5 Forces for Smart Leaders in Difficult Times

When business circumstances are challenging such as a slowing economy or a turn around situation, the winners tend to be those organizations that are led by smart leaders. It is the smart leaders that manage to keep sales growing during tough times. These smart leaders understand that they need to find new business opportunities or take business away from competitors. However, the smart leader also realizes that they can't do this without enlisting the force of their organization.

How can smart leaders deal with difficult company and business situations? Smart leaders recognize that there is no one formula that can ensure success. What these leaders do is they apply the five forces to their organization's current circumstances to create a strategy for success. The five forces can be defined as:

1. Lead with Inspiration - the best products and services are not created under normal circumstances. To achieve a level of excellence, inspiration must be part of the process. The combination of inspiration with your product or service will truly change lives. Once inspiration is attached as part of the process, it becomes infectious and will spread throughout your organization. Leaders can use inspiration to motivate employees to add an element of pride for making the best products or providing the best service.
2. Be transparent - companies must be open and transparent with employees and customers regarding quality, growth and other metrics used to measure performance. To build a level of trust, companies must let employees and customers know how they are performing in the market. This includes both good and bad news so employees know how they will be affected by what is happening to the company. The importance is that once issues are opened, the focus will be on creating solutions to improve performance.
3. Act quickly - leaders must move quickly when they see a need or opportunity. The competitive landscape can change in a rapid fashion, smart leaders realize this and are proactive in making the necessary adjustments to maintain or improve their market positions. Most companies are challenged by bureaucracy that impedes leadership from changing course in a nimble fashion.
4. Take risks - leaders are not afraid to take on risk in search of reward. Mistakes will happen in business as the amount of decisions and the speed of change will eventually cause an unfortunate decision. To be smart, recognize mistakes early then fix them quickly so you can move on to better decision making. To be successful in business, you must engage risk which means you must be open to mistakes.
5. Accept technology as a change agent - leaders will recognize that technology alone doesn't create a sustainable competitive advantage. But when you couple technology with your ideas, you can create a great strategy. Technology has created new business models for entrepreneurial companies to quickly scale their ideas that would not have happened in past decades. I can think of a number of internet companies that have created their business model around the scalability of technology. Compared to the bricks and mortar world, internet is a game changer when the technology is combined with a great business idea.

The smart leaders know that change is good in business and the winner will be the one organization that adapts the five forces. Using the five forces creates a scenario where applied strategies force out the weaker ones. The five forces breed the best strategies to those companies that can adapt to the changing landscape. It is these companies that will have the greatest probability of attaining success.