Six strategic questions to improve your business

There is no doubt that things just aren’t the same as they used to be. The entire structure of business has been changing worldwide for some time now. As a result, businesspeople have found ways to survive, be frugal, stay together, and hang in there, and they’re reluctant to aggressively address strategic and big-picture questions.

It takes a lot of work to change and adapt to a complex and confusing world – so let’s not right now. Let’s just be tactical, operational, and focus on fixing and improving things. This is where our day-to-day world pulls us anyway. We basically want more revenue, within budgets. Let’s focus on the present and see what happens.

Let’s look at our business now by coming from some age-old, simple principles. (Problem-solving, motivating people to execute). Let’s look at basic issues and answer some straightforward questions around them one at a time, in order. Here is a great conversation to have with yourself or your team.

1) What are the strengths of our organization? (2 minutes – think and write)

2) What are the changes that are affecting our business right now? (2 minutes)

3) What are the challenges these changes present to me and my team?

4) What does our team need to do to meet these challenges?

5) What systems, habits, and skills need to be improved?

6) What do we need to do to build our people, our management, and future leaders? Where do you need to get better?

Now that wasn’t too time-consuming, and you probably wrote down a few things you need to improve.

We have literally asked these questions of client teams in 90-minute team meetings hundreds of times. In general, everyone (including management) gets a more realistic perspective when everyone on a team answers these questions in a group – one question and one person at a time. Management is usually surprised with the engagement and energy displayed and the quality of the answers, and it helps them know what needs to be done, why, who is willing to step up and improve, and who they should build for the future.

This conversation is a great momentum tool in fixing the business, engaging a team perspective, and building future leaders. I would suggest that you get outside help. You are too close. Your mind is probably made up about things that can block your view. An outsider can get people to talk and be open. It’s not that costly, especially if it works.

Now is the time to re-energize the team. To get them focused and to generate momentum.

Finish answering the above questions. Do one at a time. The answers will lead you to some good insights and action.

Engage your team in the same conversation. Let everyone talk. Record, listen, and then see what occurs to you. 

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