Change Leader or Change Manager, Which are You?

by Triangle Performance Staff | May 6, 2014 | Miscellaneous Business Topics

Research shows that almost 70% of all change efforts FAIL or are only partially implemented (which is a failure in my book)! That is a staggering number, but what is more staggering is that the statistic is not changing. My lead in question to you is: “Are you contributing to that statistic?

Change is nothing new to leaders or those they lead. Today however, business conditions change far faster than at any other time in history because product and service breakthroughs are quickly copied or become outdated. That requires constant innovation which means constant change. Change isn’t optional, it is essential, and the commitment to change must be full commitment and must be handled differently.

If you Google “successful change management” you’ll get nearly a 150,000,000 hits and therein lies the problem, we’re searching for the wrong thing. The failure of most change efforts have little to do with poor change management, they instead are corrupted by poor change leadership. To understand that as more than just semantics, we first need to understand what change is.

Change has three primary components, the objective; the mechanical factor; and the human factor. In the simplest terms, “change management” is focused on the plan (mechanical) and “change leadership” relates to the fuel that makes it and keeps it running (human factor).

We spend inordinate amounts of time planning our change, preparing for what could happen, preparing for what we know will happen and planning what we are going to do about it when it does happen. In other words focusing on the mechanical factor. Those activities are absolutely necessary and represent “change management” at its core. Unfortunately though, that is where most stop. Once the plan is put together we see a tendency by many to manage it just like everything else is managed on a day-to-day basis. The problem with that approach is that managing change is different. We can manage tasks all day long in a normal environment, but successfully managing change has an absolute requirement for that elusive word we spend a great deal of time talking about or trying to apply to what we are doing, leadership, or in this case, addressing the human factor. This idea is supported by ample research. In 2008 IBM did a study that focused on what it takes for change to be successful, rather than what causes change to fail.

The following list and corresponding result supports that it is the soft stuff (human factor), not the hard stuff (mechanical) that carries the most weight for success.

Those six represent both ends of the measurement spectrum. Of the 10 elements noted in the research, six of the 10 relate to the soft stuff (happen to be the top six).

The Human Factor

So what is the problem? Why is change so difficult? Why don’t people accept it and move on? The problem is not actually the change itself. Redesigning or modifying business process can make sense logically, financially or structurally. The problem is not typically the change, but instead what the change does to people who have to deal with the change in process. The change itself is an external effect of change that is an internal. It demands a psychological adjustment to be accomplished before the change can be accepted. People a lot smarter than me refer to this phase as ‘transition;’ it is a three-step process and getting people through it takes time.

Transition, like any other psychological process has its own time frame. It can be optimized like any other process but it cannot be hurried because people are not machines. Each of its three steps is upsetting which is why people can become so emotional about change. Kurt Lewin simplified this three-step process with his “unfreeze, change, freeze” model.

So what exactly is a change leader?

Change leaders are people who have the ability to energize the groups who will be implementing change projects that they may or may not buy into. These leaders fully understand the need for change and demonstrate a significant tolerance for ambiguity and a positive attitude regardless of their discomfort. Change leaders manage change by anticipating, being prepared and responding effectively to barriers. These leaders work to ensure open and receptive environments and ensure that they involve people at all levels in the change initiative. Change leaders also understand cultural dynamics that could come into play and develop practical strategies to achieve the best outcomes for the organization, as well as those working to execute the change.

Change leaders recognize that the change process is not a series of scheduled tasks or activities, but instead a human process that requires a different kind of communication, a different set of activities and a different kind of presence. Change leaders inherently understand that change is tough for many people and act accordingly. They work to quell fear and replace it with hope, understand the value of consistent messaging and complete transparency. Trust is important at all times, but a change leader knows that trust is the ONLY currency that will enlist people during times of significant disruption. What’s more, a change leader is someone who works to ensure that the planned change process is managed through the filter of human impacts. In other words, they set high standards while subsequently caring for their employees. That is the proverbial grease that allows the pieces of the process to work together with minimal squeaking.

Change leaders are part…

Conclusion

There is no magic formula for either leading change or managing change. Every organization, leader and situation are unique. Leading change is more art than science, while managing change is more science than art. Leading change is not simply a matter of the leader’s style or personality, it’s about their philosophy and how they mobilize and inspire others to buy-in and get excited or at least comfortable with a future they can’t necessarily see or understand. Managing change on the other hand is focused on maintaining stability and controlling the negative effects during times of change, the hard stuff.

Seeing what makes a change leader over a change manager, which title do you wear most often? Remember that self-awareness is a cornerstone of being a leader and that starts with self-honesty. Before you can successfully lead yourself through becoming who you want to be, you first have to admit that you need to change. The path and process is fairly simple, just one that few would say is easy.

You are the Reason You’re So Busy!

by Triangle Performance Staff | Apr 6, 2014 | Miscellaneous Business Topics

It never fails that in almost every coaching engagement the client will ask that infamous question “how can I better manage my time?” Interestingly enough my answer has been the same since 1996 when I learned the real secret in one of the best grad school classes that I can remember. That answer is “quit doing work that you should not be doing.”

I obviously was not the only one significantly impacted by William Onken’s seminal work “Managing Management Time” and his introduction of managing monkeys. While the concept of not doing work you should not be doing is relatively simple, what I have learned is that most managers–suffering from a shortage of time but not a shortage of work to consume it–have no idea what they are doing, as they get too wrapped up in simply doing. When we look at managers and their work, we often find three things that seem to pop up over and over again that end up being time stealers or fodder that gets in our way of being successful. Those three things are spelled out below, but before going there I feel it necessary to remind anyone reading this article that while these three things lack complexity, they don’t lack in difficulty. So know that you will only get out of it what you put into it. Good luck!

While the three topics discussed above are relatively simple to understand they are not always easy to do. The key to these three or any other “time management” system is full commitment and execution. Best of luck!

It’s Not the Words, It’s the Message

by Triangle Performance Staff | Feb 27, 2014 | Miscellaneous Business Topics

When it comes to effective communication, who really is the judge? Based on my experience all too often managers think they are the best judge of how clear they are. I mean their message is completely clear to them so why would it not be with any intended receiver (like an employee)? That thinking negatively impacts more organizations than any of us would like to admit. Managers are often astonished when employees complain about a lack of or unclear communication. “But we talk to them all the time,” they say, and they are right but so are their employees. Managers may talk, but employees don’t hear. Communication has less to do with their ability to speak well and more to do with their ability to “communicate.”

The key to being effective starts with the manager accepting the fact that clarity can only be measured by what is received not what is delivered. Managers need to establish whether their communications are not just heard but understood, and if not, what the reason is for the gap because it is only through “understanding” that we find the effectiveness that we seek.

So why is communication often heard but misunderstood, or missed altogether? Here are the four of the most frequent and most serious inhibitors of effective communication:

Misreading Emotional Impacts

Facts are heard, emotions are felt and when facts mix with emotions the opportunity for mis-“understandings” are rampant. Often times the errors in corporate or individual leader communications don’t relate to factual accuracy. The miscommunications usually relate to issues around feeling the communication, its sincerity, its authenticity, its integrity, and it’s caring. Anybody can hear a communication: “We are going to merge with XYZ Company, but everyone’s job is safe.” In many situations that message won’t embraced simply because of the turmoil (emotional) created by big change. To be effective in that communication the leader/organization has to consider and convey an understanding and recognition of the potential emotions that employees might feel, a communication needs to convey genuine emotion, not merely fact and consider the emotional filters that can get in the way of the intended message.

Communication should inspire (create an emotional connection), not merely provide facts and information: facts alone rarely inspire.

It is difficult to inspire people with a memo or e-mail. Inspiring people and communicating feelings is easier face-to-face. Patton could not have inspired his troops with emails about fighting the Germans on the beaches. Managers must have the courage to talk to their employees, not hide behind the cruel remoteness of their computer screens. Just a note to remember in our electronic message driven society, the time it takes to talk to one person, while much longer than it takes to send off a thousand emails, yields immeasurable efficiencies in the effectiveness of the message and its ultimate reception.

Bias or Misunderstood Mental Models

What comes to mind when the biggest schmoozer in the company stops by your office to say hello or to ask if you need any help with that new project? Your immediate response to the friendly greeting is likely to be “I wonder what he wants from me now?” Even when people genuinely try to mend bridges and reconstruct broken relationships, if there is an existing bias or a lack of trust, everything they say is likely to be misconstrued as something that relates to their self-interest.

Bias, mistrust, bad assumptions, etc… create unintended filters and sometimes entirely block communication. The result: employees either not listening or hearing a message very different from the intended one.

FAILURE TO CONSIDER THE RECEIVER

The most frequent barrier is simply not considering the audience. It is our nature to see the world through our own eyes, with our filters and bias’. Because of that we usually create our messages in a way that we would want the message communicated to us. The simple fact is we are not all the same. We each see the world differently (refer to mental models above), we each judge the world using ourselves as the standard for normalcy and because of that we probably communicate effectively with some (like us), but likely miss a much larger group. Additionally, each of us have unique needs as it relates to the content of what is communicated to us. Some need brevity or they get lost in the words (or quit listening), others need that personal connection (emotion) and then others need lots of detail or a thorough explanation. When we don’t get what we need from someone’s communication, we typically ignore it, misinterpret it or make assumptions to fill the gaps. Regardless of what we (the receivers) do, the message can become muddled or completely twisted. It is critical that a manager know his or her tendencies and also work to meet the information needs of others when communicating even the simplest of messages.

OUT OF BALANCE TALK / LISTEN RATIO

Employees find it hard to listen with an open mind to managers who do not themselves listen. Listening skills are the first step in communication skills and are by far the more impactful of the skills. Significant resources are spent teaching us how to communicate (talk) but rarely how to listen. Listening requires character and some ethical stature. Listening requires humility and compassion. These skills come naturally to some, and with hard work to others. A note to remember for leaders is that an organization that wishes to improve the way it communicates must first improve the way it listens.

How a company communicates, how trusted its communication is, and its capacity to inspire its people with its communication all contribute as much to its success as any other of its strategies. But effective communication is a function not only of managerial skill, but also of corporate and managerial character that is interestingly enough driven by effective communication.

Instinctively we know that leaders who have made an impact on us personally have been effective communicators. They practice solid communication skills both listening and expressing themselves effectively.

Someone once said that an idea is not worth nothing unless it is communicated effectively. “Leaders are people who make ideas come alive through communication skills.”