Hitting the floor running

I’m often, in my workshops and in coaching business leaders, looking at trends and how organisations  can adapt internally to position themselves to captilise on the opportunities. Much of that time currently is spent putting into perspective the fact that we've always had downturns; there's still plenty of growth opportunities. One thing is for sure, that applying creativity to those plans and making innovation the heart beat of an organisation, to hit the floor running when the ties loosen and things start to get moving again, isn’t just a nice thing to think about, or have, but is fundamental.

What has become evident is that probably the most pressing issue for leaders today is in bringing things back to the core. While uncertainty and chaos disrupts global markets, there continue to be the basic truths that still apply: understanding your industry, competition, skills requirements, the gap in capabilities, but most importantly understanding your customer and the ability to respond their requirements quickly and effectively, are the factors that will define any organisations’s future success. Thinking outside the box is all well and good But you still have to look in your own box too to see what really is there. But in a different way

So what can you do right now to make sure you are at least on the starting blocks when the pistol is fired?

Think expand.
In the current climate it undoubtedly is depressing and demoralising and it's all too easy right now to lose your motivation and direction. Don't let that happen! The future is out there still! So think opportunity: Apple, GM, (Bad example ;-)MIcosoft were all founded in periods of recession.

Check your reaction times
Agility is the key word. You have to have a team that can react to opportunities faster than the competition. That means giving them the freedom to make decisions, not bodychecked by internal processes and management pyramids. Allow them to take real responsibility for their own budgets and have fixed goal posts that everyone understands. Your people are better than you think. Let them think.

Immerse in creativity. 

Idea generation is now at warp speed- products are insect like in their life span.  but appear out of nowhere. Here today, gone tomorrow. Twitter didn’t ‘exist’ 12 months ago until Stephen Fry talked about it on national TV. Audio Boo is about to take it on head to head. Rapid product change is not just desirable its what is happening now: we don’t have choice in dealing with it, reacting to it and embracing it. We just have to face it.

Check your knowledge.
Your abililty to access ever more scarce, specialized skills will define your future success. It's your ability to establish a fast, agile, quick-to-assemble collaborative team that will define your ability to grab all the opportunity that is emerging out there. If you don’t have, it get it. Creative talent is your most valuable asset. Not mini-me’s and karoake ideation. Look outside your industry. A sign of a truly crap company, waiting like a dinosaur for the meteor to hit, is their recruitment advert which says must have xxx years experience in such and such an industry. The job that should be advertised in that company is for a new CEO .

Know thine enemies.
Where are the threats likely to be coming from? Could new business models, technologies, new regulatory , political or social trends impact your bottom line in a way that you hadn't thought of before? The biggest clothing retailers are now the supermarkets!

Scout for talent.
Heads and ideas are your most precious asset and are going to be a scarcer resource. Just as football team scout the playing field of the world you must do the same. And don’t look in the normal places such as the Universities; look outside, at the new entrepreneurs, the children in school enterprise clubs and develop the management skills to utilise these in the best way for them, not you. People leave bosses, they don’t leave companies. The rewards in developing your talent pool are way above any ROI calculation. 


Define your voice.
You have to keep people focused on the future. Leadership is all about keeping your team focused on opportunity and goals, and then carrying the water for them to deliver. Positivity, talking about the future and consistency reinforce that. If you waver, so will they and then you are on pushing a snowball up a volcano.