The world is constantly changing. To survive, businesses must change with it. From meeting new customer demands to adapting to new technologies to creating new products and services, businesses that stay in front of the times have a better chance of remaining profitable. If you’re in business management, you already know this. But do you have what it takes to keep your business evolving?
To build your business, you need to know how to build something new. And to build something new—whether it’s a new way to meet an existing customer demand or a new offering that creates a new demand—you need the right traits and knowledge. What are these traits? Gallup has identified the 10 most important.1 These traits (or talents, as Gallup calls them) include:
- Confidence: You have to believe in yourself and know yourself.
- Ability to Delegate: If you try to do everything, you’ll accomplish nothing, so you have to know how to shift tasks and control to others.
- Determination: Building is difficult. To get past obstacles, you need to have the willpower to keep going.
- An Ability to Disrupt: Building often includes creatively changing an existing idea or product into something new and better. It’s a great skill to have and/or cultivate.
- Independence: You have to be willing to do what it takes to follow through on your idea.
- Knowledge: You should be constantly seeking out new information that can help you build.
- A Profit-Focused Mindset: Success depends on making sure what you’re building can be profitable.
- Social Awareness: Building something new often requires building relationships that benefit your organization. The more social awareness you have, the better you can partner with others.
- Comfortable With Risk: You can’t be deterred or paralyzed by risk. Instead, you need the ability to manage risk and make decisions even when things get complicated.
- Persuasiveness: In the end, you have to be able to sell what you’ve built.
What Else Can Help You Become a Builder?
Even if you possess most or all of the traits that Gallup has identified, you may still lack one major component: a strong education. That’s why, if you want to become a truly successful builder, you should consider earning a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA). Unlike a PhD in Management, which is academically focused, a DBA degree is designed for working professionals who want to apply advanced business knowledge to real-world problems. In other words, a DBA can help you develop the analytical and critical thinking skills you need to identify new ways to build your business.
The question you may be asking is: Do I have time to earn a doctoral degree? Thanks to online education, earning a doctorate in business is more convenient—and more possible—than ever before. Instead of requiring you to head over to a campus every day or two, online DBA programs allow you to study from home or from anywhere else you have internet access. In addition, when you earn an online DBA degree, you have control over when in the day you attend class, making it possible for you to schedule your classes around your current work hours. With these conveniences, it’s no wonder that many of the top DBA programs now offer an online learning format.
Even if you’re already in management, an online DBA program can help you advance your career. It’s a great choice for anyone who wants to be a builder.
Walden University is an accredited institution offering a Doctor of Business Administration degree program online. Expand your career options and earn your degree in a convenient, flexible format that fits your busy life.
1Source: https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/232943/traits-successful-builders-ones.aspx
Walden University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission, www.hlcommission.org.