Try to buy your four-year-old a “Paw Patrol” backpack, and you may find that it’s one of the countless backed-up items stuck in a shipping port. The supply chain crisis has proved a huge challenge for businesses, but many companies are using it as an opportunity to find new solutions, even ushering in a “renaissance of American manufacturing,” Pete Roberts, CEO of Origin USA, told FOX Business.

Hard times often provide the impetus for businesses to make improvements that were necessary all along: All they needed was a good challenge to make it clear what they had to do! Whether external or internal, challenges can help us investigate the root cause of our mistakes, seek constructive criticism and identify our strengths and weaknesses.

As the founder of a growing business, I’ve made plenty of mistakes and faced plenty of challenges that have given me the push I needed to make savvy changes. I’ve learned how to identify high-potential employees, make sure my strengths don’t become weaknesses and find out what my customers really want.

How to identify high-potential employees

I’ve had the opportunity to work with some remarkable people over my career, both as a coworker and as a boss. When times are good, it’s easy to identify what makes someone a good employee: They are reliable, communicate early when a project needs more time and strive to help solve problems, not just fill quotas.

When times are hard in the business, you get to see some hidden talents that may not have been on display before. Whether there’s an urgent task or a deal-breaking emergency, look out for these important qualities:

They’re willing to put in a little extra effort. “Pay attention to the employees who are willing to jump in wherever (and whenever) they’re needed,” said Avery Augustine, a manager at a tech company. “This doesn’t mean they always need to stay late — but it’s nice to know that in a pinch (and when given more responsibility), they won’t leave you or their clients in the lurch.” I agree. You shouldn’t expect unreasonable commitments, but a little extra effort makes a huge difference.

They bring up more solutions than complaints. Everyone has things they could complain about, especially when times are tough. Pay attention to what comes after the complaint. Do they wait for someone else to solve the problem? Or do they proactively seek solutions?

They welcome feedback. Graciously accepting constructive criticism — and even asking for it in the first place — is an invaluable trait during challenging times. When I was starting GuideCX, for example, I sought feedback from people who I knew wouldn’t just tell me what I wanted to hear. Without that critical feedback, we may never have been able to get the company off the ground. Similarly, an employee who values feedback can make better essential changes that benefit themselves and your company.

How to make sure your strengths don’t turn into weaknesses

Be aware that strengths can turn into risks. As Harvard Business School professor Dorothy Leonard expressed, a company’s core competencies can harden into “core rigidities.” Features you might consider strengths — from your managerial system to your values and everything in between — can become obstacles when you face challenges.

Let’s say your agency is known for its quick turnaround times, which your small team can maintain because of its flat structure and because you only offer a small number of services. But then your company gets acquired, and all of a sudden, your methodical-yet-quick service doesn’t suit your more varied clientele and their larger projects. In fact, you realize that before the acquisition, your team wasn’t really seeking to understand your clients’ needs, and that’s a weakness, whether your clients are seeking a quick turnaround or not.

The added pressure of challenging times can help you realize what strengths need to be bolstered and what hidden weaknesses need to be addressed.

How to find out what your customers really want

Difficult times don’t only sharpen your sense of what’s most important; they also help your customers realize (and communicate) what they really want. For example, the effect of the pandemic on online shopping.

“People were shifting to e-shopping before the lockdown,” said Michael G. Jacobides and Martin Reeves at Harvard Business Review. But, “the generally positive performance of the channel … suggests that in many shopping categories customers will see no need to switch back.”

Maybe your restaurant introduces a dish that turns out to be a flop, and the pointed negative reviews on your Yelp page turn out to be extremely helpful. Maybe your software company experiences an outage, and talking to customers on the phone helps you and your customers realize that video tutorials on your Help page would save a lot of time in the future.

Whatever you do, don’t launch your product or service too late. As I’ve said before, “Just build what people will use, release it and iterate based on their feedback. That way, you’re getting real feedback on your real product from real customers. This feedback will help you make what customers actually want, not just what you think they want.”

Whatever challenges your business is facing, they can give you the push you need to make course-altering changes. Examine your business closely to identify high-potential employees, make sure your strengths don’t become weaknesses and find out what your customers really want. When you can take away important lessons, hard times really can be a blessing in disguise!

Peter Ord is the founder of GuideCX, a client implementation and onboarding project platform based in Draper, Utah.

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