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Between rising prices, an unpredictable job market and the looming threat of a global recession, a constantly changing business environment is the norm for companies operating today. While it’s impossible to predict what obstacles will appear next, it’s essential to cultivate a team that can handle whatever is thrown at them to overcome challenges.
Below, 13 gotechbusiness.com Business Council members provide guidance on specific actions leaders can take to ensure their teams remain agile and flexible in an ever-changing business environment.
Contents
1. Install adjustable frames
Every leader must have a framework that guides their teams in a changing environment. A framework enables team members to advance the mission of the organization while adapting to internal and external changes. Leaders must also encourage and demonstrate a learning mindset to ensure their teams can adapt to changing circumstances. – Kent Inge, Southeastern University
2. Encourage continuous learning
Encourage your team to keep abreast of industry trends, technology and training. Then have each member share what they learned with the rest of your team. Use tools like ChatGPT to encourage your team to innovate and explain difficult topics or approaches to a problem you are facing. – Tyler Weitzman, Speechify
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3. Create a culture that welcomes creativity and diversity
Leaders have the ability to create and nurture a team culture that is creative and diverse. This gives employees the freedom to explore and learn to enhance personal growth within the work environment. Leaders can also create a reward system that rewards and rewards team members for showing initiative, encouraging a more entrepreneurial approach. – Daniel Stephenson, Straightforward music group
4. Stimulate acceptance of changes
Reduce the perceived psychological risk of change. Companies get caught up in status quo bias where employees are covertly afraid of change rather than embracing flexibility. Agility is seen as scary compared to the comfort of known processes and systems. Point out the missed opportunities of yesterday’s fixed mindset and reassure teams that the imagined worst-case scenario is the result of limited agility, not change. – Nula Walsh, Mind Equity
5. Be clear about expectations
Clarity of agile and adaptable expectations are a must. In some cases, this is a willingness to shift skills and knowledge to use new tools and approaches. In some cases, this is a shift in the way that work is done. In other cases, this is agility in culture evolution and the expectations of work and team. A focus on where agility is needed will help a team stay up to the challenge. – Lowell Aplebaum, Vista Cova
6. Actively support learning and experimentation
Leaders can keep their teams agile and flexible in an ever-changing business environment by creating an environment that supports learning and experimentation and encourages risk-taking by employees. In addition, by fostering open communication and collaboration across departments, leaders can foster a sense of teamwork that enables employees to quickly adapt to new challenges and opportunities. – Sabrina Graaf, Heart rate advice
7. Foster a growth mindset
Having a growth mindset within the team is key here. Encourage your team members to share interesting content as it can help the whole team learn something new. Share industry news, interesting blog posts and emerging new ideas. The more people become involved in these knowledge sharing activities, the more agile and flexible the team will become. – Aslak de Silva, Shop yourself
8. Lead by example
Leaders must set the tone. Leaders who are stuck in the past and are committed to always doing things the same way are not true leaders. An open mind is the key to innovation. There is no innovation without risk, and team leaders who don’t take risks create a culture that fears trying something new and destroying innovation. Learning from the past and then disrupting it is the only way forward. – Valter Klug Filho, Samba Rock Marketing Consulting LLC
9. Monitor KPIs
The business world flows like a river all the time. A business remains agile when leaders are responsible for monitoring key KPIs and engaging staff to review them and suggest new paths to success. The KPIs must go beyond the traditional snapshots of sales, revenue, performance and retention. They should focus on trends inside and outside the company. For example, look at how other companies are using generative AI. – Jerry Kan, Brilliant aging
10. Ask for feedback
Measure, collect input and then refine. You can’t make decisions based on anecdotal evidence alone, so be sure to measure these processes. Combine the results with input from teams that should be agile, then ask them how they plan to implement change. Letting these teams take ownership of the changes that will directly affect them is a great way to keep them comfortable. – Ty Allen, SocialClimb
11. Nurture intrinsic motivation
It all comes down to motivation. I believe no amount of meetings and training can “refresh” a team that feels tired, undervalued or just plain unmotivated. If the work culture nurtures and encourages open communication and if working relationships are based on trust and understanding, that team spirit will foster agility and adaptability, minimizing the risks of quitting quietly. – Sal Pazhor, Naztec International Group LLC
12. Provide opportunities for personal and professional development
Regular training, mentoring and coaching sessions across a wide range of disciplines can aid in the personal and professional development of each team member. The team’s agility and adaptability are enhanced by ensuring staff members have continuous access to a pool of learning resources and fostering a work culture that thrives on collaboration. – Ryan Godinho, Specialty Batch Coffee & Stamping Grounds
13. Embrace mistakes, risks and change
Leaders must ensure their teams remain agile and flexible by learning from mistakes, taking risks and embracing change. As the aphorism goes, “It’s not enough to be flexible – you have to be willing to bend.” This also applies to companies: only by embracing change can teams remain truly agile and resilient in uncertain times. – Ashley Saye, Daily Rays Inc.
