We all strive daily for success taking risks into factor. But in this process we forget that there is a risk inherent too, which is , we perform as we are told to , by our superiors or by the society. We do not resort to creative thinking. This is the biggest risk which acts as an obstacle in the process of achieving growth & success.
Especially as an Entrepreneur, we need to take decisions considering alternative course of action and innovative ways can't be done away with. Hence an Entrepreneur needs to be open to new challenges & changes in a much volatile and unexpected business environment.
We have researched into some ways through which entrepreneurs or any executive can open themselves to a change in their daily operations : -
1) Past is a good teacher : - We must consider how we reacted in past, not what happened. Did we avoid the change, or how did we acknowledge the situations that lead us to change. Leading a team is what most entrepreneurs are entrusted with. Hence it's the leader who must ensure that a change is created and how a team acts and cooperate to that , must be checked. We must also see how often we resisted change in our past. Did we do it to defend our status quo. We must study that how did we gain from all this. 2) Identify the Change: - Before we understand the change, its important to identify the type of the change that we come across. Change may take place in our professional lives and in our personal lives. Some changes at work may be : - Merger, restructuring of your company; - Relocation , Renaming of your business; - New board members/ partners, new team members; - New assignments etc. In our personal cum professional life, there may : - - Change in the work schedule ; - change in the rules & regulations / bye-laws; - Longer hours of working; - Early retirement plans; - Need to work part time etc. 3) Know the Change : - An entrepreneur must understand the change in and out i.e . - what does the change involves and how it is interpreted and understood. We must also look for for any extra information that may be available to us to understand the change in a complete sense. Partial knowledge may lead to wrong decision making process. An entrepreneur must calculate the amount of impact of the change on the business & its employees. The nature of role one needs to contribute towards the change & measures need to be taken needs to be known by the entrepreneur. 4) Pin point the reasons to resist: - Generally an entrepreneur may resist to change due to the fear of losing something. It may be loss of control in business, security, self-esteem, loss of position , freedom may be under attack sometimes. A change may have an adverse effect on the comfort levels of an entrepreneur or even an ego clash may resist the entrepreneur to change. 5) Calculate and evaluate what may turn out as a benefit : - It may happen sometimes , that some of our fears may actually turn into an advantage for us. We need to find out such potential changes that may turn beneficial to us. We can take a note from our experiences. We can talk to our well wishers, mentors about apparent gains that we may be running away from without acknowledging it. 6) Identify the loss, if you resist change : - There may be a change, if not invited, may land us up in trouble. Hence change in this case may be inevitable, which if not acted upon , may result in a loss. An entrepreneur for instance, may need to change / upgrade the business w.r.t technology, which in case resisted , may cost a heavy price for the business. 7) Act upon the Change :- These days a entrepreneur can either publicly announce implementation of the change through various medium of communication such as social media platforms or the other way is to support the change through actions. One must have clarity in declaring the intent towards the change. 8) Never compromise your Ethics & Values : - Make sure that the change you want to implement does not come at the cost of compromising your basic values or the ethics which your business abides by. In no case, your fundamentals should be questioned by the change you want to bring in your business.