Are you insane?
Einstein’s definition of insanity was doing the same thing repeatedly and then expecting a different result. What are you doing in your business? Are you doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?
To transform your business, you will need to change yourself. People want leaders they can respect, a leader who is not a hypocrite. They want a leader who sets an example.
Are you a top-down leader?
A top-down leader makes the decisions and then communicates this to their team. They then set the expectation of what is required to complete their tasks. Their team can then focus on what is needed rather than waste valuable time planning, as you have already completed this. Culture, performance, productivity and profitability are all top-down.
Ask yourself these questions:
• Are you a leader in your organisation?
• Are you performing?
• Are you behaving?
• Are you setting an example?
• If you can’t answer these questions, you need to transform yourself.
How do you transform yourself?
To transform yourself, you need to look at this from a business perspective.
• What is your strategic plan? Can your strategic plan be written on one piece of paper, and is it simple enough for everyone to understand? What are you doing to ensure that you’ve transformed yourself to follow your strategic plan?
• Do you have daily huddles, weekly reviews, monthly meetings, quarterly reviews, and an annual operational plan? Are you doing these items consistently, and is your business structure meeting the needs of the future?
• Does your business have a vision, and can you explain that vision in 5 words or less? Is your vision relatable?
• What are your values? Can you articulate your values in three to five words? Does everyone in your organisation understand your vision and values?
• How does your communication to your team flow? The flow of information in any organisation is vital as it highlights the chain of command. When communication flows down, managers are providing direction to their employees. When the flow of communication goes up, employees advise their problems and possible lack of leadership to their managers.
• Do you trust your team? More importantly, does your team trust you? Do they trust that you will deliver on your word?
• How are you managing your staff? Are you holding people accountable? Are you having different conversations? Are you trying to meet their needs? Are you managing your work as portfolio products? Are you delegating, upskilling, holding to account, mentoring, coaching,
and training?
• Are you remaining the top choice in your industry? If so, how are you setting yourself apart from the competition?
• Have you accepted that technology is the future and that change will happen? That saying ‘this is how we always have done things’ is unacceptable, and you have to find and implement new technology into your business.
• Are you mentoring and coaching your team to be more successful, emotionally intelligent leaders? What is your focus? Is it your business? Or is it yourself?
We were recently working with a very successful business owner. This business owner knew he needed to transform his business. However, he didn’t have a strategic plan. This meant that he did not have an operational or quarterly plan. So this business owner decided to transform himself as he started to hold himself accountable for his daily huddles and weekly goals. In a short amount of time, he realised that he was transforming himself and his business by completing his daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly goals.
Why did this happen? The business owner was holding himself to account. The result? The business owner found that when he transformed himself, it changed his performance, productivity and most importantly, his profits,
He had successfully transformed his business