Last month, I wrote about how much we can learn from our successes. I wrote about evidence showing we can create major change within our organizations by identifying the "bright spots" in a situation, and how we can leverage them in our future benefits communication and education efforts.
After I wrote that blog, I realized we have our own example at Financial Finesse of how finding our bright spot transformed the company. Let me explain.
Our bright spot is resilience and our innate ability to turn challenges into opportunities to make us stronger. Years ago, we walked away from our largest client due to a breakdown in contract negotiations. They submitted a contract that was vastly different than what we verbally agreed upon and I realized that I couldn't trust them and that this lack of integrity would become an even bigger problem down the road.
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On the face of it, it was a crazy move. Who voluntarily walks away from a very large contract with one of the largest organizations in the world? But, I thought back and realized that every time in my life I'd made a decision out of principle and instinct, rather than fear, it's been the right one.
I also looked at our people and our other clients, and the market for our services, and decided that we could look at this as a devastating loss of a very large client or an amazing opportunity to expand our business with clients who are more in line with our values and the direction we were taking as an organization. I decided to focus on the future rather than cling to the past and the team followed suit, even though most were against the move initially.
Fast forward four years and we are a much larger, much stronger organization—some would say the undisputed leader in employee financial education, but, at the very least, a more significant player than we were just a few years ago.
Our employees came together and dedicated themselves to replacing the business we lost with better engagements with organizations that shared our commitment to employee financial education as a company-wide benefit and were willing to institutionalize the benefit to create a culture of employee empowerment.
Many of these clients were thought leaders—pushing us to innovate our services to solve major strategic HR challenges they were facing—and our service offering became much more valuable as a result.
I learned that we embrace challenge and it brings out the best in us as a company, and never ever to shy away from difficult decisions because my employees are not just survivors, they are thrivers who rise to every occasion, again and again, and become BETTER as a result. This has changed my decision making and leadership.
Seeing how they react to challenges outside their control, I've intentionally placed challenges to create a sense of urgency and necessity that forces the team to bring their "A" game and to band together and commit to something larger than their own career goals. Most recently, it was a challenge to reach 1 million people over the year with our education, with 90 percent or more of those surveyed reporting they made changes as a result of the education.
We're counting the numbers now (it's going to be very close one way or another), but I'll tell you this, whether we made it or not, they got a lot further with this goal when it was presented as a major challenge than they would have if it were simply stated as a company objective. That's our bright spot and the company has grown at a much faster pace since I recognized it.
Next up: some questions to ask yourself to see if you are indeed providing the right kind of communication in your own business.
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