Becoming the Employer of Choice for A-players with Adam McKee

We are shining the Great Places to Work spotlight on Adam McKee and Contemporary Woods. Adam has been through our How to Hire the Best course, and he is being intentional in working to become the employer of choice to attract the A-players he wants. He is proof that simple changes can improve the culture of a business.

Adam McKee has been a craftsman his whole life, learning to build and wire homes from an early age through working with his dad and grandfather. He continued learning craftsmanship through fine woodworking in high school, residential carpentry in his associate’s degree, and construction management in his bachelor’s degree. After finishing his bachelor’s degree, an opportunity came to buy an existing business, Contemporary Woods, which specializes in custom furniture and woodworking. We fast-forward almost ten years later to find that Adam has learned a lot more than craftsmanship along the way, including how to be a better leader, entrepreneur, father, and learning to inspire others to celebrate craftsmanship. Adam has been married to his wife for 12 years, and they make their home in Lincoln, Nebraska, with their two young sons and two dogs.

Join us to hear how “today’s Adam” is a much different business owner than when he started his entrepreneurial journey!

Profit by Design is a Tap the Potential Production in collaboration with Small Business Consulting Group.

Show Highlights:
  • The entrepreneurial journey–how it started for Adam and wasn’t at all what he expected!
  • How Adam learned that being a critical micro-manager was NOT the best management style
  • The turning point for Adam in 2019: learning, growing, and making changes to improve the culture
  • How Adam simplified to three basic steps: sort, sweep and standardize
  • What Adam looks for in A-players for Contemporary Woods
  • Be a better leader! The best leaders take ownership of the problems and don’t blame their employees.
  • Simple changes that have improved the culture at Contemporary Woods, like one-on-one conversations, feedback, and asking the right questions
  • The value in reading books together as a team–and how Adam makes it work at Contemporary Woods
  • Team-building lessons from a people-pleaser
  • Problem-solving vs. finger-pointing—there is a BIG difference!
  • Adam’s example of dealing with a client over a sticky issue while protecting his team, empowering the client, and showing respect to everyone
  • Adam’s vision for Contemporary Woods in the celebration of craftsmanship
Connect with Adam: 

Contemporary Woods, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn

Email: adam@contemporarywoods.com or call 402-430-7381

Adam's Calendly Link

Adam’s FREE gift: Visit www.contemporarywoods.com to book a ½-hour design session to develop your custom design.

Mentioned by Adam and Dr. Sabrina: 

 Derek Sivers, First Follower: Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy

 Ted Talk by Derek Sivers – How to Start a Movement

2 Second Lean by Paul Akers

 The Ideal Team Player and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick M. Lencioni

 Start With Why by Simon Sinek

Links and Resources:

Learn more about the next How to Hire the Best course. It starts in April!

New! Now Available!!

The 4 Week Vacation book with bonuses!

Download Dr. Sabrina’s Introductory Training: How to Make Your Time Worth $10,000 an Hour

Join Dr. Sabrina in our Entrepreneurs Take Your Live Back! Community

 

About The Author

Dr. Sabrina Starling, The Business Psychologist and international best-selling author of the How to Hire the Best series and The 4 Week Vacation™, is the founder of Tap the Potential and host of the Profit by Design podcast. At Tap the Potential, we work to free business owners from the constant demands of a growing business.

We believe work supports life, not the other way around. Clients in our Better Business, Better Life coaching program have more time for what matters most and more money in their bank account than they’ve ever had. Next, we send them off on a 4 Week Vacation™ to celebrate their hard-earned journey to take their life back!

Dr. Sabrina and her team at Tap the Potential are on a mission to change the story of entrepreneurship from one of long hours, grinding it out, to one of sustainably profitable businesses that support and enhance life. The Tap the Potential Solution™ and our Tap the Potential Family of Business Owners are disrupting small business as usual. We are on our way to making the Tap the Potential Solution™ the mainstream model for growing business.

By 2023, 150 Tap the Potential clients will have taken 4 Week Vacations. These are the trailblazers, role modeling what’s possible for entrepreneurs. In many entrepreneurial circles, it is becoming more and more common for one entrepreneur to ask another, “Have you taken a 4 Week Vacation™?” (as opposed to asking “How many employees do you have?” or “What is your annual revenue?”). Taking a fully unplugged 4 Week Vacation is rapidly becoming the recognized symbol of entrepreneurial success.

Never one to accept the status quo or back down from a challenge, Dr. Sabrina’s How to Hire the Best series grew from her desire to solve the toughest hiring challenges interfering with her clients’ growth and profitability. What sprang from her experience working with entrepreneurs in rural areas catapulted her into becoming the world’s leading expert in attracting top talent in small businesses—no matter what hiring challenges those businesses are facing—and earned Tap the Potential’s reputation as the go-to resource for entrepreneurs committed to creating Great Places to Work with thriving coaching cultures and highly engaged team members working from strengths.

As The Business Psychologist, and with her years of driving profit in small businesses, Dr. Sabrina knows what it takes to find, keep, and motivate exceptional performance out of your biggest investment—team members.