Rock Regional Business Expo: Visit us at Booth #22

We are very excited to be a vendor at the 2015 Rock Regional Business Expo! Stop by booth #22 to learn more about the services Wood Consulting Group, LLC provides, and drop off your business card for a chance to win an assessment and coaching package worth more than $500! The Grand Prize Package will be drawn at 6:30 p.m. and will include the following assessments:

  • TriMetrix® DNA: A significant ally in developing talent effectively for leaders and for high potential team members, this report informs how people behave, why they behave that way and what skills they’ve mastered.
  • Emotional Quotient™: Research continues to mount showing people who possess higher levels of emotional intelligence (EQ) are more successful and assured leaders. Our EQ is maximized for developing leaders, engaging teams, coaching and succession planning. Our EQ assessment accurately measures one’s ability to sense, understand and effectively apply the power and acumen of emotions to facilitate higher levels of collaboration and productivity.
  • Stress Quotient™: Our Stress Quotient assessment measures seven index factors, revealing how stress affects the overall health, productivity and morale of both individuals and workplace teams. Identifying these root causes allows conversations to begin about how to infuse other TTI SI reports into organizations to help improve employee performance and productivity.
  • Coaching Session: A session scheduled at your convenience with either Ed or Jennifer. We will review the results of your personalized assessments with you, and help you develop an action plan to best utilize the 80+ pages of information to enhance your communication and relationships.

Additional drawings will be done throughout the event for your choice of one of the assessment products. We hope to see you there!

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Home Grown Talent – 3 Lessons from the Green Bay Packers

I heard a statistic that piqued my interest last week. 50 of the 53 players on the Green Bay Packers roster have only ever played for the Green Bay Packers. Isn’t that outstanding?! In fact, in doing more research, they have been over 85% “home grown” (applying the Approximate Value metric developed by Pro-Football-Reference.com) since at least 2008. They are by far the leader in homegrown talent in the NFL, and their winning record reflects that. Only two teams in the top 10 ranked “Percent Homegrown” in 2014 had a losing record, when 7 of the bottom 10 teams had a losing record. Even without doing more detailed statistical analysis, the numbers talk. What lessons can an organization learn from one of the leading teams in the NFL?

  1. Draft Well. Aaron Rodgers was passed over 23 times before the Green Bay Packers selected him as the 24th draft pick in the 2005 NFL draft. Look at him now! The Green Bay Packers and Ted Thompson have traditionally played it conservatively and drafted for the long term. They resist trading up and blowing their budget on high ranked players and focus on maximizing their picks to fill their immediate needs as well as needs they know they will have within the next few years. I wish I could read Ted Thompson’s mind; if I could, I would guess that he is looking at a player’s past performance statistics as well as whether he believes he can represent the Green Bay Packers well and be an effective member of the team.

    The Lesson: Do a good job of defining your needs before you start recruiting and consider using a job benchmarking process to fully understand the behaviors, motivators, and competencies an individual needs to perform well and be an effective team member. Select employees that can grow with the organization, have the right behaviors, and a foundation of skills that can be built upon with specific job training. Be cautious when selecting the most highly ranked talent – the goal is to have a high performing team vs. a group of high performing individuals.

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  2. Focus on Retention of Top Talent. According to ESPN.com, the Green Bay Packers are the top team in retaining offensive talent – retaining 95% of their offensive snaps made in 2014. In other words, they recognize when they’ve got a good thing going and work to keep it. Sometimes that might mean making some tough decisions at the other end of the talent spectrum – either by paying some lower salaries or by making cuts altogether. While Aaron Rodgers signed a 5-year contract at the draft, you can bet they had a strong message and retention strategy for him to keep him engaged and committed even though he wouldn’t be the team’s starting QB until 3 years later.

    The Lesson: Find out what motivates your top performers. Not everyone is looking for more money. Some may be motivated by being asked to lead a team or special project, a title change, or improvements made to their offices. Create an environment of ownership and empowerment so that they feel connected to the overall goals of the organization, and that they can impact the organization’s success.

  3. Develop for the Future. Randall Cobb only had 25 receptions for 375 yards in 2011, his first year with the Packers. Compare that to 91 receptions for 1,287 yards in 2014, and being named as an alternate in the 2014 Pro Bowl. Jordy Nelson had a similar story with 33 receptions for 366 yards in 2008, compared to 98 receptions for 1,519 yards in 2014. Jordy’s first 1,000+ yard season was in 2011, 3 years after he was drafted. Aaron Rodgers wasn’t the starting QB until 3 years after he was drafted. These are just a few examples. What was happening with these players during the first few years on the team? They were learning the plays and techniques, training their brains and their bodies, and being mentored by some of the best in the league. They were not the all-star pro-bowl players they are now – they made their share of mistakes, and they had good mentors, coaches, trainers, and teammates to help them grow.

    The Lesson: Development, development, development. Provide learning opportunities by letting them play a smaller role in a bigger project. Give them more responsibility as time goes by. Encourage formal and informal mentoring relationships. Teach them the right plays. What are the techniques, skills, behaviors, knowledge and experiences they need to grow into the future leaders of your organization? Take a focused and intentional approach to developing your team.

The Green Bay Packers have had a strong start to the 2015 season at 4-0 so far, even with some key injuries. Their bench strength is proving to be strong despite those injuries, in large part due to their draft, retention, and development strategies.

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Wood Consulting Group, LLC’s mission is to partner with organizations to help them achieve their best results by developing their people and creating great workplaces. This will be achieved through training and development, strategic planning processes, employee engagement, succession management, organizational design, team development, performance management, coaching, and supplemental human resource activities. We believe in the power of understanding our own behavior and helping others understand theirs as a foundation for most of our business activities and have partnered with TTI Success Insights to provide the power of DISC, motivator, and competency assessments to our client organizations.

Do One Thing and Do It Better Than Anyone Else: 4 Questions to Ask Yourself

Guest post by TTI SI

It’s easy to compare ourselves to athletes, celebrities, authors — even experts in our respective fields.

Because they’re at the top of their game, it seems natural to assume those who accomplish great things were born to be extraordinary. That achieving greatness was somehow pre-destined for them.

Yet, we’re all unique and we’re all wired with our own little bit of genius, which can empower us to become influencers in our chosen paths or fields.

Influence is both a natural and learned quality that’s developed over time. Do you have what it takes to routinely ask clients what’s important to them and to serve that need, to constantly strive for greatness?

Do your thing and do it better than anyone else.

You no doubt possess talents others do not. Most likely your collection of friends, influencers, colleagues and clients could write testimonials praising your unique know-how and expertise.

So, what do you want to be known for? Do you want to be known as a broad-skilled generalist or as a subject-matter expert?

Answer these four questions to jumpstart your journey to better understand yourself and your influence on others.

1. What inspired you to do what you do and help people and organizations become the best they can be?

2. What do you do better than anyone else you know?

3. What general tips can you share with like-minded professionals who want to showcase their business acumen and know-how?

4. How can people connect with you?

When you describe what you do better than anyone else, you use a focused strategy.

And, when you can focus and describe to clients with confidence what you do best, more and more doors open, and you become in-demand within your industry.


Wood Consulting Group‘s mission is to partner with small to mid-sized businesses and non-profits to help them stand out of from the pack and optimize their workforces through training and development, strategic planning processes, employee engagement, succession management, performance management, coaching, and supplemental human resource activities. 

Contact us today regarding our assessment services to enhance your own leadership and that of your team by learning more about your unique talents, behaviors, and competencies. 

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Addressing the “Jerk Problem”

Recently, Jack and Suzy Welch posted an article on LinkedIn titled “Do You Have a Jerk Problem?” In the article, they talk about 4 types of employees relative to their performance and behaviors, one of them being the “Jerk.” The article stops just short of what managers can do to address the “Jerk Problem.” The Welches define “performance” as delivering results, and this is one point on which I will respectfully disagree with this article. Performance is as much what you achieve (results) as how you achieve it (behaviors). This key belief is one that will help managers address their jerks. Jerk Problem

As stated in the Welch article, the Jerks all too often go unscathed, while continuing to negatively affect those around them. We accept bad behavior because they consistently deliver results. We fail to call them on their jerkiness, often to the detriment of impacting the engagement level, and yes, the ability, of others to deliver results. We do this because we were all trained to link behavioral problems back to business results – and because they are delivering consistently, it’s really tough to do this.

Case in point: I was talking with one of my friends over the weekend about a situation at her workplace, made up of a close knit team of six employees. They finally let someone go, affectionately known as “Eeyore” to her co-workers. Eeyore’s results were always really good, but her behavior was really negative. She worked there for EIGHT YEARS – with the same behavior. She was finally terminated for attendance a couple of weeks ago, and my friend has noticed a marked difference in her workplace. She said that it’s been a much more positive work environment, other co-workers have let her know that they have noticed a positive difference, everyone is happily pitching in to cover the work in the short term (the delivery driver is even filing!), and my friend said that she doesn’t dread going in to work anymore.

So, what’s a good manager to do? As the Welch article states, you just can’t look the other way, but it stops short of offering advice on what to really do about it. I’m going to go out on a limb and say: “It’s OK not to allow bad behavior in the workplace!” It’s OK, as long as you do this consistently for all employees. It’s OK as long as those standards of behavior are clear, and when they are you can treat them as poor performance, just as you do when someone isn’t delivering business results.

Most businesses have a set of core values that define how you’ll do business. Wood Consulting’s core values are growth, partnership, and making a difference. Now, as a sole proprietorship, I have a big problem if I’m not behaving consistently with my values. I think it’s fair to say that all kinds of jerky behavior can be linked to being in conflict with core values. Salesperson being rude or arrogant to the customer service rep or shipping department? That’s a failure to demonstrate partnership. Production refusing to listen to marketing’s explanation of the changing needs of the customers? Failure to demonstrate partnership, failure to grow individually through learning and failure to support the growth of the organization. Maintenance tech refusing to share what he knows about how to fix a particular piece of equipment with other techs? Failure to support growth of others and the organization, failure to display partnership, and failure to make a difference on the long term success and sustainability of the organization!

By failing to address bad behavior, managers are sending mixed messages to the rest of their team and setting the tone that the values of the organization are just words on paper. Those impacted by the jerk’s bad behavior feel that they are not valued by the manager or the organization in general. Employees that don’t feel valued often stop delivering results to their full potential, and depending on the reach of the jerk’s interaction with others, that could be a significant impact on the overall success of the organization.

The bottom line is, jerks need to be addressed. You can’t afford not to!


Wood Consulting Group‘s mission is to partner with small to mid-sized businesses and non-profits to help them stand out of from the pack and optimize their workforces through training and development, strategic planning processes, employee engagement, succession management, performance management, coaching, and supplemental human resource activities.

Workforce Optimization. Organizational Differentiation.

Wood Consulting was formed upon realizing a link between the founders’ passion for making a difference in organizations and communities and the need for personalized support for small and mid-sized businesses and non-profits. Our vision is to be a true partner that helps organizations identify and achieve their goals more quickly, reaching higher levels of success.

What’s in a name?

Wood Consulting represents the last name of the founders, Jennifer and Ed Wood. It also represents their passion for workforce optimization and organizational differentiation.

Workforce optimization is really just that – getting the absolute best effort and results from the workforce of the organization – whether that means improving engagement levels, analyzing recruiting processes to ensure the best fit from the get-go, enhancing their skills through training and coaching, or evaluating the organizational structure.

Organizational differentiation means helping organizations be the best and stand out from the crowd in ways that are meaningful and important to achieving their specific goals. This will take on a different meaning for different organizations – based on the market within which they are competing, existing culture and values, and strategic direction for the organization.

All of the services that Wood Consulting offers tie back to these two basic principles in some way. Contact us by email at woodconsultgroup@gmail.com or phone at (608) 921-2223 to learn more about any of the services offered.