How healthy is your business?
Posted on 24th January 2020 at 09:07
Is your business the picture of health or does it need drastic surgery to stay alive? It’s time for a checkup.
As the owner or senior leader in a business, you’re immersed in its day-to-day running. You also have an unquenchable passion for your business, an emotional as well as a financial investment in its success. That’s why it can sometimes be difficult for you to take a detached view of how your business is performing. So many times I see businesses that are not succeeding, but with leaders who can’t appreciate the situation they are in.
Take a step back. Put yourself in the position of a doctor assessing a patient’s health, except the patient is your business. What are the symptoms? What is the diagnosis? If the condition isn’t good, what do you prescribe?
Let’s look at three possible diagnoses for your business. Which one resonates with you?
1 - Sick Businesses and people are often the same. When you’re feeling full of life, on top of the world, sickness comes and lays you low. In business, you can think everything is going well and you are flying high, then suddenly it isn’t. Your business is sick. Maybe what happened came from within your business, or perhaps it was an external factor. It could be a combination of many things. Maybe you don’t even know what happened.
2 - Flatlining It should be simple to see if your business is flatlining. Your key metrics are falling and have been falling for a long time now. You are running out of every resource that keeps your business alive. Time. Money. People. Often the problem lies with an unhealthy leadership team at the business. A successful company needs a cohesive leadership team. However, this isn’t always the case. If, for example, one person complains about the boss, it’s likely that there is a conflict between the two of them. There are other signs too. Do any of these ring true about your leadership team? They lack an understanding and commitment to the company vision – happy to be followers rather than leaders They are nowhere to be found when a decision is needed They overpromise and underdeliver They do not have a true handle on their team They are never wrong They just say yes....
3 – Healthy Congratulations. You’re the picture of health. Every metric is moving in the right direction. Your teams are strong and working well together. Your leadership team is in harmony. However, before you start celebrating… Are you sure you are not at peak health? This is where your business is growing, but gets into a situation where it cannot grow any larger. You have ‘hit the ceiling’. Hitting the ceiling is when you, your department or your company stops growing. It’s a feeling of being stuck, overwhelmed and frustrated. You find yourself scratching your head asking, “What happened?” This is actually a good sign because all entities that grow go through growing pains. Hitting the ceiling is a growing pain, nothing more. It’s part of the science of business. However, you can also break through the ceiling with a scientific approach.
The remedy Whichever condition you are in, it is not terminal. The right prescription at the right time can resuscitate even the queasiest patient. A surgeon will study for years and have hours and hours of training before they operate for the first time. Then, they will follow a process that is proven to work, one that has been honed and improved for many years. The same is true in business. If you have a proven process to manage your business, you can remove whatever is causing your sickness.
The answer is EOS®
EOS® is the Entrepreneurial Operating System, a complete set of simple concepts and practical tools that has helped thousands of entrepreneurs find success in their business.
Let EOS® help you assess the condition of your business, It will help you take an objective view of your business. Then, if you need to, you can find a remedy.
If any of this resonates with you, and your a business owner or a member of a leadership team that isn't working well let’s get together.
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