As small business owners, we often take on more than we can handle. Wearing all the hats running our businesses, as well as the other commitments we have (i.e. volunteer work, family, etc.), can sometimes leave us feeling overworked, frustrated, and stressed out.
Dealing With the Technophobic
Almost all of us in the industry deal with those that require support for tasks that we feel that they should be able to take care of on their own, whether it be an end user, a customer, or someone working in your department. How many times have you had to help someone create a shortcut on their desktop, change their default home page or print a document? Do you have a co-worker in your IS department that isn’t at the technical level that they should be? How often do you have a customer request support for the same problem every few months/weeks/days?
Dealing With Tough Customers
Several years ago, I did some consulting work for the sales organization of a large pharmaceutical company. These people were very concerned with the fact that one of their new products wasn’t selling very well. The product was a timed-release patch for managing pain that was used by chemotherapy patients. This product was an alternative to morphine and their clinical studies showed that it was a superior product because it was far less addictive and had fewer side effects. The problem was that the doctors weren’t prescribing it and these people wanted me to help them figure out why.
Difficuly in Dealing with Ambiguity
“Ambiguous” means having several possible meanings, interpretations or outcomes. Some people don’t like ambiguous situations where new variables can pop up any time, or where novel outcomes emerge rather than being designed from the beginning. It has to be Either/Or. One way or the other. They get nervous in the face of the unknown. They’ll say: “Let’s nail this down.” “Let’s choose one and go for it,” way before an idea has been fully developed. At some point that approach may be necessary. But rigid people like to get closure on one meaning, one interpretation, one outcome, as early as possible. And often that approach leaves out the contributions of other people. It certainly leaves out the possibility of novelty and serendipity.