How to Diagnose Your Business Like an Illness

Have you ever had a doctor tell you to treat your illness, not your symptoms? There are many reasons you should learn how to diagnose your business like an illness. Below, we will show you how to do just that.

1. How to Begin to Diagnose Your Business Like an Illness

Many of the clients here at KM Consulting began laying the groundwork for their diagnosis by constantly asking the same question:

“You seem like you know what you are doing, and what can you do for me and my business?”

Our response may surprise you. “We don’t exactly know ” is usually our typical response. We would be somewhat pretentious to suggest we have your perfect solution or solutions without a grasp of the situation’s entirety. And that’s the point. Your business will never be better if the illness goes untreated. Too often, we see just the symptoms get treated. And ultimately, you will need a diagnosis.

A typical follow-up response from us is likely to be: “Would you share your strategic plan with us?” We develop our consulting services on an individual basis to help each business reach its potential. However, it involves the same planning determination as scaling a company. How can you get where you want to go if you have not identified where you want to go? How can you get there without a proper roadmap? Everyone wants to improve their bottom line, but few know where to focus. Finally, far too often, the plan resides in the same place as its mission statement: the owner’s head. The lack of structure and formality is why it is essential to work with an experienced third party who gets to know you before developing a strategy.

2. Talent Benchmarking

No matter what your business does, it would be best to get to the top if you had top talent. You currently have a staff full of employees from administrative to leadership. However, they probably all fall into three categories:

1. Top performing superstars.
2. Those who ride in the middle. They make mistakes, and there is room for improvement.
3. Workers who are on the bubble and clinging to their jobs. They can be more of a headache than they are worth, and you have spent tons of time trying to improve them.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know beforehand which tier your new employee falls into before you offer them a job? Talent benchmarking can help you do just that. In fact, the disease inflicting your business is maybe too many employees fall into the bottom or even middle tier of the above. Benchmarking is the process of comparing your talent against those of your competitors. The advanced tools collect internal and external data to analyze to give you a view of how you compete in terms of salary, talent retention, and many other related factors.

However, as the business world evolves, so do the talent benchmarking tools. As a result, we recommend seeking the help of a professional.

3. Aiming for Topgrading

Wouldn’t it be nice if all your employees, workers, contractors, etc., fit into the top tier of talent benchmarking? That is what Topgrading® is all about. In fact, when collecting your talent benchmarking data, you may see that your competitors have already thought of this strategy, and you should as well. Yes, it will cost you more in salary, bonuses, and other benefits. It will be worth it in both the short and long run.

“Topgrading is instrumental in understanding not only the accomplishments of the interviewee but also their style, attitude, and commitment to work and life. You get to know what they did in almost every aspect of their working/professional life from high school to their current position. It reveals the HOW behind what they’ve done and do.” – Zachary W., Commercial Account Manager

Don’t believe us? Check out this leading report on topgrading.

4. Work With a Maxwell Trained Coach

Don’t just focus on your workers. You may also be inflicted with an illness keeping your business from becoming its best. Many business owners are, which is why we recommend implementing the best in leadership training: the strategy developed by John Maxwell. The program is proven to aid in business growth via advanced leadership training. The Maxwell process goes beyond the traditional business coaching relationship, offering an advanced set of additional tools owners and managers can take in and develop at their own pace.

In Conclusion

We’ll expand upon Topgrading and Maxwell Training over our upcoming articles. We’ll share a few case studies, and help you evaluate if they might be a fit for you and your business.

Remember, there are immense opportunities in diagnosing your business like an illness, no matter the level of health. By utilizing these practices, you will be that much closer to using your full potential.

And if you need help on how to diagnose your business like an illness, feel free to contact us directly or make a comment below. We will give you an expert, honest answer.

Building a highly productive team is difficult. Fortunately, KM Consulting can provide tools and expertise to help privately held companies. Here is the first step.