If you want to build a strong, profitable company, you have to have a plan. Part of planning involves evaluation of where you are and where you want to be. It also involves evaluation and understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. Why? Because in any business or life endeavor, understanding the variables you’re dealing with before moving forward is critical to making the RIGHT decisions and adjustments that will lead to future success.
Business owners often resist taking time out of their busy schedules for evaluation. In fact, they’ll often tell me evaluation feels like a waste of time. Everybody wants to go straight to rolling out the big ideas they have. But rushing forward with big ideas you may not be able to implement can send a business swirling down the drain – fast. While they may be great ideas, you need to have that understanding of what you have and what you need to make it all happen – on both a personal and business level. A thorough evaluation can provide that baseline.
One of the best tools I use to provide that baseline on a personal level is the DiSC Success Clinic Index. It interprets your natural and adaptive behavioral styles to give a clear picture of your Natural Productivity Style, which encompasses your aptitudes and how you work best.
The DiSC tool will show where your strengths and areas of weakness lie and help you understand where you might need support or improvement. It includes things like: how you problem solve and get results, how you communicate with others, what your preferred decision-making style is, and your preference for procedures and processes.
Once we understand your behavioral styles, I can help you understand how they affect your business. We’ll see where your specific skills will be most effective and productive. It will also help us identify what type of person might be needed – who you might consider delegating to, hiring, or partnering with – to complement your style and fill in the gaps. You might also choose to work on those “gap” areas yourself. I can provide strategies that will put you on that path too. Either way, you’ll be creating a solid framework for scalable growth and success.
On a business level, I evaluate what systems and processes my clients are currently using to run their business more efficiently and make their life easier. Often, especially with businesses that are struggling, I find systems and processes are lacking. This is usually because owners haven’t evaluated what could be systematized or (even more often) because they resist systems due to the belief that they will will stifle creativity and are a hassle to set up.
The interesting thing is that streamlining the day-to-day operations of a business actually gives owners more time to do the things they really enjoy about their business once systems and processes are in place. When I show them how much time they waste on repetitive tasks, it’s like a light bulb comes on and they wonder why they resisted! Determining which systems and processes YOU need will help you work smarter rather than harder.
Evaluation brings awareness. Awareness opens up the possibility of positive changes that lead to success. We, as human beings, all have strengths and weaknesses. As business owners, we all have things we’re good at and things we’re not so good at. And there are always things we can do to make better use of our time, talent and energy. If you take the time to assess now, you just might save yourself a whole lot of headaches and even failure in the future.
Want to get started building a solid foundation that will organically grow your business? Start evaluating what needs to change now by filling out this Business Owner Questionnaire or you can contact me at 314.267.3969 or at Cathy@TheProductivityExperts.com.