When The Ecomomy Is Tight - Use Your Resources More Wisely


Often solutions are right under our noses and we just can’t see them. Usually when the economy tightens up businesses get panicky and make things worse. They believe they must either reduce costs or increase revenue and there is logic in that thinking. They know what their expenses are because they are constantly calling for their attention, but the thing they are less aware of is how to create more productivity and profitability. That is what businesses are chasing every day of their existence. Nothing new there!

If I said you could increase productivity no matter what industry you were in and you could increase profitability would you be interested? No I’m not a snake oil salesman or about to offer you a get rich quick scheme, it is a very simple answer to a common problem. Make more of what you already have. How?

The answer lies not surprisingly, in your staff. The saying has been around for a very long time “ The greatest asset I have is my employees”, but business has not been working with their staff to make the most of their talents. We all have individual talents, some we are very good at and love to do, while others we are not so good at and hate to do. These are called our strengths and weaknesses.

All too often business get fixated on the processes they have put in place to reach desired results rather than on the actual results themselves. Therein lies the problem. We are all individuals and create in our own unique way. If business can get its head around being RESULTS orientated rather than PROCESS orientated, things would be a lot more successful for everyone.

So lets get really practical now. How does business make this major shift? Necessity is the mother of invention so now is a great opportunity to make positive changes in your organisation. Look to a Strengths Based model of running your business rather than a weakness based model which most businesses use. What does this mean?

A strengths based run organization encourages individuals to do what they do best most of the time. In a poll run by the Gallup organization on 1,700,000 people in 63 countries only 20% of people said that is what they do. That means that 1,360,000 people are under utilized. That’s a massive potential to increase productivity. If you had 10 staff and only 2 of them were working to their potential wouldn’t you want to change the way the other 8 people worked? I’m guessing that’s a big yes that is reverberating around the world right now. Cutting to the chase, here’s how you do it.

Find out the strengths and weaknesses of all your employees and get then to do more of their strengths and less of their weaknesses. That doesn’t mean find out what they are good at, it means find out what it is in their roles and gets them fired up. What do they love to do? What do they look forward to doing in their role? Likewise, find out what they hate doing. What do they keep avoiding, what do the keep complaining about doing, what makes the day just drag by? Then get them to do more of what excites them and less of what they hate. It’s that simple. The individual alone is the person who knows what makes them feel good, not anyone else, so don’t fool yourself into thinking that you know what rings everyone’s bells so you don’t have to ask them. Big mistake.

Take the time to investigate this fully and you will be richly rewarded. Research shows that companies run along these lines have increased profits dramatically, have attracted quality staff and retained quality staff, reduced absenteeism and the list goes on.

Stop fixating on the one-size-fits-all Process and start looking more towards the Results you want and let you people take you there. When you want a greatly successful business you don’t get fixated on what is not working, you focus on what does work. Studying great can lead to greatness; studying bad can only lead to not bad. Stop looking at what people are doing wrong in your organization and start looking at what they are doing right and do more of that. A great swimmer does not say he must be good at all sports he concentrates on what he is good at and does that most of the time.

Train all your employees to be great in their field and watch them take your business to new heights. In the words of a very successful business man Henry Ford – “You can take my business, burn up my building, but give me my people and I’ll build the business right back again.”

“One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his greatest surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't.”

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”

Have fun watching your business “take off”.

Gaynor Parke
Advanced Success Life Coaching



2008© Gaynor Parke Advanced Success Life Coaching You are more than welcome to distribute this article but please acknowledge me as the author and include the link to my website. Thank you