One of the favorite parts of my work at Violand Management is when I’m able to conduct our new client onboarding webinar. This is usually the first conference we have with new clients. It’s where we welcome them into our company and acquaint them with how we’ll be working together. More importantly, it’s where we get to know them better. Nobody’s selling anything, and nobody’s buying anything, so it gives me a chance to just talk and interact with them on a more personal level. In doing so, I learn about their business and their family. I gain insights into the things that bring them joy and the worries that keep them awake at night.
As part of the onboarding presentation, I discuss three qualities that we have found to play a significant role in our clients’ success. They’re not the only three factors that contribute to success, but they’re three that stand out and seem to repeat themselves often enough to take notice.
There’s no mystery about these qualities; no closely guarded trade secrets and no “secret sauce” that we’re going to share with them as we work together. After all, there is no secret sauce to business success.
These three qualities are so basic that you might question how they can have such a powerful impact on companies and on the lives of the people employed by them.
Most of us have been introduced to these qualities at some point in our lives. Many of us have even been preached to about them. But understanding them is key, and simply on an intellectual level isn’t enough. It’s the people who actually employ the qualities who benefit by enjoying greater success in their businesses and in their lives.
The three qualities I’m referring to are focus, discipline, and perseverance. Pretty basic, right? And no doubt you noticed that words like profitability, cash flow, employee retention, or any number of countless others are not among them Yet, these qualities are the ones that have a direct impact on all the others … and on just about every facet of a business.
With another new year just around the corner, this is a good time to take stock of what you and your company have accomplished over the current year and to make plans for what you want to accomplish in the coming year.
At Violand Management, we’ve formalized this strategic planning process in our Business Planning Retreats. This year, hundreds of small business owners and their key managers will rigorously assess what they’ve accomplished in 2019 and commit to writing their plans for 2020 and beyond.
But assessment and planning are just the starting point. All the planning and strategizing in the world is meaningless and a waste of time if we don’t do the most important part—follow through. That’s where the real work takes place. That’s why management guru Peter Drucker wrote, “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” And that’s where the three qualities I’ll write about in this series come into play.
