I talk to a lot of CEOs that feel stuck. They survived the pandemic, weathered the Great Resignation, have managed to navigate the work-from-home versus back-to-the-office conundrum and are now questioning where they fit in a marketplace. For some of my clients, the marketplace has changed so dramatically in the past five years, they aren’t sure if the business they have successfully operated for 20+ years is relevant to current and future customers. “Sales have plateaued,” “Our profit margins continue to shrink,” and “I’ve lost my passion for the business” – all are common concerns clients share with me. To help business leaders refocus and generate a contagious level of enthusiasm for their business, I recommend these three moves:
1- Clarify your Ambition. When was the last time you revisited the vision you have for your organization? If you haven’t reassessed and refined your company vision and goals in the last two years, do it now. When you are working to achieve a set of financial goals or a further a cause you are passionate about, you will naturally generate the enthusiasm needed to attract followers to your organization to help you achieve it. Ambition planning is best done with the help of an experienced strategic consultant. Hiring an experienced facilitator to guide you through the process of clarifying your vision, identifying your ambitions and aligning stakeholders will accelerate your business revival.
2- Align your Internal Stakeholders. As Henry Ford said, “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” Too often I find business leaders set goals as an executive team and don’t share them organization-wide. How can you expect your team to help you reach your business ambitions if they don’t know what they are? If you have revenue goals, expense reduction goals and profitability goals for your business, make them visible inside your organization and help every employee understand how their role impacts the success of the organization. Profit is not a word to be feared. If you are nervous about sharing your profitability goal with your team because you think they believe profit = greed then take the time to educate your team on why a healthy bottom line is necessary in all businesses. If you do this and they still look at you like you are an evil villain, let them go with gusto.
3- Create a Culture of Intrapreneurship. Intrapreneurs are people inside of an organization who think like entrepreneurs, work like entrepreneurs, innovate like entrepreneurs, hustle like entrepreneurs and embody the company brand and values like entrepreneurs. Imagine what you could accomplish if your employees took ownership of the company goals and worked as hard as you do to accomplish them. That is my idea of business eutopia. How do you get your employees to think this way? First, invite them to the party and educate them on the concept. Second, give them permission to innovate new processes, products, and service offers. Google has a 20% concept where they encourage employees to spend 20% of their time working on what they think will most benefit Google. If 20% sounds like a lot of time to you, start with 10% and see what happens. If you begin an intrapreneurship program inside your organization be prepared to incentivize your team for innovations that generate revenue and reduce expenses. Offering performance bonuses and profit sharing to outstanding performers are simple ways to align internal stakeholders to achieve your business ambitions. As a bonus, a team incentivized to achieve goals and innovate radiates positive energy helping you stay energized and passionate about running the business no matter what wild turn the marketplace takes next.