the opportunity to move up into management . We handle outside marketing and sales for a major client in the Atlanta area.

Minimum qualifications
  • Degree or 0-5 years relevant work experience in a leadership role
  • Ability to speak English fluently

Preferred qualifications
  • Internship experience in sales, marketing and account management.
  • Interest in developing customer partnerships.
  • Detail oriented with the ability to prioritize, plan, and organize sales activity.
  • Customer Service / Retail / Hospitality and/or Restaurant experience is a plus!
  • Interest in advancement & the opportunity to make an impact!
*** Please Note: This is not a "work from home" position.