Modern Day Leaders – you HAVE to stay relevant!

I work with a lot of Modern Day Leaders! From all different sectors and at all different levels. But lets focus here on the leaders at the top.

I hear many say it just ain’t like it used to be Caryn. People dont do business the way they used to anymore.

Take Harry. A founder of a large tile company who made a small fortune over the last forty years. He started by tiling a woman’s kitchen in regional Australia in 1940. He discovered he had a flair for it and kept going… and built up an empire.

About five years ago, his business was flagging. Things weren’t happening like they used to. Profits were down. He brought me in to help. I told him, in a long discussion, that he had to remain relevant to today. I advised him to upskill his staff, revisit his Vision and Strategic Plan, and gallop into the 21st century. (His staff were still paid manually and all his books were done on a paper based ledger.) Not smart and certainly not relevant.

He took my advice and slowly, we turned his company around. He did gallop into this century, he did take the advice I gave him about systems and processes and procedures and his people, and he has just retired – $17 million dollars richer!

But I do agree with Harry. The world has changed. A lot. Even in the last decade (or less) it seems that the world is a very faced paced planet on which to be. No arguments from me.

But changed or fast paced or whatever, leaders today must remain relevant. Relevant to theircustomers, relevant to their industry and relevant to the organisations objectives. Forget living in the past and hanging on to how things were done.

Get in the driving seat and make new rules, new impact, new relevance. Or your business will die.