Why is Embracing Change so Important in Business & How Do You Do So Effectively?
In an enterprise, a lot of us have been advised at some time that, “if you’re not moving forwards you are really heading backwards.” Basically, this goes straight to the heart of why change is necessary to a constructive and healthy business. Strong businesses shift with the times and recreate themselves. Weak companies avoid change, go stale and then perish. In this business training post, we look at four steps you can use to create lasting positive change in a business you run or manage.
Change is the key element of growth and in business change demands vision, a driving team as well as a tight context if it is to be produced effectively as well as favourably. This is why reliable leadership is so crucial in a business.
Yet while discussing change, it is very important to not toss the baby out with the bath water simply because, on the flipside to change is the importance of consistency which is likewise vital, especially in processes that have to do with product line, quality, revenue and even, to an extent, organic development.
So, this pair of contradictory principles need to exist side-by-side in a healthy business. Exactly how do we produce that? The solution is to realise that successful companies need change together with consistency, change is the specialty of leaders while consistency the domain of managers.
Thinking about these two side by side, it is not very difficult to see why consistency and change (in fact business managers and business leaders) are regularly challenging to combine.
In this post, I’m going to delve into the main components of effective leadership including how these elements work together to create favourable and lasting transformation. As an experienced leader, the formula I use to produce this adaptation includes a straightforward four-step process which I highly recommend! Here it is!
STEP #1 = Ask Critical Questions
Sometimes I wonder whether it’s tougher to recognize where you are truly starting from or where you are specifically striving to get!
As business people and entrepreneurs, we frequently succumb to the temptation of seeing our endeavours through coloured glasses and then neglect to consciously recognize where we are starting from – our ‘Point A’.
Acknowledging your real Point A is not easy: it is strictly achieved by having the guts to identify, ask, then truthfully respond to every one of the in-your-face questions that apply to your business, your methodology and also how you are going to it. You know the questions; they are the same ones you routinely stumble over when they strike you without warning at a party!
My suggestion– pull on your thickest skin, find somebody else to define then ask the questions that should be asked … and don’t allow your ego to get in the way of the sincere introspection that needs to come after. It may be the difference between the success you hope for and the failure you dread.
STEP #2 = Feel the Reasons
Identifying both the specifics of your ‘change vision’ (your ‘point B’) and also the specifics of your deep and heart centred reason for change is equally tough. If there is a number 1 key for achieving positive and also lasting change, however, this is it.
Without specific details, your vision is just a wish. Without a deep and genuine grounds as to why you want to chase after your vision, you will have a hard time to inspire personnel towards it. Most people need to share your enthusiasm. To move your team, you have to be able to move your team.
Fortunately, those colleagues who do share and adopt your vision will certainly stick with you and come to be the driving influence for generating it. This is why exceptional leaders appreciate the carrot is mightier than the stick.
My tip: recognise the kinds of people you will need to propel your change vision. Give it the time it needs to define specifically who they may be and then what it is about your vision that may captivate them.
STEP #3 = Design a Clear and Simple Plan
From here on, the crucial elements of your success are sticking to what works, keeping it simple … as well as continuing to fuel the interest that ties your driving team to your vision.
Having already clarified your ‘why’, assigning undisturbed thinking time to identifying the essential aspects of your ‘how’ is vital.
My suggestion: try to involve your driving team in this operation:
– Determine the repeatable jobs that will accomplish your goal (and make sure they are simple).
– Recognize both the resources you have available and also the resources you will need (actually need!).
– Identify the finite selection of points that might block your progression. Develop backup plans for the ones that are legitimately risky.
STEP #4 = Achieve Positive & Sustainable Change
Staying on track and achieving positive and sustainable transformation is a 99% leadership and 1% management blend of fuel, context and accountability.
The fuel part is PR in its purest form. Its objective is to develop and then maintain momentum: communicate the vision, teach the simple, repeatable actions, celebrate successes … and ultimately train your driving group to do the same things. Each reinforces that the change vision is legitimate and that the team’s approach is the right one.
Significantly, as leader, the code of conduct or ‘context’ you establish around your group as well as its behaviour is pivotal to their capacity to stick together and then achieve results. Your group will look to you to uphold this code at all times and when you do it will certainly start to take a life all of its own.
This is where staying on track and attaining positive and enduring change needs your individual commitment, courage and discipline: being consistent with the message you preach as well as getting in touch with your team in an authentic way when delivering it is very important.
Your ability to produce and maintain a solid context is directly commensurate to your capacity to do these things, and with a solid context your group will certainly self regulate; self align; move mountains; and deliver the positive and lasting changes you are looking for.
My recommendation: Take a deep breath and then be prepared to be human, to admit shortcomings and to be open to change yourself. You will be valued as well as followed as a leader in a far more powerful manner when you have the nerve to do these things.
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