Bringing the business to life

It has been a long road and quite a bumpy one at that, you have tried everything, but have you considered an outside perspective? While many of us believe that we know everything there is to know about a business, sometimes, and most often, we have allowed ourselves to fall in to the tunnel vision fold.

Hitting your plateau or seeing reduced growth in areas of your business are daunting and unwelcoming. Blaming it on outside influences like the market, society, or just a bad year will lead to a long undesirable streak. How do you prevent things like this from affecting your long term goal or worst case, crashing your dreams? There are many things you can do to help reduce the swings in a business but the most important, being able to adapt to the uncontrollable. Yes, it may seem impossible because you can't predict the future, yet there are things you can do to prepare yourself for the unknown. Building a culture that your employees thrive in, can be happy, and be themselves will bring about a dramatic shift in their loyalty to the business and what they are doing in the business.

Culture is one of the less talked about things in most businesses and if it is talked about, more times than not, that is all it is, talk. By creating the right environment for your employees, you in turn create the right environment for your customer. Meaning, if everyone is happy to work for the business, than that energy will naturally leak out to the consumer. Positive energy, genuine happiness allow those who work for you to create an experience of a lifetime for your customers. There is no doubt that customers are the driving force behind staying in business, but the employee will determine if the customer comes back for seconds.

Company culture is also a direct reflection on who you are as a person. If you are always negative, grumpy, and react in a way that is unbecoming of leadership, when your employees walk into the the business, they will start to retract, stiffen up and lose all ability to be themselves. Not only do these things happen, but how do you think the employee will come across to the customer?

As a leader of your organization the attitude you bring in will either make the business a place to be desired or a place to be dreaded. I was told once that things roll down hill, in most cases that is right but it does not have to be. You have a choice on how you respond and how you will treat those that are directly under you. Whatever reaction you may have can dictate the rest of the day, the month, and depending on the situation, maybe the rest of the year. Bare in mind, as a leader, it is your duty to help those around you grow professionally and personally. If you can help those around you grow it will come full circle in the form of growing the business and lead to greater success.

Here is the kicker, sometimes people get so in tuned with what they are doing that culture becomes a second to other things that they may find more important. Kind of like building the floor before the foundation. This can lead to lack of trust in the company, in leadership, and in the overall big picture. This is one of many reasons companies bring in people, outside perspective. As a leader you need to understand when things aren't always on the up. You need to know how to handle situations, intelligently, emotionally, and logically. Bringing in someone for the outside perspective will do many things for your business. It will show the people who work with you that you are invested into them just as much as you are invested into the growth of the business. While the investment into the people is good enough cause, it will also lead to different ideas that are pliable to the business. I have always believed that outside perspective allows people to start seeing outside of their tunnel. In order to think differently, you have to be able to see the different perspective.

If you want to bring a fresh breath of air to the business, be open to all perspectives and utilize the vast amount of knowledge that is out there. You may realize that there are different ways to achieve the same goals. You will never know what works best for you until you get a different perspective.