| 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:
- Self-awareness – the ability to
recognise their own development areas and a willingness
to improve in these areas.
- A strong vision – they know where
they want their business to go and can communicate that
vision with emotion.
- Confidence and enthusiasm.
- Ability to deal with complexity.
- Trust – they are happy to let go
of power and trust the people who work for them.
- People skills.
- Ability to harness aggression and channel it –
recognise the human need for competition and use this against
competitors.
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
- How do you keep abreast of developments in your industry?
- How do you keep up with the developments in IT?
- When was the last time you acquired a new skill?
- How often do you try something new at work?
- When was the last time you did some study?
- What have you improved about yourself in the last 12 months?
- If you decided to start to develop yourself – who
could help you?
There are numerous avenues open to you to help you to kick-start
your development, including:
- Local colleges and training providers.
- Distance learning/Open University.
- Industry conferences and seminars.
- Networking – learning from others (for example,
Chamber of Commerce).
- Internet discussion forums.
- Internet training modules.
- Books, audio tapes, videos, CD:ROMs.
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
- You identify problems and causes systematically.
- You remain calm under pressure.
- You involve others when appropriate.
- You build a climate of openness.
- You check for agreement to proposals.
- You review objectives regularly and carefully.
- You seek all information relevant to a decision.
- You can effectively present ideas.
- You identify opportunities and solutions.
- You evaluate options critically.
- You communicate information and views clearly.
- You generate imaginative solutions to problems.
Where do you score lowest and what can you do about this? Some
ideas to help follow.
- Practice using problem-solving and creativity techniques.
Involve others in brainstorming sessions.
- Use mind-mapping techniques to generate creative ideas
and resolve problems.
- Read and understand about stress management.
- Tell people why you want to build a climate of openness
– and be open yourself.
- Check for agreement to proposals - ask questions to check
understanding.
- Review objectives regularly and carefully.
- Plan weekly progress review time.
- Develop effective presentation skills – e.g. speak
clearly, be yourself, be enthusiastic. Seek feedback on
your presentation style.
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:
- Present a clear aim for the change –
people need to understand why the change is necessary and
what benefits it will bring to them and to the company.
- Provide support at all levels –
change is uncomfortable and the changes you are implementing
will have an impact on people’s everyday activities.
Listen to concerns and provide training and help to those
who need it.
- Carefully plan and project-manage the
change with clear objectives, timescales and responsibilities.
- Maximise the use of existing systems and procedures
to carry out change in a way that your people will be familiar
with.
- Emphasise how the change will solve problems for
the company and undertake the change in a pragmatic
way – do not over-complicate things or change things
unnecessarily.
- Build in ways to encourage desired behaviours
and feedback the successes. If possible, develop your reward
systems to reward those who support the change.
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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.
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