Business Concern

How often have you wanted to have a conversation – a difficult conversation on a tough topic – and the answer you get from the person you need to have the conversation with is: “I will talk to you about that for five minutes tomorrow” or something equivalent. From this response you know the conversation is unlikely to occur, and, if it does, it will not be given the attention it deserves. A critical conversation is one where a meaningful exchange of information and opinion occurs; it is also likely to be a difficult conversation to have. Unfortunately, everyday conventions of conversation and emotions of the moment often serve to divert and prevent critical conversations.

Each business owner should be aware of the principles of conducting a critical and difficult conversation so that those conversations result in an increased understanding of the values and feelings of the other owners. With this competency in place, the group planning process, required for effective strategic planning, is possible.

Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often have hierarchical structures which emphasize decision-making as a product of a small group consisting of the owners of the business who make the decisions without documentation. Much of what I do as a consultant is facilitating group decision-making and implementing dynamic planning (planning on a format that communicates planning decisions to all stakeholders as decisions are made). What often obstructs my efforts is a misunderstanding about what constitutes leadership and how leaders make decisions.

How do you make consistently good decisions? There are many who say: “trust your gut.” Maybe this saying is another way of advising you to pay attention to your feelings and emotions or experience when making a decision. But what about those who trust their gut and avoid part or all of the decision-making process? When in the decision-making process should you “trust your gut”?

As with other human endeavors, managing a business consists of having critical conversations. The essence of effective group decision-making is having these conversations with those who have knowledge, expertise, and experience.

A critical conversation is one where a meaningful exchange of information and opinion occurs; that critical conversation is also likely to be an emotional and therefore difficult conversation. Unfortunately, everyday conventions of conversation and emotions of the moment often serve to divert and prevent critical conversations from taking place.
Even over years of being in business together, many business owners have not had critical conversations, or, if they have, the conversations have gone badly. In many cases despite prior failed attempts, owners can become aware of the basic skills of critical communication and facilitate critical conversations.

Does the fact that one has power also indicate that one is wise? Usually, it takes wisdom and perhaps luck to accomplish business success. Correct decisions are made to enable business success. A founder of a successful business acquires power. If that power indicates wisdom, what will limit continued business success? We know from many failed businesses that when power is conflated with wisdom, the quality of decision-making is diminished.

The correct setting of a goal is of utmost importance and often overlooked in the planning process. Usually, a goal is set by the policy-making group, often dominated by owners in a small to medium-sized business (SMB). There is nothing more demoralizing to all business groups than a bad goal. The group that would execute the actions to reach the goal will immediately recognize the reality gap and ignore the goal. The group implementing the actions to be taken to reach the goal will be frustrated. The policy-making group will be disappointed that the values leading to the setting of the goal will not be honored. More importantly, a bad goal creates communication gaps between the groups that can stop the planning process, which otherwise could function to meet a reasonable goal.

We can get full agreement about the difficulty of predicting the future. So for our purposes it would be correct to refer to the future as the unknown.

There is one thing we know about this unknown future: for the long term it will not turn out well. The future of living beings is death. According to the Small Business Administration, the average duration of a small to medium-sized businesses (SMB) business in the United States is less than five years. We could go on.

As owners of small to medium-sized businesses (SMB’s), the best practice is to plan for the future. Yet, most SMB’s do not have written planning in place. The real reason for the lack of written planning is fear of the future.

Productivity through team performance is improved when the team is cohesive. When the team is stressed with interpersonal conflict, remote work, and missed goals, team performance will suffer. Concentrating on how goals are set and continually revised will improve team cohesion.

he bad news is that a goal for your business has not been met. What is the best way to approach the failure to meet a goal?

In my experience, the good news is that there was a goal set in the first place. We have a place to start. The setting of a goal indicates a presence of a decision-making process that determined the goal and implemented a plan to accomplish the goal. That activity enables a very important inquiry: what occurred in the planning process that caused the goal not to be met?

Think back to the last stupid thing someone told you to do. Your first thought: does the person have the right to tell you to do this stupid thing. If the answer is yes, then the thought is: how can I get around the stupidity. If the people who report to you have no respect for your decisions (they think you are telling them to do stupid things), then they will look for ways around what they perceive is the stupidity. Put another way, if your decisions are not perceived as good decisions by the people who are to execute those decisions, there is a good chance your decisions will not be effective. This will be true in spite of all strict requirements of enforcement that may be put in place. Humble leaders who do not fear losing control are often the leaders most in control of their organizations.