The times, they are a-changin’- and we’ve got to keep up with them! Friday’s Work Different Webinar with Mr. Mark Chatterton showed us just how!
Without much ado, Mr. Chatterton got right into the heart of the matter- namely, how easy it was for businesses and companies to stagnate. Willingness and being ready to adapt to the changing tides of business are two key components in surviving the world of business- both as an individual and as a corporate entity.
Mr. Chatterton’s talk was broken down into the following categories:
8 Biggest Challenges faced by Businesses Today:
Among the challenges listed were:
- Uncertainty About The Future
- Financial Management
- Monitoring Performance
- Regulation and Compliance
- Competencies and Recruiting The Right Talent
- Technology
- Exploding Data
- Customer Service
But all of these, he noted, paled in comparison to the biggest challenge of all, and the main focus of his session- Challenge number 9. Communication and Leadership.
Communication and Leadership
Mr. Chatterton emphasised just how important proper communication and leadership were in a business, remarking that the best companies and organisations focus on their internal customers (I.e. staff) and not their external customers (the ones paying the bills), before moving on to explain the logic behind this.
A quote by Sir Richard Branson highlighted how much a business was about give and take- in giving proper care and guidance to one’s employees, businesses would be assured of employees themselves taking steps to ensure that the needs of their clients were met; a simple, yet effective cycle. This, he said, was where communication was important- and also where problems come in.
Becoming an Effective Communicator
How then does one become a great communicator? While communication is an art that takes a lifetime to learn, Mr. Chatterton remarked that the advent of communication devices such as phones and social media were a hindrance rather than a help. His main recommendation in improving communication skills was Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends And Influence People ( also recommended multiple readings if the knowledge didn’t stick) especially as one progressed in one’s career. Using a snippet from the book,we got a fast-track look on how to build proper workplace relationships in six simple steps
Finding your tribe
The main emphasis of Mr. Chatterton’s session was finding a sense of congruence or peace with one’s self, which, he noted, made it easier to work together with others. This, he said, could be done by identifying one’s key values, and to do one’s best to ensure that you worked at a job which you loved. This, and the ability to find one’s tribe (I.e. group of people one worked best with/ your team within a company) and work to ensure that you are collectively developing and improving (per stage five of tribal culture) would be what could make or break a business today.
