Why You're Not Making Real Progress
Ken Bogard
What is the enemy of growth? What is the silent, yet so obvious answer?
As our clients and my practice embrace change and growth, it’s clear that we are willing to take risks, adapt, and change. Yet it is still easy for us to overlook a huge cost: close-minded. These two words are slowly eating at your company’s core.
Imagine an organization filled to the brim with close-minded leaders, managers, and employees. A company where no one is willing to consider new ideas or receive differing opinions. In this organization you will find recurring issues, year over year stagnant revenue and profit, and the same old BS.
In a close-minded culture, discussions rarely meet a new conclusion, taking time to understand one another is virtually non-existent, and creating healthy/functional teams is an afterthought. The more close-minded an organization, the more silos are created, at the department level, individual level, and ultimately the company from its customers. This is creating division with no real exchange and a complete lack of listening to one another. And it’s costing our business community millions.
Let’s paint some real life experiences in regards to the cost of close mindedness, and what shifting to open and honest communication can do:
- Stagnate Revenue Growth: In this company, the leaders of sales and marketing came together and addressed the differences between their processes and communication. They came together for once and created a more streamlined approach that complemented one another. They also took a deep dive into their sales process and uncovered a number of issues that were preventing them from converting leads. They experienced a 30% increase in weekly leads, higher conversion, and increased revenue from their ideal target market. This resulted in a 20% year over year revenue increase.
- Zero Profit for 3 Years: This leadership team decided to make a change and be more transparent about the company losses. They immediately experienced a reinvigorated team that wanted to fix the issue. The transparency and team fervor resulted in gains, realizing they could increase their price without client objections. Amongst a number of other discoveries, they achieved year over year record profits, one even resulting in 300% increase.
- All Time High Turnover: After an alarming amount of exiting employees, the executive team chose to reassess who they were letting in their doors and who they had allowed to stay for too long. After two tough years of taking a deep look at themselves, their teams, and structure, they now have 95% right people right seat and 95% retention of those same people in the last year. Their sustained talent is directly correlated to their record revenue and revenue stability.
- Severe Operational Inefficiencies: One company’s efficiency output was significantly lower than industry standards. The team decided it was time to change many of its past practices. They researched and implemented a new training program, renewed the focus on data by their operational team, and created a meeting pulse that empowered employees to share and solve issues. They are now beating the industry standard, resulting in a direct impact to the bottom line.
Let me name a few more challenges that my teams have experienced.
- No concern for company results
- Leaders not admitting wrongdoings
- No time to plan
- Poor vendor performance
- Leads aren’t converting
- Employees aren’t heard or respected
- Lack of diversity
- No meeting engagement and decreasing attendance
- Rampant egos going unchecked
- Lack of trust between each other and departments and so on…
Any one of these strike a nerve?
In these situations there are thousands, if not millions of unrealized dollars for each company. It’s all from the simple fact that close mindedness controls the culture. Thousands of disgruntled leaders, managers, and employees going on with their day to day, accepting the status quo, allowing the silent enemy of growth to persist.
If you don’t change a close-minded culture, don’t expect a different outcome. So… what’s your next step?
