Celebrate success

By Jacki Hart CLM
Prosperity Partners Program Manager

Happy New Year! Every year at this time, many of us take stock and make resolutions of one kind or another to change something in our lives, our routines, or both.

Business is no different. This is a time when many owners and managers heave a long sigh and strategize on many levels about what the year ahead will hold.

At our annual trade show, Landscape Ontario Congress, one can find acre after acre of new products, new opportunities, and four days packed full of seminars and lots of new ideas. Many owners and managers wander through aisle after aisle of products and equipment, drooling over new toys and tools. Many spend hour after hour attending seminars as they search for solutions to problems and new trends to adopt. It’s a showcase for change.
 

Perfect time of year to reflect

I’d like to suggest, that whether you attend Congress or not, this is the perfect time of year to reflect on what you don’t need to change.

Yes, you read that right. There are some things in your business that are working so well, they shouldn’t change at all. Sometimes, it’s hard to know what they are until you step back and spend a bit of time taking an objective look.  

It’s common to focus on what is not working in our business and try to fix it more often than celebrate our successful systems and less tangible things that are running like a well-oiled machine. After all, the stuff that isn’t working is what drives us crazy and holds our attention. Typically, we adopt an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ kind of complacency. Out of sight, out of mind.
 

What is going well?

My suggestion for this month is to really take some time and identify what’s going well in your business. Here’s a list of questions which might help to get you thinking about what you can really celebrate in your business, and leverage going forward into this New Year.

• Are you getting word of mouth referrals? If so, why?
• What compliments did you receive from your customers last year? What prompted them?
• For the most part, do your customers pay willingly and on time?
• Are you proud of your company image? What does it reflect?
• Do you have key employees who step up, and take charge of various areas of your business?
• What kind of conversations are you hearing in the office, shop, store, worksite, truck or yard that indicate things are running smoothly and people are working well together?
• Are your safe work practices paying off with fewer injuries or days off?
• What are the improvements you made in your systems that are working?

Celebrate positives

Add to these questions some of your own. Expand your list of things to celebrate. Share it with your key staff. Better yet, involve them in compiling the list. Maybe hold a short celebration brain storming meeting and follow it with some refreshments and a toast to collaborative success. If your business is anything like mine, without your team, there’d be little success – so include them in your celebration.

In the Build Your Prosperity seminar, we talk about leveraging strengths. When you know what’s working really well, and where you’re most profitable and efficient, go do more of that. Leverage that success, especially now that you’re really clear on what you have that’s working well.

Congratulations! And Welcome to 2015 – a New Year for your business, and a New opportunity to celebrate your brilliance, your talent, your team and all of its potential.
   

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Jacki Hart may be reached at info.peertopeer@landscapeontario.com.