The upheavals of recent years have transformed all businesses, forcing them to definitively break free from the shackles of their habits. Managers had to find new ideas and ask employees to make teleworking and hybrid work sustainable. But this agility, even when it is necessary, cannot be improvised, and some managers still encounter many difficulties in consolidating it.
Agility is naturally opposed to rigidity, and entrepreneurs sometimes tend to choose rigidity to secure themselves. However, this rigidity in a constantly changing world leads the company to move towards walls that it will not be able to get around in the event of difficulties. Agility places the customer and employees at the center, true sources of innovation, sobriety and growth. How to transform your business into an agile company?
So how do you become agile as a leader and make your business work that way?
First, you must adopt the 2 key principles which are based on constant questioning: abandon prejudices and preconceived ideas and stop looking at the past as a reference for developing your business.
Changing the corporate culture and one’s own conception is not easy to implement because it requires breaking away from the shackles of habits, involves letting go and building a new direction for the manager. Furthermore, “trust” and “constant questioning” must underpin all actions and become the two pillars of success in the face of a world that is constantly changing.
So what to do? 10 attitudes to adopt
1. Place people at the heart of the strategy
Develop your ability to put people at the center and draw inspiration from the talents and potential of employees to build a resilient and committed organization.
2. Offer a personalized and innovative customer experience
Satisfy your customer by meeting their expectations precisely. The customer is king, everyone repeats it, but often with a touch of exasperation. The quality of the product and service remains a major challenge: we must offer the customer tailor-made, innovative and responsible journeys.
3. Adapt in time (just timing) to changes in the environment
Adapt in time to changes in your environment, while controlling uncertainty. Teams must be able to quickly adjust to customer and market requirements. The latter is evolving more and more quickly under the impetus of artificial intelligence, new technologies and the challenges of ecological transition. The role of the leader and managers is to help teams adopt this culture of adaptation, rather than locking them into rigid processes that lead the company to its downfall.
4. Break down hierarchical silos and encourage sharing
Adapt to challenge the competition and no longer place rigid hierarchical systems at the center of action, because they slow down the transmission of information and cut off managers from the reality on the ground. This is the condition sine qua non competitiveness. Sharing must be at the heart of the organization: everyone, whatever their position, shares information. This involves using new digital and collaborative tools wisely, so that everyone’s skills can provide rapid solutions to the problems encountered.
5. Establish transparent communication and active listening
To involve employees, it is necessary to listen to them, to know them and above all to trust them. Employee commitment is increased when they feel involved in decisions and agents of change. However, we must remain vigilant by ensuring that individual initiatives remain in line with the overall strategy, by constantly analyzing skills needs and quickly removing blocking points.
6. Make procedures more flexible and simple
Simplify procedures and stop taking written rules as an absolute reference or giving them too much importance. Employees must have the freedom to adjust their tasks according to real situations on the ground, without taking initiatives that would go against the company’s objectives.
7. Empower and develop team autonomy
Develop the autonomy and sense of responsibility of employees so that they become more involved in their daily missions and actively contribute to collective success.
8. Favor common sense and operational pragmatism
Demonstrate common sense and pragmatism on a daily basis to detect future difficulties in advance, but also and above all to quickly seize new market opportunities.
9. Eliminate bureaucracy and unnecessary tasks
Simplify the operation of the organization by eliminating all time-consuming and unnecessary tasks, bypassing administrative blockages and removing unnecessary organizational steps.
10. Make continuing education a strategic priority
Train your employees and make it a priority action lever. The company must know how to constantly develop and enhance the skills and potential of each individual. For this, it needs talents who never stand still. The agile company continuously trains its teams so that each employee understands the strategic issues and becomes a driver of initiatives, innovation and growth.
The agile company needs to continuously train its teams so that each employee understands all the issues, and is responsible for initiatives, innovation and growth development.
