Have you ever had the experience of working with a great group of people who all chip in to get the job done? Each person involved offers ideas on how to complete the project; each volunteers to do an extra task or two to make it happen; each seems excited about the project’s potential benefits.

It’s a wonderful experience when everyone around you is just as excited as you are. The entire mood of the group or organization is upbeat. Improvements, enhancements, and efficiencies within the organization seem to happen regularly. There’s always some positive action in play.

Now, what was (or is) the overall mood in an organization when there are only a few individuals who project the attitude and energy described above? The excitement and push for improvement happens in isolated pockets. The majority of your employees – or worse yet – individuals in leadership positions, project an attitude of “what we’re doing is good enough.” They believe and convey to others that there’s no need to constantly push to do or make things better. They believe, “What we’ve done for years has satisfied our customers, why change it? We’ve always done it this way.”

Organizations and leaders with this belief are slower moving, less willing to adapt to meet changing customer needs, and are thereby less able to change to market shifts. These organizations lose customers and market share because they’re more focused on doing what they HAVE done instead of what they NEED to do to keep up with changing customer needs.

Organizations with this predominant mindset operate in isolation. They not only kill the initiative of those energetic few who look to improve processes and procedures, but they usually fail to acknowledge the future needs of their customers. They’re not working with their real “leaders” internally, nor are they working in partnership with their customers. They’ve forgotten who they’re in business to serve. They’ve forgotten that their future success depends upon their customers’ future successes. Whatever they can do to make their customers successful, will by default, help them.

So, if you’re wondering what’s happened to the customers you used to have, ask yourself:

“Are we doing what works best for us or are we changing and growing to meet our customers future needs? Are we in this together?”

Copyright MMII – Liz Weber, CMC, CSP – Weber Business Services, LLC – www.WBSLLC.com +1.717.597.8890

Liz supports clients with strategic and succession planning, as well as leadership training and executive coaching. Learn more about Liz on LinkedIn!