Change Management - Small Business Executive Team Turnover

Change happens we all know that, but when it happens in a small company, a growing company with your executive team that's when the challenges really set in. There are many books on change management and the problems which occur with organizational capital on corporate boards. Still, with a proper leadership structure in place, they are able to deal with these things with just a little bit of intervention, and the right consultant to help them with the transition.

All too often small companies perhaps only 50 to 100 employees going through such a challenge can wreak havoc on quarterly profits and earnings. This means layoffs, lost sales, and curtailing future expansion plans. It also gives a leg up for the competition, as during the transitional chaos the company becomes vulnerable to any changes in the marketplace. Changes such as competitor sales, new technologies, new market entrants, or additional regulatory rules being made. When a company fails it's usually a comedy of errors, several things go wrong, it is not just one thing.

In that regard perhaps the worst possible scenario is to be caught flat-footed in any change management crisis where the executive team has turnover, or the loss of one of their key players. You see, philosophically speaking it's just like a chain. If every piece of the chain is strong the chain holds. If one of the links are weak the chain cannot support the weight, and that's when the big letdown occurs. Often the changes in management are known or suspected in advance, and that allows time for a strategic transitional change.

The big problems occur when it is unexpected. When one team member leaves the company unannounced to take up work in another industry, pursue personal interests, or decides to leave after a personality dispute abruptly. Then there are the issues where one of the small business executives dies, and there is really no one ready to fill their shoes including perhaps their right-hand man or assistant. So what's the answer? The answer is not only to anticipate that there will be changes, but to consider what to do in the unfortunate potential eventuality that any one member of the team or even a couple decide to leave.

Mapping out a plan in advance of what to do, who to move up the ladder is essential. Also making sure the up-and-coming individuals who are next in line are trained and ready to fill those shoes. All this can be done in advance preventing any type of change management crisis. The problem is most companies don't do this even though they should. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

resource: http://ezinearticles.com/?Change-Management---Small-Business-Executive-Team-Turnover&id=7228244

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