We’re lucky to collaborate with some incredible business owners. People who, despite the cloud of uncertainty hanging over the last couple of years, have focused on positive action. Helping other business owners. Supporting their teams. Making life easier for customers. Consistently showing up for others – and showing amazing resilience.

Inspired by this, we’re highlighting five positive behaviours we hope to see more of in 2022. Could you do more of these in your business? And what would you add to the list? We’d love to hear where you’re concentrating your time and energy this year.

1. Building new relationships and partnerships
Business is all about relationships, but so much focus is on the customer and employee relationships. In 2022, we’d like to see more cross-business collaboration. For example, if you can’t deliver a service, can you partner with another business (a supplier, a client or someone from your wider business network) to get the job done?

2. Adopting an ‘it’s okay’ attitude when things go wrong
This means accepting that, sometimes, things just don’t go to plan. Assigning blame or reacting from a place of anger doesn’t help. What does help is being kind to others, remembering that every problem has a solution, and keeping issues in perspective. There are bigger things going on in the world.

3. Staying creative
Remember those early lockdown days when so many businesses transformed their operations overnight? Let’s bring some of that creative thinking into everyday business life. Ask yourself, how will you fire up your team’s imagination this year?

4. Getting curious
If you feel like life has been a bit ‘samey’ lately, you’re not alone. Stoking your curiosity and trying new things, both inside and outside of work, is a great way to blow those cobwebs away. Curiosity is about learning, so ask yourself, how could you be more open to learning? Where do you have room to grow? Basically, how will you push your personal and business boundaries this year?

5. Listening actively (online and face to face)
Listening underpins all of the above behaviours. Encouraging feedback, for example, is a good way to foster relationships, solve problems, spark creative ideas, and identify personal and business growth opportunities. Ask lots of questions and listen intently to the responses. What are people really telling you?

Can OCTOPUS help you build a stronger, more collaborative, more creative business this year? Let’s chat and find out.

(Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash)