Show notes
How Business Women Leaders Can Gain Advantage and Build Sustainable Success?
We all know change is one thing that’s constant in life, but how much effect does change really have? How important is it? How can you evolve to change and use change to keep business sustainable? Today we are going talk about how small changes can make a big difference and establish a sustainable business with entrepreneur Susan Solovic.
Susan is a business woman herself, a business contributor to ABC News and other leading networks, and an award-winning serial entrepreneur. Susan is here with us to explore and help us understand how change gives that 1% edge to business women, help them move ahead in business, and how to make small changes for sustainable success. Being a serial entrepreneur, who else can better explain how to sustain as a business and coach on women's leadership? Right?
“You don’t want to stay in the status quo. You want to be in the status grow,” Susan Solovic
Why Become Outdated and Extinct?
Susan says many companies want to stick with what has worked for them in the past and follow them. This means, they’re looking back, instead of forward and that’s one of the key reasons they’re failing. Basically, they’re too engrossed with their operations and afraid to make changes. As a result, they’re following old styles and methods, failing to see how things are changing around them.
Don’t Stay in “Status Quo” Instead be in “Status Grow”
In her words, “You don’t want to stay in the status quo. You want to be in the status grow,” We’ve all see numerous companies, even fortune 500 companies closing down their operations recently. It is not that they don’t have products that are in demand anymore; the truth is they have stopped being innovative. So, the first thing she addresses is the edge business women need for sustainability.
How Business Women Leaders Can Gain Advantage and Build Sustainable Success?
Business Women Innovation = Sustainability
We all think innovation is a drastic change and a completely new concept or product. The truth is, it doesn’t have to be. Innovation is the edge that brings sustainability. Being on the lookout for changing trends and keeping oneself updated is the key to sustain in business. Does that mean the change is about how we look at things? It is. She’s quick to add that innovation doesn’t have to be destructive or something big, rather, even small and simple changes that will let us stay current.
In her book for business women (and men), she says even with best products or concept, without the right people, management and infrastructure it will not succeed. She says it is important to understand that there’s no need to make an impact to sustain as a business women, just adapt to stay ahead of competitors.
When you want to evaluate and determine if the business is going in the right direction, ask yourself how do you do it? She says, everything should be questioned. She says the entrepreneur should feel proud about the achievement, but it is important to leave ego or other feelings at the doorstep and critically evaluate if everything is right. She says it is important to ask questions, small or big, absolutely everything should be evaluated and questioned:
Do I have the right people?
Do I have the right people?
Are my products / services current?
These are just a few suggestions to give you an idea.
No Room for Ego
She says it is equally important to ask tough questions. Examples include:
Is the technology I am using current or outdated?
Who is my competition?
I have thought that myself when I started coaching in corporations and business women. I have always wondered how they would find time to strategize and think if they’re always busy!
Use Technology to Your Advantage
She points out in her book how technology has made a lot of things easy, for example Social Media. Earlier, getting customers’ feedback or finding market requirements was a one-way track. But with social media, it is possible to get the customers involved like the latest campaign run by crocs.
Listen, Accept & Adapt
She says, many think “it my way, or the highway”. If only entrepreneurs are willing to listen and adapt or change, they might get useful insights from unexpected sources. She recommends having people from distinctly different backgrounds and experience to get out of the box ideas and views.
She further adds that today's customers know more than what the entrepreneurs or business women know about their own company. Listening to customers can give valuable insight and at the end of the day, that high touch is just what’s missing in customer service today. Everyone likes to feel they’re special and when customers get due attention from their brands, they absolutely love it.
Re-evaluate, Re-evaluate & Re-evaluate
It is easy for us to get married to your product, and ignore key signs giving reasons for dropping sales, but it is important to reevaluate - to find out what went wrong and why, and continue reevaluating till profits increase.
Go Agile
If there’s a problem, reevaluating and making changes right away is important. It is important to determine if changes are needed, or if the current strategy should be abandoned and new strategy brought in! In other words, she says being agile is important to turn around things real quick – everyone is going at a fast pace and if we lag, we’ll be left behind.
Hire for Life
She says, “hire for life” in her book and her statement on agility, sounds contradictory. She is quick to explain that hiring right is the key to succeed as business women. When hiring, we hire the whole person, someone with ambitions and entrepreneurial spirit and offer them room for career development. With the right platform, they will grow with you and want to stay with you, just like you want then to stay! So, if hiring is done right and retention efforts are taken, they’re going to stick.
Make Room for Mistakes, Build Trust
Also, there’s a lack of trust in today’s business world. She says, when a leader is ready to open doors and give safe harbor to their employees and let them speak their mind without the fear of repercussions or hampering their career development, trust will improve.
Last but not the least, she says it is important that the organization is streamlining things, instead worrying about getting things right. This means, they’re constantly reevaluating. Instead of worry about redundant things, giving the opportunity for people to do things and streamlining will keep them current. In her words, not just business women, women entrepreneurs and even women leaders should be ready for change, innovative, embrace technology, go agile and understand there’s room for mistakes. As long as you’re reevaluating and staying current, you will have sustainability.
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