Find out why taking risks, seeking feedback and staying productive with cleaning management software can help you make the best decisions for your business.
Would you agree if somebody told you that guitar bands were going out of style?
That is what Decca Records told four young musicians at the start of their career. The Beatles went on to be arguably the most successful music group of all time.
If someone offered to advertise your product in an upcoming movie, would you accept?
Well, M&M’s decided not to for a 1982 science fiction movie. Reese’s Pieces took the opportunity and had an explosion in sales. That science fiction movie, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, went on to win several Academy Awards.
If you had come up with the first digital camera over 40 years ago, would you choose to sell it?
Kodak didn’t, fearing they could lose their top spot in the camera business. They later filed for bankruptcy.
There is an endless history of bad business decisions. Fortunately, you will not have to decide on selling a digital camera or signing the next big band. But the same principles for decision making applies.
Every day you are faced with choices that could make a positive or negative impact on your cleaning business. Knowing how to make informed decisions for your business is critical.
Don’t Always Play It Safe
Here is great advice from Bill Taylor of Harvard Business Review:
“The first job of leadership is to identify and overcome the costs of complacency. To persuade colleagues . . . that there are genuine risks for the failure to take risks—that the only thing they have to fear, is the fear of change itself.”
It’s carefree to go down the road you’ve always traveled. It’s much easier to swim downstream than against the current. But this could prevent your company from reaching the heights you want it to achieve.
An empire never conquered by staying within its own fortress walls.
Of course, take calculated risks. Don’t be reckless and just let down your guard. Be informed on what already works well, what could be changed and then experiment and adjust accordingly.
Seek Feedback
Have you ever been part of a team and a decision was made without you when you should have been involved in the process?
If you have, then you know how it feels.
If you bypass feedback from employees, especially those who would be affected by a certain decision, you are cutting yourself off from helpful resources.
“Everyone perceives a situation differently, and your interpretation can be wrong,” said Christine M. Riordan, the dean of management at the Daniels College of Business.
“Seek out a diversity of perspectives, find opinions different from your own, collect additional information, and use that information systematically.”
As you seek appropriate insight, you might discover a more effective direction to go. You might even become aware of an unforeseen problem that could arise should the decision be put into action.
Be Wise with Time
Sometimes you will have a few days, weeks or months to make a choice. Make sure to do the following in order to keep procrastination or forgetfulness at bay:
- Write out a plan for information you need to gather and set a deadline for when that needs to be done.
- Use cleaning management software or your phone to send you reminders about upcoming deadlines.
But there are also moments when things drop right into your lap and a decision needs to be made quickly. Uncertainty, anxiety and panic can sometimes get in the way. To combat this, try the following tips from Lifehack:
- Set a timer for 1–5 minutes to assess the pros and cons and then decide.
- If several options seem equally good, put all of them into a hat and draw one out.
- Don’t try to see every step and every outcome in the process. Simply choose what would make the next step easiest.
Learn from Mistakes
There are two things you can do with mistakes. You can learn from what you’ve done wrong and you can learn from what others have done wrong.
At some point in time, even though you try to take calculated risks, ask for feedback, and are effective with time, you will make a mistake. It’s an unfortunate guarantee. You can choose to let those mistakes deflate your confidence or you can allow them to empower you to make better decisions in the future.
You can prevent mistakes by talking to people who have been in the cleaning industry longer than yourself. Find out what they should have done differently and apply that knowledge to your business.