The Vistage report for CEO predictions in 2022 reveals some critical areas that any business owner, podcast, coach, consultant, or service provider needs to know to go forward and build their business and a strategy to grow authority and scale impact. By understanding the business trends in the Vistage projections, it becomes evident that the future of business is based on strategy and the ability to establish yourself as the authority in your industry.
Know Areas Of Most Concern
One of the most pressing concerns for CEOs in our current work climate is rising labor costs. Most businesses have experienced a 30 to 35% in paying labor over the past two years, which is not a shock, but it is a substantial change. This, paired with a supply chain shortage, has 90% of CEOs worried about the increased costs their businesses have incurred.
CEOs are also concerned about hiring, recruiting, and sourcing employees, which leads to performance management in HR. They are aware they must change practices to attract and retain their talent and increase employee engagement to maintain their workforce, which is a massive shift. Lastly, the report indicated that CEOs are focused on market development, strategic planning, and growth. Every area on the list looks considerably different now than it did three years ago.
Manage Lasting Change
If you speak with service providers, coaches, consultants, and people in the service industry, they all indicate that their business has significantly changed in the past two years. In the beginning, everyone was hopeful that everything would snap back to normal, but it went on too long for that to be an option. It takes 30 to 90 days to change a habit, so when you stop and realize how long this change and disruption has lasted, you realize that it’s crossed multiple habit-changing timeframes, which means people have permanently changed their way of doing business. With this in mind, you can’t simply sit back and wait for it to go back to the way it used to be; that ship has sailed, and we are left with a new work environment.
Adjust Mission and Vision
When you understand that everything has shifted, that means that businesses must reevaluate their mission and vision to ensure they are relevant to the new market conditions. Without this adjustment, you will continue to work toward goals that may not even be relevant to what you can actually accomplish. You must be much more deliberate about what you do and the strategies you implement to reach your goals. This is a hard pivot – a hard shift for many leaders, but these adjustments are required.
Know Your Location – Plan Your Destination
You must know precisely where you are to be able to navigate these profound changes. I recommend an uncovery or discovery strategy, anything that will allow you to assess what is going on in your business accurately. If you are the owner, you are quite likely too attached to the outcome to evaluate your current situation accurately.
It is essential to know where you currently are and where you want to be in the future to begin the mapping process. To do this, it is necessary to take the plane to 30,000 feet and take a look at the terrain. This is not a time to look for details; the only goal is to determine where you are and where you want to land. Once this is determined, it is like making a flight plan from airport to airport to reach your destination. Without this vantage point and taking the time to plan the route, most people will do lots of backtracking and waste valuable time and energy getting where they want to be.
Work Your Strategy
Once you know where you are, where you want to be, and the steps to get there, you work your strategy. You build the system to consistently execute, which will build and grow your authority. To continue increasing your authority, you must have a system in place that consistently produces checks and balances, performance indicators, and clearly defined measures that initiate if you are on the right track. Strategy is critical for any business to establish authority in this changing environment.
If you want to establish yourself as the authority in your industry, you must be different, have your own unique language, and be crystal clear about what you are doing and the problems you’re solving. If you want people to buy from you – or work for you – strategy and willingness to adapt will be paramount to your success.
At the Growth Architect, my goal is to help you develop a business strategy that will give you the map you need for success. If you want to learn more about the Vistage CEO Prediction report, then watch my video, and contact me when you are ready to create your growth strategy!
Let’s grow!
Beate
Beate Chelette is The Growth Architect & Founder of The Women’s Code, a training company specialized in providing companies an ROI on Balanced Leadership. She has been named one of 50 must-follow women entrepreneurs by the Huffington Post. A first-generation immigrant who found herself $135,000 in debt as a single parent, she bootstrapped her passion for photography into a highly successful global business and eventually sold it to Bill Gates in a multimillion-dollar deal.
Beate works with business leaders and supports organizations by developing and providing training the training, tools, and expertise to create and maintain a balanced, equal, and inclusive work environment that fosters creativity, employee engagement, and corporate growth.
Recent clients include Merck, Women’s Legislative Caucus of California, Cal State University Dominguez Hills, Small Business Development Centers (SBDC), NFTE, CreativeLive, the Association of Corporate Growth, and TracyLocke.
Beate is the author of the #1 International Amazon Bestseller “Happy Woman Happy World – How to Go From Overwhelmed to Awesome” a book that corporate trainer and best-selling author Brian Tracy calls “a handbook for every woman who wants health, success and a fulfilling career.
To book Beate to speak or train please connect here. Your Time Is Valuable!