Ever feel like you want to get out of office for a while? It may be just the right business action to take.
CEOs, presidents and business owners face enormous challenges today as they struggle to balance the pressing demands of day-to-day operations with the need to constantly re-evaluate every aspect of their business to remain highly competitive for business success.
Not so long ago, it was enough to read the daily news and to follow key trends in industry publications in order for a business to be run successfully. But a CEO, president or business owner today who has lost touch with the company’s operations will be out of business tomorrow.
Business leaders who can’t continuously update and streamline operations will lose out to the competition. So how can a business person, such as yourself, successfully maneuver through the never-ending details so necessary to operating a successful business and still manage to keep the company profitable?
To ensure your company prospers use this simple advice: Get out of the office.
Take time with your employees. Learn all the jobs from top to bottom, inside and out, from the senior management positions all the way down the line including answering the phones and the janitorial clean-up.
At face value, it may seem impossible.
But ask yourself this: How better to truly understand every faucet of the organization and how it fits into the marketplace than by seeing and experiencing?
Certainly keeping up with trade journals can be helpful, but there is no substitute for seeing things first-hand.
Ask yourself:
- Where are we doing it right?
- Where are we spending too much money?
- Where do we need to invest more resources?
- How can we provide better customer service?
CEOs, presidents and business owners need to invest time personally working every single position in the company to fully understand the organization and how to make it better. It will open your eyes and your ears to what is really happening at your company.
- Spend a day or more out in the field with the sales force.
- Roll up your sleeves and go out on the manufacturing floor.
- Make cold calls.
Don’t just watch, actually do things to understand all aspects of the sales and customer service process.
Only by personally experiencing first-hand all the jobs that make your company function can you see how the sales force is closing sales; what resources might help achieve better results, and how well the company is creating long term customers rather than simply turning up quick sales.
Unfortunately, all too many business people regard such a proposal as a waste of their already too-precious time. “I’m entirely too busy!” some will claim. “That’s why I have managers, to tell me what’s going on,” others will explain. But as I’ve seen time and time again: Investing time with employees working in each aspect of the company yields substantial benefits in a number of surprising areas.
Here’s 3 reasons CEOs, presidents and business owners need to get out of the office for MORE business success:
1) Empower: When you provide employees with the very best resources possible this only helps to ensure they perform their jobs exceptionally well. Whether it’s new equipment or advanced technology, specific training programs or additional support staff. Truly successful CEOs, presidents and business owners are there to empower employees. You need to be willing to invest the time with employees in order to best understand first-hand their needs. Then you can provide better tools and management which are necessary to ensure they succeed. By doing so, you benefit from creating the most productive and profitable work force available.
2) Evaluate: If you are truly interested in growing your business then you need to constantly evaluate how to modernize and streamline the company’s operations. In today’s continuously changing marketplace what worked five years ago many not work today. Even what worked a year ago may not be as effective now. By being out of the office you can see where the innovations are needed. In addition, you will have a much better grasp of the long-term implications for each department within the organization when innovative changes are eventually implemented.
Many business people don’t take the time to listen which is one of the most important qualities of a successful leader today. The better you can understand the employee, the customer and the workplace, the easier the work will become and the faster the business will prosper.
Not sitting at your desk all day offers you the opportunity not just to see, but also to listen to employees and customers interact which will help to pinpoint areas that must be strengthened to help the company grow.
3) Performance: You need to be willing to perform every single job within the company. This communicates the message to your employees that everyone’s job is important. Employee morale will build as employees see their jobs in a new and much more meaningful manner. By getting out of the office and experiencing the job first-hand, this can help rejuvenate your passion and dedication to the business.
Typically when CEOs, presidents and business owners first begin their role as company leader they find it challenging and exciting. They work hard, learn different jobs, add staff and reap the rewards of their dedication. Then, as staffing continues to increase, they became further and further removed from the day-to-day tasks necessary to actually run the business. Perhaps you have found this to be true with yourself.
With success, many business people become complacent, thinking everything will somehow continue to flourish naturally. Don’t let this happen to you. Working the front line can often be a shock if you have spent too much time in your corner office sitting in the big chair.
The bottom line is that CEOs, presidents and business owners need to be aware of what’s going on within their company. Just showing up doesn’t get the job done.
Those who just sit at their desk doing paperwork, checking emails all day and talking on the mobile phone are less likely to succeed. Don’t get the results they expect.
To be more successful, you need to take the time to relearn the business by getting out of the office. This should help restore the driving passion that initially inspired you to run your own business.
This new level of commitment will help instill the same sense of passion and excitement throughout the entire workforce, fueling success in all levels of the organization. From the highest levels of management all the way through the company, employees will rededicate themselves to their work – even those cleaning the bathrooms and taking out the nightly trash who might just end up as a CEO, president or business owner one day themselves.
To your success!
Want to improve and grow your business? Talk with Howard! – 888-738-1855 – Howard Lewinter guides – focuses – advises CEOs, presidents and business owners to MORE success – MORE profit – less stress.