Businesses fail for a variety of reasons. Some just aren’t competitive or offer products that people don’t want. But others fail for preventable reasons. Many failures, and successes, are created by the type of organization that the owner creates. It is critical to craft a culture and workforce that is prepared to deal with uncertainty, can alter course with ease when necessary, is aligned with your strategy, and proactively works towards desired outcomes. An organization like this doesn’t created itself, but requires design and nurturing.
As an introduction into building successful business organizations, I’ll describe a number of characteristics that leading organizations exhibit.
Imagine the Unimaginable. Creativity is a key asset of any business. If you foster free thinking within your workforce and brainstorming sessions, unexpected solutions and ideas will become commonplace and you’ll become greater than the sum of your people. Creativity frees us from trying to create solutions in the same way that we’ve always tried in the past and encourages out-of-the-box thinking. A creative organization will continuously improve and this also helps the business stay nimble, proactive, and fresh.
Preparation trumps planning. Early strategists said that a plan in battle never survives the first shot. They meant that no matter how well you’ve planned, when you launch the plan, the unexpected will happen. You may find that your customers or competitors don’t act the way that you’ve anticipated. The market might change. Any number of variables can impact your plan. If you’ve taken the time to ensure that your organization is prepared for change and is ready to adapt to changing situations, you’ll be able to reach your goals. It may not happen the way that you’ve planned, but its the results that matter, not the plan.
The only failure is a failure to try. Encourage people to take chances and try new ways of doing business. Don’t shut down your employees creativity and only allow a few people to suggest ideas or make recommendations. You’ll be amazed by the creativity of your workforce if you reinforce their ability to fail. Let them make mistakes and then evaluate them to help them become even better problem-solvers in the future. To do this effectively, you need to establish resources and constraints and have clear authority and responsibility chains.
Listen to your workers. Most plans, products, campaigns, etc. are created by a small group of leaders or specialists. Unfortunately, this leaves much of the expertise within your business without a voice. If you miss out on using their expertise, experience, and creativity in your business solutions, you’re missing out on a huge resource that you have in-house. One of the three critical gaps in executing strategy is plans that are unrealistic and this is frequently caused by ignoring the people that are going to be implementing plans who could have supplied input that might have prevented the problem in the first place.
Get out of the office. You can’t operate effectively in the vacuum of the workplace alone. You have to get out and interact with your customers, potential customers, partners, etc. Only by this interaction can you begin to validate your assumptions that went into crafting offerings, making plans, structuring business models, etc. This out of the building interaction will help you find areas to exploit and avoid costly mistakes.
There isn’t a singular solution for implementing any of these characteristics, each leader must develop their individual style and stay true to that style. You have to stay true to yourself. If you try to act in a manner contradictory to your character, you’ll come across as phony. People excel at spotting phony behavior and you will have a challenge leading. Build your organization to be nimble and prepared to adapt quickly to changes and you’ll be amazed at the results.
M.K. Nelson, who has been an entrepreneur and strategy coach & consultant for over 20 years, has written a practical strategy guide on the best small business ideas. For a limited period you can get a free guide by visiting his small business resource library and also get tips to help make your business the most profitable small business it can be.
