Steer Your Business Dec 2020 - Magazine - Page 8
4
ways to achieve
Impactful Business
Change
Have you ever sat at your desk late at night, lonely,
frustrated, and unsure as to whether you’re doing the
right thing in your business? Maybe you have wrestled
with uncertainty, wondering why it is, that no matter
what you do, you just can’t quite seem to turn your
business around? You might have even found yourself
wondering... Why can’t I seem to motivate my team? Why
won’t my sales increase? Am I going to be able to pay
my staff at the end of the month? How do I address an
underperforming member of staff?
These are all valid concerns that plague the minds of
countless business owners, because everyone has that big
fear - failure. You’ve already invested so much time, effort
and money into your organisation, and the idea it could fall
apart really is a looming nightmare, that’s why you need
to pinpoint your problems in the here and now to ensure
they don’t destroy your future. We have identified 4 ways
for businesses to achieve impactful business change:
Identify Issues
The continual improvement of your business relies on
your ability to weed the issues out. With that being
said, to begin transforming your business, you need to
first identify the problems and issues. Gaining insight
into how others who operate in similar circles to you
can be a powerful tool – so networking, and getting the
opportunity to talk to more like-minded people can help
you learn from their experiences and insight. Access to
professional courses, and other forms of learning, such as
LinkedIn groups and networking events can help you to
see your situation from a fresh perspective and uncover
issues you might have never spotted. Talking to your
team and asking for employee feedback is a brilliant way
to find potential issues you may not have even been
aware of and can often pave the way for radical, forward
thinking positive change in an organisation. Finally, talking
to an experienced, trusted individual whether a coach,
consultant, trusted peer or mentor can be a remarkable
way to identify the issues that are present in your
business.
Understand Impact
At this stage, you might feel as though you have a
huge list, unsure where to start. This is why having a
strong business framework is critical. Knowing the current
issues in your business, while important, is just one part of
the equation. By taking the time to understand the impact
these problems have, you can begin to prioritise a plan
8 STEER YOUR BUSINESS
of action. Once you have a clear understanding of your
current situation and have been able to gain insight from
those around you the next phase is prioritising it all. A
simple method for organising issues around a priority
system is the “Eisenhower Decision Matrix”:
Taking Action
Start to understand, planning into action and setting
dates/ times for the new techniques and strategies you’re
planning to implement. To ensure that you stay on top of it
all, task management will need to be implemented, so you
can ensure you know exactly what needs to be happening
and who’s responsible for it. If you’ve ever found yourself
in the situation where you have a staff member that just
isn’t performing as well as your other workers and you
didn’t know how to handle that situation, now’s the time to
change that. This is the stage where you need to look at
your team and decide who is going to be accountable for
what, and tools such as key performance indicators and
performance reviews really come into play. Without taking
real action, your business is at risk of not progressing
- it’s vital that once you’ve identified and understood a
weakness or problem in your business that needs
addressing, you correct it. As you’ve already gone through
the process of a review and gaining understanding, you
can have peace-of-mind that the decisions you are making
for your business are the right ones.
Find Support
The final phase of this process is support, this relates to
leaning on the network around you and talking to people
who are in the same situation as you. You might find that
talking with your family and friends helps you to gain
some new perspective on your situation, and tools such
as executive coaching and LinkedIn groups will be vital
for ensuring you stay on track. Support really is a key
stage of this process because it gives you the opportunity
to look at the issues that your business faces in a whole
new light. By utilising the support structure around you,
you are also able to emotionally unload the issues that
you are coming up against and explain the frustrations
that you have - by doing this, you can get some outside
