New Year holidays, family, shopping, trips and celebrations will be the most commonly used five words over the next couple of weeks with the traditional New Year celebrations being round the corner.
A feeling of happiness and fulfillment are what all of us work hard to accomplish in life. Your hard work from the beginning of this year with a renewed hope paved the way for you to celebrate but do we have the capability and capacity to sustain this right throughout the year? How nice will it be if we can make it a daily celebration?
Political instability seems a probable scenario with impending elections. Good progress made to recover from the worst economic shock ever, may get distracted. Growth momentum may face turbulence. Whether we like it or not, from many aspects, the rest of the year will be full of uncertainties.
Despite global economic vulnerability, even if the local macro environment improves expanding our markets, every business will have a tougher time. You know how competition intensified over the past several years with market stabilisation, more players entering the market, markets flooding with substitutes and costs coming down slightly. Even if none of these work as barriers, meeting your stakeholders’ mounting expectations will pose incremental challenges.
If you raise your own expectations on top of the demanded expectations by others you will challenge yourself to get the best out of you for an improved bottom-line.
So it’s not doing the same we did last year but doing it differently for the same result. If we want more – we have to change at a higher degree. To grow your business amidst mounting challenges you need to grow yourself and your team to overcome these challenges successfully. So there is only one question that you need to ask to prepare yourself to win; how competitive am i? What are my competitive advantages? What can I do to be a better competitor during the forthcoming year? So it’s about finding internal solutions to external challenges.
Expectations during the rest of the year
Clearly explain to each employee what is expected of him or her during the rest of the year. Also, remind them of why he or she was given that specific role and goal.
Raise your level of expectation aligning with the overall challenges and goals. If your employees see you expect more out of them within realistic boundaries, they’ll be encouraged to be committed provided they clearly see the benefits attached to success.
Set specific communication times and timelines. To run a successful business, the employer and employee must be on the same page, working towards a common goal. It’s necessary to have open lines of communication. Deciding how often to meet and review- whether on a weekly or monthly basis — will streamline issues and questions and ensure that important items are addressed and timely decisions are taken.
Keep the energy level high
Motivation is a dual obligation between the employer and employee. Creating an organisational environment within which employees will naturally be motivated and can gain job satisfaction with tangible benefits attached is the only way for inner motivation of employees. For the employer this means optimum realisable quality results through people. Self motivation is more long-lasting and effective – it’s a win-win for the employee and employer. Inspire self motivated staff by trusting them to work on their own initiatives rather than leader imposed initiatives. It’s a mind game – and it all depends on how you manage the mindset of the employees as a leader.
Keep moving despite the pain, despite no sign of light, despite situations not being in my favour. There were people in similar situations who put half-hearted efforts, went for easier options, gave up and never reached anywhere. Keep moving because the alternative is to stop. It’s easier to work than it is to stop. You are happier when you are moving forward and you will notice hard times eventually get better even if the problem doesn’t.
