Say the word ?change? to some business owners and one of two things happens: they cringe, because change is not something they gravitate toward or even like, or they view it as a kind of freedom. Something new. Something different. Something adventuresome.
In management, a need for change may be met with resistance. Sometimes doing the same thing over and over, even if things don?t get better, feels safer than making necessary changes.
For many business owners, change is frightening because they don?t know what, exactly, the change will entail. Added to that is the fact that their employees will undoubtedly be resistant to change. ?This may be because they are simply used to doing things a certain way, and doing things differently feels threatening,? says Steve Stegmeir, himself a business owner and coach.
Stegmeir and other business owners agree that Joe Kotter?s 8 Steps to Change Management is a starting place for implementing change. Kotter, a professor at Harvard, wrote the popular book, ?Leading Change?.
The 8 Steps include:
1)?Create an urgency. Managers need to help the team see that change is not only necessary, but needed immediately.
2)?Create an alliance. Make sure you have support and a team with the skill sets to drive change.
3)?Create a new vision. This is extremely important and helps ensure that the team is all on the same page with the same mission.
4)?Communicate the new goals. Make sure your team truly understands the new mission and goals by having them restate them.
5)?Encourage Action. Empowering your team to be successful will lead to your company?s success as well.
6)?Make winning noticed and possible. Set up goals that are reachable and make sure everyone hears of achievements reached.
7)?Build on the ?wins? to help drive change.
8)?Create the new culture. New behavior and results needed to be embedded into the new culture of the company.
TIP: To implement change successfully, business owners must know how to systemize processes for minimizing resistance and maximizing efficiency.
While systems, in business, are the most misunderstood areas, once understood and implemented they can make your life, as a business owner, and your team?s performance that much better.
TIP: Properly outlaid systems transform businesses and start with a single step: the willingness to change.
Entrepreneur Brad Sugars identifies four key areas of business that, from a corporate standpoint, are key areas to have systems in place. These key areas are:
1)?People and Education
2)?Delivery and Distribution
3)?Testing and Measuring
4)?System and Technology
Look at your own business. Do you have training in place for new hires? These might include technical training, supervisory skills training, conflict-resolution training, and sales skills training . . . etc.
Do you team members feel included, involved and valued?
Now look?at delivery and distribution in your business; do you have computer systems in place to handle processes you may have previously done by hand? Some business owners do not want to admit their lack of computer skills. Do you need to get technical training yourself, or can you hire a college computer science intern to help computerize your systems?
TIP: Paperless systems don?t just help the environment; they also help streamline processes, increasing efficiency.
You?d be surprised how many business owners don?t measure and track important things in their businesses. One business owner says he just has an innate sense of how things are going. ?No alarms are sounding; something must be going right,? he added, and a few questions later, I could tell he didn?t have a good handle on whether the money going out was bringing more business in.
TIP: Monitor where you are now to have a base for determining where you need to go.
The very words ?systems and technology? can send some business owners scurrying to the dark hole they call an office. But, it doesn?t need to be this way. The key is simplifying what may feel like an overwhelming area of business. For instance, many business owners are burdened by excessive emails and have not put an electronic filing system in place to organize their correspondence. This is just a small thing that once put into place can have a huge impact by opening up time and reducing stress.
The ultimate purpose of creating systems to run every aspect of your business is ironically so you don?t have to, leaving you time and energy to do more important things, like spend time with family and friends, have weekends free for things YOU want to do, and maybe even take a vacation or two. If you feel tethered to your business, chances are you need to put more effective systems into place which will free up time and allow you to work on, rather than in, your business.
TIP: Don?t be afraid to ask for help.
The most common response to that is, ?I can?t afford it,? but really the question is, ?Can you afford not to get help??? There are ways to factor adding a business coach to your solutions and you?d be surprised how quickly your business will turn around.
These 5 tips and a look at the key areas of business where systems can most effectively be put into place will help you get started on the path to getting more out of your business in less time and with less effort.
Stop running. Start growing ? Your business, that is.
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