One of the key challenges that constantly confronts small business owners is finding the fine line between trying to be in control of everything that goes on in the business and then being flexible and adaptive enough to still, intentionally, shape its direction.
It’s both/and!
Whilst effective management requires us to plan and to install systems and processes that organise and focus our investment, effective leadership requires us to also be adaptive enough, at the same time, to intentionally shape both its current and future direction. Being in control ensures that finances, production, deliveries and other resources are tightly managed. From my experience in consulting to small businesses, wilfulness often takes over and many business owners become quite myopic and very internally focused. They often find that being overly controlling can be quite exhausting and is extremely challenging to sustain. This is one of the key reasons for many small business owners to ‘quit’, as it all becomes just ‘too plain hard’! Being flexible and adaptive enables us to not only do those important management functions, but also enables us to operate from a higher and often different perspective. Again, from my experience, once small business owners are able to moderate their need for control and begin to ‘let go’, they create the empty space for new possibilities to emerge. This is one of the most liberating decisions and the sustaining factors that keep small business engaged, creative and energised around their business.
Being both on the balcony and in the dance!
A very simple mindset to play with to support you to operate effectively in both the management and leadership space is to be simultaneously both ‘on the balcony and in the dance’! This is a powerful metaphor, and as it suggests, it means focusing your attention on both the details and the tactical aspects of your business, whilst also focusing on the bigger picture and the more strategic aspects of your business. I enabled one of my clients, now a successful global fashion designer and manufacturer, to break her overly controlling cycle by practising doing just this. We worked on introducing some powerful meta-questions, which she could silently ask herself, prior to every business decision she had to make.
Some Dance Meta-Questions to play with:
- What is the most important thing I need to focus on right now?
- What is the worst thing that could happen if I didn’t do that now?
Some Balcony Meta-Questions to play with:
- What is really going on right now?
- What is possible in this situation?
So make best use of the small amount of free time some of you have before the year flies away, to practice asking yourself some of the big questions that, in time, will enhance your ability to be more flexible and adaptive. You will be surprised how much of a buzz that will create around your business.
