By: Don Yäger
Part of my role as President is to be clear about our Mission, Vision, Purpose, and Direction. When thinking about our company it also makes me think about raising kids, including the decisions that are made and timing or impact of those. For instance, when they were allowed to have their own phone, when they could start driving, oh, and then there is dating!!
It’s a fine balance when growing. To do so you must be outside of your comfort zone; however, too far out or too uncomfortable can cause a LOT of anxiety and possibly even failure. Much like in our company, we want to grow. But if we don’t have certain things in place, if people have not been developed, or if our success is dependent of a handful of people rather than proven and reliable processes, then we can expect a lot of pain.
I am certain we are ready to grow again, and people may have seen examples of this, but it’s important to be deliberate about the actions and decisions we are making and explain why they are critical. We all want more – more from each other, more tickets taken, more benefits, more money, more responsibility; however, to get “more” we have to grow in a scalable and smart way. Part of growing is making sure we have the right processes are documented and everyone is consistently following them on every call or in every situation. Some of these processes are Call Back Scheduling, One More Day, Out of Scope Cases, Backlog Management, and Permission to Close, just to name a few. We have realized that in many cases we need to update better and make processes clearer with input from those Team Members actually using them. We must be very deliberate and consistent about doing these things.
Part of growth is also making sure we clarify who we are and how we communicate, which helps to recruit like-minded talent and strategic partnerships. Internally, we must also be very deliberate about our Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) so we can strengthen, be opportunistic, and be ready for new horizons.
How can you help? One way is to have a Growth Mindset instead of a Fixed Mindset. Simply put, a growth mindset means you believe your talents aren’t fixed, but fluid and constantly in development. You can learn more here; in the meantime, some examples of a growth mindset are:
- Failure is an opportunity to learn and grow.
- I can learn to do anything I want.
- Challenges help me to grow.
- My effort and attitude determine my abilities.
- Feedback is constructive.
- I am inspired by the success of others.
- I like to try new things.
Yes, there is a lot going on, and we do ask (and expect) much from ourselves and each other. But one must have a sense of urgency and we must be ready to grow, DELIBERATING about what that means and how we all can help.