How to Make Your Business Extraordinary in 2016

Crowd Cheering -- Make Your Business Extraordinary in 2016Do you believe you have the secret formula to making your business extraordinary in 2016 or could your beliefs be holding your company back? It’s the beliefs of leaders that influence their behaviour and actions. “What you do proves what you believe,” says Simon Sinek.

For example, if you don’t believe in the benefits of corporate culture then you will never focus any energy on it.  And it seems there are a lot of leaders who hold this belief. According to Motivosity’s recent study, less than 2% of CEOs look at employee engagement survey results more than once. Is this the belief of successful leaders?

CEOs who don’t embrace their employee engagement or culture survey results don’t believe that engagement is a key driver of performance. Or, they’ve delegated everything to the HR department. And so they’re not really doing anything about it. Therefore, it should not be a surprise that employee engagement scores have barely moved over the last decade with only 32% of employees engaged in their workplace, according to Gallup.

However, heads of organizations who do believe that having engaged employees is important are seeing amazing results. These are the inspiring leaders, people who believe in the power and potential of a passionate workforce. According to Sinek, in order to inspire action, to fully engage your employee base, you have to start with the why.  And if you hire people who believe in what you believe, then they show up in spades. This is the beauty of an aligned culture.

When you create a culture that is aligned with the beliefs of the leader by hiring people who share your values and beliefs, then the execution of the strategy and tactics follows. If you believe, as a CEO, that you exist to produce maximum bottom-line results you will create a culture that will execute to this mandate.  However, this is just a survival business.

What, if like the leaders of Apple, you believe your business is about challenging the status quo and thinking differently. You don’t hire people experienced in the mass manufacturing of hardware. You hire people who believe in the same thing you do, people who embrace throwing away all conventional thoughts about computers. You challenge the status quo by building a service that is beautifully designed, easy to use and user-friendly. And then you happen to package it all up into a computer.  Your business isn’t about just surviving year after year, it’s about amazing growth. Where is your company on the continuum between survival and service? (Tap into this excellent article by thought leader Richard Barrett for more info about this scale).

What do you believe? How is that influencing the operations of your business? I believe we can build happier workplaces. I believe we can have happier workplaces and successful businesses that contribute to all aspects of society. And I believe that not only can these two things co-exist, but that the first results in the second.

If you are still struggling to see the connection between your people and your profits here are three steps you can take today:

  1. Even if you’ve seen it before, watch Simon Sinek’s 18 min TED talk about Starting with Why.
  2. If you truly believe that your people power your organization’s performance, then make it part of your cause for 2016, part of your why you go to work every day.  Remember that what you do proves what you believe.  Build an action plan with your leadership team to start shifting your culture to where it needs to be.
  3. Contact me for a complimentary session on how we can make culture tangible and measurable for you so you can experience first-hand how it’s impacting your business results.

Here’s how Meredith Grey, the star of the popular TV hospital show Grey’s Anatomy, summed it up: “I believe we can be extraordinary together, rather than ordinary apart!”

My wish for you is to be extraordinary in 2016.

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