This week we continue to unpack the six key insights from Mindshop’s Business Leader Insight Report.

Insights four to six cover investing in leadership and coaching capabilities, creating a thriving strategy and vision for 2022, and focusing on what makes your business profitable as you move forward.

In case you missed it, our previous blog delved into the first three key report insights; how your reset plan should address emerging insights, embracing a new and flexible workforce and ways to boost resilience within yourself and your team.

Insight 4: Invest in leadership & coaching capabilities to make you a leader worth following

A survey conducted by Mindshop late last year yielding responses from more than 200 business leaders and advisors, indicated that 81% of leaders felt their leadership style needed to evolve, and 80% needed to re-skill and up-skill to achieve their goals for 2022.

This, in many ways, is not surprising, given the vast challenges and changes most businesses have faced over the past two years. But how do you know what skills are critical to becoming a successful leader in 2022 and beyond?

In many ways, the trick lies in assessing where you are now, where you want to be in five years’ time, and identifying the potential obstacles you face to getting there.
Now is a fantastic time to be working closely with your WK Advisor to take stock of these things and think about your goals on both a personal and professional level.

In doing so, keep in mind the following reset tips as laid out in the Mindshop report:

  1. Undertake a personal SWOT & identify your top three leadership capability gaps.
  2. Develop a 2022 Reset One Page Plan.
  3. Learn new coaching capabilities and embrace new technologies to efficiently
    manage the team virtually while staying attentive and responsive. What peer
    group can you join to share what’s working and what’s not?
Need help? Get in touch with a WK Advisor to help you reset

Insight 5: You’ll need a ‘thriving’ strategy and vision for 2022

Despite significant changes to the business landscaae since the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, the Mindshop leader survey indicatres that business confidence remains high among the majority of those surveyed.

Of course, this finding will vary from business leader to business leader, however, it’s a good reminder to all not to waste discoveries made during crises. What have you learnt about your business or your customers during the pandemic and associated lockdowns?

Could your systems, technologies, team skillset, or even products or services be adapted to better meet the needs of your target market in future?

Interestingly, in a time where technology has been more crucial than ever, the survey results show that 69% of leaders feel getting the ‘people’ side of their strategy right is the highest priority part of this process, while 37% indicated they lack a clear strategy or vision. 

If you fall in the same category as that 69%, learning what tools your people respond well to may form a good part of your strategy reset.

Mindshop recommends engaging a strong external advisor for help with resetting your vision and strategy for 2022. The reset should help you to identify emerging opportunities and challenges and re-test your strategic SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) , sustainable competitive advantage, change readiness and strategic priorities against your vision.

Tweaking your existing strategy is no longer enough within a drastically changing business environment. Talk to us about how you might be able to do things differently this year.

Insight 6: Don’t lose sight of what makes you profitable

Despite the importance of taking stock and resetting your business vision and strategy for the future, it’s important not to lose sight of what makes your business profitable.

As noted in the Mindshop report, the past two years have created a lot of noise for business owners, with added pressures of working from home (and ensuring you have the infrastructure to do so), employee retention, maintaining a solid business culture and market challenges all competing for attention.

When undertaking your business strategy with your WK Advisor, strip your business back to basics and start from ground zero. What makes your business a business? Is your offering still profitable? Can you identify any ‘waste’ in your business that is taking away from your full potential when it comes to profitability?

When pared back to basics, it is true that up to 30% of business overheads can be considered waste. Things like unused technology, unproductive teams, poor processes and excess stock work against your business and ultimately, your profit.

Reducing that waste can be an important starting point for your 2022 reset.

We suggest actioning the following steps, as laid out by Mindshop when conducting your business reset:

  1. Focus on profitable growth opportunities that fit the business vision.
  2. Conduct a Product Portfolio Analysis to uncover which products and services are negatively impacting profitability.
  3. Undertake a waste audit to start the ongoing process of waste and inefficiency identification and removal across the business.

It can be so easy to get caught up in the everyday tasks that are crucial to keeping your business afloat from week to week, but taking time to reset is so important. If you would like help actioning the above insights, or indeed any of the six insights identified in the Mindshop report, make an appointment with your WK Advisor. We truly love nothing more than to see your business progress.  

Next up in our Mindshop Business Leader Insights Report series, we will bring you some Strategies for Recharting Success and delve into the 8 Steps for Recharting 2022. Stay tuned.