It would be nice if you could keep your energy, focus, and creativity at 100% all the time, every day of the year. However, natural dips and plateaus are perfectly normal. If you, your team or company is currently stuck in a rut or plateau, you might be wondering how to deal with it. Below, is some helpful advice for just this situation!
What does a plateau or rut look like?
The rut or plateau is often determined by how you interpret your success. How’s that for perspective? lol For many businesses, it’s a time of flatlining. For example, not gaining (or losing a small amount of) sales. Or keeping online reputations as they are but not getting any more engagements or interaction.
These plateaus or ruts can come with no warning and can often cause a huge hit to morale since it feels as though all of the hard work isn’t paying off.
How to deal with a natural rut or plateau
For those times when you are just stuck….the process to get out of and through them is something like the following.
Gather your data to find the cause
Most of the time, a plateau or rut is going to be caused by one specific detail. Use the data and metrics to figure out what the cause is. If you can’t find it, you’ll want to consider bringing in someone who can (more on that later).
Go in a new direction
Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, try a different approach to marketing and outreach, even if you initially tabled it in favor of other options. If there are any “maybe” ideas in your team notes, then now is a great time to try them out and see what happens. Have you run a SWOT analysis before, this would be a great time to revisit this analysis.
Give yourself an edge
There are many ways that you can stand out from the competition by giving yourself an edge. If your business has a way to create an edge, this is a great way to get attention coming your way and possibly give people just the things they need to come back to your business or service.
Collaborate with the people
One way to really help spur you and your team forward is to bring in a professional who is going to help diagnose the problem, brainstorm solutions, and then see the process through to the end. One such person to do this is a business coach. While there is never a bad time to have a business coach, consulting with a professional from an external point of view is a great way to help bring in “extra brain power” during a rut or plateau.
The one thing to remember is business ruts and plateaus are perfectly normal. If anything, it’s a sign of just how hard everyone has been working! It’s a sign of success! However, getting out of one can be challenging when you don’t have the right tools and support to do so. Let this be the nudge you didn’t know you needed to try something different. Reach out to TeamStetzel to help with the kick in the pants, if you need that too!
