What’s your business growth looking like and where were you 12 months ago compared to today?
If you haven’t given it much thought it is probably because you’re stuck in the daily grind. But it is worth spending dedicated time to do some reflecting on what has got you here and plan your approach for the future.
Your next courageous choice; take some time to think.
Business growth and success doesn’t need to mean more risk, more hours and more uncertainty. But it does require vulnerability, the prerequisite of courage. To be successful, you need the trust and confidence of your team, of yourself and in your plan.
And it takes more courage than ever to build this trust, learn from your setbacks, adjust your plan and ultimately achieve success.
Building trust and confidence with your people:
With trust across the globe at epic lows as reinforced in the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer showing "83% of employees saying they fear losing their job" now is the time for you to consider your approach to building trust and confidence.
Large businesses such as Air New Zealand and Kiwirail have implemented "high performance through engagement" frameworks to address this trust-performance divide, and have shown that financial success is a direct outcome of building trust. The approach uses an interests based problem solving method across three spheres of commercial responsibility, customer satisfaction and constructive culture.
But it does not need to be this complicated.
Essentially you need your people choosing to speak up. You need your people taking a vulnerable step forward, being courageous and making a contribution. Creating the space and environment for this to happen is often the first courageous choice leaders need to make - letting go, empowering your people, and building their self-confidence to come up with solutions.
How many times have you put a target in front of someone only to get the natural reaction of push back?
Get your people involved, informed and contributing to the plan.
Building trust and confidence in your plan:
Get visibility of your past performance to get an understanding of how you got to where you are right now. Get clear about your business's commercial drivers for success. What are the trends in your performance, with your customers and in your market? Consider where your knowledge gaps may be.
Consider your level of vulnerability and comfort. What courageous choices have you made in the past e.g. have you ever increased prices in tough markets, or invested in people or resources ahead of filling the sales pipeline? What was the result? What will be needed in the future?
Make choices to grow your business and document them. Keep it simple with the big few objectives and key measures for success for each objective.
Build confidence into the plan over time. Establish some routines for involving your people to check outcomes and adjust plans in an iterative cycle of improvement.
This will build confidence as people test and learn what makes a difference, and as they become more comfortable with being courageous and making a contribution.
3 simple tips when planning for growth:
1) Get your people involved, informed and contributing
2) Partner with experts to plug knowledge gaps and diversify your thinking
3) Make courageous (educated) choices
Business growth can be perceived as something scary, but when you and your team are making courageous choices it can be empowering and rewarding.
At Freshgrass we're curious to better understand the role of courage in business, and want to hear from you. Does courage help businesses go from good to great? Reflect on your most memorable moments in business, the achievements you are most proud of, what was the courageous choice you made? When have you been successful without needing courage? Would love to hear your thoughts!
Freshgrass is a purpose led consultancy seeking to give others the capacity to pursue and achieve meaningful goals.
We're numbers focused, offering business growth solutions through the chief financial officer lens, and we know what it takes to deliver results - people!
With a bit of planning, the right resources, and empowered people, there is tremendous opportunity to grow and scale your business to the next level to hit your growth targets.
We can help you get started.
Contact Nick to discuss what's needed to unlock your plan for growth.
