More than ever, your people are key to the success of your business. When they are adaptable and courageous, they help you overcome problems quickly and competently. The following are some of the top problems often faced by business leaders and their staff:
- Uncertainty: Because of fluctuations in the global economy, credit markets, competition and regulations, business leaders often become reactive and neglect creating proactive, informed, long-term strategies.
- Globalization: Because of broad international markets and diverse cultures as well as new competitors that spring up daily, challenges have increased that require an ability to think comprehensively and with greater discernment.
- Innovation: Because an innovative and responsive culture is crucial, CEOs must overcome their fear and resistance to creating one.
- Government Policy and Regulation: Because of new pressures to become “green”, adopt corporate tax rates and meet healthcare mandates, staying compliant can provide daily new trials.
- Technology: The pace of technology continues to increase, making investment in it both an asset and a handicap, especially when trying to anticipate moves the competition will make next to get ahead.
- Diversity: Because conflicting viewpoints are more common in a diverse work environment, and not enough diversity in viewpoints leads to a narrow vision, leaders need to encourage appreciation of differences rather than neglect and violation of the values and practices within a diverse staff.
- Complexity: Because systems expand and contract as each component of complexity is added to the whole, organizations must have sufficient systems-thinking capabilities in place.
- Information Overload: Because information is available rapidly and in ever-greater volume, companies must establish practices to make sure it is sorted and made useful quickly.
- Supply Chains: Because supply and demand, as well as raw materials are managed and impacted on a global level, broad fluctuations cause a new set of challenges that require dynamic response times and rapid and agile change processes.
- Strategic Thinking and Problem Solving: Business leaders need to solve all the above problems, but will find them to be roadblocks to progress if they do not have employees with well developed inductive reasoning and collaborations skills.
How do you cultivate this type of employee? By creating an environment where personal responsibility and leadership development for all is top priority and a requirement in your workplace. By helping each employee develop emotional and social intelligence skills. By creating strategies based on alignment. In this way, garden-variety uncertainty does not extend to your organization’s purpose, values, visions, goals, procedures and roles.
With healthy human systems, each of your employees becomes accountable for their relationships, no matter how complex and diverse, their productivity, despite regulations, technology, and information overload, and how engaged they remain, no matter what their role or circumstances. Then they become creators and innovators, fearless in trying new strategies and resolving problems.
As published in the column The Extraordinary Workplace in St. Louis Small Business Monthly, January 2016
