Key Messages
The Habits of Highly Successful Business Leaders: Why Repeat Customers Are Better Than New Ones and What Company Leaders Can Learn From Kindergarten Teachers
Successful businesses don’t just have good luck, they make a habit of it.
With the right habits, any business can attain high performance.
In this book, you’ll discover the day-to-day practices and behaviors that set apart world’s highest-achieving businesses from the rest.
You’ll learn why businesses should strive to ensure their customers become repeat customers rather than one-time shoppers; how simple gestures such as company events and activities show employees that they’re appreciated; and how even the smallest tasks such as setting clearly defined goals can lead to success.
Furthermore, you’ll learn power lessons from kindergarten teachers in order to apply it to your own business.
These small habits will make all the difference when striving for success and you’ll be able to put them into practice immediately after reading!
Inspire Your Employees to Reach for Your Company’s Future With a Magnetic Vision
High-performing organizations always have a compelling vision for the future.
They create a vivid and inspiring picture of what could be, what should be, and how you will get there.
This image is the ‘magnet’ that attracts your staff and energizes them to work towards it.
Studies show that employees who are inspired by their organization’s vision are more likely to perform at a higher level and drive better business outcomes.
The key to crafting an engaging vision is to make it specific and achievable.
Instead of aiming for something impossible, such as eliminating world poverty, set goals that can be realistically achieved (i.e. become the city’s biggest charity for homeless people).
Setting these clear objectives allows you to define exactly what needs to be done in order to reach them, which in turn makes everyone feel more motivated towards achieving success.
It isn’t enough just to declare a vision – high performing companies involve their staff in crafting it too.
Holding focus groups and conducting surveys can give meaningful insight into what matters most to your employees and how they might contribute best toward the mission ahead.
Investing time into engaging with your team will help build trust, increase productivity, and ultimately lead you closer to reaching your organizational objectives faster
How to Ensure Your Team is Working Together Towards One Clear Strategy
Having a clear strategy is essential for any business to succeed.
Without a target direction, employees can become confused and without purpose, resulting in decreased performance.
For this reason, high-performing businesses are sure to have a very specific and targeted strategy mapped out for their employees at all times.
With clear goals that can easily be understood by the team, everyone knows what needs to be done in order to reach success.
Furthermore, it’s important that these goals are written down on a single sheet of paper so that your entire business strategy is transparent and easy to follow.
On top of this, it’s also important for companies to prioritize their internal communications.
This ensures that everyone is aware of the latest strategy updates and that employees maintain focus on the necessary tasks at hand.
Businesses should not shy away from spending money on internal communication infrastructure as effective communication with staff members is an invaluable tool for achieving your organizational goals.
Unlocking the True Potential of an Organization’s Employees Starts with Investing in Leadership Development
As businesses grow, they need to ensure that their people reach their full potential.
Unfortunately, many companies don’t focus on developing their current employees.
Instead, they prefer to recruit new staff with the skills and experiences required for the job.
However, high performing organizations understand the importance of unlocking the capabilities of their existing team members.
They provide training opportunities so that employees can further develop their technical and leadership skills, such as communication and management style.
This helps them create an environment where everyone is encouraged to learn and grow within the organization.
What’s more, if managers fail to provide adequate training opportunities, some of these businesses may even replace them in order to avoid a situation where a team member isn’t adequately prepared for upcoming business challenges or tasks.
As a result, these organizations are better equipped to reach their goals because they have engaged and knowledgeable teams working together effectively.
Business Leaders Can Learn a Valuable Lesson from Kindergarten Teachers: Show Your Gratitude and Appreciation to Your Employees
High-performing businesses understand the value in celebrating their employees and they make sure to recognize their achievements.
Studies show that, when a company recognizes an employee, not only do they feel appreciated but they are also more likely to contribute further and work towards reaching their goals.
Numerous companies have implemented different approaches when it comes to recognizing their staff.
Some offer small rewards such as free lunches or gifts cards; others might take efforts and organize bigger celebrations like spa trips for the hardworking members of the company.
To top it off, research shows that spontaneous gratitude can be more effective than planned praise.
At the end of the day, high-performing businesses realize that showing gratitude isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s a valuable investment in their people and a great way to promote strong business performance.
Caring for Your Employees: The Importance of the Psychological Contract
For high-performing organizations, looking after their employees is a priority.
This means more than just providing them with a salary, it also includes checking in on their well-being and offering support and understanding when they are dealing with an issue or illness.
To illustrate the importance of this kind of care, let’s look at a real-world example of two companies who had to deal with an employee getting injured on the job.
One company made sure to stay in contact with the injured employee and regularly check in on their progress – they returned to work soon after.
The second company ignored their sick employee which led them not only losing a valuable team member but facing legal action too.
This emphasizes how showing consideration for your staff makes all the difference – small gestures of compassion can create results that will benefit everyone involved.
To make this unwritten rule more official, many companies now sign an actual contract where both parties agree upon expectations for each other.
High-performing businesses understand that looking after their employees shouldn’t be taken lightly – it helps build trust, loyalty and bonds between employers and employees that last far beyond any contracts signed .
What Does Being Customer-Centric Really Mean?
When looking for satisfying and repeat customers, businesses should know who their core customer is.
A core customer is a person who desires the very thing that your business offers but your competitors do not.
Core customers provide companies with loyalty which can be incredibly beneficial in terms of economics.
Attracting new customers is often expensive, considering on average half the money goes to marketing efforts.
If a customer spends $100, most likely only $50 will be generated in profit due to those investments made in acquiring that one-time customer.
When it comes to loyal customers however, all of these costs are greatly diminished and nearly eliminated over time.
Thus developing relationships rather than single transactions is key.
This could include asking for feedback, taking suggestions into account and rewarding loyalty as a means to secure returning customers and turn them into positive advocates for the company who recommend it to their own social networks too!
Loyalty has been shown to be important in ensuring high performance within businesses so recognizing the significance of repeat clients should be taken seriously by companies seeking success across the board.
The Key to Successful IT Systems Is Continued Upgrades and Training
Optimizing your IT system is key to driving high performance in your business.
This is because having an up-to-date and functioning IT system allows you to take advantage of new advancements and stay ahead of the curve.
The author recently stressed this point by citing that three-quarters of high-performing organizations update their IT systems regularly, whereas only 41 percent of low-performing businesses do the same.
If you find yourself dealing with outdated or completely obsolete IT systems, then it may be time to make some upgrades.
Fortunately, there are measures that you can take if your business has fallen behind on technology.
Start by investing in training for employees to help equip them properly with the knowledge needed for a new system.
Additionally, if upgrading altogether proves too costly, try bringing new units online on a newer system while leaving existing systems intact.
Wrap Up
The final takeaway from this book is that high-performance businesses make a habit of constantly striving for improvement.
They never settle into complacency and instead remain focused on how they can stay competitive in their markets.
The key to achieving this is by providing learning opportunities, such as setting up a mentoring program so that everyone has the opportunity to learn and grow.
Additionally, these businesses celebrate successes, no matter how small, as a way to recognize individual achievements.
By following these guidelines, you too can achieve high performance in your business.
