Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

As a management consultant, I have the pleasure of working with business leaders and executives from diverse backgrounds and industries.  However, when it comes to business management, they all have one thing in common. FEAR.

Not the typical nail biting type of fear, but a more subtle, less obvious kind. The kind that makes otherwise sharp, cutting edge leaders content to focus on their business “hay-day” rather than addressing the current challenges facing the company. This type of fear hinders growth and causes organizational strife and discontentment. This type of fear is the fear of Organizational Change.

Business leaders who have succumb to their fear of Organizational Change ignore the warning signs that the company is in trouble and refuse to acknowledge that it may be time to alter the way they do business. These leaders mistakenly think that if they keep pushing harder, working longer and stay the course, business will get better and managing it will get easier.

Not so. As we all know, doing the same thing expecting different results is the very essence of insanity. And, since change is the only constant in business, a leader who is avoiding change is, in effect, avoiding growth. It is impossible to grow without changing.

Leaders who believe they can operate a multi-million dollar company the same way they operated a million dollar company are in for a rude awakening. Larger companies require tighter the internal controls, formal reporting systems, and routine audits to detect current or potential problems.

If you’re leading a growing company, is your organization changing in line with your growth? Is it time to reevaluate how you do business to make way for further increase? Do you need to face your fear and make some Organizational Changes?

If so, what’s stopping you?

 What do you think, we want to hear from you?