The Business Whisperer – Gaining Control the Right Way

Credit: Depositphotos.com

If you’re a dog lover, you’ve probably seen the TV show, The Dog Whisperer, starring Cesar Milan. His approach to gaining control over unruly dogs is persistence, fearlessness, calmness and a steady hand. Cesar’s motto is, “I rehabilitate dogs… I train people!”

Likewise, in business, rehabilitating an out-of-control business starts with training the business owner. Rehabilitating a business starts at the TOP!

To be successful, owners must be involved in the process of rehabilitating their business, from beginning to end. Changing management methods takes strong leadership!

Additionally, rehabilitating a business takes a humble mindset, fearless unwavering determination, and a willingness to change where necessary. Importantly, it takes a commitment to remove office politics out of the business.

The good news is, once all systems for ensuring stability are in place, owners are freed up to do those things envisioned when acquiring their small business. Also, with good systems in place, the business owner’s constant presence is no longer required for operations to run smoothly.

Make no mistake, rehabilitating a business is NOT for the faint of heart. Any small business owner will tell you, just owning and operating a business is not for the fearful; it takes courage.

The bottom-line is, the business owner must make THE DECISION to start training, and not turn back.

Tools for the Business Whisperer

The No. 1 tool needed for rehabilitating a business is a Business Process Management System.

Also needed, is a document management system for developing and sustaining an up-to-date Operations Manual. In short, without a comprehensive Operations Manual, employees and management will NOT be on the same page. That is the TOP reason for employee miscommunication and errors.

To be sure, with an easy-to-access Operations Manual, one that includes tools for quality assurance management, ANY business can reduce employee errors and miscommunication to near zero.

As a “business whisperer” myself, the most wonderful surprise in rehabilitating our business was removing clutter via LEAN METHODOLOGY, aka The 100% System of Cleanliness or 5S.

In all honesty, with these tools and systems implemented correctly, is when a business begins to thrive. In addition, a business prospers without the normal frustrations that occur in most growing small businesses.

The Rehabilitated Business

Imagine walking into your business in the morning, and not one person interrupts you with umpteen questions. Also, imagine your job and service errors at near zero. Now, imagine walking through your entire facility and not seeing one item out of place. In fact, everything is in place, down to a paper clip. As a business owner, how do you think you would feel? You may think you had died and gone to business heaven!

Interesting,  the “Dog Whisperer,” Cesar Milan, proves, with persistence and a SYSTEM for training,  he rehabilitates many seemingly hopeless cases.

The same is true for a business. Fact is, certain employees are difficult to manage, reluctant to change their ways; a constant test for a business owner. However, with the right systems in place, employees are managed by the systems; not micro-managed by the owner.

So, why remain stressed out working long hours hoping things will change when there are tools to fix business frustrations today.

Even as a “business whisperer” myself, I must LOUDLY proclaim…  

GREAT SYSTEMS WORK!