These potentially are the most expensive words in business.
Why? Because that sound you just heard is your competitors passing you out at light speed.
If you hear anyone in your business use these words then the rot may have already set in. If you are the one saying them, there might be a bigger problem.
You know this but I’ll say it just for clarity, there’s only growing or contracting in business. Whenever I hear someone say “we’re doing Ok, holding our own” then the answer is you’re probably contracting and your competition is overtaking you.
You must always be evolving your offering, getting better solutions for your customers, continue to innovate, to try harder, to do things better. That sound like a lot of work for you, more time that you don’t have, to work on things that you never get to.
That’s where you must get your employees to bring their ideas to the table. You must encourage them to generate solutions, solve problems. We’ve found in >95% of situations your people have the answers. But for the most part they are not listened to, ignored, undervalued and as a result they stop bringing ideas.
In every circumstance where you lead your employees and engage with them to get their input the business will begin to work better, become more productive, the mood will change in the workforce and ultimately you will get creative and innovative solutions to problems. Once that happens you will now begin to increase growth and productivity.
