Navigating Workplace Challenges: From Embers to Infernos

Are you constantly putting out workplace fires? Tune in to The Water Trough to learn how to identify and extinguish those disruptive flames before they grow! Listen now with Ed Drozda, The Small Business Doctor. #WorkplaceWellness #BusinessTips

Transcript

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Welcome to The Water Trough, where we can't make you drink, but we will make you think. My name is Ed Drozda, the Small Business Doctor, and I'm really excited you chose to join me here as we discuss topics that are important for small business folks just like you. If you're looking for ideas, inspiration, and possibility, you've come to the right place. Join us as we take steps to help you create the healthy business that you've always wanted. Hi folks, this is Ed draws to the small business doctor, and I wanna welcome you back to the water trough. Today I wanna talk about workplace fires. Oh, I'm not referring to physical fires where the building is burning down or physical damage has been done. Now I'm talking about the sorts of events that, have an impact on the integrity upon the sustainability of our business. Little episodes such as miscommunication, workplace conflict. Things that are capable of causing disruptions within a business or that can actually have a deleterious impact on the survivability of our business. These are the types of fires I'm talking about, and they can range anywhere from smoldering embers to raging infernos. Have you ever asked yourself or heard somebody else say, for that matter, I spend too much time putting out fires. Ah, are your fires burning outta control? Do they tend to recur? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you're spending too much time in damage control. First and foremost, we have to have the ability to identify that a fire exists. What type of workplace fires are you dealing with? Is it conflict, miscommunication, poor communication, lack of standing. A communication issue between customer and the business itself. Another question you might pose is, how do you manage these fires? Or said another way? What type of extinguishers do you have the number of folks that are spreading and mismanaging their fires is quite substantial. If you are one of them, Consider this. The cost is exorbitant, not to mention a waste of. You don't have to be dealing with these things, at least at an accelerated level. You can be more preemptive and prevent damage from getting outta control. Here's a couple steps to consider the first of these. Identify the real fires and extinguish them at the source. You have to know what you're dealing with in order to provide effective management. Let's take for example, a communication issue between yourself and your staff. Now, the symptoms are pretty obvious. People aren't getting things done, They're not following directions. They may be indifferent and things of that sort. Knowing that symptoms such as this suggest a communication issue should be a signal to you that you've gotta take some action. okay. It is a real fire. Perhaps just a smoldering ember, but it will turn into a raging inferno when that level of miscommunication or discommunication gets to be so great that people actually stop working effectively. So you have to be able to sense what is going on. You have to identify the things that really need your attention. and then you have to find the actual source, in this case, the miscommunication. Let's say it began with you. You've taken a rather alo approach to the way that you disseminate requests for things to get done. Assuming that people know what to do and understand what you're asking for, well, you may just have to go back and reconsider that. That has to be done in a different way. You want also to be able to identify and dispatch the false alarms. You have better things to do than to waste your time on things that aren't really problems at all. Going back again to the communication issue, let's say you find two people who are bickering over some rather nonsensical thing, now there may be an underlying reason, that's giving rise to a nonsensical topic, becoming I. But then again, it may just be one of those situations where people are in fact being nonsensical. Identify and dispatch those false alarms. Don't waste your time on them, okay? Because you're gonna have enough real fire alarms that you're gonna have to deal with. And while you're busily trying to manage a false alarm, a real fire may develop and grow. And finally most important of all, prevent fires from starting whenever possible. Now, you're probably saying, Well, I can't possibly know everything that is out there, everything that might happen, I can't possibly be able to, assess everything in advance, and that's not quite what I'm talking about. What I'm saying is build a culture of awareness in your organiz. Make it a commitment and a challenge for yourself and for your employees to carefully observe the goings on in the workspace. Take steps to identify those things that have the potential to turn in to major business issues. I'm not talking rocket science here. I'm not talking something that is complicated, nor am I talking about something that is very time consuming. It is a matter of awareness, if something doesn't seem quite right, take steps immediately to address it. That's it. Take steps to address it. Bring it to the attention of someone who's more appropriate if need be. But by all means, don't ignore those little signals, those little sparks that could lead to a tremendous workplace fire. So this is Ed draws to, I am wishing you a very healthy business and hoping that your fire extinguishers are functional, but that you don't need too much of. I'll see you next time at the Water Trough.