In an economic recession, businesses face tough challenges. If you and your business are not ready to face these challenges, they will not grow and eventually die. As a business owner and leader, you should be aware of the four traits and behaviors that can kill your business. Let’s find out what these four killers of potential and leadership are:
1. Lack of discipline. Discipline is crucial for long term growth and success, and it should always be practiced. In good times, when business is growing and you are making money, you may tend to loosen your team standards a bit or spend more (unnecessary) money. When times are tougher, we ramp up our discipline and sometimes find ourselves scrambling to improve efficiencies or cut expenses. Discipline tends to show up more during these tougher times.
Think about the habits and behaviors you developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you were like many of our mastermind members, when business came to a halt, you were likely combing through every expense to minimize spending, spending focused time on key revenue drivers in your business, staying up at night brainstorming on how to keep your business afloat or keep your team motivated. You developed massive discipline during this time. A short time later, the real estate market experienced a huge boom; deals and money were coming in left and right. As business grew, those recently developed disciplines started to soften. Fast forward to today, as the real estate market continues to be volatile and unpredictable, we are finding ourselves to be a bit more disciplined in our business decisions.
What am I trying to say here? Stay disciplined in both good times and bad. Because, in times of crisis, discipline becomes even more important.
2. Too much optimism. While optimism is generally a positive trait, excessive optimism can be dangerous in business and leadership. Leaders who are overly optimistic tend to delay or ignore necessary actions, believing that things will improve on their own.
This is one of the reasons why some business owners refuse to fire someone who is not effective at work. They don’t want to take on the extra workload that will result from letting that person go. Instead, they let the person stay in a role. They are optimistic in thinking that the poor performer will figure it out eventually with some more coaching and time.
3. Boredom and complacency. When business owners become bored with what works, they may start experimenting with unproven strategies, risking the success they’ve achieved. Leaders who give in to boredom may also neglect the practices that made them successful in the first place.
Think about the key standards and processes that you have developed in your business that continue to produce results. They are probably not incredibly exciting processes, but you know they work.
4. Impatience. Being a slave to instant gratification can lead to hasty decisions. When business isn’t producing at a high level, people will start working on ‘quick money’ things like flipping properties thinking that it will solve a revenue issue instead of digging into the reasons why production is down. Similarly, in wealth building, it is the lack of patience that pushes people to subscribe to risky but potentially high-return investments instead of consistently investing in an index fund.
Overcoming these four killers requires introspection and a willingness to change. By understanding these four killers of business and leadership and facing obstacles head-on, you can go through any adversity and come out stronger than ever.
Which of the four do you need to work on right now?!
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