“Remember when you see a man at the top of a mountain, he didn’t fall there.” – Unknown
The old saying of “when the going gets tough the tough get going” could never be more appropriate for leaders during these extremely harrowing economic times. Hard or difficult times for many businesses today have a lot to do with the business complexity you deal with for gaining greater productivity.
Business leaders face many challenges each day. By leading your people to rally around a common cause, you need to inspire them. Getting ahead of the curve means taking a hard look at what the future might hold, and that requires a degree of courage on your part.
“When something bad happens, you have three choices: You can either let it define you, let it destroy you or let it strengthen you.” ~Unknown
Old business models are experiencing tectonic shifts across all industries. Times are tough when your business is not doing as well as you expect. Great companies shine with leaders who take time to think of proactive steps. Usually more problems take place when you don’t think and you react.
Using Creativity to Move Forward
This can be a time when you change things in your organization. Such changes can take place as going from traditional way of doing business to looking at things from an unconventional perspective. Can you afford to keep going the way you’ve been conducting business? Or you may start to reduce complexity and increase simplification for greater productivity.
“If you can lead people through tough times, and show them a direction and give them something to believe in, you can certainly do it through good times,” says Darci Congrove, CPA, managing director at GBQ Partners LLC.
Challenges to Lead Your Company Forward
Challenges are a normal part of business — that’s a fact. No matter what your company faces- a slowdown in the economy, a merger or acquisition, complexity issues or even the death of a key executive, moving through any of these challenges in a specific manner can build strength. Finding opportunity sometimes results in greater decision making for greater priorities.
Think of a challenge as any type of different way you conduct business. This will impact your organization for greater results. Don’t let these differences stop you or your organization to grind to a halt to moving forward. You need to see the challenge not as a waste of time, instead as part of the process to the next level of breakthrough results.
The ways of doing business as usual has been changing. Previous structures, rules, processes and procedures are fading into the sunset to make way for the new normal of creativity and innovation. On top of this, technology sneaks in to give an extra push for greater breakthrough results.
Getting Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable
Instead of hiring new people as you did in the past, it is becoming required that new people know how to use their creative thinking skills. Before starting, these new people must demonstrate their skills by being interviewed with a team in a brainstorm session. By showing their abilities toward generating, creating and producing ideas needs leaders to give support and encouragement to keep moving forward.
“The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places.” – Unknown
Do you know what to do as a leader when you’re suddenly under fire? Confronting reality is difficult. Getting your entire organization on-board to work through the difficult time without letting things hold you back is challenging. Leaders need courage to not blindly charge ahead in the face of adversity.