If this past year+ has reminded us of anything, it's that we can't predict the future. The best we can do is to position ourselves and our businesses to weather any oncoming obstacle or uncertainty. To build the habits, systems, and resilience in ourselves and our teams so that we can better respond and pivot when the unexpected happens - whether it's a global pandemic, the loss of a key player, or a local market downturn - and take advantage of opportunities when they come.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good plan. But as the saying goes, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. So how do we get ourselves in a better position to not only thrive through the next "punch in the face" but to continue to grow at a comfortable pace when things are good?

We do it through intentional focus, rigor, and accountability.

Our own research into what makes small businesses successful shows us that those who have been successful during this time were well on their way to building the key success factors before March 2020. And, as you might imagine, those who quickly started embracing these behaviors fared better than those who didn’t. Some of those key corporate behaviors include:

1. Balancing short and long term business and growth strategy

2. Having a flexible talent strategy that enables you to scale up/down and quickly capture or build the skills you need

3. Having operational discipline and a financial safety net to manage loss of revenue or increased costs of doing business

4. Building processes to spur, capture, and implement innovative ideas

If you are not sure how your business is stacking up, check out our Rapid Diagnostic tool to see where you can focus some of your valuable executive time and energy next.

*I was inspired to write this after listening to an episode of The Knowledge Project - check it out.