Some tips to help small business owners manage change

While change at small businesses can come in a variety of forms, owners can improve their chances of success by being strategic and empathic with staffers.Denise Rousseau, a professor of organizational behaviour at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College and Tepper School of Business, offers some basics that she calls Change Management 101. First, trust staffers to do what’s needed. Don’t micromanage them.“The more autonomy employees have, the easier change will be for them,” Rousseau says.And, Rousseau says, give staffers as much information as possible.“People are your change agents,” she says. “They’re going to be engaged in it, and they need to have some understanding of the context” of the change.