As a microbusiness owner, do you find yourself having to manage change? If your answer is “no” to change management, you’re probably doing something wrong.
Change management, expectation management, and leading through change are all difficult enough, but as microbusiness owners the true challenge is quantifying the actions we take during the course of these processes (Block, 2011). It is imperative that we make the time to quantify and record the actions we are taking; when we don’t, we won’t be able to look back and understand the mistakes we’ve made in the past, nor will we be able to account for what made the successes… well… successful.
We are self-employed, and I for one feel thankful about that. Although we do have to deal with these topics, we only have to deal with one “client”… ourselves. It’s not like we’re acting as consultants to other businesses, right? Actually, the concept of self-consulting is an interesting idea which hadn’t occurred to me until just now – in some ways it is easier to be one’s own consultant, I suppose, because it’s easier than having to have an outsider comes in and point out all our flaws. I feel like microbusiness owners are usually acutely aware of our own flaws, and we don’t need someone else to point them out thank you very much. Just because we are aware of our flaws doesn’t mean we are capable of addressing them without assistance, and it doesn’t mean we know which one(s) to address first. That is where it can be very helpful to have either a peer, a trusted friend, or an outside consultant help sift through the noise and figure out where to start.
Regardless of whether we are consulting to ourselves or have brought in an outsider, those who operate simply by exerting control over situations and seeking only to preserve the status quo will routinely achieve sub-par results. We will subconsciously approve our own inaction by telling ourselves various lies to justify our lack of ability to manage our own change. Does that sound familiar? I know it does to me. Status quo, treading water, hanging in there: these are all code for “I know I could be doing better, but I’m not sure where to start, I don’t have the energy, or – the biggest lie of them all – I just don’t have the time.”
Reference
Block, P. (2015). Flawless consulting: a guide to getting your expertise used (3rd ed). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.