Boost Business Growth: How To Make Challenges Work For You [Video]

Are challenges an opportunity for growth or obstruction to growth?

How you tackle business challenges has a huge influence on whether your business is prone to struggle, stagnate or succeed. Because tough business challenges tend to spring up unexpectedly it can throw you off balance, and stifle or even derail progress and growth.

Unlike disasters we can still influence the outcome of a challenge

Unlike a business disaster (like losing your biggest client to a competitor, with no chance of recovery), when facing a business challenge, it’s often not too late to influence the outcome. You can still do something to avert disaster and even turn it into an opportunity (e.g. resolve customer concerns and re-secure the contract, or maybe even extend the contract as a result).

But whether you see the challenge as an opportunity or an obstruction all depends on your chosen approach to, and attitude towards the business challenge you face. Which in turn affects the decisions you make, actions you take and outcomes you achieve!

Business challenges CAN drive progress when you MAKE them work for you

When you see challenges for what they really are i.e. opportunities to inspire innovation, gain an edge and drive growth, and you adopt a resourceful approach to overcoming them, you can move through them quicker and even turn them into opportunities that drive growth!

The success principle behind this is: when we look for opportunities, we tend to find them. Conversely, leaders who obsess over the problem, tend to only see the problem and may even miss the opportunity sitting just outside their field of vision.

If you choose to treat challenges as an opportunity rather than an obstruction you fundamentally change the course of your business, placing you on the path to growth and greater success.

This is a skill any leader can learn.

The 4-Power Steps to transforming challenges into opportunities

What would it mean for your business if you could not only overcome challenges quicker, but turn them into opportunities that improve business results and drive growth?

Our 4-Power Steps process to transforming challenges into opportunities will help you do just that, as it’s helped business leaders overcome countless challenges over the years and enabled them to turn what seemed like an inevitable business disaster into an opportunity with ongoing returns.

The 4-Power Steps are:

1. Read the SIGNS
2. Put things into PERSPECTIVE
3. Take CORRECTIVE ACTION
4. Extract the LEARNING

A few years back, an entrepreneur was pushing hard to expand his international market footprint. But the challenges he faced were huge setup costs in each territory and available capital depleting fast. By following the 4 Power Steps not only did he avert disaster, he turned his business around completely. One year later, his business was thriving.

Let’s take a deeper dive into each Power Step.

1. Read the SIGNS

Business challenges are merely sign posts or warnings that if we stay on our current course we may not achieve our desired objectives, are likely to experience more challenges, or even face disaster at some point.

So, we need to look out for the signs, which may be trying to tell us:

* Stop, something’s wrong with your plan/strategy – Review your plan.
* Red Alert, this path won’t lead to your chosen destination – Change course.
* Caution, you’ve made a judgement error – Check your assumptions.

Think of a tough challenge you’ve experienced in the past that didn’t end well. When the challenge first arose, was there a sign post you potentially missed or ignored, that if you had seen and acted on, would’ve changed your decisions and actions, and ultimately the outcome?

In our example, the signs for this business leader were the escalating setup costs and depleting capital which would’ve become a disaster if it had not been curbed.

When we see warning signs that things aren’t going as planned, acknowledging these signs (no matter how difficult it may be) is the first step to rescuing the situation and is your window of opportunity, to turn it into an opportunity.

2. Put things into PERSPECTIVE

Because challenges tend to be unexpected, the downside and looming disaster can throw things out of context. In this situation, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and to overreact.

In our example, this entrepreneur put things into perspective by being grateful that he did see the signs before it was too late. Had he not read the signs, he could’ve put his entire business at risk and lost everything he’d worked for over the last 10 years. All was not lost, in fact the signs were a blessing in disguise.

When challenges hits:

• Take a few minutes to see the challenge for what it is.
• Find a neutral space (i.e. it often helps to remove yourself physically from the situation) to assess the situation in a composed and resourceful state of mind.
• Talk with people you can trust to get a different perspective on it.
• Take a bird’s eye view on it to see how it may be an opportunity rather than an obstruction.

In every challenge, there is always something you do have control over, look for this silver lining and it will bring some relief.

3. Take CORRECTIVE ACTION

The entrepreneur in our example took CORRECTIVE ACTION immediately. To avoid financial collapse, we helped him formulate a new strategy. He cut his losses and moved on with urgency but this time armed with a killer strategy.

As soon as you’ve put things into perspective, you’ll want to take corrective action immediately. When challenge hits, what often saves the day is speed of execution.

The team that acts with urgency to find a solution, change the plan, cut losses or change course is more likely to turn the challenge into an opportunity than the team who is derailed by the situation.

Taking corrective action immediately ignites energy and brings some welcome relief that the situation is under control. And puts you back in control of the situation.

4. Extract the LEARNING

One of the greatest treasures that comes from experiencing challenges is extracting the learning and is often the reason for some of the toughest challenges giving rise to the greatest successes.

Successful leaders understand that you cannot solve a problem at the same level of thinking in which it was created. They tend to use challenges as opportunities to adopt new thinking strategies and find new ways of doing things to leapfrog the company to an even stronger position.

Coming back to our example, just some of the learning for this entrepreneur was to do more thorough research and projections and to create a stream of annuity income that would not only create consistent income but float the business while new strategies are being tested. And the changes he made to earn annuity income set his business up for massive success.

Change the course of your business, decide today to make your challenges work for you

These 4 Power Steps can spark radical results for you with spin off effects on many levels.

There’s a very wise saying by Max Planck (considered to be the father of Quantum theory) that goes:
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

So go for it, choose to see challenges as opportunities and use these 4 Power Steps to make your challenges work for you.

To Your Wilde Success

Carmen Wilde
Business Coach & Breakthrough Specialist

P.S. If you’re caught up in a web of challenge and ready to turn the tide, apply for a FREE exploration call here to see how we can support you in creating your greatest wave of success to date.