Small business owners are all too familiar with change. In fact, building a positive company culture and sustaining healthy growth depends on your ability to manage change effectively. As a small business owner, you owe it to yourself to become the best change leader you can be, and understanding the most important factors is the first step.
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Develop an Achievable Plan & Start Small
The single best step in jumping in as change leader is to develop a plan for what you want to do. Review your business, looking at each functional area and capture your ideas for improvement. Focus on small steps that are relatively easy to implement and can add immediate value. Take “big ideas” and break them down into smaller ideas. This approach maximizes your chances for success. Wait to implement big ideas until you’ve had more experience.
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Involving Others in Designing Your Plan
Involving managers and employees from the business is an important step in all of this. Ultimately, you want this to be their plan too; it will make it easier to implement due to higher “buy-in.” Truth be told, their input is highly likely to lead to a better plan too; often they will know things about your business that you don’t.
Continuing along these same lines, it is important to communicate the desired change to everyone. Keeping the plan secret may confuse your competitors, but it will confuse your employees more. Always err on the side of over-communicating when it comes to change. Repeat the message often and use different media to maximize effect.
Finally, be generous with credit. After all, you’re the owner; you want results, not a spotlight. Highlight those whose ideas led to the plan and whose efforts were critical in implementing it. Create an incentive for more people to step forward next time. Be generous, and people will engage.
For more information: business change management
