I am sometimes a bit surprised when I hear from Business Owners that they do not want to grow their business. I can be fairly competitive, and hearing someone say that they are happy with their business at the size it is now causes me to stop and wonder. Why would any business owner not want to grow their business?
Change is inevitable. Like time, we cannot stop it. To not only survive but thrive in today’s business environment, you must not only accept change but must also embrace change. Given that accepting change is one of the more difficult things we mere mortals must do, having a plan, a strategic plan to manage change in your business is critical to success.
To understand how to be successful with change lets first look at the “Not’s” of change management. There are six of them:
Your career is sailing; your business is profitable; everyone looks at you and says “WOW, I want to be like them.” I am certain many of us have read or seen such a scenario. To be the “WOW person” is wonderful. To be associated with that person is pretty good too. Imagine the WOW person and a WOW business. The perfect scenario.
Then, one day, it all falls apart. Some behavior enters into your life; you start making bad business decisions, you stop listening to others about your business. We have all seen or read of those. Successful Business Leaders who start affairs with subordinate employees, Successful Business Leaders who illicitly take money from their business, Successful Business Leaders who abuse a variety of legal or illegal substances, Successful Business Leaders who take illegal short cuts. One day they get caught, and their self-destructive behavior brings them crashing down.
How do you prevent that?
Becoming an Entrepreneur is easy. You decide you are good at something or have something people want. You start a business, and they come to buy what you have or do. It is that simple.
Not exactly as that reality probably happens to about 1 in several million. For the rest of us, it is a bit more challenging.
So what do you do if you want to be an Entrepreneur?
Ambiguity, according to many dictionaries, can be defined as “any concept, idea, statement or claim whose meaning, intention or interpretation cannot be definitively resolved “, another word for ambiguity is vague. Vagueness and lack of clarity in communication, mission and vision is nothing less than a productivity and performance killer. In short, ambiguity does nothing more than destroy profitability while protecting ineffective leaders. It is then understandable that Ambiguity is not a leadership value.
So, how do you overcome ambiguity?