You may be excellent at making, doing or selling whatever it is that you make, do or sell in your business. But this is rarely enough to sustain and grow a business in today’s competitive environment. This guide looks at developing your management skills and managing change – two areas that are critical for any business owner to master. It also provides some practical tools for helping you to assess your management skill levels and development needs.
Developing yourself
Successful business owners and leaders share a number of key abilities:
Top of this list is self-awareness – the ability to recognise your own strengths and weaknesses and the willingness to commit to improving yourself.
Many business leaders make a point of trying to keep abreast of the marketplace, ever-changing technologies and client/competitor structures. Fewer will be as focused on their own development, i.e. looking for feedback from colleagues, clients and suppliers in order to understand where they need to improve.
Ask yourself the questions below:
Self Development Health Check
There are numerous avenues open to you to help you to kick-start your development, including:
Learning new things helps to keep the mind alert. From learning about the experiences of others you may well find some answers to issues that are currently holding your business back.
Managing change
Alice is invited to play croquet. When she learns how to swing the croquet mallet – and just as she is about to strike – the mallet turns into a flamingo. When Alice learns how to swing the flamingo – and when she is about to hit the ball – the flamingo lifts its head. When she learns how to swing the flamingo – and take account of its lifting its head – then the ball turns into a hedgehog.
This quotation, from a Lewis Carroll book, is an apt description of business today. Customers are changing, products are changing and the competition is changing. In such an environment, the ability for your business to change quickly is obviously important.
Think about the major changes that your business has experienced over the last three years and write them down.
If you accept that the pace of change is increasing, then imagine what changes your business will face over the next five years. How can you be best placed to anticipate or react swiftly to these changes?
The following checklist will help you to recognise just how skilful you are at preparing for change.
Being ready for change
Study the following statements and assess how true they are of you. Rate yourself and perhaps get a friend or colleague to provide their view.
Score as follows:
1 = I am not good at this/I do not do this
3 = I do this sometimes/I am OK in this area
5 = I am very good at this
Where do you score lowest and what can you do about this? Some ideas to help follow.
Barriers to change
The most important barrier to change is getting people to accept the new challenge that it brings.
Five steps to help implement change successfully are:
Step 1 Provide people with the support they need. Help them understand how their skills fit into the new way things are to be done. If they need to develop skills – support them to do this.
Step 2 Avoid over-organising – allow for flexibility.
Step 3 Communicate the change and seek feedback to ensure that messages are getting across to staff.
Step 4 Recognise that people will struggle – their concerns and fears are real, so listen to them.
Step 5 Reward people who are committed to change – involve them and provide them with plenty of positive feedback. Think of the last time you implemented a major change in your business – how well did you do the above?
Research shows that making change work requires managers that:
Conclusion
When running a business it’s important to take time to develop your own skills and learning. This should always include learning how to manage change.
