Time To Swagger
Swagger. It’s a term that many of you will be familiar with – a slang term, meaning ‘to walk or behave in a very confident way’. In an era where all businesses are under pressure, where the global news agenda makes for tough reading, viewing, or scrolling, it’s actually a time to try and dust ourselves off, push our shoulders back, and have a bit more swagger.
Yes, we live in uncertain times but the way to tackle this ambiguity head on is to remain resolute and believe that we’ve all ‘got this’. I have spoken a lot recently about the need to build organizational resilience – helping to ensure readiness, reliability, and flexibility, enabling risks to turn into opportunities, and evolving weaknesses into strengths. This is key to helping all businesses both survive and thrive – and get their swagger back - in this ever-changing macroeconomic picture.
But just how do we ensure we are building resilience into everything we do? Unit4 has just released a white paper talking about why organizational resilience matters and how leaders can improve it. To be resilient, organizations need to be able to anticipate, prepare for, respond, and adapt to both incremental change and sudden disruptions to survive and prosper. Readiness, the right attitudes, and technology, of course, play a large part in helping organizations to prepare and adapt for change but there are other important factors to consider.
Process, discipline, and culture
Process, discipline, and culture are also important for any well-run company. By having clear processes in place – as well as the discipline to support these – leadership teams can ensure that everyone is working towards the same goals. This can help to prevent future problems from occurring and can also help to resolve any current issues quickly and efficiently.
A culture of trust and ethics within any company – all aligned to corporate values - is also vital and means that every colleague should be held accountable for their actions and willing to ‘follow the rules’. In addition, it means that people have faith in the environment they are working in, and feel empowered to both contribute and collaborate with like-minded colleagues who they know are similarly driven. For any business, continuing to focus on processes and discipline, as a support to staying resilient, is table stakes in developing the company, as well as delivering the best possible outcomes for its customers.
As they do so, businesses must also nurture their people and take advantage of technology to truly prepare for change. If organizations do all of the above, they will naturally become more confident, and resilient. It’s not arrogant, it’s about self-assurance, and believing.
I think it’s time for everyone to get our swagger back, and believe that we can.
