Many owners of small-to-medium sized businesses are less than satisfied with their lifestyle. Who can blame them? Most have a huge workload of operational and administrative tasks that essentially compare to having two jobs. Add the stress of being responsible for generating the income that supports each of the employee’s families, and it is not surprising that many companies fail. Those owners probably believe that they “succeeded”
As the complexity of running even a small business has grown in the last decade from government regulations, tax laws, health insurance costs, and personnel issues, the business coaching industry emerged to provide instant expertise to business owners. According to ActionCOACH founder and CEO Brad Sugars, the most frequent request his Business Coaches receive from new clients is not financial advice, or marketing, sales, HR, or any of the other business-related advice. Those clients simply ask the Business Coach to help them “change.”
“New clients are typically tired and frustrated,”
It’s not an easy task. A majority of people go through life virtually paralyzed because they are afraid of change – afraid to try something new or different. A good Business Coach will show the owner the components of change and the predictable barriers that will arise. Sugars provided a formula his company uses to enlighten new clients. His theory is that change can occur when:
Dissatisfaction X Vision < Resistance to Change
Studies have proven that a content person is very unlikely to change – even if circumstances are not good. Stereotypical examples might be the smoker, alcoholic, or obese person who will not change. However, when that person has a serious health problem arise from their lifestyle decisions, often their Dissatisfaction will rise sufficiently to spur change.
Yet, the dissatisfied person may still abide their suffering – unless they also have a Vision of a better situation, and a clear potential of achieving that vision. A child living in poverty may see beautiful mansions on television, but s/he might not be motivated to change without some evidence that obtaining that better life is possible.
When dissatisfaction and/or vision rise, the business owner can overcome the fear that causes Resistance to Change. Fear paralyzes and hampers one’s ability to grow, learn, and succeed in life. Most people have the ability to change the instant they become unhappy with their lives. Others have to wait for a stroke or another disaster before they realize the need to change. Somewhere in between is the happy medium that can empower the owners of small-to-medium sized businesses to affect positive changes in their lives.
