If you hired a great “business growth” coach, she’d probably have you follow the same plan as a golf or football coach: 1) objectively assess your current capabilities, 2) develop a comprehensive improvement plan, and 3) track your progress in improving these capabilities.
Why not follow this same approach for building your organic growth capabilities? Step 1 can be a free diagnostic of your business’s growth capabilities at www.b2bgrowthdiagnostic.com, which benchmarks your business against others on 24 growth drivers. You can then run this free diagnostic annually. The key word here is capabilities: Too many leaders fixate only on results, forgetting that capabilities drive results.
More in 2-minute video, Build your growth capabilities
A builder is someone who drives business growth by delivering real value to customers, brushing aside fads, short-term distractions, and financial gymnastics. Others are remodelers, improving efficiency, quality & costs…but if nothing new is built, they lead a race to the bottom. Others are decorators, trying to boost “curb appeal,” as they focus on quarterly financials. They’re engaged in a spectator sport, not a participant sport. Finally, some are realtors, reaping their rewards during M&A… when the work of others’ hands changes hands.
Does this mean you should forget about operational efficiency, financial reporting, or M&A? Of course not. But what is your passion? For the builder, it’s delivering customer value and driving organic growth over the years.
More in this 2-minute video, Be a business builder
Be it chess or golf, champions know they must train. A striking difference between business leaders and rock climbers is that the former often think they can reach the top without proper training. Imagine showing up at the base of El Capitan with recliner-chair abs, the wrong gear, and no climbing skills. Ridiculous? What about businesses that proclaim double-digit growth plans year after year, but do nothing to prepare for their climb? A good start is acquiring business-wide training and tools for market-facing innovation. (See 2-minute video, Build your growth capabilities.)
More in article, New Product Training: Time to Build Growth Muscles
If you’re a business leader, you obviously can’t personally take all the training your people take… you’re simply too busy. But there are times where you should sit elbow-to-elbow learning what the rank and file learn. This is true if a) most of the organization is learning this topic, b) the learning applies to your responsibility, e.g. organic growth, or c) your lack of understanding could lead to errors of omission or commission on your part. Remember, there are countless ways we can display our ignorance by what we say and do.
See video on B2B innovation training at www.NPBtraining.com.
We call our bosses “leaders” out of respect for their organizational position. But have they learned how to drive B2B organic growth? In fairness, we provide training to the rank and file so they can develop new skills… but we expect our busy leaders will somehow “pick up” what’s needed. We’ve compiled 30 lessons for business leaders in the e- book, Leader’s Guide to B2B Organic Growth. You can even sign up to receive a 2-minute weekly video lesson for 30 weeks… an executive short-course in leading growth.
More in article, B2B Organic Growth: 8 top lessons for leaders
Which business leaders do you admire… Henry Ford… Jeff Bezos… Elon Musk… Steve Jobs? Why do you admire them? Because they were great at slashing budgets, running financial review meetings, or giving quarterly EPS guidance? Here’s the irony: Many business leaders behave quite differently than those they admire.
More from in article, How to become a great business leader
