From The Business Coaching Chronicles Confrontation Is A Good Thing

One of the things most self-employed businessowners, entrepreneurs and solo professionals dislike is confrontation.  What I have seen time and again in my personal business coaching practice is that avoiding confrontation very often causes problems to fester, grow bigger and explode.

Confrontation The Wrong Way

I had a client with seven employees.  One employee was the manager over the others.  She was confrontational with everyone, including the owners who were in a partnership.  But, no one confronted her.  When confrontation is one way it really is a form of bullying.

This business, which had been thriving before her arrival, started to slowly head in the wrong direction.  Employee morale was bad.  The owners saw what was happening but refused to stand up to her.  Her bullying and confrontational tactics were about her power, not an effort to improve the business.

Confrontation The Right Way

Confrontation, when used to advance ideas or improvements is good.  In fact, you cannot have improvement without questions that confront the status quo.  But, when confrontation is purely about personal control it is bad for all concerned, including the person who initiates it.

Small business success, let alone personal success cannot be achieved without others.  Confrontation the right way is about “What’s right” not “Who’s Right.”  When it is about “Who’s right” it is impossible to build a team and to accomplish goals over the long-term.

No matter how much online training, corporate training, business training, business courses or business skills training you have had confrontation of the wrong type is a difficult challenge.

Confrontation-The Solution

Too often, people let other people run over them because they do not want confrontation.  All this does is encourage the person who is doing the confronting or bullying to do it more.  Starting your own business or running a small business has enough challenges but I can assure you as a personal business coach you must have the right mindset about confrontation.

It is hard to accept but confrontation can be a good thing.  Confrontation is about clarity.  If you think about it, clarity is hard to come by without opposing points of view on complicated and sometimes even simple matters.

Once the business owners I was collaborating with understood that they needed clarity and that confrontation was the means to achieve it they took action.  The bullying employee was given a performance review with specific times and incidents where her behavior was not appropriate.

Interestingly, her behavior got worse after the review.  Then we knew it was not about her doing a good job but about her having power.  But there was a dividend from the confrontation between the owners and the employee.

The other employees saw that the owners were willing to stand up to her.  As a result, they started coming forward one by one and telling the owners what was really going on with the business and how she was not doing her job.  What they related happened to be true.

The employees confronted the owners and this started the process of bringing clarity.  Things became very clear to the point where the owners fired the employee.  With this one employee gone turnover decreased over the next year by 70%.  Customer satisfaction surveys were increasingly positive.  And the best part, the business was a happy place and more profitable.

The next time you are thinking of avoiding confrontation remember this.  Confrontation, more often than not is your pathway to clarity and a better future.

Author bio: More detailed information can be found at www.thehoustonbusinesscoach.com Created by Scott Steve. The definitive guide to a better business and a better you for entrepreneurs, solo professionals and self-employed individuals striving to reach the top and who are serious about their success. 

Action : You May Talk The Talk But You Must Walk The Walk

Action is the most important key to success.  Think about it.  Whether you are a self-employed business owner, entrepreneur, solo professional or an individual you are ultimately measured by your results which come from the action you take.

Action—It’s The Start

There is an old saying that states, “Learning without application is nothing.”  As a personal business coach I had a client who was a phenomenal learner.  But taking action was another story.

He would talk the talk.  But he would hesitate to walk the walk.  In a way, he was always tieing his shoes which kept him from walking.  Sometimes he would almost start something.  What was holding him back?  His fear of failure was great.

As a self-employed business owner he had experienced some good success.  The problem was that his business was growing and he wasn’t.  And, if he didn’t start taking some action things were going to go negative very quickly.

Action Cures Fear

There are many times I have been reluctant to take action because of my fear of failure.  But when you are running asmall business or starting up your own business you have to develop a mechanism to overcome that fear and to take your business and you to the next level.

The key for me is to remember the following.  I also got my client to memorize this.  “You are not judged by the number of times you fail, but by the number of times you succeed. And the number of times you succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times you can fail and keep trying.”

Take action.  It is the only way to overcome fear and it is part of the process for success.  You will find out what works and move forward.

Action Is The Bridge Between Involvement And Commitment

Very often I see people confuse involvement with commitment.  Commitment means taking a course of action and holding yourself and others accountable for the results.

Involvement is talking about action and results.  Involvement, more often than not, is the first step to commitment.  But only with action will you create the bridge between involvement and commitment.

Action Is The Bridge Between Strategy And Implementation

Smallbusiness success has many strategies.  But without action they are just that, strategies.  In a way, this is just another variation on involvement and commitment.  Action is the bridge between strategy and implementation.

My client was great at strategy and short on implementation.  As he turned his thinking around some amazing things started to happen in his business.

He started to regain positive momentum in many areas.  His employees were happier.  He was happier.  His fear was no longer a mad dog driving him into a corner.  His desire to take action and taking it became the mad dog that was driving his fears into a corner.

His self-esteem increased.  He was more likeable.  His employees started to see him as a leader instead of someone who was afraid to do anything that might bring progress.

Yes, action cures fear.  It is the bridge between involvement and commitment, between strategy and implementation.

Most important is the fact that action is the key to having a better business and a better life.  Take control of your business and life.  Talk the talk but make sure to walk the walk. Take action.