Stay flexible
Focusing your employees and managers on a common goal is a critical part of keeping your business flexible, able to adapt to changing market and economic conditions, and able to seize the growth and expansion opportunities that come your way.
“Things change in a business, and there are external changes, like the economy, over which you have no control,” Sykes says. “But you have to be able to adjust. You can’t just be headstrong. You have to do whatever is needed to stay on track.”
To maintain flexibility, you need to maintain a well-defined business plan that explains what your business is and wants to be and, by extension, how far you should be willing to stretch. Like a lot of leaders, Sykes has worked with five-year strategic plans and conducted monthly updates to gauge whether his business is achieving the goals laid out in the plan or needed to branch off in another direction.
“We have our plan, and we’re either on plan or off plan,” he says. “We get monthly reports, whether it is from a quantitative or qualitative point of view, and we find out if we did what we said we were going to do. Did we get the system in place or did we not? At that point in time, I’ll call in the person in charge of the project to talk about where we are, and if we’re off, why we’re off.
“As a leader or manager, it’s our responsibility to serve as a coach or mentor but not to do the job for them. The moment that we step in, take over and start directing, that is the time that we relieve them of their responsibilities. So you have to be very careful of that, you have to work together as to how you’re going to make a correction.”
To determine if a growth opportunity is the right opportunity for your business, you need to ask some questions of yourself and your team — specifically, who is going to benefit from the change and who or what possesses the potential to be adversely affected by the change.
“You have to be able to determine that, if you make this adjustment, what impact is it going to have on the company?” he says. “Not only from a morale point of view but financial. Can you get the right return with shareholders? Change occurs, but you don’t want to just change for change’s sake. You have to ask yourself if the change is in the best interest of the customers, shareholders and employees.”
HOW TO REACH: JHS Capital Holdings Inc., (813) 202-7960 or www.jhscapitaladvisors.com
