Does Hard Work Always Pay Off?

I think that it does.

You may not realize it every moment of the day, but hard work and strong efforts toward success do lead to rewards and benefits. During this difficult economic time, hard work is as important as ever.

Even if your hard work does not immediately reap rewards, all honest hard work does lead to such rewards. If you keep on keeping on even when it gets really tough, you will be ahead of your peers and your competitors.

It is easy to push back because of the times, but don't. It is easy to feel that you should not give the same 100% effort because you may be let go any way. But don't. Many great motivators have given you this advice. Never, never, never give up.

It is also always important to work smart. At any given time during your work day, always strive to do the highest value task possible. Always use your work time as if it is precious because it is. Time at work is one of your greatest resources available for you to make a living and to be successful. Use it very wisely.

Keep on going, things will improve. When they do, you will have an advantage.

When Will a Recovery Start and What Do We Do in the Meantime?

I have had the opportunity to discuss the current state of the economy with marketing and management people at many industrial companies this year. At the NAHAD Annual Meeting, I particularly had a chance to discuss business first hand with dozens of such experts.

I also had the opportunity to attend an hour-long presentation by Jim Meil, Director of Research at Eaton Corporation on the state of the economy and the forecast for the near future. His presentation certainly gave room for optimism. As I heard it, there are several green shoots that may indicate the Springtime of a recovery. Let's hope so.

Anyway, what do we do in the meantime? What most industry marketers are telling me is that we need to focus on what we do best, making and selling products. We must listen to our customers and provided what they need. We need to examine where we can provide better products and services that our competitors do and thus gain new customers. Continued hard work and attending to customers needs are critical now and always.

With this approach, when a recovery really happens, our companies will not only be poised for growth and gain, we will be positioned for increased sales and market share because of the new-found customers. One individual pointed out to me that our recovery will not only be based on what we do during the downturn but what we did leading into it.

This is a time for opportunity because if we are at the bottom of a cycle and soon to be turning upward, this is a time to position for growth. Yes it may be the worst of times in decades, but business must take a hard look at what they do best, keep doing it, and listen to what their customers want.

Let's get going.

Innovation and Change

Smart leadership and smart management both include a keen awareness of innovation and change. Things change and business changes, both for the manufacturer/service provider and for the customer/consumer. The smart part of this equation is the very careful examination and evaluation of what change is needed and how much.

Research plays a major role in this evaluation. A company needs to know when its customers are needing and demanding new and better products or new and more efficient processes. Smart companies get ahead of that need and demand through careful and thorough customer research to know what modifications and innovations are needed to provide solutions to their customers. We can never assume that it will always be business as usual and that we just need to be concerned about selling more of what we offer.

Great companies constantly search for new solutions in the form of better products. Those great companies also search for business partners who can provide the cooperation needed to get better products and services to market faster, more efficiently, and in the best possible service to their customers.

Change is inevitable. Smart change is the formula for great success!

Core Competencies

Both individuals and organizations have core competencies that lead to competitive advantages. It is often tempting to venture beyond those qualities when we have not built upon and strengthen the core.

In the book The Game Changer, author A.G. Lafley states that it is not sufficient to just identify a business's core strengths but rather they must be worked at and enhanced constantly. With this practice, those strengths become competitive advantages.

In his excellent book, Good to Great, author Jim Collins tells us that in building a business we must protect our core and stimulate progress. Growth is great but we must be very careful not to abandon our core strength and our core competency.

The same rule applies to individuals. Once we understand our own personal strength, we need to constantly nurture and work on it so that we have our own personal competitive strategy. For some that strength might be intellect, for others it might be the willingness to work hard. Still for others, it might be compassion and understanding.

In both cases, companies and individuals, it is critical to understand and constantly work at our core competency and then look for and stimulate progress. If you are seeking to understand your own strengths, I recommend the series of works by Marcus Buckingham titled "First Break All the Rules" and "Now Discover Your Strengths." In this series, the authors help the readers to get a grasp on their own strengths so that they can take advantave of them and use them for progress.

Core competencies exist for everyone. The challenge is to work on them.

Leaders must lead innovation

No matter what business you are in, if you are a leader, you must be open to and a leader of innovation. That does not mean that leaders must be always seeking to change things for change sake.

What it does mean is that leaders of any enterprise or organization can become too comfortable with the status quo and not be open to change for the better. Any process, any product, or any business should always be asking themself, are we serving the customer to the best of our ability? Is there more that we can do?

It is critical to any business to give the customer what they need and want, not just what is easiest to provide or produce just because we are good at it. Through steady and regular customer evaluation, leaders can stay in touch with the need of their customers and actually initiate and lead the innovations that will make their enterprise or organization better.

As is presented in The Game Changer, innovation is a process that involves many levels of the company. Key individuals are always on the lookout for innovation. Teams need to be in place to process and evaluate innovation so that the right changes can be made and the right products can be launched.

Leaders must lead innovation, it is in their job description.