Love Your Company More Than Misery By Leading For Growth
Big Names Suddenly Drop Out
We often hear of old fashioned businesses losing trade and occasionally moving out of the marketplace. Established firms that twenty years ago were making good profits and employing people in communities around the nation and the world can find themselves hanging on by a thread. With huge overheads and bureaucracy that prevents rapid change, it’s a permanent challenge to make small gains. Shrinking businesses need to turn around but in many cases, a negative trend in leadership cannot adapt anything enough to bring about the required change. There are many factors involved in leading for growth. Established firms perhaps have enjoyed a long period of stable trade so their team is not as prepared for growth when needed. A shrinking non-adapting firm is doomed to disappear. Shrinking business means low morale, low job security, and more pressure from the top. It will make people miserable and this can be contagious. They may be in love but misery will kill your company if allowed to stay.
Stay Humble
Your High Horse Is Not A Weapon. The public has given you a high horse. They put you on a pedestal and they look up to you. It’s their horse, not yours. It’s a matter of service and not authority. A horse can pull a larger weight than the average person. You are the master of this pulling ability. So when you lead, you are bringing other people out of their fears, out of their uncertainty, and out of their misery. We work to provide, we lead so they can work. Our work is to take people into happier circumstances. We care about these people and value their efforts, we want them to be content and we want to help them achieve greater things for themselves and our company.
Have Courage.
Leaders are different from followers. Followers are given instructions and they are expected to follow them. Deviations are not part of the contract. Leaders are given a goal and are asked to get the team there. There are fewer instructions and this means knowing the correct routine can be impossible. We have to take risks. Being brave means that we have to disregard criticism and concern and then take a step in an uncharted direction. Remembering that failure is an important signpost to work yet to be done and understanding yet to be reached, taking fresh steps needn’t be a hike into the wilderness.
An Open Mind Is An Open Door.
We have to let new ideas into our heads. Our standard ideas have not worked and so it’s time for some new ones. We cannot be expected to think up every fresh innovation ourselves, so it’s time to listen to others. Remember, you may be a leader but you’re not an autocrat. Your team is your machine and sometimes it makes good ideas. You need to be able to accept an idea without necessarily understanding the exact mechanics of it, allow yourself to be taken down the garden path by a novel concept and you could end up in a fertile field.
Be Cautious Of Continuity.
The same old stuff day after day can be an easy way to make a profit, for now, it may be currently allowing you to employ a team. Life is not going to stand still because you have found a good spot. Things always change, the tectonics of the global markets are fast-moving and the people we rely on can change their habits faster than we expect. There needs to be a hunger for novelty and a drive to stay on the fresh side of the service we offer. Yes, people like tradition and they like to feel that they’re part of something established long before they were born, but they also want to best prices and they want to feel connected to the new and upcoming side of society. Finding your balance is a continual project.
The World Is Your Library.
All around us are ideas and explanations. Books, articles, stunning examples, and people explaining things for fun are all over the place. This is ours to reflect on. Reading books about the things that matter to the business, watching films about it, even going on tours of places that do the same thing as you on a much bigger scale or from a different viewpoint, all these things can help spread your wings. Where you find fresh perspectives and understand the concerns of your clients from a new angle, it can be a lot easier to appreciate the direction you need to travel in.
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