By Michael Gidlewski

In this “do more with less” age, you are under siege to improve performance at every level. In the expanding global marketplace, sustaining success is becoming increasingly more difficult. Good is no longer good enough. You face the positive and negative forces of change as never before in the history of business.

The fact is that whatever got you to where you are today is not enough to keep you there. It’s not who has the most assets or the best capital structure. It’s about having an innovative strategy that brings out your people’s best thinking.

Whatever you are doing today, you will have to be doing it considerably better or maybe even differently a year from now if you still want to be in business. Never be satisfied with your current level of performance. Every day, you should look for ways to practice a method of continuous improvement.

The dynamics of change are fast and ever-moving because of speed of information and innovation. These forces not only represent a special challenge to leadership but also to the people who work in your organization. If you’re not into strategic development, profits can erode quickly in this turbulent economy.

Where will your business be in three to five years? Are you building leaders in your organization?

The competitive advantage no longer comes from products or services. The competitive advantage is in your people, their ideas, innovation, thoughts, and actions. It’s your people who are running the business and implementing the strategy to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Where should you focus your attention and how should you direct the attention of your people? As the president or CEO, are you prepared to cope with the changes in the economy, the impact of global competition, technological change, and the changing demands of customers and suppliers?

The question that must be answered is “What Matters Most, Now?” It comes down to the company’s ability to drive productivity and to increase effectiveness, profitability, and growth of your organization. The answer is critical to the effectiveness, success, growth, the survival of your organization.

The “What Matters Most” tools help you to stay focused on the most important priorities in your personal and business life and help stay off the treadmill of mediocrity. The biggest single problem facing most companies today is lack of clarity, lack of focus, and lack of leadership direction and vision for their people.

Today’s CEOs are overwhelmed putting out fires and too busy handling day-to-day problems and challenges. Because of that pressure, they don’t have time to think and lose the ability to think, so best thinking rarely occurs. And when best thinking stops, best practices don’t occur, and they are left to reacting to the marketplace and daily operations of the business.

When best practices don’t occur, you have all kinds of problems in operations, people issues, and all kinds of other things. When CEOs stop leading and become more like a manager, they lose the greatest skill they have, that of providing direction and vision for the company. More and more time is being spent handling insignificant details, creating more and more tension between your personal and professional life.

On Wednesday, Dec. 5, I will be hosting The Swift Kick, a half-day program at Penn State Great Valley that will enable business owners, CEOs, and entrepreneurs to gain clarity, define their focus, and improve their results. Click here to register.

_________

Michael Gidlewski is President of West Chester-based Achievement Unlimited, Inc., as well as a growth catalyst and motivational speaker. He works with motivated business owners and entrepreneurs to clearly define the elements of what they dearly want their businesses and lives to look like, then helps them connect all the moving parts that make up those visions to consistent action and habits. Michael can be reached at 610-793-6609 or via e-mail at michael@achievable.com.

[uam_ad id=”80503″]

.

[uam_ad id=”80502″]