As a business leader, you cannot be satisfied with the status quo. The moment you start losing momentum is the moment you begin to stagnate. Not only are you at risk of losing the steam that got you this far, but you’re left more vulnerable to a potential crisis in the industry or the business. You need to keep moving. So, stop being paralysed by a fear of change and learn to get much better at making decisions.
Link to ImageSpend time surveying the problem
While you shouldn’t hesitate when it comes to making a change, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take your time surveying any problem or opportunity for growth. If you want to feel a lot more confident in the decision you’re proposing, then consider getting a better overview of how it fits the context of the business. Consider using methods like developing a decision matrix. That can help you outline all the potential problems and how to both weigh and solve them, reducing the risk in your decision.
Plan out your moves
When you’ve decided on a plan of action and you know the risks involved and how to mitigate them, it’s all about carrying it out. Whether it’s scaling, changing one of your services, or developing a new product, you need to properly manage a project. With skills like prince2 training, you can use software that makes it easier to plot every step out and how they work together. To stop indecision taking hold, consider being more flexible with your plans, too. Rather than creating hard blocks between one process and the next, keep paths of development for different aspects open so no-one is kept waiting for someone else who has yet to catch up.
Confidence is king
Once you’ve got the decision made and the project laid out, it’s all about communicating it and getting your team on your side. You are likely to run up against some resistance. It’s important to take on the concerns of your team, especially if they’re ones you haven’t considered. But while working to solve them, you need to develop confidence in your decisions and know when to keep persevering. Otherwise, your business will be crippled by doubt, including doubts that aren’t the most well-informed or valid.
Don’t go it alone
During a full-scale project, you’re going to have to start pushing members of your team to take on more responsibility. Whether they’re helping you manage the project or they’re taking on some of your duties while you’re busy with your decision, you need to learn how to delegate to them properly. Communicating the objectives and context of their tasks is essential. Try keep an eye on them as they handle responsibility, but don’t rush in to micromanage them. Instead, make it clear you’re still there to help if they need it, but let them get on with it otherwise.
With the right methods, people, and tools, you can get a lot more confident in the decisions and changes you make to business. This is crucial if you want to truly make your venture a success.
Most change is small in nature. A tweak here and there. Massive change like retooling, bringing new products or services to the market, buying a building vs. leasing are much less frequent. Yes, those can be disconcerting and hard to manage. Understanding what can go wrong, the effect of those things, and how to recover from them is essential.
I find it interesting though that this is another of many articles that speak of managing/communicating with one’s “team”. Are there no employees anymore or is that label just not politically correct these days. When contemplating massive change it is a company wide en devour, not a team project.
The above post is mine. Sorry, I got sloppy and didn’t enter my name and email.