Being Results Oriented
 by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

Welcome to the New World of Work.  21^st Century businesses are not looking for employees based on what they know or what they can do anymore.  They want team members who get things done.  They want team members who focus on results.  The best way to consistently achieve your company’s planned objectives is to be results oriented.  Are you?   In today’s fast-paced business environment, it’s all about actionable inputs that achieve productive outcomes.  It’s exponentially more than, What have you done for me lately?  As an employer I want to know what you are going to do (actionable items) to achieve our planned business objectives, and how long it will take you.  Your company needs to be able to measure your results so that everyone in the company will know when you have achieved your objectives.

We don’t live in a fantasy world of reaches, likes, and clicks anymore.  Our professional net worth and career longevity is now based on our ability to convert actions into achievements.  Now, I have to stop here and remind our diving businesses that achieving successful outcomes in support of our goals and objectives is everyone’s responsibility.  As a unified team of Dive Industry Professionals, we have to agree on what is important to our business.  We have to prioritize or goals and objectives and allocate adequate company resources of time, money, and manpower to do the things necessary to achieve them.  We have to know how we are going to achieve our objectives and have an action plan to implement our actionable items.  It’s important to be able to measure our results so that we know when our planned objectives are effectively achieved.  None of this is remotely possible unless we hire the right people who know how to focus on results and know how to get the job done.

Hiring the right people to manage your company is important, but management can only go so far if they don’t have a solid vision or mission statement that guides them.  I was speaking with a training agency executive about his lack of competitive market penetration in the dive store and dive resort sectors of the global diving business network.  I was trying to convince him how important market penetration is in gaining acceptance for his brand, capturing market share, and providing employment opportunities and student referrals for his Instructors.  I also tried to drive home the point that without a decent market penetration strategy, his training agency would never get the opportunity to show the global diving community how beneficial their integrated program could be.

When Dive Operators and Diving Resorts are looking to fill a Divemaster or Instructor vacancy, they are looking for more than a qualified candidate to do a job.  They are looking for an individual who is well trained, currently qualified, and ready to perform their skills as a functioning member of their dive staff.  When a dive staff candidate realizes they will be held accountable for the results they produce, they will give more thought to what they are bringing to the table in a job interview.  It helps the candidate prepare for the interview if they know in advance what their employer’s priorities are and what they focus on as their unique selling proposition.  It could be conducting guided tours, teaching diving programs and specialty classes, conducting instructor training programs, or simply conducting open water referrals for their network of dive store customers and agency affiliated Instructors.  Whatever is important to the dive operation, now becomes important to the dive operation manager and their staff.  So, my question to our training agency executive is, “How does your brand fit into this Dive Resort’s business strategy?” 

There are a lot of good companies in the diving industry.  Most of these companies have good people working for them.  But being a good employee in a good company is not enough in our 21^st century diving industry business environment.  Just being good does not give us the competitive edge we need to become great.  I believe that becoming great can only happen when we unleash our good employees by giving them challenging goals and holding them accountable for their achievement.  When we create aspirational goals that are bold, yet achievable, we unleash the greatness in our employees that enables our companies to transition from good to great.  When the company works together to achieve their goals and objectives, they have a much higher propensity to grow their company.  And a growing company is an inspiration to the rest of their industry because if one company can become overwhelming successful by being results oriented, the rest of the industry can too.

Become a Member of our Global Diving Business Network: Annual Membership in the Dive Industry Association is $125 and includes placement in a number of Trade Directories and websites.  Our organization uses websites and directories in advertising and marketing campaigns to refer business to our members.  By joining our network, you are becoming part of a network that works actively on your behalf to bring buyers and sellers together for the benefit and growth of the Global Diving Community.  Download a Membership Application today.

For more information about the Global Diving Business Network, contact Gene Muchanski, Executive Director, Dive Industry Association, 2294 Botanica Circle, West Melbourne, FL 32904.  Phone: 321-914-3778.  Email: gene@diveindustry.net  Web: www.diveindustry.net

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