Small business; who needs them?

Small business; who needs them?

There is growing concern in the Small Business community of poor management of mental health issues, so why does it matter to big business?

While larger organizations may be effectively addressing mental health issues internally, it is common practice for larger organizations to outsource work to external contractors who generally have not undertaken effective training in using emotional intelligence.

Everyone is a good leader… until there is a problem… then you need options

There are now two generations who need options. One, didn’t get help, greed is good, be the best, nor did they get why process praise was important. Why should the need generation get what we didn’t; we’re OK! Right?

And the next generation coming through told they can be whatever they want to be, are shown the pinnacle to achieve, not the road to climb. How do they know what if feels like to know what you are doing is good enough, for now?

If you are not enough without it… you’ll never be enough with it… whatever ‘it’ is.

A dyadic relationship has developed between small and large businesses due to the rapid diffusion of innovation through the Small Business community. Larger companies contract work to fill skills gaps to maintain a competitive advantage in their market. Entrepreneurs identify developing skills gaps to provide solutions, and many entrepreneurs, unhappy with their current employment situation, leave larger organizations to start their own business and are likely to do work for competitors.

To put the problem in perspective, Moreton Bay Regional Council is the 5th largest local government area in Australia (in population) has reported that 95% of the businesses in their area have less than 5 employees. The Council stated they are attempting to attract large businesses to the area to create employment, but is a lack of skills in the area the problem?

This situation is nothing new: Bill Gates did work for IBM, Michael Dell worked for HP. It is becoming widely accepted, and competitors will often play on esteem sensitivities to attract “talent”.

You want to be the best, work with the best…

Be the best of someone better… for example, ME!

Does that sound familiar? What does it mean to be the best…

It is often the case that talent, in the form of contractors, are isolated (location and/or stature) from the organization’s employees, which inhibits both parties from developing a secure attachment required for a more effective working relationship.

Communication technology (including social media) does not appear to be overcoming this issue. In fact, technology may be making the situation worse as many employees demonstrate avoidance attachment characteristic and may see platforms like Facebook and invasion of privacy… However…

small business and the start-up community

… is heavily reliant on social media for their survival. For the first time last year, the number of businesses using Facebook overtook the number of businesses who use LinkedIn (the professional network). The line between what is personal (about the person, and generally who they are) and Private (thoughts and feeling in specific situations that may not relate to business) is seems irreversibly blurred.

This brings us back to the importance of small business to large corporations, and not just to manage the mental health issues as a community priority. The survival of a small business depends on the ability of the small business owner to use emotional intelligence and the three-general reason why a small business fails so often appear to correlate directly to Core Sensitivities of separation, esteem, and safety.

 the three general reasons business fail

I’m am yet to find business owners unwilling to accept that a business can fail because of poor strategy, poor cash flow, or poor products. This was a statement made by Steve Baxter at a meetup talk towards the end of 2016, well before he was appointed Queensland’s “Chief Entrepreneur”, so if the business community knows this is the case, why does it still happen?

It may be a “positivity bias”, which is the reason people that are “overly positive” have less ability to differentiate between a weak and strong argument. When given negative feedback, they just don’t see how it is relevant to them.

An example of this would be one given by well-known marketer Todd Sampson (from the Gruen Transfer TV show); For every 5 people that reach the summit of Mt Everest, 1 person dies trying, but that was not a concern for Todd because he was going to be one of the 5 that would make it.

When I hear business owners say “nobody does what I do” that just means to me they haven’t found someone that does; is that because they are not actually looking for some with a similar idea as it would be a negative to them?

Then the questions begin

Maybe, there is some reason others don’t do what you do? Maybe, it doesn’t work, but are you going to accept that? And if not, why not?

Do they truly believe that the Earth has the only life in the universe? And, if we are not, how would you know if you are not looking for it? Sounds like a very lonely existence. In 1898, we believed the chances of anything coming from Mars, was a million to one… but still… people believed they came.

Emotional intelligence is not about changing others. The application of EI is largely based on being self-aware of your own actions to change people’s reaction to you.

Emotional intelligence is not, however, a measure of intelligence, but not understanding your effect on others can lead to intelligent people doing seemly stupid things.

How do you know what you don’t know?

Want to kick start your social?

Get our weekly email we send to our startup program customers for 6 weeks free and do the work yourself. Try before you buy.

I agree to have my personal information transfered to MailChimp ( more information )

I will never give away, trade or sell your email address. You can unsubscribe at any time.