Corporate Excellence or Mediocracy – The 6 Visible Signs of Success or Failure

Business Owners, Managers, Entrepreneurs and ordinary people very often ask me what are the main reasons of their failure or even limited success.

I could write a book in an effort to elaborate on the subject. However and based on my 10 years of Corporate Experience as a Manager and  19  years of Business Consulting experience working with Organizations of any size, small, family businesses, multinational Organizations in almost all business sectors, I have developed a tool that any Manager with average skills can apply to spot quickly the potential for either Excellence or Mediocracy.

The tool is based on 6 indicators mainly related to human mindset and therefore behaviour:

1. Negative / Positive Attitude

When a lot of people at a workplace or even just a few key people such as Managers start their discussion of anything with: “ Can not..,”, “ Yes, but….”, “ Don’t ..”, “ We have tried it in the past and failed…”, “ I am afraid there is nothing to be done…”, “ No”, then you know there is a problem and an opportunity!

So much negative energy emitted can not be absorbed at any workplace. When people mostly think of problems, barriers, failure rather than opportunities, solutions and success, surely there is a problem and an opportunity!

2. Communication

When people resist to formal communication such as meetings claiming there is no time, surely there is a problem and an opportunity!

Formal communication is essential simply because it makes important things formal and therefore seriously considered. Certainly, meetings need to be properly planned, structured, executed and followed up in order to add value.

3. Personal Development

When people do not believe and therefore do not pursue their personal development/continuous training, surely there is a problem and an Opportunity!

A lot of Organizations do not invest in skills development but they are on the other hand willing to pay for the inefficiency, mistakes, wasted resources by their incompetent people. Tragically enough they do so justifying so much inefficiency in the name of low salaries.

4. Organization

When there is no formal and unanimously accepted organizational structure even at the smallest workplace and therefore when people do not know their position, title, responsibilities and authority, surely there is a problem and an opportunity!

Organization sets up the ground for responsibility and accountability framework which is the cornerstone for effectiveness.

5. Writing

When people resist on writing things down on ‘ paper ‘ whether that is a goal, a plan, a note, time sheet, production figures, a budget, a mission, our values , etc, etc , surely there is a problem and an opportunity!

People, even top Managers claim that they have it all figured out in their head. As the late Zig Ziglar put it: If I ask you how much is 3 times 3 is, the answer is easy and can come out of your head. But if I ask you how much 2.746 times 3.789 is , then unless you put it on paper, you will most likely not be able to figure it out.

Putting things down allow us to work on them, look at them from a different perspective, figure things out and most importantly share them with others.

6. Happiness

If looking at the faces of people and talking with them for a few minutes about their dream, goals, wants , needs, and  you can not  sense happiness, enthusiasm,  loyalty, passion about their work, their colleagues, the business, surely there is a problem and an opportunity as always! It just takes a few structured questions to people in order to get the picture and their happiness factor.

Surely you don’t need to be an expert to go through and assess your current level with regards to the above indicators of either success or failure and in any case diagnose opportunity.

Depending on the diagnosis, the opportunity is there. You can grasp it with Positive Attitude, Communicate and share it effectively with others, Develop those who need to understand, Organize your business like a start up, Write it all down on ‘paper’ and work your way and that of others to Happiness out of any misery you may think you are into and rest assure, other Opportunities will shine in front of your eyes crystal clear.

Yiannakis Mouzouris

Head of Consulting and Training

Conicon Ltd