Navigating Unfamiliar Waters:  Business Predictions for Upcoming Months

Our December topic was “Navigating Unfamiliar Waters:  Business Predictions for Upcoming Months.”  Each Round Table is different, and the discussions varied.  Conversations ranged from how to maintain hopefulness in 2022 to practical business solutions.  Consider joining a CBRT Round Table this year to grow your business and grow your faith. 

December Round Table Discussions:

One member talked about HOPE this Christmas season as an acronym. 

1.  Help.  Remember to help someone this Christmas season.  This will bring us joy and give us momentum to solve our own problems. 

2.  Optimism.  Keep a focus on your blessings. 

3.  Purpose.  What is your purpose or foundation for what you are doing, in your personal and professional life? 

4.  Engage.  What actions are you going to take to engage with your employees?  How are you going to engage in your personal life?

If you google, ‘Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Clause,’ you can read letters to Santa that ask for health and healing.  Many of these letters reflect personal hope.  This can be a first step in being hopeful for the future.

Think of next year as an adventure.  Create a plan to

1. Ask for help from someone you trust
2. Offer to help someone

To navigate unpredictable situations, look for and focus on unchanging principles and spiritual truths/resources that enable us to navigate forward.

1. Prayer (tapping into God’s presence, power, and purpose)

2. Commit to be informed

3. Scripture: seek God’s wisdom and will, and stand on His promises

4. Be gracious at the points of our differences

5. Be passionate about our convictions, but be humble in the exercise of them

6. Seek like-minded, godly leaders for wise council and fellowship

7. Make a single-hearted commitment to lead with Christlike self-sacrificial love

Remember our employees are people made in the image of God.  As leaders we need to meet their human needs first.

Be more in awe of our world and the miracles around us.  Awareness makes us less mired in certainty.

A quote on uncertainty by Oswald Chambers.  “Certainty is the mark of the common-sense life.  To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, we do not know what a day may bring forth.  This is generally said with a sigh of sadness; it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation.” 

Instead of the saying: Plan your work, work you plan. Consider: plan your work, work his plan.

You cannot out give God.  Share the love of Christ with the team (business) not necessarily by chapter and verse, but by actions. Love is a verb.

We need to support the small/medium business in our communities.  Forget the old ideas of “me first” and protectionist practices.  We need to actively support each other, sharing information for the good of our domestic industries and the good of our nation.

Realize change is inevitable.  We must be malleable; it’s how we grow.

Companies that invest in their people as whole individuals will begin to see success and a culture shift.

Covid has created an awareness of a wellness gap that existed in our companies and corporations.  Leaders are now looking at our employees with a whole life perspective. 

Skepticism in our leaders is prevalent in our society.  We must focus on mission buy-in from our employees to offset the skepticism they may have.

One RT participant was a college athlete.  In preparation for the season ahead, the coach envisioned a team that would be in the best physical shape possible.  They would not be out hustled or out worked. We cannot control the future, but we can prepare.

One large media company just recently produced a new movie and scrapped plans to preview it in theatres, instead releasing the movie on media for home viewing.  This ability to be flexible and change plans last minute resulted in reducing costs while increasing profits. Those who are successful in 2022 will be flexible and able to solve problems.   

We need to communicate a clear and convincing mission or path forward to our employees.  However, at some point, we need to decide on how much more energy is needed to have the employee embrace the mission and move forward with the team?   The question becomes, are your efforts met with efforts by the employee?  Are they moving the needle forward or is the employee stuck?  Have a frank discussion with employee to ask, why aren’t you aligned with our mission?  Discuss your efforts to bring them along with no results.  Sometimes a light bulb will light up and sometimes no, and then the decision is easier.

In a time of chaos, seek to understand your customer or client situation.  Ask questions to get to the heart of their issues.  Approach clients from a problem-solving focus as opposed to a salesperson focus.  Partner with customers to achieve solutions.

Speed will be key to success in 2022.  Speed in communication, getting and fulfilling work, closure and completion of financial transactions.  It will be increasingly important to ensure your company is able to secure quick payment for services as with today’s uncertainty, things can change quickly and your ability to collect can be diminished.  Accounts receivable will be in the forefront in 2022.

We need to be able to distinguish and discern which clients or customers you can safely engage with.  Do they have the capacity to spend?

As we head into the upcoming holiday season, let’s remember the reason for the season, the glorious birth of Jesus Christ.

Upcoming Events

On Friday, January 21, 2022 at 7:00am, join us for a Leadership Breakfast Event with Bill Schuhmacher, CEO of Leadership Lógos at the Kalamazoo Country Club in Kalamazoo.

Richard DeWitt, President and CEO of Marketplace Chaplains will speak at our Leadership Breakfast Event on Friday, February 18, at 7:00 am at the University Club in Grand Rapids.

CBRT’s Annual Summit is Friday, March 18 at 7:00-11:30 am at the Kalamazoo Country Club.

On Friday, April 22, join us at the Birmingham Country Club for a Leadership Breakfast Event.  Guest speaker Robert A. Bryant of Giamarco, Mullins & Horton will be speaking on Restorative Leadership.

If you are unable to attend our events, subscribe to CBRT’s YouTube channel where you can review all past event presentations.