Eight Potential Areas to grow Your Business

From new book, “Presence, Impact and Influence”

Eight Potential Area to Grow Your Business

Over the years of working in the trenches with our clients, we have identified eight key stumbling blocks to growing a prosperous organization. Identifying these blocks and consciously working towards progression will be a key element of your new business plan.

Through identifying these patterns and opportunities within your team, you can take new steps towards growth, change and innovation.

Most business plans lack real strategy. Just by setting higher goals than last year will not reflect how you are going to win in the market. Tacking on a set percentage increase rarely works to engage people towards breakthroughs; but typically deflates them instead. Longer term ‘infinite’ strategies that are inclusive and transparent are required today.
Most companies manage their income, rather than value creation for their customers. As a result, their offering is not compelling enough to the ever-changing motives of the market. Change through the lens of financial income is an important element but standing alone is short sighted. Customers and clients care more about the experience they receive, not your profit statements.
Business strategies are not clearly thought out and very few people in the company understand them. The best strategies have everyone’s fingerprints on them. People will support what they help create, and reject change as forced on them. Most organizations are not organized around their strategy and an established market position.
Only 17% of Canadians are engaged in their companies. They do not realize where the business is going, how the company makes money and how their role contributes to growth initiatives. Your work as a leader must be centered around this fact and working to create a new culture that will not only attract but retain great people.
Fewer than 10% of well formulated strategies are successfully implemented according to David Norton and Robert Kaplan, authors of The Balanced Scorecard. They cite poor execution, lack of alignment and follow-up. Measured execution of change is an acquired taste and at first most people default to fuzzy thinking, resulting in poor strategy and execution.
Only 30% of companies in Canada invest in their people’s growth which limits a business’ capacity. Those who do, often spend valuable resources of time and money on training that produce little impact. They spend resources trying to ‘fix’ poor performers, while ignoring the ones wanting to contribute more and learn new skills. Have you ever noticed it is not to the problem people who leave companies, it is the ones once considered but ignored because they were ‘just fine’ in your eyes? Remember, people do not leave bad companies, they leave bad managers.
Sales strategies, prospecting management systems and existing client service standards are not planned out and executed. As a result, most companies spend money only on generating leads and marketing for new business. They do not necessarily ignore, but instead, take for granted the existing clients who serve as reference and upsell potentials.
Most leaders add leaders like them rather than choose business savvy people who are disciplined in business creation, performance coaching and leadership skills.

Think about whether your company might be making these mistakes. These mistakes are common in virtually all growing businesses. However, identifying and correcting them can create dramatic performance gains in sales profitability and net worth. Those individuals who are invited to tackle them can become high performing leaders of the future for their company.

Steps you can take immediately to build your influence and leadership

Once the previous eight potential blocks are dealt with, you will then be looking for ideas to strengthen your team and produce some solid results. You see that your continued success in the next few years will be determined by your people and how they support your strategy and each other.

In the absence of truly understanding and knowing the people you work with, you will each be driven by your own agendas, schedules and priorities. This misalignment can cost you valuable time, resources and productivity. Each person you work with is unique in how they think and consider themselves a contributor to the team. As companies continue to develop an engaged and aligned group, they are seeing the need to develop clear expectations, goals and work habits. Please NEVER assume you know how people operate and what is important to them. When you ‘think’ you know, you will always be wrong.

When you become focused and serious, about aligning your team, you will need to really understand what makes your group operate in a cooperative and supportive way. There are no excuses allowed here. Being ‘busy’ does not count. (Who isn’t busy?!) Please have every person on your team complete the following questions. This exercise could be the most valuable thing you do all year.

SURVEY: How I Choose To Work and Value My Contribution

This is how I would describe my work style:
My most effective and productive work environment would look like:
This is how I best communicate with others: (In certain situations.)
This is how I like to be communicated with:
My most productive time of day is: This is how I best work at this time:
I feel this is how you can help me the most right now:
I wish to contribute in the following ways:
This is how I wish to be held accountable:
Our meetings would be more productive if we:
This is how I like to receive feedback from my colleagues and manager:
This is how I like to be recognized:
This is what is most important to me, as it relates to my career:
What I value most is:
My real strengths would include:
I feel my input matters when I receive the following feedback:
This is how I would describe my character and attitude:
This is how I choose to better my skills and attitude:
I am most comfortable at work when:
My top 3 professional goals include:
The critical factors (3 main goals) of my work right now are:
This is how I prefer to be taught:
This is how I manage my time:
This is how I like to re-charge and re-focus:
I feel that I am the most creative when:
My next steps in learning new skills include:
This is how I wish to review my performance:
What I see getting in the way of my progress includes:
I prefer to handle stress by:
This is how I tend to handle difficult situations:
This is how I tend to handle difficult conversations:
Our greatest strengths as a company are:
Our customer service makes us distinct because:
Our biggest challenges in the next year will be:
Our clients do business with us because:
What is going to allow us to compete in the future will include:

And finally…..I feel what is expected of me includes:
(Please feel free to adjust based on your work environment.)

These are a good variety of questions that will allow any team to understand its players at a deeper level. You may choose to amend, make additions, or even remove a few points; the intention remains the same.

Ultimately this is your only competitive edge left….your team and our people.

failure is not an option

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If you want to build your presence, impact and influence, lets talk today

Phone Number:

905 – 401 – 1434

Email:

neil@thorntongroup.ca

“You Deserve To Be Heard.”

over 30 years of leadership & Training experience