Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and goalagiving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellovledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode three ninety eight. This episode is titled It's
Speaker 2: not the Economy, It's Your Strategy. We're digging into one
Speaker 2: of the biggest excuses leaders and business owners fall back
Speaker 2: on when things start to go sideways, blaming the economy.
Speaker 2: Let's be clear, Yes, the economy has real impacts. Inflation,
Speaker 2: interest rates, supply chain issues. These are all real challenges.
Speaker 2: But if your business starts tanking every time the outside
Speaker 2: world shifts a little, it's not the economy, it's your strategy.
Speaker 2: Part one. The easy excuse. Blaming the economy is easy.
Speaker 2: It gives you something external to point to. Sales are down,
Speaker 2: its inflation, Hiring is tough. No one wants to work anymore.
Speaker 2: Your product isn't moving, people aren't spending like they used to.
Speaker 2: But here's the truth. If you were running a strong, strategic,
Speaker 2: adaptable operation, you'd be bending, not breaking under pressure. The
Speaker 2: reality is when leaders don't have a strategy that's built
Speaker 2: for turbulence. They blame the storm. That's not leadership, that's avoidance.
Speaker 2: Part two the danger of external blame. When you place
Speaker 2: blame outside two things happen. You lose control. If everything's
Speaker 2: the economy's fault, there's nothing you can do. You surrender
Speaker 2: your power to adjust, pivot or reinvent, or you build
Speaker 2: a culture of helplessness. Your team hears those excuses, they
Speaker 2: start believing them, and instead of hustling for solutions, they
Speaker 2: start coasting on the belief that, well, it's just out
Speaker 2: of our hands. But if you can own the internal
Speaker 2: part your decisions, your systems, you're messaging your adaptability, then
Speaker 2: you reclaim control and that's when real leadership starts. Part three.
Speaker 2: What to look for in your strategy. If you're tempted
Speaker 2: to blame the economy, start with this gut check. Do
Speaker 2: you have a real sales strategy or are you just
Speaker 2: hoping for walk in traffic and online clicks? And have
Speaker 2: you adapted your messaging to fit what people care about today?
Speaker 2: Or are you still pitching like it's twenty nineteen And
Speaker 2: are your costs monitored daily or are you flying blind
Speaker 2: and reacting late? And have you asked your customers what
Speaker 2: they actually want right now? And do your people know
Speaker 2: how to solve problems or are they waiting for orders
Speaker 2: from above? These are internal strategy questions. They are fixable,
Speaker 2: but they are also easy to ignore if you're too
Speaker 2: busy pointing fingers outward.
Speaker 1: Part four.
Speaker 2: The companies that win anyway, You know who doesn't blame
Speaker 2: the economy. The businesses that are still winning in the
Speaker 2: same economy everyone else is struggling in Look at companies
Speaker 2: that launched during recessions, Airbnb, Uber, Werby Parker. They all
Speaker 2: started during economic uncertainty. They didn't wait for the perfect climate.
Speaker 2: They executed a better strategy than the ones who folded.
Speaker 2: And that's the lesson. It's not about what the economy
Speaker 2: is doing, It's about what you're doing in response to it.
Speaker 2: Adaptability beats stability, agility beats tradition, and decisive leadership beats
Speaker 2: apprehension single time. So if your business is struggling, stop
Speaker 2: blaming the economy and start asking better questions. Where did
Speaker 2: we fail to prepare? What have we refused to change,
Speaker 2: Where were we slow to act? And what truth have
Speaker 2: we been ignoring? Leaders don't make excuses, they make adjustments.
Speaker 2: So the next time someone says it's just a bad economy,
Speaker 2: challenge that thinking, say no, it's a bad strategy, and
Speaker 2: then do something about it. This has been the seven
Speaker 2: minute Leadership Podcast and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.