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Leadership Lesson

Want to become better at your job? Follow these 3 things. [A beginner’s guide]

I addressed a group of young people in their early twenties and in their first jobs, on building their careers.

During the conversations, when asked about how they were contributing to the company’s success, most said they were not aware of the management team’s plans, and that I should ask their super bosses.

The same week, I met a few more mid-level managers who had decent experience and were reasonably good in their functions and jobs. I curiously asked them again how they were contributing to the company’s success. Again, the answer was almost similar to what the rookies in the first jobs said.

In both cases, this is what I shared with them, and I thought it would be worthwhile to share in this post –

All businesses need three things.

  1. Revenue maximization
  2. Profit maximization
  3. Operational excellence

Everything and anything that you do as a business or in your job will fall under one of these things. All functions – sales, marketing, finance, technology, operations, customer support, or human resources – focus on one more of the above three. That is the purpose of their existence.

So, if you are the CEO, a rookie, or a mid-level manager, when you wake up every morning, you can ask yourself these questions (or similar) and work towards them during the day.

The questions you may ask each morning?

  1. What are my revenue sources?
  2. How can I increase my sales?
  3. How can I add more customers/ partners ?
  4. How can I go into new markets?
  5. How can I increase my profits?
  6. How can I reduce the costs of my operations?
  7. How can I do more with less?
  8. How can I build efficiency when to all the things that I do?
  9. How can I build effectiveness into all the things that I do? Can I do something better or find a new way to begin things that can help me become faster, cheaper, or better.

Revenue maximization

  • How can I get closer to my customer/ partner?
  • How can I address my partners/ customer’s unsolved problem?
  • How can I get more share out of the customer’s wallet?
  • How can I increase the sales?
  • How can I get into new markets?
  • How can I get new customers’ questions?

Profit maximization

  • What can I do to cut costs?
  • What can I do to increase profits?
  • What can I do to play better with the pricing?
  • How much should I increase the product’s price to bring in 25% more in absolute profits?
  • How much will a decrease of 5% in the selling price affect my profits in absolute terms?

Operational excellence

  • How can I build efficiency and effectiveness in the system?
  • How can I hire better people?
  • How can I write a more efficient code?
  • What technology or framework should I deploy to give better response time to my users?
  • How can I motivate people so that they deliver their best every day?
  • What can I do play build a culture of continuous improvement in the organization?
  • What can I do to improvise on a current way of doing things so that I can increase more sales or get into new markets?