How to build a Tour de Force

Is your company stuck? Are you in a hiring freeze? Are all of your new hires coming from competitors? Do you demand “current industry experience” when considering new candidates? Are you ignoring smaller competitors, no matter what kind of noise they’re making? Is your growth strategy centered around acquiring competitors? Don’t tell me – you just installed a new ERP system. Oh, and you’re looking for professional management to “right the ship.”

It may be time for a culture shift. If you are exhibiting any of these “flat line” behaviors history tells us that you are headed for a precipitious fall. And soon.

What do companies that survive and thrive in any economic condition do? Who do they hire? How do they manage?

The first step is to start building a Tour de Force, rather than continually “kissing your cousin.” It’s time to stop rewarding your cronies and build an organization that is to be reckoned with. How do you do it?

1. Embrace Creation.

• Accomplishment is all that matters.
• Rewards come through effort, not affiliation.
• Goals need to be challenging, but realistic.
2. Be efficient

• The best answer is usually the simplest.
• Only make decisions based on objective assessment.
• Don’t rely on others to give you the facts. Find them yourself.
3. Drop the pretentiousness

• Admit you don’t know everything.
• Yes, you too make mistakes. Admit them.
• Understand that you can not get there alone.
4. Collaborate with the customer

• Believe the customer is a partner.
• Always capitalize on the chance to collaborate in success.
• Look for common ground when problems arise.
5. Go “all in.”

• Finish what you start.
• Look to the future, not the past.
• Be “around” so you can lead and inspire others.
6. Look for the sunny side.

• There’s always a solution.
• Institute a “no whining” rule.
• Problems are opportunities to learn and overcome.
7. Be accountable

• Accept the downstream effects of your actions.
• Don’t blame others.
• If you do something wrong, correct it.

BUT……that’s not the “way we do things around here.” Why should you reconsider your position?

In a study of more than 1,100 companies:

Achievement Driven Cultures were 250% more profitable. They had markedly higher rates of “customer willingness to return,” and they offered incentive base compensation to 4x as many employees as did low performing organizations.

-OR-

You could remain a “Power Driven” organization. They lost 300 billion due to disengaged and irresponsible employees. 91% of their CEOs thought their frontline and middle managers resistsed responsibility for performance. To top it off, 90% of those frontline managers believed they needed improvement in managing underachievement.

Your choice.