Why adventuring could be your answer to achieving an agile, successful business
This month the Alchemists Forum had the pleasure of welcoming Neil Laughton to our in-person speaker session. Neil Laughton is a successful business entrepreneur, multiple Guinness World Record breaking adventurer and a former Royal Marine Commando, helicopter pilot and Special Forces Officer.
After such a successful life and career, Neil has established three main pillars that he believes are vital for building a high-performance, agile, enduring business. Firstly, what is business agility? Agility refers to a company’s ability to quickly adapt to changes and fluctuations in the business environment. The faster a company can adjust its business strategy and operations, the greater its business agility and better its chances of success. To achieve agility and high performance in your business, Neil believes that Discovery, Teamwork and Adventure are the answers. Let’s dig into why each of these is so important to building a successful business.
When Neil discusses discovery, he refers to the importance of being curious, understanding oneself and knowing one’s limitations. There is also an aspect of being interested in continuous discovery throughout your career. By this, we mean that all successful business-people will show a commitment to learning new things, gaining new knowledge and sharing experiences with others in similar positions, like your peers at the Alchemists Forum, to help aid your personal and professional development.
There are few enduring businesses that have grown as a result of one person – teamwork is another essential part of business success. Neil stresses how teamwork between all levels and departments of a company is key to help improve communication skills, to develop an agile leadership style and to collaborate more effectively with colleagues. A team must be working together in complete harmony to allow a business to grow from strength to strength.
Adventure, which could seem like the most unusual pillar for success is Neil Laughton’s final ‘key ingredient’. An adventurous person takes risks, and ultimately, risk-taking is what is going to see your business stand out among the rest, whether that is for the better or not, will depend on the result of the risk you take. With risk comes the possibility of failure, which shouldn’t be feared by business owners, instead welcomed. To grow a successful, enduring business, learning and adapting from mistakes and failed choices will allow you and your team to connect and flourish. From his experience, Neil tells us that allowing adventure into the workplace will result in teams and leaders who are passionate, won’t procrastinate and feel encouraged to take action whilst having fun along the way.
If you want to read more about Neil Laughton’s career and the journey he took to get him to where he is today, visit his website here.
Interested in how joining the Alchemists Forum could help you transform your business? Contact our Founder and Chair, Alan Branagh, today at alan@alchemistsforum.com
Greater Decisions > Greater Thinking > Greater Performance