Published June 2005
Make
effort to make
success contagious
Dear
BizBest: When I launched my business, I hoped it would either succeed
or fail quickly. My greatest fear was a “partial success,” where the carrot
keeps dangling, but we can’t quite reach it. Part of the problem is that
we don’t think and act like a successful business. So maybe the fault
lies within. Any ideas? — Partial Success
Dear Partial:
Sounds like you need to exercise a little entrepreneurial leadership
and spread the message of success to everyone involved with your business.
When business owners
go looking for ways to boost profits and perk up performance, they sometimes
forget to look in the mirror first. Your own workplace environment — and
how people feel about it — are often good starting points for making changes.
This is one area where small businesses can look to successful big companies
for guidance.
When Susan Lucia
Annunzio, CEO of the Hudson Highland Center for High Performance, studied
the factors that drive high-performance businesses, she found several
common characteristics. All such businesses allow people to take risks,
generate new ideas, make mistakes and learn from them.
In order to achieve
success in your small business, you need to find ways to instill a success
mind-set throughout your group — even if it’s just you and a handful of
others. In short, you need to make success contagious. Here are a few
ways you can do that:
- Eliminate
short-term thinking. It stifles performance. Living for today at
the expense of tomorrow means never quite being able to grab the carrot
dangling in the distance. It also leads to overworked and frustrated
employees.
- Shun the status
quo. You need to innovate, not hesitate. Any business owner who
simply tries to maintain what he or she has is doomed to fall behind.
Observe the daily routines at your business and look for ways to spark
new interest and enthusiasm.
- Foster an
atmosphere of innovation, creativity and passion for what your business
does, no matter how seemingly mundane. Working productively isn’t
enough. But these don’t need to be grandiose concepts. Simply going
out of your way to help a customer in an unusual fashion qualifies.
- Emphasize
the collective success of your business as a whole, not of any individual
person, project or product. Not only will talented individuals thrive
in your high-performance environment, but “B” players may also become
“A” players.
- Step on the
gas. You can accelerate success by identifying a few profitable
activities and making them happen ever more flawlessly and quickly.
Success in these areas can then spread elsewhere.
- Open up.
Those around you — employees, vendors, independent contractors — need
more information, not less, in order to catch the success bug. Let people
know where you think the business needs to go, the problems it faces
and what keeps you up at night.
- When you face
a challenge, involve others at your business in finding a solution.
Ask their advice about what you are doing right, what hurts and
what needs fixing. That way, everyone has a bigger stake in your success.
- Value the
“dumb” idea. New ideas that represent a shift in thinking often
sound goofy at first. But one such idea just might be your “next big
thing.”
- Offer rewards.
Noncash incentives — like time off or a company lunch — have gained
popularity as a means of rewarding employees. But cash bonuses are still
king.
- Deliver what
you promise. That includes keeping promises to employees and suppliers
as well as customers. Integrity fuels the success engine, and it’s tough
to recover if you blow it.
These resources can
help in your quest for contagious success:
- Service Quality
Institute is a helpful source of tips and inspiration for building better
customer service. Sign up for the free e-newsletter called “Customer
Service Strategy.” Visit www.servicequality.com.
- Two new books
of interest are “Lead or Get Off the Pot!” by Pat Croce (Fireside Books,
$13) and “Contagious Success: Spreading High Performance Throughout
Your Organization” by Susan Lucia Annunzio (Portfolio Books, $24.95).
Both are geared to bigger business, but advice can apply to smaller
firms, too.
- “A Carrot A Day”
by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton (Gibbs Smith, $12.95) delivers a
big ideas on how to encourage employees.
Daniel Kehrer (dan@bizbest.com)
is founder of BizBest (www.bizbest.com),
which publishes “The 100 Best Resources for Small Business.”
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