In a seminar last month there were several people in a discussion concerning how they disliked changes and how it hurt associate morale. I immediately realized this was to become an unexpected additional class. Our job is to assist businesses to grow and I had just observed a real problem issue.
Human nature resists change as we are comfortable in our home, with our selected friends and our family. We tend to like a certain make of vehicles, firearms and boats to name a few. We have used these products because as we were growing up they are the same products our families used.
In business you have to understand and buy into changes, if you don't you will not have a profitable business. I am sure many of you are disagreeing with me so let's use some real examples. Let's start with telephones, what selection you had 5 years ago, 3 years ago and what about today.
Companies that designed and built phones refusing to make changes are out of business, Televisions from color, LCD, PIP, Plasma, Blue Ray, 3D.Society is constantly changing at a rapid pace. If you failed to offer these products and train your team on them your former customers are going elsewhere. Think of the changes in furniture, lawn mowers and microwaves to name a few. I could go on for ever about changes and the demand from customers. I suggest you remember those words "Demand from your customer".
Change is exciting and demanding and will be accepted precisely how a leader presents it. If you complain and fight it your team will do exactly the same thing but if you are excited that you offer the latest and greatest for your customers your team will follow your lead.
Think about the excitement generated each year concerning what the new cars or trucks are going to look like. Auto makers spend millions of dollars advertising the new changes because society demands to have something that is better than was available in the past.
Your customer frequency and retention will grow as long as you can provide them with the latest new products and professional associates to explain them so the customer understands. So the next time you feel changes are a bad thing, give it a second thought.
Leadership Roles Concerning Change