Change Management Archives - Page 2 of 2

Go Beyond Your Comfort Zone

24th September 2015

Without question there are a relatively small number of people who are truly brilliant and just naturally gifted. They find it very easy to excel at stuff, either because they are just naturally talented or extremely intelligent. But what about the rest of us? Well for most of the ‘rest’, we probably all have the ability to perform well beyond the limits that we accustom ourselves to. It’s too easy not to notice that day after day, week after week you are just plodding along, quite happily achieving at the level you have for some time and continually doing the same stuff more than adequately. In the context of your professional development; well why not? It works. You work hard and put in a good days performance. At the end of the month you get paid and off you go again for another month.

But is that really good enough? Yes your boss may be relatively pleased, but are you really pushing yourself to, or beyond, your limits. Could you not achieve more? We all have ideas and dreams that we would love to be able to carry out. Set up our own business; write a book; get promoted; learn to ski; run a marathon… the list is as endless as there are people on the planet. Sadly some of us don’t have the means (time and money) in order to make these things happen. But many of us do. So why don’t we? I can hear the excuses. I don’t have the time; it’s risky; I need to save up some pennies; I am not good enough; I am not smart enough… At this point a powerful quote from James Rohn (1930-2009: entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker) comes to mind: “If you want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.”

I think quite often the thing that stops many people (at least those with the means) is fear. For example, fear that they will make a fool of themselves, fear that it won’t work or it will fail, and fear that their piers may react negatively towards them. Look at many of the successful people around you. What makes them different? What are the secrets to their success? Are they really that much smarter than you are? I doubt that they are. The one thing that they did probably have, ahead of their success, was courage. Courage to actually go and do whatever their idea was and accept the consequences, good or bad. The courage to stop making excuses and actually make something happen. To actually make a difference. Sometimes we just get so caught up in the, “How will I feel if it all goes wrong?”, we forget to ask ourselves, “How will I feel, many years from now, if I never try?” So lead by example and for the right ideas at the right time go beyond that comfort zone. Show others around you, that you can be capable of great things. And who knows, it may not be too long before others look at you and wonder; “What were the secrets to their success?”

Leaders: Use Your Ears

27th July 2015

So what makes for strong leadership? When we think about what leadership is all about, often we consider personalities who are larger than life, strong opinions, loudly spoken and lots more. Many of us may feel that we would never either be capable of, or in some respects even wish to be like that. However, how many of us would think of strong leadership in the terms of the opposite personality types (e.g. considerate, thoughtful, quietly spoken). It may interest you to know that many strong leaders within business are successful because their approach, at least at times, falls into what others might perceive as being the total opposite of what being a strong effective leader is all about.

In part, being an effective leader is all about ensuring that your team and your business are performing at its highest level. And here is where some larger than life; never admit they are wrong; showing weakness is a weakness, leaders totally miss the point. They are more interested in maintaining their own stature of self-importance than they are in embracing the knowledge, the skills and the ideas they have within their team. The more you create an environment for open and free constructive thinking within your business, the more you and your business are likely to benefit going forward. There are lots of approaches you can take to support you in this respect and here I am going to touch upon one for you to consider.

As I was so often told in my early working life; you have two ears and one mouth – use them in that proportion. This is so true, and no matter who you are, or what level you are operating at, for goodness sake, speak less and listen more. Now some may think that they are already good listeners and I am sure that they are in some environments. But ask yourself truthfully – do you spend most of the day ordering people about or do you spend time asking the right questions, in the right way and listening to the answers? Open your mind to the thought that even the most junior, inexperienced person in your team can have the most brilliant of ideas. Give everyone the opportunity to have a positive impact on your business and speak their mind. In doing so, yes at times you might have to hear things that may not be comfortable, achievable or desirable. In these instances it is so important to have the skill to move on in such a way that your team still feels that the next time they have an idea they can put it forward without fear of being set upon or humiliated. People that feel that no one listens to their ideas just eventually shut up and stop contributing. The risks associated with this and the potential for missed opportunities are certainly not helpful towards having a successful business. In a business many of our best ideas may originate not from the leader, but from their team. As leaders, however, we need the ability to recognise when something proposed makes a huge amount of sense and is worth proceeding with. Then of course, the leader needs to drive the idea forward from conception through to reality. In doing so they use their experience and skills, and those of the whole team, in order to get it right and deliver the desired result.

Conversely just as everyone has the potential to come up with a good idea or a brilliant plan, everyone also has the ability to get things wrong or take a decision that could have a negative impact. That potential risk doesn’t just apply to those under our leadership, but it also very much applies to ourselves as leaders. It is therefore extremely important to have a team around you who aren’t afraid to tell you when they think you are wrong, or about to make a mistake, or indeed have already made an error and some backtracking is required. Don’t be so sure about your own abilities whereby you have a team around you who are afraid to give you constructive negative feedback. Many minds are far more powerful than one. Provided it is all for the benefit of the business such an approach could very well be a huge positive in terms of actual decisions made, in terms of team morale and also in developing the decision making ability of key members within your team (tomorrow’s leaders perhaps!).

Good & Poor Recruitment Choices

11th June 2015

Choices! Yes I have used this word deliberately in this post, as we employers ultimately are responsible for the decisions (i.e. choices) we have made relating to the people we have chosen to work within our organisations. Now all of this (good, bad or indifferent) is a reflection on our interviewing techniques and selection criteria. And to be truthful, how many of us can truly call ourselves expert recruiters? Unfortunately unless you are specifically trained, or doing it all the time, or part of a larger organisation that has HR support in this respect, the chances are that recruitment is something you only do now and again, as/when the need arises.

So what precisely is it all about? Well most of the time (in fact always as far as I can think of) it is because there is a problem (e.g. lack of resource or expertise) and you (or someone else in your team) are looking for a solution. It is therefore so, so important that in making your decision that you do actually solve the problem. There is the challenge: sometimes not only does your choice fail to deliver upon what is required, but additionally it is such a poor choice that it actually has a negative impact upon your ability to get through the other things on your desk that you are responsible for. Yes, a bad choice has a negative impact upon your time, in that not only are you unable to allocate or transfer the tasks over to the new employee (so the problem has not been resolved, and you now have the expense of an additional salary), but you are also having to manage the situation going forward (i.e. a negative drain on your time). At this stage, assuming that training, coaching etc. have all been properly implemented you may need to be considering going down the route of a PIP (Performance Improvement Plan), and you would need to be a complete saint for not thinking, at least for a few seconds, “If only I had picked the other person for the role at the outset”. Sadly some managers fail to address such issues head on and just let things slide (it’s too difficult; I don’t know what to do; it’s easier just to be nice and forget about it; hopefully they might leave soon and I won’t need to do all the paperwork… ). The issue with not tackling the situation ‘head on’ is that the problem that was so desperately needing to be resolved (to the point that you went into the marketplace and employed someone) is still there and is still not being dealt with efficiently or effectively (if at all!). So it needs to be tackled – and hopefully this will be demonstrated with an improvement in performance by the individual, but ultimately if not, then more drastic action may be needed. Either that or you are accepting that it wasn’t such a big problem in the first place!! REALLY – that’s interesting! That wasn’t what you were saying many months ago when you persuaded someone to release the funds to employ the person.

So here’s a thought. In this situation how often does the first step in the process (e.g. your initial decision as to who to employ) get looked at in any great detail. Are you, as the recruiter, not at least partly responsible for the outcome of your decisions? Yes it’s extremely difficult to know precisely, on the back of an interview, what you are going to get when the new start walks through the door next Monday, but can you be better at ascertaining likelihood of success at the outset? I bet we all could be better at this. OK, it won’t always be perfect, bad decisions will fall through the cracks, but hopefully there will be many more better decisions and you can reflect upon the bad ones to help ensure that you make better ones going forward. The point is to realise that this is a massive decision about a person you are about to employ, and it is full of potential benefits and costs. So, do your homework on the candidate, ask the right questions, put them under pressure, get proper references, follow your HR departments steer (to a point!), but ultimately, having done all of that and more, what is your gut instinct telling you?

Leadership Awareness: Near & Far Audience Dynamics

12th December 2014

Some of us will have experienced the scenario when one morning your boss calls you in for a 121 chat, to announce that their boss has suggested that you are the ideal candidate to take ownership of this big new important project, and drive forward the idea through to its birth. Not only are you now in the spotlight as being the person upon whom the responsibility lies for its success (hopefully!) or its failure (this isn’t an option – don’t go there), but things now have to be seen to be gathering pace. At last you are being given the opportunity to prove yourself in a position of leadership and all the responsibility for change management that comes with it.

Within days, life has changed dramatically. What were previously your priorities have now sweepingly been re-prioritised. If you are lucky they are now sitting on someone else’s desk! You have been fully briefed, critical deadlines set, resources and a support team are in the process of being assigned, and if you are smart (assuming that someone has ever told you anything about it) you will already be formulating a Key Stakeholder Management Strategy. After all, beyond your immediate team you need to fully understand who the key influencers are and at what level could they have an impact on progress (positive or negative). Building an effective rapport with this group and making them aware of the project goals and aspirations, in order to gain their support, is what you are aiming for. Failing that, at least having them take a neutral position, as opposed to being against the idea (yes, there is nothing worse than a key stakeholder, with a high level of influence and a lot of power, working against you behind the scenes!) is your fall back point.

So there it is, all is good to go and you and your team quickly get on with the task at hand. Without debate there is a vast range of core skills required in leading any large project, as well as, of course, the essential technical knowledge that would need to exist within your team. But the one aspect I would like to focus on in this blog, is that of understanding the team and audience dynamics that may be occurring in association with your leadership role and the project overall. To demonstrate this I have quickly created a dynamogram (see picture) of the various participants (and for that matter, non-participants) that could exist. I am not suggesting that what’s been created here covers every scenario: it doesn’t. It is merely one view of the world, as to where a leader sits when driving forward changes or new ideas within an organisation. So take a look at what’s been produced here and consider it in relation to the various projects you are involved with and also those that are happening around you. For each of the key changes that are occurring today in your business you may find that where you are positioned in the model differs substantially from project to project. Are you happy where you’re at? If you are ‘Blind’ or ‘Blinkered’ you may want to re-assess your position!

Go Beyond Your Comfort Zone

Leaders: Use Your Ears

Good & Poor Recruitment Choices

Leadership Awareness: Near & Far Audience Dynamics

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