Introduction

PREFACE

Frequently I have people ask me, “Katherine, what lead you to create POWERSHIP® and truly believe in the concept that everyone from the receptionist to the CEO needs to be a part of the business for true success?” My beliefs have been formed from a lot of years of building true values from experience. Not all of my experience has been from business development alone.

I am from a very small town in the Midwest. The town had a population of about 650 people when I left in 1985 and the last time that I checked it had grown to 685 people. It is a town that doesn’t have a stop light or a McDonald’s. My father worked on a small family farm and as most small family farmers my father had to have an additional job for income. He worked in a gas station and he also worked in local construction. I was about 10 years old when he would let me go along to work with him. I worked with him both at the gas station and with him on his construction jobs. Each of my experiences working with him brought me values about business that have always stuck with me.

Working beside my father at the gas station, on busy weekends, my job was to do the cleaning of windows on cars (the days of full service) and cleaning restrooms when needed. Neither of the 2 jobs at the gas station were very glamorous. I was complaining because I didn’t think my part was very important. I wanted to pump the gas and work the cash register. My father let me know that everyone’s job was hugely important in order for the customers to be happy. He let me know that the jobs that I was responsible for were actually more important than pumping the gas or taking the money. My father expressed to me that clean windows and clean restrooms were services that affected the customer personally. He explained that people remember services that affect them personally more than the mechanical elements.

My second lesson while working with my father was on one of his construction jobs. He taught me to shingle houses and I actually became very good at it. I was on a job with him one day and as I was shingling I wasn’t paying as much attention to detail as I needed to. I put down a row of shingles that weren’t as straight as they should have been. My father brought the quality of my job to my attention. I expressed to him that I didn’t think the row was that bad and that I didn’t think the customer would notice. He had a response to my comment that I would never forget. It is a comment that I use in my quality presentations all the time. The comment he said was; “You should always do a job for a customer just like you would like it done for yourself and then you should take that level of quality and multiple it by 10. That is the level of quality I expect you to do for any customers that we work with.” I know there are times in business in which the high bar for quality that my father set can be achieved cost effectively. But, it has always sent a message to me about the importance of quality in each and every delivery process.

Being from a town of 650 gives you the opportunity to participate with a large number of volunteer events. My mother taught me a very important lesson about detail. My mother was one of those people everyone would turn to if they wanted to run an event and make the most profit possible. She was a person that could take a fund raiser and achieve profits like no one else. She taught me how to look at ways to get jobs done that no one else would even think about. She was a person that could get a team of individuals to work together so efficiently that the people working for her would not even know they were doing work. She is a person that was always looking out for the people in which she worked with and making sure she was just as much a part of the delivery as her volunteers. She taught myself, and everyone in our family, the importance of looking out for others and the importance of mentoring others. I know she never believed the teamwork she was able to create was a talent. It was a true talent and a talent that I learned and have used over and over again in my career. The team building talent taught me the significant value of working together and making everyone feel a part of the results. The ownership you get when people are engaged can be used to achieve magnificent results.

I took the messages that I had learned about personalized service, quality delivery, and team building and went to Chicago to express my entrepreneurial ambitions. A large step for me as a country kid for 20 years.

It was 1988, I was 22 and I started a technology solutions company. I knew that I had what it took to do the work of a service company, but the problem was getting other people to believe me! I brought in 2 additional partners both under 25. We all struggled to prove ourselves in the business world with limited experience and youth definitely to our disadvantage.

So, we found an unusual solution. We decided to name the company something very stuffy, mature, and as conservative sounding as possible. We took that name and put it with hours and hours of hard work day and night. We branded ourselves as a company with quality delivery at a cost effective level. We networked and told everyone our story and used our true leadership energy to excel past our competition. It worked and the company grew to be worth millions in a few short years.

The POWERSHIP Culturescape™ Model was created out of a true need to have a single, easy to understand, business model that everyone could participate in and could grow with as the company increased in size.

The need to have a single model was founded on the requirement to be able to respond to rapid change and intense competition. It was also important that I build a company that would be a place where;

Ø Everyone sincerely wanted to come to work each day.

Ø Excitement was found between peers.

Ø Management was in place and available to assist and grow each and every team member.

Ø Productivity was high and leadership was everyone’s job.

Ø Everyone from the receptionist to the CEO had an understanding of the business model and how their job played a significant role in the success of the company.

Sound too good to be true.

It’s not to good to be true. It Happened!

It was the strength and passion of everyone that drove the overall success of the company. This strength and passion of everyone was driven by what the company called the Corporate Framework at the time. This concept of the Corporate Framework grew into what is now known as the POWERSHIP Culturescape™ Model.

I utilized the POWERSHIP Culturescape™ Model to share our mission, vision, strategy and delivery with not only my employees but also our clients. The forum that was used to share this model with clients was through an annual Client Appreciation Day. This day was not only to bring the clients to a fun event but also to share a true partnership arrangement with them. I asked the clients for their sincere feedback on what we should do for each of their companies in order to improve our services. But what I did was a little different, I shared with our clients the POWERSHIP Culturescape™ Model and let the clients know what we needed from them to meet our vision as their partner. The true and honest sharing of our needs and our plan lead my clients to ask me to work with them to implement the model into their companies. This request from my clients made me realize the true value of what had been created in our company. It wasn’t all about money it was about the culture that had been formed and documented through our Cultural Landscape or POWERSHIP Culturescape™ Environment.

Now money is certainly important and you want to make a lot of it, but more importantly to me was the culture that had been established. I was really amazed to see that you could have both a culture where people actually wanted to come to work and make money too.

Later, as I began to consult for companies who were growing, I was surprised to see how my POWERSHIP Culturescape™ Model worked every time. Clients wanted a tough powerful company and one with an environment that was exciting and alive with productivity. I began to see that the most important asset you have as a leader is your people and how you can move beyond rhetoric and into increased production and profits by utilizing and motivating those people better, streamlining your organization and finding an underlying structure guaranteed to guide you into a bright future.

This book is written for you who are striving to be the best leader you can in a difficult world. I have given you all the tools you need to be able to create, cultivate and grow a Cultural Landscape or POWERSHIP Culturescape™ Environment for your company that engages people, increases employee productivity, and increases revenue. The POWERSHIP Culturescape™ Model produces results that you can take to the BANK!

To Purchase your own copy of POWERSHIP®; click HERE

What others are saying about POWERSHIP®:

"This book is amazing! Katherine Topel actually shows you step by step how to streamline your business and get the best out of your people. This book is a winner!"

- K Handin author of Effortless Leadership

"POWERSHIP® humanizes business and gives leadership new strategies to truly lead through everyone. If you really do what she outlines in this book you will have a company people will envy and admire."

- Steven Wilson Victory, CEO, The Victory Company Inc.

"Every organization needs this book if they want to stay ahead of the competition."

- Gail Hand author of The Power of Laughter in Business

"POWERSHIP® provides a great road map for your business."

- Jim Turner speaker and author of Delta Force Leadership

"POWERSHIP® captures Katherine Topel’s years of experience, passion for people engagement, drive to maximize productivity, and step by step approach for getting results. She connects the dots for what it takes to run a business in a way that allows everyone to participate in the leadership and success of the company."

- Baron Stewart, Professor, University of Phoenix