Ideas for a mind-set of success
You used to be able to hold job security hostage with depth of experience and knowledge about your area of expertise. But of course these things are changing like everything else. Pin this one on the sheer speed of knowledge transfer (information age). It is rendering territorial (domain) knowledge far less valuable than it once was. Consider recent history. GM’s Rick Wagoner bankrupted the institution leaning back and holding a limited view of the world far too close to the vest. Years before the industry’s meltdown, Bill Ford saw the writing on the wall. He reached far outside to bring in Alan Mulally from an aircraft manufacturer (Boeing). What Mulally found at Ford were people looking for someone to tell them what to do. Instead, he hired someone to teach everybody else to form a new mind-set and learn to live without a map.
This past year, in almost every post from the Industrious Bastard (IB), you could have slipped in the trail of oil that leads back to improving mind-set. If you’re a confident leader who willingly leans in to new ideas, you won’t mind that the finger points to you.
Here’s a brief insight from several posts that published this year:
“Poke the Box”
You rely on machines for much of the value you produce. But your value as a manager is reliant on your ability to communicate, negotiate and coordinate events with cohorts and select industry partners in a variety of sectors. Machines don’t have the guts to ship. And they don’t possess the will to start either. You do. Poke the box says you have to lean in to be your most industrious. It’s a dare to be curious again, unafraid of failing, okay with not feeling safe and willing to make a ruckus. This IB post was based on the book by the same title. It asks something preposterous, “When was the last time you did something for the first time?” [Link back to read the full post]
“10 Ideas on how to improve productivity”
You can make mistakes while building or making anything. But the biggest mistake is to repeat the previous error. Productivity and quality of life are inextricably tied to the series of relatively simple and incremental choices you make each day. Choices that can mean failure, not just a little productivity loss. See yourself moving swiftly from A to Z while minimizing pain and wasted motion. Create time for more life. Tip#10: Keep swinging. The batter knows if he misses, he’ll get ‘em next time. [Link back to read the full post]
“Navigate your business to growth with ‘GPS’”
You heard it many times; a business owner complains about the government, the economy, a lousy partner or greedy bankers for the failure or stagnation of their business. The reality is that for most businesses, statistics tell a very different story. A story that’s important to understand so that you and your team know precisely how to navigate around the landmines that can blow up the business. With so many balls in the air at one time it’s tough to know what’s most important. Fact is; many managers report they really don’t know what to watch. Hiring a business coach or joining a round table of peers could help you see your way to the coordinates that do matter, hence the GPS metaphor. [Link back to read the full post]
“Trending: Supply chains shift from efficiency to responsiveness”
You must pay attention to trends. Right now there’s a signal to lean from being simply efficient to becoming wholly responsive to customers. But identifying a relevant trend is not the end, it’s “how you respond … and then how you adapt your business” that really defines your outcome. And most of that definition is derived from perceptions you create, so you have more control than you might think. Particularly when you consider the larger pool of customers who could be entering your sales funnel—not previously aware. Committing to this trend however, means embracing the information age, and the highly connected, freely sharing, digital economy. Take a leap. See how leveraging YouTube, of all things, could help you make the transition. [Link back to read the full post]
“Robotics: the basis of a paradigm shift”
You must remember that revolutions are rarely seen or understood in the moment, much less the opportunities that surround them. As soon as efficiency became a discipline we were all predisposed to never look back. Robotics, as commonplace as it seems, is barely birthing in the grand scheme of things to come—and robots are “designed” to increase productivity. In the future, they “will do jobs we have been doing, and do them much better than we can. They will do jobs we can’t do at all. They will do jobs we never imagined even needed to be done. And they will help us discover new jobs for ourselves, new tasks that expand who we are. They will let us focus on becoming more human than we were.” —Wired [Link back to read the full post]
Last word:
And, you must have read from the most recent IB post: “The next 5 years could present unprecedented opportunity for the supply chain to capture the broad benefits of a real manufacturing renaissance.” Will you have the mind-set to navigate and prosper from inevitable change? It could mean the difference between struggle and success. Please stay tuned.
HIT Solutions believes the more your business keeps up with important trends, the more you will improve your product, and improve your bottom line. Leave me your comments below; share your thoughts.