Whether you follow AFL, Soccer, Rugby, there is a common understanding among sports teams that sometimes it is necessary to overhaul the current status quo and rebuild the team in order to become more competitive and successful in the future.
 
As business owners in our current economic climate, there's a lot we can learn from the way our top sports teams use periods of rebuilding in order to get ahead.
 
In Australia, we're going through more economic changes now than we have in the last 24 years. Which means that it's the opportune time to lead your business through a period of rebuilding in order to not only survive, but thrive in the future.
 
I've written on the topic of rebuilding teams before, but I thought we could all use a reminder of what it takes to succeed in a period of rebuilding:
 
1. Belief
The number one indicator for success lies with your internal belief system.
Do you and your leadership team truly, deep down, gut-checked, know with all your heart, believe you can rebuild or rebound?
Not believing only leads to losses. Some may be small, some may be big, but over time not believing in yourself and your team’s abilities will only create disappointing failure. Take the time to list out WHY you believe you can accomplish whatever your goal is. Do it now! Reflecting on the “why” will help solidify your belief.

2. Talent
In order to rebuild anything, you must first have the talent to do so. Whether the talent is you or someone else, your business is not going to simply rebuild itself, it’s going to take the efforts of talented people who have the skills and capacity to improve your business. Your job is to identify who the talent is and build upon that. Your game strategy for the next season might require a few strategic draft picks.

3. A seasoned coach
A coach is instrumental in the success of rebuilding. Having a mentor or leader that can effectively motivate, inspire, and set the example for the team, amplifies each person's individual talent and belief. The coach creates the game plan and calls the plays. A coach’s job is to showcase the talent, make decisions for the team, make mid-game adjustments, and do whatever it takes to win. As the leader of your team, do your coaching techniques need refreshing?

4. Back-up
This is probably the most overlooked piece of the puzzle in business, but something that sports teams do well. In football, if a player is indisposed there are several back-ups available. But, in business, it is rare to have a back up for each person.
Think of someone in your office who does something that is instrumental to the company’s success; do they have a back-up? Do you have a back up plan for when someone gets sick, is laid-off, quits, or goes on maternity leave? Back-up your people, your talent, your team, your coach (as well as your hard drive) so that your business doesn't derail when one person doesn't show up.

Sports teams don't win season premierships based on dumb luck. They win because they have genuine talent, they believe that they can, they have an experienced coach leading them, and they have a back-up plan in place.
 
Do you want to win next season?
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(Go the Cats!)

This post from Melbourne based colleague and futurist, Paul Higgins struck a chord with me, particularly his identification of the three drivers of change:
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Originally posted on March 18, 2016 at Futurist Paul

I recorded a podcast yesterday with John Briggs at Technotopia (the podcast should be up by Sunday Australian time). The discussion was around a number of future stories and we touched on the nature of work and what was happening in US politics which got me thinking a bit more deeply about Australia.


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A lot has been written about Donald Trump over the last few months including this mornings revelations that The Economist Intelligence Unit had rated a Trump Presidency as a global risk ( The Economist dubs Trump a ‘global risk factor’ — but not for the reasons you might think ) Some of the analysis has centered on fringe elements of his supporters rather than the core reasons that most people are voting for him in the Republican primaries.

It is my view that the core reason that people are voting for Trump is a general dissatisfaction with the professional political class. A large part of that dissatisfaction is driven from a significant minority of people in the United States that either have gone backwards economically or or stagnated as the winds of change have swept across the world. This includes globalisation, outsourcing, and the developments in automation that are only just starting. The changes are also a product of systems and decisions that benefit the well off and leave others behind. These changes have resulted in headlines like:

Majority of U.S. public school students are in poverty and

6 Of The Fastest-Growing Jobs In America Pay Low Wages and

Disparity in Life Spans of the Rich and the Poor Is Growing 

Now these are not sudden changes, they are slow burn changes and as we are now learning political and social events can build slowly until they reach a tipping point and it is very hard to pick that tipping point. The Trump political insurgency and the sudden Arab Spring events are cases in point. While we do not have the same level of economic issues or disparity in Australia it is clear from these sorts of events that we need to be looking well into the future when we think about the issues.

In Australia we have certainly had protest votes in the past. People have voted for Pauline Hanson in particular, One Nation as a party, and more recently Clive Palmer. These sorts of movements have fallen apart because of a combination of there not being enough critical mass and through the incompetency and infighting of the people involved. However I do believe that there is a scenario where a successful Australian Donald Trump could emerge.

In my view we are on the verge of an unprecedented wave of change and volatility and Australia could possibly face a perfect storm of three factors.

Firstly there a significant problem of the economy in China with very high debt levels which have rapidly built since the GFC: China cannot escape the economic reckoning that a debt binge brings and Australia is very dependent on our trading relationship with China as the falling revenues from commodity prices have shown.

Secondly we seem to be moving towards a significant re-ordering of the energy systems of the world with huge leaps in renewable energy cost structures and investment. That impacts on revenues from coal and gas. A wild card here could be increased action on climate change if accelerated climate change occurs.

Thirdly we are seeing huge advances in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and this is likely to impact on jobs in a significant way over the next ten years. Mckinsey has released some preliminary findings from a report they are writing on this issue and one of the conclusions is that: about 60 percent of occupations could have 30 percent or more of their constituent activities automated

This is a huge change that will sweep across our jobs landscape and there is a very real chance of what is termed a “hollowing out of the middle”where there will be very highly paid jobs for those that can do them, very low paid jobs for those with few skills and very few jobs in the middle.

If all these three come together with low commodity prices affecting our resource dependent economy and middle range jobs disappearing at the same time we could have the sort of social settings which breed political revolutions.

So the answer to my question is I don’t know who Australia’s Donald Trump is but there is a very real possibility that we are breeding the conditions for one to emerge.

We need to be carefully thinking through how our economic and social systems work and avoiding both high levels of disparity but also people going backwards economically. If technology does in fact start destroying jobs more quickly than it creates them then we need to be rethinking what work and the economy are all about in a “Post Normal” world. New Zealand is already starting: New Zealanders want to give everyone a ‘citizen’s wage’ and scrap benefits

Paul Higgins

Have you ever witnessed someone try to manipulate other people into doing what they don't want to do? It's usually done with either a very large carrot (bribery) or a very large stick (discipline).
 
How often do those people feel personally motivated to give their best efforts to the task?
 
If you've followed this blog for a while, you'll know that at Genesis Business Advisers we're big fans of leaders who coach the members of their team in order to encourage their best work. 
 
Part of being a coach is taking the time to sit down with each of your employees and provide the space to have a two-way dialogue about their role within the business.
 
Even though this dialogue can (and should) be happening on a consistent basis throughout the year, annual performance appraisals are the key to establishing a culture where honest and judgment-free communication and feedback is encouraged.
 
Performance appraisals focused on giving and receiving feedback build trusting relationships where the employee feels:
1) understood, and
2) receptive to any constructive criticism you might need to provide over the course of their employment.
 
While it can be tempting for managers to default to using performance appraisals as opportunities to criticise employees, constructive feedback is linked strongly with employee satisfaction and productivity, even if areas of under-performance need to be addressed.
 
To motivate your employees, give valuable feedback that answers the following questions:

• Why does my role exist?
• What am I supposed to achieve?
• How do I influence others?
• What is the quality of my relationships with my manager, team members and colleagues?

 
Are you building a workplace culture where honest feedback and two-way dialogues are encouraged?
 
If you already have a formal performance appraisal process in place, now is the time to collect employee feedback and schedule one on one interviews.
 
If you’d like to talk more about how to get the best work out of your team, ask me about performance appraisals next time we meet, or send me your questions via email: bruce@genesisba.com.au.