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In my experience as a business professional and consultant, I found the secret to success to be solving problems more than new ideas, and the ability to make a decision. Too many business managers see themselves as idea people and delay making any decision or taking action, looking for someone else to take that first step. Most often, any action is better than no action.
Effective business leaders are not hesitant to accept control in their business. They know their role is to solve problems, make decisions, and position the business for near-term results and future success. The best ones relish this role, while others constantly feel stress and sacrifice their health and happiness in the name of commitment to constituents and their careers.
As a business advisor to startups as well as large companies, I offer the following keys that have worked for me, to maintain the right balance and focus in these challenging and often chaotic economic times:
1. Don’t waste time on problems outside your realm. The best leaders continually reset their priorities to spend time on important business issues first, and not get frustrated by problems outside their control, including political and cultural challenges. This focus includes saying ‘no’ to all the extraneous requests for your time and assistance.
2. Develop confidence in your solution ability. Celebrate every small success to build momentum and confidence that every problem has a solution and you have the ability to find it. Avoid excuses and the victim mentality. Use this confidence to make and implement decisions in a timely fashion to move the business forward for all to see.
3. Keep your objective goals on top of mind. I recommend that your top five business goals be documented and updated on a monthly basis. Make sure they are action-oriented and communicated clearly and often to your team and other constituents. Success in business is all about having real goals and producing real results.
4. Avoid attacking symptoms rather than base problems. Too many people spend most of their time trying to reduce symptoms rather than identifying and solving the base problem. Use your business goals to find limiting factors in rolling out solutions and finding the real constraints to business success in revenue, growth, and profitability.
5. Explore multiple dimensions of every challenge. Understanding the broadest scope of every problem will allow you to quickly assemble multiple possible solutions, and then lead you and your team to the best one. Don’t be afraid to actively seek these multiple views to a problem from front-line team members, advisors, and other constituents.
6. Build a range of solutions before making a decision. Some people are quick to run with the first solution they see, rather than using input from the team and brainstorming to expand the alternatives. If you can quickly identify a list of ten possible solutions to a given problem, you will likely find that the best one is not the first that you postulated.
7. Communicate responsibility for solution actions. Your job as leader and decision-maker includes making sure that everyone understands who and how the solution will be implemented. This includes follow-up, documentation, and weekly reports to make sure the necessary actions have been taken, and metrics to assess success or failure.
8. Acquire tools and training to minimize repeat problems. In today’s rapidly changing business world, you need constant attention to new tools and techniques to head off future problems as competitors proliferate and your success grows. Be proactive in attending industry conferences, evaluating tools, and upgrading skills on your team.
Use these steps to improve your productivity as well as enhance your business career, no matter where you are today in the hierarchy. Also I have found that these apply as well to personal challenges, improving your overall self-esteem, satisfaction, and work-life balance. Better control in life and business is always a positive.