When you stop learning your small business starts dying, seems like an odd title for a blog post about small business, doesn’t it? However, it’s the truth, as a leader of a small business when you and your leadership team stop learning it’s the death knell of your business. Sticking with the ways of doing business you’ve always done will lead to a time when those methods are no longer viable, just ask Blockbuster, Polaroid, or Borders. The only thing that is constant in small business is change, and if you don’t keep up with the changes in your industry, you’ll soon be passed by and eventually forgotten. So, where does learning begin? It starts with you.
When You Stop Learning Your Small Business Starts Dying
You Can’t Know it All So Don’t be One
It’s impossible for anyone to know everything and that holds true for a small business as well. So, do you believe you know everything about your small business? You just might, but it also might be that your accountant, attorney, insurance carrier, marketing manager, installation crew, and facility maintenance crews know things you don’t. So, stop talking and start listening. Quit telling and begin asking. You never know what you might learn.
The 5 Hour Rule
Have you heard of this? It’s something Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and Oprah Winfrey ascribe to. It’s a simple plan—commit to five hours of learning per week. One hour a workday. The five-hour rule isn’t new, it was Ben Franklin’s plan, “Throughout Ben Franklin’s adult life, he consistently invested roughly an hour a day in deliberate learning. I call this Franklin’s five-hour rule: one hour a day on every weekday. Franklin’s five-hour rule reflects the very simple idea that, over time, the smartest and most successful people are the ones who are constant and deliberate learners.” — Inc.com: Why constant learners all embrace the 5-hour rule.
A friend began listening to educational podcasts on her daily commute, another is reading business books five or more hours per week. Take on online courses, attend seminars, go to class, but commit and follow through with the 5 hour rule.
Teach, Coach, Mentor
If you want to learn a subject inside out, then teach it. Anyone who has taught, trained, or coached has leaned this. The preparation to be a good instructor teaches trainers more than their students learn. A good mentor not only shares what they’ve learned including what you’ve taken away from their mistakes but also learns from their mentee. Mentee’s share new perspectives and ask questions that mentors may have never considered.
Fail
Wait What?? Yes, fail. If you never fail, you’re not trying hard enough. The key to failing is to learn from it. Failure might be the greatest teacher there is and the fear of failure a close second.
In his book, Failure: The Secret to Success (which I highly recommend) Author Robby Slaughter, quotes John Powell, “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing” – John Powell
Leading Your Business in Learning
If you’re not leading your small business by learning then who is? Hopefully, someone or several someone’s on your team, because if not you might be in more trouble than you know. I’m reminded of an acquittance who owned an offset print shop. And although he delivered a good product the business failed after more than 25 years. Just before he closed his doors, and shared that he didn’t know what to do, because online stores were putting him out of business. He didn’t have a website. Looking at it now it’s easy for all of us to identify what he should’ve done, isn’t it? But consider this if you don’t commit to continuous learning you might end up exactly like the print shop owner and never see the end coming.
How Can I Help?
I like to help people and organizations, but I have three criteria I consider before taking an assignment – I believe in what the organization stands for, I know I can help, and it looks like fun. If you have any questions, Contact Me.
Does your business have a management training plan? Many organizations, large and small, use my book, The New Manager’s Workbook a crash course im effective management, as the basis for their leadership development program.
