Say Goodbye to the Status Quo

It’s time to say goodbye to the status quo. In the New Economy you can’t afford to lead by looking in the rear view mirror, holding on to the status quo and doing more of what you’ve always done. (How did that work for Kodak, RIM, and Hostess to name a few?)  Instead stay focused on your vision and the road ahead.  As a CEO or business owner you must leave the state of denial and wake up to the fact that it’s not going to be business as usual…even if it may seem like it now. Shift happens and things can change in a hurry. First Solar, the solar energy panel manufacturer, was racking up record sales and profits over the past several years and was even named the fastest-growing tech company by Forbes in February of 2011. However, before the end of the year the company’s financial foundation was shaken with softening demand and cheap competition forcing dramatically lower prices and profits and the CEO being forced out so that new leadership could be brought in to deal with the new marketplace.

Experience is the best teacher but the cost is often prohibitive. You can crash your company on the rocks of the New Economy or you can learn from the CEOs who’ve gone before you. Now is the time to develop a new mindset and start looking at the marketplace and your business with new eyes and listening for different signals so that you don’t get lulled into a trance by short periods of the “familiar”.

As a CEO you must learn to become comfortable with these three answers to almost any question you may ask:

• I don’t know
• It depends
• We’ll need to test that

Instead of feeling compelled to have your people give you definitive answers that indicate certainty, embrace the opportunity that exists in the unknown. Instead of accepting compliant answers to complex issues, create dialogue by gaining facts about what’s really happening. Surround yourself with people who will tell you the truth. Develop the discipline of constantly testing, challenging and validating your assumptions as you move forward.

By challenging the status quo instead of trying to preserve it you create a dynamic organization that is better attuned to compete in a fast changing marketplace.

In what ways are you constructively challenging the status quo so that you can learn, adapt and grow?