Burt Steingraeber Consulting

Burt Steingraeber (Wisconsin)  the founder of this consulting firm and has over 15 years of senior business and Social Media marketing experience. His specialty is inbound marketing, making your phone ring. Being knowledgeable in social media keeps your overhead lower than traditional marketing avenues.

We don't believe in blasting your message to a large group, rather target your message to the correct social media audience should be your goal. It is more effective and cost friendly. If you leverage your social media correctly you will see some direct results.

Burt will work with the largest and most recognizable companies, brands and celebrities in the world. 

Our goal is make you the "Go To Person" in your industry.

Some notable projects include:
General sales and marketing strategy
Social media marketing
Social Media - Facebook Sales
LinkedIn Branding
Twitter Marketing
Facebook Social Media Marketing
Social Media Branding in general
PPC Assistance
SEO Oversight (organic SEO)
Social Media Content Marketing

Business Development & Awareness

Social Media and Business strategists assist and help organizations generate leads, increase traffic and raise client engagement. Building organizational efficiency through brand awareness is an optimal process.

Specializing in the following:
How to use Facebooks for business and social media marketing
How to use Facebook for social Media and train for you business.
How to increase overall brand awareness and use of "opt-ins"
How to convert social media leads in paying business
Using Social Media for non-profits

Social Media Branding Strategies| Business Consultant|CEO

Burt Steingraeber Consulting LLC - www.BurtSteingraeber.Com

Wisconsin based providing superior business branding (Social Media) marketing exposure ideas (SEO |SEM) and tactics to get you or your company noticed. Have been providing business development ideas for social media for business, merging PR , social  development. I  will take you to the next level and leverage the power of Linkedin, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook. I am currently accepting  clients not only in Wisconsin but in all 50 states.

Burt also specializes in  social online-communities / social crm ,positioning, brand building, growing and managing. He offers numerous affordable plans to help you succeed and meet your business goals.

People and companies not only in Wisconsin,  hire Burt to learn about Social Media, SEO and general business consulting. 

Contact Burt via phone or email for a private consultation just mention you're a Linkedin Connection when calling!

Business Consulting & Marketing & Branding Management

Confidential Milwaukee Manufacturer

Financial Controller

WisconsinQuickbooks.com

Providing individual accounting and bookkeeping services for the small business and private sector.

Heavy experience in Quickbooks and am a Quickbooks Pro Advisor. Meaning, I can provide training and technical assistance for all  Quickbooks software for individuals or small groups. If you have a temporary vacancy, I can discuss provideing Quickbooks coverage during this time.

With the array of Intuit Quickbooks products out for 2013, Enterprise, Premier and Pro and still the main accounting software packages sold today.  Call Burt directly to discuss which option may be best for you and your company.

Owner

Local Manufacturing Firm

I oversee all accounting and marketing aspects at this medium sized Manufacturing firm. We currently have 45 employees and are in a hiring process currently. I also review the branding and Social media outlets for the firm.

Recently we have branched out into obtaining Government bid contracts.

C.F.O

First Weber Group

Assisted buyers and sellers who were in the need for commercial and residential real estate.

Realtors

NBFD

Firefighter

Why Burt Steingraeber is the Business Consultant You Need

In a business world that’s constantly evolving, finding the right partner for public relations and business consulting is crucial. Burt Steingraeber is the clear choice for companies in the Midwest and beyond, looking for a reliable, cost-effective partner. With over 24 years of experience in business accounting, branding, and general marketing, Burt offers a unique perspective on achieving success in today’s fast-paced marketplace.

The Burt Steingraeber Difference

Burt’s wealth of experience spans multiple industries, which equips him with a broad skill set that can benefit any business, whether you're focused on financial analysis, brand strategy, or growing your market presence. As a strategic business consultant, Burt leverages his battle-tested knowledge to help his clients achieve their business goals. He is dedicated to offering personalized, actionable strategies that drive results.

How Burt Works

It all starts with a complimentary 30-minute strategy session. This is an opportunity for you to discuss your public relations or business challenges and goals. Burt uses this time to assess what’s affecting your company’s growth, offering a high-level evaluation of your current strategies. From there, Burt will recommend the best next steps to help your business or personal brand reach its full potential. His recommendations are rooted in over two decades of firsthand business experience and strategic insight.

What Makes Burt Steingraeber Stand Out

When you work with Burt, you’re getting more than just advice — you’re receiving one-on-one service directly from him. Unlike larger consulting firms, where your file may be passed along to an associate or third party, Burt ensures you get his personal attention and expertise. With over 21 years of experience as a CFO, Controller, Realtor, and private business owner, Burt has the hands-on knowledge to deliver the results you need.

Ready to Talk?

Whether you're looking to solve specific business challenges or simply need guidance on your next steps, Burt Steingraeber is the consultant who can take your business to the next level. Schedule your complimentary business strategy session today to start turning your challenges into opportunities.

Burt Steingraeber -Global Business Operator

True or False  (but why?)

42% of companies scrapped their AI projects this year, a sharp rise from 17% last year. 

This highlights a trend in project initiation and abandonment.

Burt Steingraeber

You built the expertise. I’ll build the audience. | Making executives impossible to ignore | Owner of @DirectSourceAI | Top 4% on LI

Chasing trends feels like momentum, but it’s often just distraction. 

Real influence comes from aligning your content with your core principles and the challenges your audience actually faces. 

Write less about what’s new — write more about what works. That’s how you build lasting influence.

Most professionals don’t lack expertise — they lack visibility.

 What sets leaders apart isn’t talent, it’s the willingness to show their work consistently.

 If your peers know you’re good but the market doesn’t, you don’t have a skill problem — you have an exposure problem.

 Fix that, and everything else moves with it.

Reputation used to spread by word-of-mouth.

 Today it spreads by what people see you say and watch you do online.
 A strong reputation can shorten sales cycles, open doors you didn’t knock on, and attract opportunities you never pitched.

 It’s the most valuable asset you’ll build in your career — treat it that way.

Everyone talks about posting more — but the real win isn’t frequency, it’s depth. 

Shares that teach something, comments that spark conversations, and insights that only you could write are the currency of trust. 

When your posts feel like consulting instead of noise, LinkedIn stops being a platform and starts being a pipeline.

The Silent Crisis in AI: Thousands of Abandoned Projects—And the Opportunity They Create

The AI boom has unleashed a wave of innovation unlike anything we’ve seen in decades. New tools, models, automations, dashboards, and micro-SaaS ideas appear every single day. Yet behind the excitement lies a growing and often overlooked reality: an enormous number of AI projects are abandoned before they ever reach their potential.

Developers and founders worldwide have half-finished tools sitting in private repos, early-stage agents left untouched for months, and powerful ideas trapped at 70% completion. Not because the creators lack skill—far from it—but because life, timing, resources, get in the way.
This phenomenon has quietly become one of the most significant missed opportunities in today’s AI landscape.
The truth is clear: AI creators don’t have the time, structure, or business support to finish, package, and monetize what they’ve built. 

Unfinished Doesn’t Mean Unvaluable
Most abandoned AI tools already contain tremendous value:
Functioning back-end logic
Niche use-cases with real market demand
Core automation workflows
Working models needing only refinement
Tools that solve problems founders originally built just for themselves
These aren’t failures. They’re assets waiting for direction, structure, and representation.

Finishing an AI project requires more than code. It requires:
Positioning
Market alignment
Business modeling
Packaging
Messaging
Strategic buyer outreach
And that’s exactly where I come in.

Where I Fit Into This Hidden Market
I work directly with AI developers, founders, and technical creators to help them complete, position, and potentially sell or scale their unfinished projects. With my background in business consulting, operations, PR, valuation strategy, and developer outreach, I act as the bridge between raw innovation and commercial opportunity.

Most creators don’t need more hours in the day—they need someone who can:
Evaluate what they’ve built
Identify the fastest path to completion
Determine its market value
Package the project professionally
Help secure users, buyers, or partners
Increase visibility and credibility
Guide the project toward real-world traction

AI creators shouldn’t feel stuck or overwhelmed. With the right support, these tools can move from abandoned to acquired, from good ideas to revenue-producing assets.

The Market Is Ready—But Developers Need a Partner
Businesses want AI solutions now. They aren’t waiting for perfection; they’re waiting for functionality. If your tool solves a problem, even partially, there is a market for it. Investors and operators are actively searching for projects they can revive and grow. That’s why this moment matters.The industry isn’t suffering from a lack of innovation.

If you're a developer or founder with an unfinished AI tool—or if you want help positioning a project for acquisition or strategic exposure—I’m here to help guide the process.

Burt Steingraeber

You’ll never “hack” your way to authority with one viral post. 

What works long-term is showing up with consistent, relevant insights that make your audience think differently. 

When people start saying “Finally someone who gets it,” that’s when momentum begins — even without paid tools.

Most buyers don’t like, comment, or engage.

 But they see your posts, read your insights, and form an opinion long before they reach out.

 This is why consistency matters — your silent audience is often your most valuable one.

 Speak to them even if you can’t see them.

AI is moving so fast that thousands of tools and projects get abandoned before they ever reach the market. 

Most are 60–90% finished and full of untapped value. I help developers and founders evaluate, position, and revive these assets—turning idle code into real opportunities and revenue. 

If you’ve built something but never finished it, I can help you bring it to the finish line.

I'm sure many people have used AI for holiday shopping suggestions.

According to an Associated Press poll, most Americans have noticed higher prices on everything from groceries to utilities, and they're planning to spend less this holiday season as a result.

Cash-strapped Americans turn to AI for holiday shopping help

People don’t buy services from strangers — they buy from people they feel they know. 

Real authority is built when your content feels like a conversation, not a sales pitch. Share challenges you’ve solved, decisions you’ve wrestled with, and lessons that changed how you work. 

That’s where real dialogue starts.

NexusPoint Project Management L.L.C.

We help service-driven organisations strengthen leadership pipelines and improve operational consistency through Strategy Days, leadership development and practical coaching.

We partner with HR and L&D leaders across MENA and Asia, with deep experience in hospitality.

Focus areas:
✅ Leadership presence under pressure
✅ Delegation without losing control
✅ Accountability and feedback in multicultural teams
✅  Communication that builds trust and clarity

Learning is designed to fit busy operations: practical, applied and sustainable. We also facilitate Executive Team Strategy Days to agree must-win priorities, align leaders across functions and set a 90-day execution plan.

Co-Founder & Principal

Jeff Ross GmbH

Workshops and coaching for service-driven SMEs across Switzerland and Europe.

Our focus:
✅ ‘Starting up successfully’ workshops for aspiring wellness, beauty, spa and hospitality founders: clarify your offer, build a business plan and map your first 90 days.

✅ Leadership workshops and coaching for owners and founders
Designed for the scale-up stage: hiring first employees, onboarding a team and learning to lead.
Practical modules include:
• From founder to people leader
• Onboarding playbooks and first-90-days plans
• Delegation without losing control
• Feedback, accountability and simple performance rhythms
• Communication across levels and cultures

✅ Succession planning and mid-level development
Identify successors, prepare supervisors for promotion and stabilise day-to-day performance.

Our approach:
Short, practical sessions with follow-on coaching so progress sticks.
Our primary market is Switzerland and Europe. For MENA & Asia programmes, see NexusPoint (Dubai).

Tetr College of Business

Sharing leadership and team development insights with business students and early-career professionals preparing for entrepreneurship & management roles.

Ambassador & visiting Expert

Batgroup

Led the integration of a well-established service brand into a new group structure while maintaining client trust and team culture.

Key outcomes:
✅ Aligned legacy operations with new systems and metrics
✅ Guided branch leaders through structural and role changes
✅ Strengthened sales performance through clearer accountability

This experience deepened my ability to balance people, systems, and results during transition.

General Manager PFA (Putzfrauenagentur)

Finnish Chamber for Impact Partnerships (FC4IP)

Advised leadership teams in mission-driven organisations on leading growth without losing cultural alignment.

Facilitated strategic planning, leadership identity work, and cross-border collaboration.

Primary Consultant

InnoPark Suisse SA

Selected for a leadership development program focused on entrepreneurship and project execution in evolving markets.

Completed certifications and applied learning in:
✅ Project Management (IPMA Level D)
✅ Communication, agile leadership, and digital business models
✅ Clean tech market expansion strategy for EU entry

This experience broadened my strategic toolkit and strengthened my ability to coach across industries and roles.

Leadership & Career Development Program Participant

Apple

Led large, diverse teams in a high-performance, customer-focused environment.
Coached new managers through their leadership transitions and built teams grounded in trust and accountability.

Key achievements:
✅ Developed internal talent into senior leadership roles
✅ Maintained operational consistency through major transitions
✅ Built engaged, reliable teams under high pressure

Apple taught me how to build leadership capacity while delivering results — a lesson I now share with my clients.

Retail Leader

Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts

Directed resort and city operations with multinational teams, balancing owner expectations with service excellence.

Highlights:

✅ Built leadership depth within operational teams
✅ Improved team engagement and guest satisfaction
✅ Led organizational change with clarity and care

Hotel Manager & General Manager

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

Held multiple management roles leading to opening Hotel Manager at a flagship St. Regis property.
Learned to lead through complexity, scale, and cultural diversity — the foundation of my current coaching approach.

Highlights:
✅ Opened a luxury resort in Bali and led full post-launch operations.
✅ Led the operational integration of a Le Royal Méridien property in the UAE after the brand's aquisition.
✅ Drove Six Sigma initiatives to improve service flow and guest satisfaction at 2 luxury properties in Spain.

Progressive Leadership Roles

Various Hospitality companies

Built hands-on leadership experience in luxury hospitality across, Europe, the US, the Middle East and Asia.
Learned how service excellence and people development connect — a principle that drives all my coaching today.

Earlier roles

Change Leadership, General Manager PFA @ Batgroup & Member of the Board @ Putzfrauenagentur

Leadership isn’t about volume.
It’s about clarity, confidence and direction when the pressure is on.

I partner with HR leaders, GMs and Executive Teams across MENA & Asia to strengthen leadership capability from the ground up. My work sits where strategy, people and day-to-day execution meet in service-driven organisations.

Most performance issues in hospitality, retail and education aren’t about effort.
They come from three gaps:

❌ Leaders promoted before they’re ready to lead
❌ Executive Teams pulling in different directions
❌ No clear pipeline or succession to stabilise performance

So my work covers both sides of the leadership equation:

Strategy & alignment for senior teams
Facilitated Strategy Days that help GMs and Executive Teams:
✅ Agree a small set of must-win priorities
✅ Translate those into a 90-day execution plan
✅ Build the clarity and focus teams need to perform
✅ Name the leadership behaviours that sustain results

Leadership development for emerging & mid-level managers
Practical, human-centred programmes that build the skills to lead through others, communicate with clarity and coach across cultures.

Coaching & capability building
1:1 and group coaching, Train-the-Trainer, and tailored L&D that strengthen the pipeline and reduce turnover.

Across 25+ years with Apple Retail, Swissôtel, St. Regis and service organisations in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, one truth holds: engagement and commercial performance rise when leaders at every level know where they’re going and how to bring their people with them.

If you’re building your leadership pipeline or want stronger alignment at the top, I’m happy to explore how we can work together.

📞 Book a call: https://jeffross.as.me/

Jeff Ross

If complaints spike, you’re too late.
Preload micro-leadership with this plan.

❌ Wait for complaints to spike, then book workshops.
✅ Build micro-leadership before the badge.

❌ Abstract competencies no one can see.
✅ Observable thresholds: run a 10-minute huddle, deliver SBI+ feedback.

❌ Annual talent reviews with thin evidence.
✅ Decision logs, peer feedback, capstone stories you can trust.

Fallout → Firefighting culture.
Fix → 70% on-the-job stretch with manager-as-coach prompts.

Because psychological safety predicts team effectiveness, we teach “Thank, Ask, Normalise” on live shifts.
Result: steadier service, earlier escalations, fewer near-misses.

If you’d like our L&D framework that powers this, send a note and we’ll walk you through it.

(8) Feed | LinkedIn

JSESSIONID

li_at

Sales Navigator

Stop training managers after the damage shows up

Helping hospitality and service brands align strategy, strengthen pipelines and deliver consistent performance | Strategy Days, L&D and coaching | MENA and Asia

Middle managers stuck between messages.
Give them crisp, consistent signals.

Executive teams in hotels and service businesses work hard.
The problem is not the effort you put in.
It is direction.

When the senior team is misaligned, you see it everywhere:
 ❌ Leaders pulling in different directions
 ❌ Conflicting signals about this quarter’s priorities
 ❌ Departments optimising for their own metrics
 ❌ Middle managers stuck between messages
 ❌ Frontline teams guessing where to put their energy

Engagement drops not because people don’t care, but because they stop trusting the signals.
 Then the financial impact lands fast:
 ❌ Turnover in key roles
 ❌ Slower response to market moves
 ❌ Lost revenue through inconsistency
 ❌ More firefighting, less improvement

Across hotels, retail, and services, one thing has been consistent:
 When the top team aligns on a handful of must-win priorities, everything beneath has a chance to stabilise.
 
Clarity at the top creates confidence in the middle.
 Confidence in the middle unlocks energy on the front line.
 That’s where guests, customers, students, and patients feel the difference.

Engagement is about seeing the direction clearly, and leaders walking it together.

If your top team’s priorities aren’t aligned, let’s pressure-test them together. Book a complimentary 30-minute call and I’ll outline a focused alignment sprint you can run immediately.

Your manager gap began two promotions ago.
Build a leadership pipeline with this 90-day path.

❌ Cut layers, expect senior leaders to plug the gap.
✅ Grow capable first-line leaders who stabilise shifts.

❌ Promote on technical mastery alone.
✅ Promote on observed coaching, safety, and service recovery.

❌ Hope people “figure it out”.
✅ Give ICs a 90-day roadmap with on-shift experiments.

Fallout → Directionless teams, inconsistent standards, supervisor burnout.
Fix → Skill sprints: trust, influence, feedback, delegation, conflict, recovery.

Because development must fit rota reality, each rep is 2–15 minutes and logged. Managers coach, not carry.

Outcome: a bench of calm coordinators who can run briefings tomorrow.

If you want the playbook that underpins this, comment “Playbook” and I’ll send it.

Your 'missing managers' problem

Top sellers stall when asked to lead.
Coach ICs now with lean prompts.

❌ Over-index on product expertise.
✅ Balance with coaching, listening, inclusive leadership.

❌ Feedback as annual event.
✅ Weekly 10–15 minute coaching conversations using SBI+.

❌ “Be more proactive.”
✅ Decision logs that capture judgment under pressure.

Fallout → Brilliant sellers, poor team leaders.
Fix → Clear thresholds: delegate during a peak, lead a small recovery.

Because inclusion drives voice, we hard-wire “invite the quieter voice” into stand-ups and handovers.
Outcome: candidates who already lift others.

To see the manager-as-coach prompts we use, message me and I’ll send the guide.

Top sellers stall when asked to lead

On paper, many service organisations look stable: good brand, decent demand, solid product.

Underneath, everything depends on a tiny group of managers holding the whole thing together.

When one leaves, the cost is bigger than a vacancy:
❌ Productivity dips while others “cover”
❌ Standards slip just enough for guests to feel it
❌ Confidence drops and people start looking elsewhere
❌ Recruitment turns reactive and costly
❌ Revenue opportunities are missed as priorities keep changing hands

That isn’t just a people risk. It’s a financial risk.
Gallup’s lesson is consistent: people don’t leave in the abstract. They leave environments where managers are overwhelmed and under-supported.

If you have no pipeline, then:
❌ Every promotion is a gamble
❌ Every resignation is a small crisis
❌ Every strategy is more fragile than it looks

Succession planning isn’t a corporate luxury.

It’s basic risk management for any hotel, school, clinic, or service business that runs on human performance.

Prepare people before you desperately need them.

Those weekly updates feel busy, not better.
Swap noise for direction in one day.

Hospitality, retail, service teams: you’ll recognise this pattern.

❌ Operational updates, staffing gaps, guest feedback, budget variances, firefighting.
Important. Necessary.
But not the work that aligns a leadership team.

✅ The work that does:
What are the 3–5 priorities for the next 90 days?
Where are we misaligned without noticing?
What do our people need us to clarify?
Which capabilities are missing to execute consistently?

When leaders make room for this, everything steadies:
Engagement holds. Turnover eases.
Middle managers stop guessing.
The frontline gets a clearer signal.
Customer experience becomes consistent.
Financial performance gets less erratic.

Boundary → Because: alignment doesn’t happen between agenda items, it happens when leaders pause, sit together, and focus on direction, not just today’s noise.

The most underrated tool isn’t coaching or training.
It’s one uninterrupted day to think, decide, and commit together.

Give your team that day. Twice a year. Then hold the line.

Most leaders don't set out to create a toxic environment.
Toxicity is what leaks out when pressure has nowhere to go.

Flattened structures mean more people, more emotional load, fewer buffers.

Under sustained pressure, even good leaders default to survival:
❌ Abrupt communication. Defensive decisions. Micromanagement dressed as "checking in."
✅ Clear expectations. Space to recalibrate. Behavioural consistency even when things get hard.

Pressure doesn't change leaders. It reveals them.
And it reveals the gaps in the support system around them.

If your culture is eroding quietly, look at what you're asking your managers to carry.

🇦🇪 On UAE National Day, we celebrate vision.
But it is our leaders who will decide whether we reach it.

The UAE Vision 2030 and the Fifty Economic Plan are bold:
a highly productive, talent-rich, service-driven economy that can compete with the best in the world.

That future runs through our workplaces - especially hospitality, retail, tourism and service businesses.

But the latest Gallup data for MENA tells a different story:
• Only 14% of employees are engaged
• 24% are actively disengaged
• 46% are looking for another job
• Daily stress is at 48% - among the highest globally

No country can deliver its full economic vision with a workforce that is exhausted and unstable.

And yet, this is not a vision problem.
It is a leadership problem - particularly in the middle management layer:

The managers who open and close the stores.
Who run the shifts.
Who approve the holidays.
Who coach (or do not coach) their people.
Who turn strategy slides into daily reality.

If that layer is overwhelmed, untrained or purely task-focused, we will not get the engagement, service quality and retention that Vision 2030 assumes.

The good news?
This is fixable - and the ROI is significant.

When we:

✅ Help strong individual contributors transition into people-centred leaders
✅ Build psychologically safe, engaged teams
✅ Create a feedback and learning culture instead of fear and firefighting

…everything else starts to move:
guest experience, team stability, internal promotion, and ultimately financial performance.

That is the Leadership Value Chain™ - and it is where I am focusing my work here in the UAE.

On this National Day, instead of more slogans, I invite you to a simple reflection:

👉 If you lead people in the UAE, what is one small behaviour you could strengthen in 2026 to make your team a place where talent wants to stay, grow and contribute?

Because every time a manager chooses to listen, coach, give fair feedback, or protect their people from unnecessary chaos, we take a small but real step towards the future this country is aiming for.

Here is to a vision that lives not just in strategy documents, but in the daily leadership our teams experience.

Happy UAE National Day 🇦🇪


Photo by Milan Kiro on pexels.

AI solves tasks. Leadership solves behaviour.
The two only work when the human is steady.

If a manager is already overwhelmed, reactive, or emotionally stretched, AI amplifies that. It doesn't fix it.

❌ Faster decisions made poorly. Clearer communication of confusion. Efficiency without judgment.
✅ Using AI to reflect before responding. Rehearsing difficult conversations. Creating clarity for teams.

AI won't replace managers.
But it will expose gaps in leadership behaviour faster than ever.

The organisations that win next year aren't the ones with the most AI tools.

They're the ones with stable, supported managers who know how to use them.

Promotions without support drain teams.
Start support before numbers slip.

We all know the pattern:
Strong individual contributor gets promoted.
Same expectations, bigger scope, little support.
They try to carry the team by working harder.
Communication wobbles.
The team quietly disengages.
Performance and guest experience follow.

On a spreadsheet, it looks like:
❌ Rising turnover and sick days
❌ Inconsistent guest/client feedback
❌ Lumpy sales and service metrics

In real life, it’s a human who was never taught how to:
✅ Have difficult conversations
✅ Give clear, fair feedback
✅ Delegate without guilt
✅ Set boundaries and protect their energy

Invest early, before they burn out or burn bridges.
The results are predictable:
✅ Teams stabilise
✅ Engagement stops swinging
✅ Financials get less lumpy and more reliable

Emerging leaders aren’t a “nice” group to develop.
They’re the infrastructure of future performance.

If this pattern is biting in your teams, book a complimentary 25-minute advisory call and we’ll map the first three fixes for your emerging leaders.

Manager engagement just dropped to 27%.
Individual contributors stayed flat.

The people responsible for engaging others don't feel engaged themselves.

Add Korn Ferry's insight: drastically larger teams, fewer resources.

❌ Squeezed between executives and frontline. Drowning in operational noise. Expected to absorb pressure and still show up strong. ✅ Aligned priorities. Protected time to think. A system that treats managers as the critical layer they are.

70% of team engagement traces back to the manager.
Yet managers often receive the least structured support.

When your pressure layer cracks, the cracks spread everywhere.

Your best future leads aren’t practicing.
Weekly pressure reps surface them fast.

❌ Talent spotting in annual reviews only.
✅ Weekly reps where ICs run moments that matter.

❌ “Shadow when it’s quiet.”
✅ Shadow at pressure points, harvest three copy-worthy behaviours.

❌ Vague “step up more”.
✅ Mini-campaigns with a metric, stakeholder map, and short retro.

Fallout → Quiet high-potentials stay unseen.
Fix → Simple artefacts that show the work and de-risk first promotions.

Because consistency beats heroics, we build habits: Focus 3, check-clarify-close, micro-recoveries with guests.
You’ll see who is already leading, not just hoping.

If you’re building a middle-management pipeline for 2026, DM me and let’s scope it for your context.

Leadership potential isn’t invisible, it’s unpractised

Training often dies at the lunch rush.
Use on-shift cues that stick at peak.

❌ E-learning that dies at peak.
✅ Two-line prompts managers can use at 12:30.

❌ One-size modules.
✅ Sector examples: queue flow, top-10 stockouts, tour-bus arrivals.

❌ “Forever” changes.
✅ Bounded experiments: next 30 minutes, this service period.

Fallout → Skills don’t transfer to the floor.
Fix → On-shift practice with buddy circles and manager check-ins.

Because we measure behaviour, not attendance, leading indicators move first: briefings run, feedback given, conflicts de-escalated.

If you want a copy of the 90-day Emerging Leader Sprint, reply “90 days” and I’ll share it.

Training that survives the lunch rush

Every year, the same rush: deadlines, reviews, budgets, holidays.
This year is different. Managers aren't just stretched. They're structurally overloaded.

20–40% more direct reports. Increased pressure from above. Reduced support below.

❌ Leaders falling to their level of exhaustion.
✅ Leaders falling to their level of clarity, capability, and support.

When companies give managers structure instead of stress, performance becomes predictable again.

One clear message. One aligned set of priorities. One consistent rhythm.

The year-end crunch will come. The question is whether your managers finish it steady or strained.

The Gallup report has been stuck in my head for weeks.
We keep talking about engagement like it lives in HR.
It doesn’t.
It lives in the P&L.

In service businesses, low engagement shows up as:
❌ Turnover in the teams you can’t afford to lose
❌ Basics slipping, complaints rising
❌ Supervisors firefighting instead of coaching
❌ Sales and ops pulling against each other
❌ Mid-level leaders burning out quietly

None of that is “soft.”
All of it is expensive.

In hotels and other service organisations, you feel disengagement in:
❌ Overtime and replacement costs
❌ Guest scores and online reviews
❌ Missed up-/cross-sell and retention
❌ Managers checking out months before they resign

✅ Here’s the truth we skip: engagement is a leadership issue long before it’s an HR metric.

When leaders at every level know what matters, why it matters, and how to bring people along, engagement becomes a commercial advantage, not a slide in a report.

Treat it as a financial lever, not an annual survey.

Flattening your org chart didn't remove work.
It crushed your managers.

Korn Ferry's data: 20–40% more direct reports. Same resources. Two-thirds overwhelmed.

❌ Shorter communication. Reactive coaching. Micromanagement disguised as "follow-up."
✅ Clarity on priorities. Aligned expectations. Actual time to lead.

The middle layer holds your business together. When they break, everything downstream breaks with them.

If your managers are stretched past capacity, the problem isn't their resilience. It's the system around them.

Low engagement tracks messy first-line rhythm.
Lock a cadence with ready agendas and scripts.

❌ Inconsistent huddles, unclear roles, shifting priorities mid-shift.
✅ Standard stand-up agenda and visible task allocation.

❌ Silence around small errors.
✅ Normalise learning: one error shared, one fix each week.

❌ Escalate every friction.
✅ Peer scripts for simple performance and tone issues.

Fallout → Rumour, rework, repeat complaints.
Fix → Six sprints that turn “nice ICs” into dependable coordinators.

Because managers can’t design from scratch, we include templates, scripts, and a promotion-readiness rubric mapped to competencies.

If you want help to implement this across sites, let’s talk about your pipeline goals and constraints.

taplio

The Battle

Burt Steingraeber -Global Business Operator

Jeff Ross

Followers

Posts

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Performance ScoreBurt Steingraeber -Global Business Operator's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJeff Ross's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Burt Steingraeber -Global Business Operator

Jeff Ross

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Burt Steingraeber -Global Business Operator's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJeff Ross's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreBurt Steingraeber -Global Business Operator's LinkedIn Performance