In business, do you feel like everything around you is developing at warp speed? Technology continues advance exponentially. Product materials continue to advance. Even marketing strategies are being transformed and becoming increasingly sophisticated. In this amplified environment, how is a leader to keep up?
Promotional Consultant Today shares these insights from blogger Vonnie Mostert on how to succeed in this emerging economic landscape.
1. Create continuous feedback loops. Achieving success in business always creates the danger of being disconnected from our stakeholders and not directly in touch with the effect of your decisions. Avoid being isolated at the top and stay connected through continuous feedback from employees and customers. The will lead to ongoing improvement when supported by a culture where people are encouraged to tell the truth even if it displeases the boss.
2. Strike the balance between being over- and under-confident. Being under-confident can make us hesitant and can contribute towards uncertainty and a lack of clarity and direction. It limits our ability to provide clarity and direction on business priorities.
Over-confidence limits our ability to do “believe updating” and “perspective taking” (i.e. adjusting our views and opinions after processing all information available).
3. Back your decisions with data. Take decisive stands, and qualify and substantiate your decisions with data. For this to happen, you need to capitalize on the availability of big data which gives you vast, rich, continuous and different sets of data.
Being the originator of an idea does not mean that others cannot challenge it with opposing data just because you got it right in the past or because of the position you are holding.
4. Be at peace with constraints. Creativity blossoms when there are restrictions or limitations. When you stumble upon a problem in your company, market, product, client base or human capital, remember creativity loves constraints. Before getting despondent, gather data about the constraint and ground your solutions strongly in data.
5. Master the art of team management. Focus on your ability to bring out the best in others and let others bring out the best in you.
Focus on the fine art of perspective taking (understanding the arguments of others so well that you can reproduce them to the other’s satisfaction), precision questioning (helping others to clarify their arguments so they are not misunderstood) and handling difficult conversations (learning to disagree without being disagreeable).
Source: Vonnie Mostert is a counseling psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and is an organizational development consultant. His work history ranges from heading an organizational development department in a macro organization to owning a national company involved in establishing mentorship programs, management and leadership development, culture surveys and psychometric assessments.