You may be familiar with the famous Ghandi quote, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” One of my favorites. But, how do you be the change? Change starts with the leader. And you should start here:

Know your belief about people
Can people be trusted? Are you suspicious of people’s intentions? Do you trust people immediately? Perhaps you like people to challenge you? As a change leader, I want you to be clear on your belief about people. It infuses your leadership actions, your suggestions, even your openness to ideas. The trick with this is that you may need input from another person who will have a candid conversation with you. Let me share an example.

I worked with a manager who didn’t realize that he was suspicious of employees. He believed that they would do as little as possible if he wasn’t watching. So he would put into place processes that forced employees to account for their time. And when they didn’t follow the process they confirmed his suspicions. When his team was to go through a systems upgrade, he was not open to letting employees recommend ideas on how to improve processes. He believed that they would develop processes that would let them “slack off” or they would waste time developing new processes. His belief about people interfered with engaging employees in change. It caused a host of other issues: delayed schedules, rework, and frustrated employees. The manager’s employees “survived” the implementation. Many left to work in other units. He moved on to another company.

If your beliefs are of the suspicious nature, work with a trusted person to develop mitigating strategies to counter-balance them. I realize the contradiction in this. The actions you develop may make a difference for you, your employees, the company, and even customers.

So what has been your experience? Share them below.

The opportunity is to restore optimism back in the workplace.  The opportunities start at an individual level, a human level.

Leaders can catapult their level of success by authentically connecting with their people.  This starts with managers waking up to the reality of the anxious mood that hovers over the organization.  It then requires managers to shake up how they show up as a leader.

And this is where the Wake Up & Shake It Up blog series comes into play.

We’ve invited 13 guest bloggers to help you find ways to shake up how you show up as a leader.  We kicked-off the series last week.  For the month of June, you can learn tactics and concepts to radically shift the lack of optimism that hovers in so many organizations – perhaps yours.

This week’s guest bloggers include:

June 15: Jason Moore

June 16: David Burkus

June  l7: Monica Diaz

Each guest blogger will “dip” you into their viewpoint to help you restore optimism in your workplace. It will help you lead your people to a level of success that your competitors won’t achieve.

Get Published

A special eBook with all the posts will be available for free.  And we want to include readers’ comments.  Please comment on the posts.

• Share what you liked
• Share what you’re applying
• Share the outcomes of what you applied
• Ask questions

We’ll have more details about the eBook later this month.

In the meantime, enjoy the series. And engage us in conversation – share your responses to the guests’ blog posts.

Be bold. Be brilliant. Lead strong.

Share below what you’re willing to take on.

“If I say it, then they’ll do it” Not only is there an unwillingness to understand the employees’ perspective about the changes, arrogance is also a factor.  This statement about change is insidious and concerns me when I hear it.

Response: “How has that approach worked for you in the past? And how do you know it worked? I have concerns about how you view change.  For this change to be successful, we’ll need to talk about your perspective.” Then I stop talking.

What follows is not a comfortable conversation.  If I don’t stop and have a conversation about the statement then it will influence the quality and effectiveness of how change is communicated and rolled out.

“We don’t have time to wait and see how people respond to the change.  We have a schedule to meet. We can’t wait.” I need to explain this one a little. We’ve talked about the rate, or pace, of change [hyperlink] in this blog.  When a change plan is integrated with an overall project schedule (which is should always be), it is important to give employees some time to adjust to the new environment.  Let the employees re-synchronize themselves before rolling out the next change.

Often the genesis of this statement is a manager’s ability to execute and get things done.

Response: “I get that it’s important to be on time. This becomes a question of long-term success. If your staff is struggling with a particular change and you don’t give them time to adjust, the likelihood of reaping the benefits from the careful planning is greatly reduced.  As human beings we have a threshold of how much change we can withstand before shutting down. I’d hate to see us move forward because of the schedule and have a wake of dead bodies behind us.  I’d like to revisit this topic next time we meet.” Then I shut up.

As a change agent it is my responsibility to call out behaviors that will get in the leader’s way of success.  Though the statement may make me cringe, I have found that most leaders are open to discussing the implications of their words.  I just can’t make them feel wrong for what they said or believe. I approach these conversations with curiosity – a desire to understand their viewpoint.  It’s a natural way to help the leader open up to a new viewpoint.

The Trap of Doing

Organizations today must be nimble. It’s critical to meet or anticipate changes in the market, customer expectations, and so on. It’s also critical to change.

And we must learn to adapt to constant change.  If you develop or strengthen personal competencies essential for change, you have a competitive advantage.  If you stop reading this blog for a moment and scan what you’ve read, you’ll notice it’s all about doing: be nimble, anticipate change, adapt, and so on.

There’s something missing: observation.

We’re missing “the doing nothing” part.

Flame-out

As human beings, we can withstand so much change at one time before we flame out, before we shut down.

A flamed-out workforce = a tired workforce, greater loss of creativity, absence of humor, increased “bitchiness,” increased stress-leaves, and on and on the impacts surface.  Most organizations fail to stop and recognize how much change is occurring and the impacts to employees.  Consequently, customers are impacted, too.

We’ve worked with clients when the leadership team continued to introduce new projects that introduced even more change: new change on top of future change that caused them to worry about current change. Change. Change. Change. Change.  Change.

The trap of doing is contagious and damn hard to slow down.

Do Nothing & Accomplish Something

At times of change, you’ve got to incorporate doing nothing as an important strategy in your change plan.  I don’t mean choose to do nothing or stick your head in the sand ignoring the need for action or change.  I simply mean let the dust settle a little before implementing the next change.

Change leaders consider these as part of your change implementation strategy:

• Stop all small projects; don’t allow them to be prioritized or resourced
• Incorporate a Monitor, Evaluate, and Adjust plan in your change plan.

For example, when you restructure a department, have senior managers hold department wide meetings to hear what’s working and to learn what’s not working. At the same time, conduct a post implementation assessment that seeks confidential input on what’s working and not working. Share the results and what will be done next, if anything.

• Schedule change tactics that allow you time to monitor, evaluate, and potentially adjust your plan.
• Hold celebrations through out the change effort to rejuvenate the workforce.
• Establish and maintain a policy of straight talk: don’t sugar-coat tough messages for fear of upsetting people
  

If you want your change to stick, then you must plan for time of doing nothing. You must observe how people are responding to change. You do this by monitoring the environment, people, interactions, and organizational trends; evaluate their cause and their impact, and determine or adjust your plan, if needed.

For more ideas on leading change, download our free Change Playbook. Subscribe in the upper right corner of this blog.

Share below what you do to slow down to do nothing to keep change moving forward?

What do you think the top 10 change songs of all time are?    Maybe it’s an anti-war song?  Perhaps David Bowie’s Changes?  Perhaps a spiritual?

Share your thoughts below. Your suggestions could be included in the list.  The final list comes out February 23.

Comment below. Share your suggestions below. Interact with others below.  Let’s have fun with this!

This blog post, though, is not to rehash our country’s problems.  Instead, I want to focus on the positive responses to these problems.  For example, there is a rising trend, according to McKinsey Quarterly, of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and organizations that want to give back to the community. Why not? Major organizations have the means to help improve the communities in which they serve.

There is another outcome that isn’t in the headlines nearly enough.  It’s how leaders today engage their employees to transform or change how the business will operate in these rapid-paced times.

The mindful leader recognizes that simply proclaiming the change (new technology, or new organizational structure, or layoffs, etc.) doesn’t yield the desired outcomes. To help employees adapt to change in this rapidly changing world, it requires a leader to “try on” different ways to cause and bring change.

Avoid Meeting-Suck: This is a chronic problem in most companies – an endless schedule of back-to-back meetings.  During organizational change, senior leaders must be visible – interacting with staff, giving presentations or hosting talks about the change. Today’s change leaders blocks time on their schedules to interact with staff.  They get how important it is for them to understand how employees’ realities will be changing.  It helps them know how better to connect and communicate with staff throughout the change initiative.

Challenge Your Worldview: One lesson to be learned from the lack of leadership examples plaguing the papers and television is to not hide the truth. Today we want a leader who shows how real he or she is; that they are fallible and can own up to a mistake when one (or two) is made. Today’s leaders of change share the truth in a way that respects people’s intelligence. They share the truth with the intent to connect with people, to unify people.  Business leaders (change leaders) must challenge the old worldview that they are above people and can hide the truth.  Today’s leaders of change know they are of the people.

Unifying Vision: Vision statements often fall prey to wordsmith-overkill.  A vision of change has suffered the same slow death.  Today’s leaders of change recognize a vision of change becomes a compelling story.  The vision tells the story of what the new tomorrow will be.  It is a symbolic leadership action that extends an invitation to others to be part of something big, to see themselves in the vision. Business leaders find ways to use the vision of change in every interaction with employees, senior manages, middle managers, Board of Directors, even with customers. To inspire change requires a compelling story. It must be shared consistently, authentically, and with urgency.

Indeed we live in very demanding times. It is such times that mold leaders to become stronger and bolder. There is no time like now for leaders of business, government, of anything to learn that change requires the “community” and its people to work together to bring change.  What is achieved with such collaboration can be surprising.

Tell us what you believe is important for today’s leaders of change. Comment below!

It starts with visibility.  Whether you are a top leader sharing the vision of change, or an early adopter who can help others see the value of the change, you need to be out sharing with others.   Raising awareness of the change is very important to laying the right foundation for adoption.   And the most important focus is the business need for the change.  Why is this change important?  How will it help the business?  How will it help me (the audience)?

It moves on to managing magnitude.   Introducing change on top of employees’ already busy schedules can push employee capacity beyond their comfort zone.  It can push people in to the stress zone.  While it is often forgotten, prioritizing work has to be a top priority.  Without it, the accumulation of change will become overwhelming. Management needs to be ready to move work off employees’ plates during the change initiative.

It involves engaging people. So, you’ve been visible, and you’ve prioritized.  Engage/re-engage the workforce.  They are the ones who will make change happen, so involve them early and often.   Participation is often underrated.  Don’t make that mistake.  Engage away!

It ends with leading by example.  You are visible.  Are you walking the talk?  If not, others won’t believe in the change.   You have to be on your toes.  Know the expected behavior changes inside and out.  Live the change.  Adapt as if you’ve never adapted before!