How can entrepreneurs take advantage of constant change? What do you need to do to create breakthrough products and services today? How can smaller organizations outmaneuver their larger competitors? These are three of the questions entrepreneurs want to know when building their successful business. I have good news for you. My friend Taffy Williams has been considering these critical questions and I believe has come up with solutions that can help you build a successful business.
I just got my Kindle copy of Think Agile – How Smart Entrepreneurs Adapt in Order to Succeed by Taffy Williams. I promised you I’d share a great resource on how to develop a more agile mindset. This book is a great way to start. I had an opportunity to talk with Taffy while he was writing this book. The more I heard from him, the more I realized that most entrepreneurs would need and enjoy this book. I love books that challenge the way my clients think about how they do business. One of my primary roles as a CEO advisor is helping my clients grow in unique and profitable ways.
Entrepreneurs and CEOs are facing many obstacles in our constantly evolving markets. Successful leaders need to increase their agility if they hope to remain market leaders. Taffy shares several key concepts that help you better understand why agility is critical as we grow our organizations. I’ll share several ideas from Taffy’s book today and then tomorrow I’ll show you how this resource helps you be more agile in how you approach your life and business.
Taffy Williams makes the case that there are many things changing in our current economy. He believes ongoing market changes require a shift in how you think and do business. His book breaks it down so you can see if you agree with him on why becoming a more agile leader is critical to your success. He shows you the benefits of agile thinking and implementing.
I was challenged to not just share with you the different topics the book covers to give you a better understanding how complete this resource is. Instead I chose to share two ideas that get you on your way to becoming a more agile thinker and doer. You may have noticed this book is about developing an agile mindset, but without implementation, great ideas don’t change how you do business.
My favorite idea from the book is that only you can create a more agile leader. He not only shares the benefits of more agile thinking mindset, but what might be keeping you from being a stronger leader. He shares an unconscious bias towards doing things the same way. When you think about it, most people hate change. Since over 90% of us don’t like change, it makes sense that we might find ways that make us feel like we are changing even when we’re not. To get people to change you must identify what’s holding you in your current position. As people succeed, more the more rigid they become.
Taffy made another key point that is we are working in organizations that do not celebrate failure. Successful entrepreneurs define themselves as good at taking risks. It’s true when we start, but over time our ability decreases as we become more successful. We begin to believe we have something to lose. With this in mind, we become more risk averse. Taffy breaks down several reasons why entrepreneurs fear failure and then provides you with ideas on how to overcome your reluctance.
If you’re an entrepreneur who feels stuck in their current situation you will find several questions that he shares in Chapter 3 as critical material to help you get unstuck. You can find them in the section titled Assessing Your Fear of Failure.
The other section of the book I really found helpful when thinking about agility is Chapter 5 Exercising Funding and Financial Options. The number one challenge in a high growth organization s is their ability to develop a more creative, agile funding strategy. Tomorrow at Developing Serving Leaders, I share several of Taffy’s agile financial and funding strategies that give you an edge in your market.
If you want to pick up a book or get a sample chapter along with additional interviews and resources, you can find them at http://www.thinkagilebook.com/
See you tomorrow.
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