As a business leader you are in business to __________. There are many answers to this question when I ask business leaders. From ownership to money to providing goods and services etc. What is interesting is that none of these are possible to attain unless you solve someone else’s challenges. To solve someone else’s challenges, you must help them deal with the conflict that challenge is causing them.
I’m pretty sure most of the business world does not wake up in the morning and seek out conflict. We all know it is out there either in our own businesses or in our clients or vendors businesses. So, we don’t have to specifically seek it out. Many times, in our own businesses it finds us.
The point is that conflict can either be looked at pessimistically or optimistically. You can choose to be in avoidance mode and hope it eventually goes away and you don’t have to deal with it or someone else deals with it. The alternate choice is to look at conflict through the lens of opportunity.
When viewing conflict there is something that is out of balance. Something is either pushing on or leaning in on something else which causes a friction to take place. Conflict is introduced to each of us at a very young age. Maybe it was between siblings vying for parents’ approval? Maybe it was two friends seeking the affection of the same young lady or man? I’m sure if you pause for a moment you could find numerous occasions in your past where some event contained a level of conflict.
When looking at conflict it can be engaged with either a destructive intent or constructive intent. For the sake of this week’s insights, we are going to focus on the constructive side as that is what enable us to create revenue from conflict. If we avoid the conflict, we avoid revenue opportunities.
We are still sorting through the conflicts which the pandemic of 2020 brought upon the world, its people and business. Early in the onset of the pandemic, many government entities took the direction of isolation or quarantine approach. This led to the shutting down of commerce and businesses. Essential businesses needed to deal with this conflict in order to provide their goods and services to those still in need. Leaders could have just tossed in the towel. What took place was businesses stepped up and confronted the conflict in a proactive opportunistic approach. Vendors who traditionally made alcohol pivoted to making hand sanitizer to convert conflict into revenue. Businesses who were properly positioned to bring personal protective equipment (PPE) to other businesses saw a dramatic rise in sales. It was not without significant conflict to resolve shipping and delivery issues but through the lens of opportunity conflict resolution and not avoidance was rewarded.
This week as you look at your business, investigate the conflicts which likely exist and flip them from being drama and energy sucking to a way to think about increasing revenue. If you can rid your business of destructive conflict and move that energy into constructive conflict to help teams and clients be successful, your revenues will grow.
Blinded by the conflict so much that you can’t find the silver lining in the conflict? Give your Promise Guide a call at (313) 527-7945 in Michigan or (407) 984-7246 in Florida. Or go onto our calendar below and schedule an initial meeting which works best on your busy schedule. JKL Associates looks forward to continuing to build relationships rooted in “Purpose.”