Today, I want to talk to you about change.
Change is inevitable, but it can also be one of the hardest things that any of us have to deal with and it’s a topic that I just don’t think people talk about enough.
Now, what I’ve found is that some people seem to handle change really easily and others really struggle with it.
For some, just the idea of change can send people into a full on tailspin. And when you’re confronted with changing jobs or getting a new boss, it can take months or even years to settle into a new routine or position.
Difficulty with change can often get more pronounced as we get older. You’ll often see it in the form of routines that people find almost impossible to move away from. We probably all know people, and might even recognise it in ourselves, who have to eat or drink at a certain time of the day, or they have their little routines or whatever it is.
And listen, there’s nothing wrong with routine in and of itself. Routines can help us be really productive and I personally like a routine because it has a real sense of structure to it. What I want to focus on today though, is how we respond to change and how we manage when it really impacts on our lives in business.
So, if you think about this, being able to cope with change and new ways of doing things is a really essential skill and certainly one that all entrepreneurs need to deal with.
Let’s take a bit of a deeper dive into it and let me share with you some of my strategies that might hopefully make you a bit more resilient, a bit more adaptable and get you a little bit more comfortable with change.
First of all, not all change is the same. I think about change as being in one of two categories. The first one can be self-initiated change, so this is something that you’ve decided to change for yourself.
It might be that you’ve decided to change jobs or move house. These could be huge changes in your life, but the critical element is that it’s change that you’ve been in control of, that you have initiated.
The second kind of change is externally initiated change. In simple terms, this is responding to change that somebody else has initiated so dealing with something that wasn’t your decision.
Now it could be a similar situation whereby you’re starting a new job or moving house, but the difference here is that it wasn’t your choice or your idea. The fact that the need for change wasn’t your idea can have a huge impact on how you feel about the change and how you feel about it influences how you’re going to cope with it.
Now, when something is your decision, it’s often quite empowering. Yes, it can still be hard work, but you’re doing it for yourself and that can give you the motivation and can really empower your energy around it. But when change is coming because somebody else has decided it’s needed, then often the result can cause a little bit of resentment.
Chances are that when this is the case, they will stick in that mindset and end up finding change at best difficult and at worst, impossible.
So now we know the difference between self-initiated and externally initiated change. I want to talk about two more factors that can dramatically affect how you can cope with that change.
The first factor is shock. Did the need for change come as a shock to you or was it anticipated?
Let me give you an example from the business world. Say you’re running your own business and the budget comes out and the chancellor announces that all businesses are going to have to pay X amount more tax. You had no idea it was going to happen and you end up going into a massive tailspin. And, often with that comes the inability to move forward or think forward or to take action.
Now imagine that the same thing happens, but you and your accountant were anticipating it. You’ve already put a plan in place for the business so whilst it’s going to have some serious implications on your profits, on your cashflow for example, you’re able to go and execute your plan immediately with no or minimal disruption to your day-to-day operations.
The fact that the news and the consequential change that was required to handle it was not a shock makes a huge impact on your ability to move forward.
The second factor which can dramatically influence the impact of change is benefit.
So when I say benefit, what I mean is will the change result in a good positive outcome for you? Again, it’s always easy to explain with an example.
I’ve got a friend who used to live on the outskirts of London, they had a young family and used to commute into the city every day for work. All of a sudden, they were told that they needed to relocate if they wanted to keep their job, but the relocation was right on the South Coast.
That meant moving house, leaving friends, kids changing schools. It was a big change. It was one that came unexpectedly and was externally initiated so it had all the ingredients to be a really, really difficult one to manage.
So how do you think they got on? Actually, they got on brilliantly.
Although it came as a bit of a shock, they could then see that the change was going to deliver some really great benefits for the whole family. The children would start in new, smaller schools, the house was only a few minutes away from the beach. The commute to work was shorter and they could get a dog.
The situation had all of these other benefits that they hadn’t considered. Don’t get me wrong, there was still a huge amount of work involved, but everybody could see that it could end up being better for them. As a result, they handled it a lot more positively.
We’re about five years on from that now, and it’s definitely proven to have been a change for the good. Just remember, not all change is bad change.
So what can you learn from all of this?
First of all, we need to accept that change is inevitable and accepting change will help you to start and prepare for it.
The next thing about what things might change in the future, this will reduce the shock and therefore it will be less debilitating.
Now finally, when you’re confronted with change, I want you to look for the positives. You would be surprised about how often the expression, every cloud has a silver lining, is actually proven to be true.