Are you trying to scale your business with all the latest business growth strategies, but seeing little success and struggling to figure out how to actually see results? Do you get excited with every new growth idea only to get completely frustrated when the strategy fails to live up to the promise and only increases complexity? There’s a difference between the right actions that actually grow your business and the tactics that  “gurus” promise will change everything. The fact is consistency over time scales a business, and it’s about the only thing that does.

Consistency in three core areas will:

Entrepreneurs are hard-wired to want a new and innovative solution. They’re continually scanning the market for the idea that will change the world and change their business. This provides them many opportunities but also makes them susceptible to ideas and promotions that don’t always deliver on the hype.

However, you can’t be blamed for being drawn to these sexy solutions because there seems to be plenty of social proof. As you diligently build your business and network, you continually hear these new ideas and strategies and see many of your peers implementing them in their business. These ideas quickly become validated as good ideas. Being quick to take action, you begin to implement them into your business and are excited to see growth.

The two most common complaints in entrepreneurial businesses is a lack of communication. Team members are not confident in the direction they’re headed. The second common complaint is that there are too many changes in direction. Here’s the problem…changing directions frequently kills the momentum of your team. It can create wasteful spending, and will potentially shift your company off the correct path. Now you are quickly headed down the wrong path. There comes a point in your business growth where the heroics that launched your business will actually become the mindset that undermines your business growth.

The mindset shift required is a shift from heroics to consistency. Consistency over time is what really generates business growth. You’re probably thinking, “Help me understand consistency. What do you mean by consistency?”

Consistency is doing the same thing over and over again, with a high level of execution. Performing the right activities at a high level, consistently, lead to a high level of results. Alan Mullaly is a great example of consistency as he lead the historic Ford turnaround from 2006 to 2014. When Mulally took over in 2006, Ford was expected to eventually file for bankruptcy. Their stock had fallen to embarrassing levels and they were struggling to pay off their debt obligations

Mulally began to focus on creating a consistent message with his team. He routinely challenged his team to focus on their “best self” to increase their self-awareness. It’s impossible to lead change if you don’t truly know yourself and what you value. This consistent self-awareness changed the company culture and its results.

Being consistent with your team requires a commitment to being available when you say you’ll be available. This means holding the same meetings over and over again in the same way. Be diligent to show up when you schedule a time to meet with your team, and more importantly…BE ON TIME. This cultivates trust and predictability. By simply being consistent with your team meetings, your entire business will change.

Consistency in your planning process will create efficiencies and clarity. This process will lead to unexpected insights from your team. When your team is confident in the direction and process they will be able to spot trends or abnormalities in the business. This can only be achieved when you’ve created a “normal” that can be contrasted. You or your team will never see these insights if the planning process is not standardized or continually changing.

Next, you need to be consistent in the period of execution. It’s important to set a pre-determined time period to execute your plan. During this period, resist the urge to make any changes or shift direction. If you’re doing this well, you change can most likely wait until you go back through your established rhythms of meeting with your team and creating a plan. This will allow you to create buy-in, but also prevent you from shifting the course of a plan with a knee jerk reaction.

Therefore, when you create this consistency, your team’s morale will drastically improve. It will improve because consistency creates stability. Your team will feel valued and supported in their career and in life. When this happens, they will put their energy, their effort, their attention into the area that is helping them grow.

An entirely new skill set is need as your company grows. The biggest shift for owners and executives is the necessity to learn the leadership skills to get the most out of their teams. we provide leadership development, team consulting and team-building training to business owners, executives, and their teams. With the goal in mind that they can surpass their business goals.

Being more consistent will empower you to grow a business faster, scale and grow your business in a way that makes you more money and make a bigger impact. With that said, it will also help you change the lives of the people that you work with daily.