Month
February 2008
Why Businesses Fail, Part 2: Know Yourself
Small business owners and managers may not have the six-figure incomes, paneled offices and private jets of corporate executives but they have the same responsibility—leadership.
Top managers do not spring into existence out of nowhere.
They are selected because they are suited for the job, and they are carefully groomed through extensive training and a highly structured career path. They don't just wake up one morning and find themselves in charge.Small business owners, on the other hand, often do, and many of them are ill-equipped for it.
It is critical that a person who is thinking about starting a business find out how well she fits the leadership role she will have to assume. Corporations use tools to evaluate candidates for management, and small business owners should do the same.
“Change occurs at a specific time and place in the external world and is over relatively quickly. Transition is the internal process of coming to grips with change. It has no timetable. Change is what happens when your boss calls you into his office at 4 PM on Friday to tell you your job has been eliminated. Transition is what you experience Monday morning.” (p. 76)
Copyright © 2014 Beverly Ryle