Business Success and How To Achieve It

by | Jul 27, 2017 | business, Success | 0 comments

Business success. How do you achieve it? How can you measure it?   Some say you don’t  achieve business success unless you measure it.

Success means something different to every person and every organization. Some people view business success by how much money or fame they have. Others define it by how much time they have to spend in the office. Still others view their success in terms of how much of an impact they have on their community or the world. With so many measuring sticks, it can be difficult to assign an across-the-board definition of success.  Yet, it’s something that most people strive toward.

At TIGERS Success Series, we define business success as consistently achieving goals with a felt sense of personal satisfaction among the people doing the work. Therefore, TIGERS leaders recognize success as a balance between work and people.  For example, emphasize work at the expense of people and reap the rewards of disengagement and turnover. Emphasize people at the expense of work and the workplace becomes happy camp. To be truly successful, leaders must first identify what business success means to them.  Then they can create strategies to move them toward their goal.

Team leadership strategies that lead to business success

Success is the sixth of the 6 TIGERS Principles that build cooperation and collaboration in the workplace. The following five team leadership strategies contribute to success.

Identify and understand problems that mitigate risk.

No strategy is perfect. Outside forces cans disrupt the most carefully laid plans. For example, the last recession that was to last a couple of years, ended up lasting seven or more years for many organizations. Recovery is still tenuous for some.

Therefore, when unforeseen problems do arise, step one is understanding the root cause of the problem. For example, perhaps an employee is constantly missing deadlines. Rather than assume that the employee is lazy or incompetent, discover the source of the problem. Here are some questions to consider:

  • Is there a knowledge gap?
  • Is something hardwired and upstream creating a barrier?
  • Is inadequate problem solving and identification training the issue?
  • Is the employee constantly waiting on someone else to complete their task so they can move on?
  • Is another outside force affecting this employee’s performance?

Get to the root of the problem first before launching a change initiative.  This ensures an adequate and sustainable solution for all parties involved.

Don’t be afraid to make changes.

When you start any endeavor, plan on streamlining it. You likely have a vision in your mind or on paper for how everything is going to play out. However, the old saying that stuff happens often comes true.

To be successful,  process changes are inevitable. Whether you’re tackling a new task, working toward a big goal or creating a company from the ground up, your initial thoughts  aren’t likely going to see you through to the end. The following external factors come into play:

  • Customer feedback: and,
  • The changing marketplace.

These two factors can drastically change your approach or  the product that you’re developing.  In order to achieve success, you must be able to adjust your planning when hurdles arise. To remain competitive, be mindful that the marketplace is ever-changing.

Keep up on training. 

You probably already onboard and train new employees as they are hired. If you’re not investing in continuous training, however, you’re missing out on a valuable resource – your employee’s potential.

To achieve an employee’s strength potential, every employee needs training. Your trainers also require best practices training. Some training will have to be developed in-house. Other training,  however, is available on line and in 24/7 formats.

For example, the TIGERS 6 Principles that Build High Performance Teams self-study leadership program offers 24/7 training access for one year.  This gives leaders the opportunity to put into place key ideas and then track the results before adding a new task.

Frequently training that is a one-day event does not result in sustainable training retention or results. For leaders looking to improve team behavior, employee accountability, engagement and improved business success, longer and easy to access training is required.  This is because change is not a one-time event. It is a process. Successful training must address it. This contributes to change in how department managers collaborate and employees cooperate to benefit the organization’s success.

Give back.

How much an organization gives back to the community is a sign of business success. If successful, when organizations skip this step it is a problem that collides with Millennial values.

Millennials currently comprise about 45 percent of the workforce. Seventy-two percent of them say that they want to make an impact in the world. So if your organization isn’t striving to make changes for the better, it is hard to hold onto some talented Millennials.   They vote with their feet and leave organizations that do not support their values. To attract top talent, build a reputable brand and attract clients and customers, consider giving back, Make it a top priority in your success strategies.

Persevere.

Overnight business success sounds appealing. However, it is not realistic. The only real path to success is through consistency and perseverance.

When you strive for an overnight solution, you will make mistakes. Impatience leads to shortcut solutions.  These may damage your organization in the long-term.

When companies or people claim to have achieved success overnight, be wary.  You are probably overlooking the years of training and hard work that went into achieving business success.  If you truly want business to be successful, keep at it. This means persevering when circumstances aren’t progressing as quickly as you’d like.

Business success comes in many forms. To achieve success with your business, leaders must first identify what success means to them. Then  create detailed plans that might require modification to get there. The journey most likely isn’t going to look the way that they initially planned.  With perseverance and consistency, business success is achievable. Some team leadership strategies to get you there include:

  • Identifying and understanding the underlying problems;
  • Not being afraid to be flexible and make changes to the plan as necessary;
  • Consistently train;
  • Giving back to the community or your employees; and,
  • Persevere even when success seems far away.

With these strategies, leaders can lead their team members and organizations to business success.

Care to dig a bit deeper into business success?

Consider the following resources for more information:

Copyright TIGERS Success Series, Inc. by Dianne Crampton

About TIGERS® Success Series, Inc.

TIGERS® Success Series is a Bend, Oregon Leadership and Team Improvement Consultant that helps committed leaders build more cooperation among employees and collaboration between departments for improved business success.

We do this by deploying the TIGERS® team process that improves workforce behaviors that are anchored by trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk resolution and success. Providing diagnostics and customized team interventions,  you can improve both work culture and transform your adequate teams into exceptional ones.

We also license and train HRD Executives, Project Managers, Managers, and Trainers in the use of our award winning resources. For more information, call 1+ 541-385-7465.

Invite us to present at your next business retreat or association gathering.

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