With the new year ahead of us, many people take time to reflect on the happenings of the past year, both personally and professionally. It is time to taken an inventory if you will, on the assets and liabilities on your ledger. And it is a time to make plans to improve the performance of that ledger by this time next year.
I don't make resolutions. They have not motivated me, which is not to say they aren't a good thing. My focus is on improvement, but day over day improvement has been a better motivator for me. But as I make plans for 2018, there are some definite roadblocks I'd like to avoid, and a recent episode of CNBC's The Profit once again illustrated them very well.
My hope is one day Marcus Lemonis will buy a media company and will do an hour long show on ways to improve its people, process and product. Until then, I extract nuggets of great ideas from other industries. That includes a recent episode with a struggling denim jean company in Detroit.
Lemonis boiled it down to three things that Eric was doing wrong with his business. It is a list that many organizations share, and the solution isn't as difficult as you might think.
1) Forgetting to have fun. I've said many times that I believe I could be successful running any type of business, but I choose to run a media company because it is fun. The opportunity to engage with communities, businesses and readers is unlike most any other business. It brings me joy, though I will admit that I sometimes forget that. Innovation and creativity, the process of building a better mousetrap if you will, is fun.
2) Reluctance to adjust a business strategy. Doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results pretty well sums up media companies. Former Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki's quote, "If you dislike change, you're going to dislike irrelevance even more" rings in my head daily as I work. Change must be a part of our daily lives. Refusing to change, or burying your head in the sand and refusing to acknowledge the shifts in the marketplace rarely has a positive outcome. Change can be messy, and is no guarantee of success. But the more chances you take, the successes you find every time.
3) Giving orders instead of collaborating. The best managers I've ever worked for excelled at building a collaborative environment. As a manager, once you realize you don't have to solve every problem on your own you instantly become a better manager. The best managers create the environment for innovation and problem solving. Back in the 1980's Ronald Reagan put together a team of advisers that were the best of the best on the topics that our country and the Reagan presidency were facing. Reagan boasted that he didn't have to be the smartest guy in the room. He just needed to be the leader for the group, keep them focused on the goal and helping them to communicate the best way of handling those tough issues. That concept still works today.
Having a management style that kills creativity will kill a business, or at the very least stunt its possible growth. Your business, or any business cannot survive without adaptation and change. The best way to adapt and change is to be the leader that sets sup the environment that allows the best and brightest to shine. Managers, start listening; especially to new ideas.
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