I was an event last week and someone asked me:
"What are the biggest challenges to growth and future success that your clients face?"
I thought about it for a moment and realised that there are three of them. Two that everyone is aware of and one that hardly anyone thinks about.
The first two things are sales and people.
It's pretty obvious to say that if you want a business to grow, then you need to increase the amount you're selling. Whether that's finding new clients, or expanding your portfolio with existing ones, it doesn't matter too much. But a structured plan for business development is essential.
Secondly (and again fairly obviously) a growing business will usually need more of the right people. It's no good building a bigger pipeline of work if you don't have the capacity and capability to deliver it well.
Finding the best people is hard though. And my experience has been that, of these two things, it's the availability of people which is the limiting factor on a business's ability to grow.
So what's the third thing? The one that no one thinks about?
It's culture.
You can have all the sales in the world and the people on hand to deliver it, but without an outstanding company culture your growth will be restricted.
I've worked with and for some great companies. I've also experienced some terrible ones too. And it has ALWAYS been the culture of the organisation which made the difference between the two.
In a company with a great culture people feel empowered and enjoy their work. They show up and go the extra mile without having to be asked. They deliver a service that delights your clients and the client's experience of working with them is outstanding.
A great company culture really shows!
If your culture is poor though, your people are probably just showing up for the money. They are feeling put-upon and micromanaged. Tolerating their employment until a better opportunity presents itself. Counting the minutes until home time.
Does that sound like the environment where great work is going to be done? I promise you, it's not!
So initially this was a simple answer to a question in the moment. But the more I've thought about it since, the more I believe that these three things have to be right for your business to grow successfully.
If you've got a strong pipeline of work, great!
If you have a team of excellent people to deliver it, even better!
But if you've never stopped to think about your culture, and are wondering why staff engagement and results aren't all that you hoped, maybe it's about time you did?
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