Small to medium enterprises are our biggest employer group, have a huge impact on our economy, and yet are the most vulnerable!
The major challenges they face are:
- People – their own and their customers
- Cashflow
- Business processes
- Marketing and sales
- Productivity and innovation
The biggest influence on those challenges is the workplace culture of the enterprise.
Negativity, complacency, disengagement, broken relationships, unacceptable behaviour and performance, silos and stress are all aspects of the culture which create the challenges.
Resetting the culture therefore becomes a major initiative, which if done correctly, can be executed effectively and economically.
Click the image above for the full infographic.
First and foremost, it requires effective leadership. The leader must model the way, leading by example, because people do as the leader does, not what the leader says.
Secondly, clarity of the values and vision must be achieved and owned by everyone in the enterprise. They must all know they had input and feel they have shared ownership. The leader’s role here is to guide and influence, not force or dictate.
Next, clarity and agreement of purpose, roles, goals, standards and consequences (from acknowledgement of great work through to grounds for dismissal) must be achieved.
Then the leadership must adopt an effective coaching role to help embed the desired behaviours and performance, whilst developing high-performance team capability.
Focus can shift to improving business systems and marketing and sales improvement.
Measuring the lead and lag indicators that matter to the enterprise is essential to understand progress and determine a return on investment for the initiative.
Finally, as do all successful professional teams, celebrate! There is no better way to inspire and motivate for continued success than to celebrate existing success and review for improvement.
Why not have a go at this?
