Home
>
Small Business
>
Small Business Strategies - Four Critical Success Factors

Small Business Strategies - Four Critical Success Factors

Scenario One

During a recent presentation, a business owner was given the following challenge. If 10 of his 100 employees were asked to name the top 3 organizational goals for the current year as they perceived them to be, would he receive the same 3 goals from everyone or would he receive 5, 10 or even 25 different goals? The business owner shook his head and thoughtfully responded, "No, I am sure that I would receive more than 3 goals." He was then asked to consider what these misdirected actions from his employees were costing him in terms of missed opportunities.

Scenario Two

At another presentation, a business owner was asked if she set goals? She responded quite enthusiastically, "Of course, I set goals." She was asked a follow-up question: "Can you state with 100% conviction that your employees know how to consistently achieve both their personal and professional goals?" After a few moments, she replied "No." She was then asked how this lack of knowledge potentially affected her bottom line?

Scenario Three

A president of a company was asked: "Have you ever seen behavior inconsistent with your strategic plan?" He quickly answered "Yes!" A second question was asked, "What did you do about it?" "Well, we sent them to training and within 6 months we had to send them back again?" A final question was then posed to the President. "Are these performance failures a result of a lack of knowledge or skills or due to poor attitudes and habits?" The president immediately said "Why bad attitudes and poor habits." Again, the facilitator asked another question: "What are all these re-do's costing your company?"

Scenario Four

During the annual meeting, the CEO of a manufacturing company informed her executive team that she wanted to achieve a 10% growth during the next 12 months. The VP of Operations made plans to purchase new manufacturing equipment for some new products while the VP of Marketing & Sales began to implement a plan selling existing products. The CFO decided to cut budgets to capital improvements and marketing. All three executive team members believed that their actions would help achieve the 10% growth.

These scenarios shared four critical success factors (CSF's) that impede all organizations from achieving consistent results: communication, goal setting and goal achievement skills, attitudes and alignment.

Critical Factor #1: Communication is the key to unlocking the potential within businesses as well as individuals. When the goals are in alignment with the vision and consistently communicated from top down, then performance excellence is much more likely to happen. Inconsistent communication contributes to missed targets and lowers the performance for the entire organization.

Critical Factor #2: Goal setting and goal achievement are learned skills. Unfortunately, many presume that these skills are acquired during the K-12 educational experiences through the "Osmosis Process." Also, these skills are not actively taught in the corporate setting. Yet, consistent goal achievement or the results are what every organization seeks.

Critical Factor #3: Attitudes drive behaviors that result in change. Many companies focus on trying to change negative behaviors because they are experiencing negative change. However, when the negative attitudes are replaced with positive attitudes, those attitudes will drive positive behaviors creating positive change. By failing to address negative attitudes, new trends, changes or initiatives, the result is wasted resources creating a negative drain on the "KASH Box."

Critical Factor #4: Alignment is necessary to ensure that the desired results are achieved. Performance excellence happens when the strategies, systems and people are working together to build loyal internal customers that drive loyal external customers. The much heard adage about "Getting everyone to row in the same direction" is true, but probably should be amended to include the following "by using the same paddles."

When these four CSF's work together, results happen quicker and create a culture of working "smarter and not harder." The following questions may help you to achieve the consistent results that you desire:

1. Do I know with 100% accuracy that every employee can clearly articulate the top 3 goals for the organizations?

2. Does every person within the organization consistently sets and achieves all of his or her personal and professional goals?

3. Does everyone within the organization at ALL times consistently demonstrate positive attitudes?

4. Are the strategies, systems and people in alignment to build loyal internal customers?

Leanne Hoagland-Smith helps individuals and organizations to secure results usually within 2 to 12 weeks. She coaches lifelong change through proven processes seeking that next level of success. If doubling your revenue, improving your organizational culture or finding balance interests you, visit http://www.processspecialist.com or ask to subscribe to complimentary copy of Power Choices a monthly newsletter at http://www.processspecialist.com

detailed home cleaning Park Ridge ..

In The News:

Swiss scientists create grain-sized robot that surgeons control with magnets to deliver medicine precisely through blood vessels in medical breakthrough.

Researchers exploited WhatsApp's API vulnerability to scrape 3.5 billion phone numbers. Learn how this massive data breach happened and protect yourself.

Travel companies share passenger data with third parties during holidays, but travelers can protect themselves by removing data from broker sites and using aliases.

Xpeng's humanoid robot moves so realistically that crowds believed it was fake, marking a major advancement in robotics technology ahead of 2026 commercial launch.

Researchers discover phishing scam using invisible characters to evade email security, with protection tips including password managers and two-factor authentication.

iPhone and Android users can reduce battery drain and data usage by restricting Background App Refresh to Wi-Fi connections instead of mobile networks.

Scammers nearly stole an Apple account by exploiting the support system with authentic-looking tickets and phone calls, users can protect themselves with safety steps.

FoloToy restored sales of its AI teddy bear Kumma after a weeklong suspension following safety group findings of risky and inappropriate responses to children.

Threat intelligence firm Synthient uncovers one of the largest password exposures ever, prompting immediate security recommendations.

Viral video shared by Elon Musk shows Tesla's Optimus humanoid robots performing tasks from cooking to construction, garnering over 58.5 million views on social media.

Chinese hackers used Anthropic's Claude AI to launch autonomous cyberattacks on 30 organizations worldwide, marking a major shift in cybersecurity threats.

Apple's new Sleep Score feature gives you a rating for your nightly rest quality. Learn how to set it up on your Apple Watch and iPhone today.

Essential phone settings to enable before losing your device, including Find My network, location services and security features for iPhone and Android.

The Fox News AI Newsletter gives readers the latest AI technology advancements, covering the challenges and opportunities AI presents.

Cybersecurity research shows weak passwords remain a major threat, with simple patterns and number sequences putting millions of accounts at risk.

New Android malware BankBot YNRK silences phones, steals banking data and drains crypto wallets automatically. Learn how this advanced threat works.

FDA approves first human trial for Paradromics' brain-computer interface that could restore speech for paralyzed patients through neural technology.

New phishing platform QRR targets Microsoft 365 users across 1,000 domains in 90 countries. Learn how to spot fake login pages and protect your accounts.

OpenTable now uses AI to track your dining habits and share insights with restaurants. Learn what data they collect and how to protect your privacy.

Google's discontinued Nest thermostats still secretly upload home data to company servers despite losing smart features, raising serious privacy concerns.

New Android malware NGate steals NFC payment codes in real-time, allowing criminals to withdraw cash from ATMs without your card. Learn protection tips.

DoorDash confirms data breach exposing customer names, emails, addresses after social engineering attack. Learn how to protect yourself from scams.

Concerned about Google's AI scanning your Gmail? Learn how to disable Gemini features that access your emails, Drive files and Chat messages for privacy.

Google warns Android users about dangerous fake VPN apps hiding malware that steals passwords, banking details and personal data from phones and tablets.

Apple's digital passport feature lets iPhone users breeze through TSA checkpoints this holiday season using Digital ID technology at 250+ airports.