Just touching on yesterday’s post relating to creativity. Where does it exist in a small business? Everywhere I guess and in places you least expect. Perhaps in the creative process, those best positioned are the people that are ignorant, young, new to the business and inexperienced . They don’t know how things are supposed to be, they are not blinded by what happens at the moment. They haven’t fallen into the trench of existing beliefs and don’t carry the baggage other people might.

Being new and inexperienced you see things differently, see things other people have failed to notice and they imagine ideas that other people who are narrow, focused and experts just can’t. They don’t know what they are supposed to see, are not organisational captive and, in many respects, haven’t had the life sucked out of them by systems and procedures.

Occasionally, being ignorant is bliss, seeing new ways of doing old things, having a different perspective and thinking about ideas your company has never thought about.

Stimulating creative thinking in a small business is not the most common thing to do. Most entrepreneurs generally have most of the ideas…or do they??? Once a business has grown to a certain size, not all the answers or great innovation will come from the founder. Quite often us small business owners think we are the fountain of all knowledge.

Challenging the people that work in our business is one of our fundamental roles but how many times a day, week, year do we go out of our way to do it. Creating an environment where our people feel they can spark their imagination and then develop their ideas is crucial to future success. Here’s a few ideas off the top of my head….

1. Recruit people who make you feel uncomfortable, people who will challenge you and your customers

2. Always, always recruit happy people and those that have the right attitude. Technical skill can be learned

3. Set some of your people a task of finding new uses for old ideas

4. Give your newest recruit the oldest problem your business has, then give them the time and resources to solve it. Believe me they will

5. Create a culture that rewards success and failure but doesn’t accept inaction

Don’t forget, great ideas come from the creation of dumb, stupid and impractical ones too!

As managers of small businesses we are constantly fighting and struggling against the flow. Customers, staff, suppliers, competitors and shareholders are all competing for our attention. Our minds can get buried in the day to day operations, the immediate dangers and the problems we think needed solving yesterday. Our concentration becomes the floor rather than the horizon, and what we should be focusing on disappears into oblivion. Just to help you think about things ask yourself these few questions:

Reflect on how well you  focus on

Opportunities rather than problems?

Purpose rather than tasks? 

Meaningful rather than money?

Real work rather than busy work?

Long term rather than short term?

Flexibility rather than control?

Trust rather than doubt?

Positive rather than cynicism? 

Then think about where you need to be spending more time. It may mean some change, it may mean changing a lot, but, being able to change where we spend our time as managers is a reflection on our ability, first, to reflect on our own growth needs, but also on where we create the most value.

Even in a small business communication can be difficult, getting to the bottom of things should be quite easy. Surely it’s just a matter of asking? Call me old fashioned but plain old simple human to human conversation has to be the best way of gauging how things are going.

Instead of getting your people to complete people satisfaction surveys, or have them fill in complicated bench mark stuff…..cut to the chase, get to the core of problem. Just ask your people two questions; what are the things around here that bug them, piss them off, make their life difficult? Then ask them what doesn’t. What things make their job easier? What things are going right? Sometimes an exceptional way of getting people to work in teams….

The important thing is to act on the things that are causing problems. Keep it simple just ask.

Leaders get distracted easily. Five of the leaders biggest timewasters are:

1. Getting the right information at the right time

2. Budgeting

3. Playing email tag

4. Sorting out stupid, senseless people problems

5. Attendance at internal meetings

In fact the above list is all management rubbish. Leaders get focused on the mundane stuff and quickly become less productive. In a small business that can result in limited growth. Five things leaders really should be concentrating on:

1. Creating loyal customers

2. Creating loyal, energised and productive people

3. Attracting new customers with little investment

4. Reducing costs as much as possible

5. Building the credibility and reputation of the business, perhaps that’s brand development

Looks a hell of a lot more exciting and stimulating to me. Which one adds more value? Which one actually makes a significant difference to business performance? Leaders need to be getting right off their backside/ass to focus their attention on the second list. Limited growth could just be a problem of the past!

Leadership not management is now the key to driving out more production, outstanding creative work and new ideas. So why are we small businesses having so many problems? Well we’re selling more intellect and less material. The emphasis today is on managing the human imagination not production lines. Our peoples expectations have changed but ours haven’t and our customer’s expectations have changed but perhaps ours have not! Trust, respect and loyalty are missing and we only have ourselves to blame.

There are some key concerns….many small businesses have done just the opposite of what they should have done – order and conformity rather than free thinking and risk taking. Many small businesses could not have frustrated their people any more if they had tried to and as small business owners/managers we are so reluctant to let go. It all leads to limited growth and mediocre performance in many cases.

So, small businesses will need to be able to manage change better in the future. They will have to be less organised and less controlled by a single brain. Founders, managing directors beware! Growth will be limited not by production or developing the latest product but by your ability to recruit and retain the best people in the business.

The widespread trend towards interconnectedness will accelerate continuously leading us towards being more nimble, innovative and continuously self modifying. Small, autonomous, flexible businesses will be the ideal structure in the future and your people will have a share equity in those same businesses.

We’re going to have to share responsibility, demand accountability and drive towards common goals. Our jobs as Directors will be less about control and more about disrupting the status quo.

A little exercise……Sit down with two or three colleagues (preferably motivated ones) and launch informally into a discussion around:

WHO ARE WE?

WHAT DO WE STAND FOR?

HOW DO WE STAND OUT FROM OUR COMPETITORS?

WHAT EXPERIENCE DO WE WANT OUR CUSTOMERS TO HAVE?

Honest answers only please! With those same two or three colleagues map out what a great (the business your’e in) would look like? What should it feel like when customers engage with you? Make a list of what you need to do, then go ask some of your clients the same thing…….

Times are tough, the buzzword of the moment is recession and the strong economic climate looks like it’s taking a battering and for some time to come. Customer confidence is wobbling, cash is tight and we are all feeling more than a pinch. So its easy to take a knee jerk reaction and try to cut costs, yet perhaps thats the easy route and a route to nothing. So what are you going to do?

The best answer is before you do anything…….. ‘think.’ Here I offer some thoughts:

1. It’s a long haul – whilst there may be some quick hits you can implement, make sure you don’t cut costs too much, an anorexic business ain’t going to get you far in the long term. Being overstretched will only work for so long.

2. Understand what creates the true value in your business. Is it the staff? Is it employees? Is is your products? Is it your customers? Whoever provides the value, they are providing the profit and they need supporting it’s as simple as that.

3. Differentiate, differentiate, differentiate. Get to grips with why people buy from you, invest in marketing and sales tactics that communicate that and if you have creative thinkers…..these are the last people you get rid of in these tough times.

4. Lead your team through this period. Don’t make it tougher for your staff. Encourage, engage, motivate and inspire them to become better at what they do and more productive. If they are led with those words in mind they will come up with the solutions and make it easier for you. Keep morale high and don’t start slashing expenses, bonuses without doing it properly. Strong, clear communication is priceless.

5. Concentrate on customers even more. Identify your top 20% of customer performers ie: those contributing to profit, growth and cash and go visit them. The last thing you want to do is lose customers at this time because in the panic you forgot about them. Set targets for increased spend from these customers. If your top 20% of customers spend 10% more this next year, what difference would that make?

6. Do something now. Get on with it and don’t put it off…you don’t want it biting you on the bum in the next few months. Think, understand and prepare for the actions required. Don’t let decisions be forced on you and think long term solutions.

Looking back on these points, perhaps it’s timely reminder that tightening the old belt can sometimes be good for us!

One of my most popular slides in the seminars I deliver is from the Leadership Challenge course we designed a couple of years ago so I thought I would share it with you. A few delegates reminded me the other day how it made a difference to them!

In an interconnected world where boundaries are increasingly cultural not geographic, where we are managing the human imagination not muscle power, where expectations are hugely different from 30 years ago and where change is spirally out of control, it’s important to understand and practice those things that help leaders of people make a contribution, add value and bring that extra dynamism to the organisation that ensures order, yet creativity at the same time.

So what is the difference between managers and leaders, well here is my stab at it:

1. Managers does things right, the leader does the right thing
2. Managers focus on the now, leaders focus on the future
3. The manager seeks control, leaders relish change
4. Managers appeal to reason not emotion, leaders appeal to both
5. A manager will use control, a leader relies on trust because they have created that culture
6. Managers organise and will often do the work, leaders engage people to do the work
7. Managers will often apply incentives (typically financial), leaders inspire
8. A manager will use the official approach, leaders will always appeal to the common approach
9. The managers goal is efficiency, the leaders, effectiveness and added value
10. A manager will often use positional authority, a leader personally influences
11. A manager will ask what contribution their staff are making, a leader will ask him/herself, what contribution am I making first
12. A manager will say they have all the answers, a leader will truly believe that together they have all the answers

I could go on and, okay, I accept that occasionally you have to be both, particularly in a small business. But and its a big but, if you are the head, director, owner, MD, of a small business, you should be behaving as a leader at least 80% of the time with your managers/supervisors, employees behaving like managers.

Behaving like a leader gives you time, time to catch your breath and think about where your heading. What the purpose is, the true purpose of your business and it gives you chance to stay ahead of the strategic curve and manage the rapid change more effectively.