How often do you want to bang your head against the wall when you again can’t get your people to go along? I regularly hear my clients ask how they get their staff to go along with their plans or wishes. They want to grow their business, change the organization or see that the status quo is not sustainable. How do you do this in 3 simple steps?
Most executives have little or no training in this area. After all, change management and good leadership are something very different from the substantive profession for which you were probably trained. Think of the dentist who owns one or more dental practices. Or an economist who runs a policy department. So what do you need to do to still change what you want in your organization?
1. You need to envision and communicate very clearly where you want to go with your people and organization. What exactly does the future look like in one, two or three years in your department or in the company? And why? Why is this future necessary, important or good? And by that I don’t just mean for you, but why is it good for your people? What do they gain from going along with the changes? And remember, that’s different for everyone. Some want a greater chance of promotion, others want more recognition of their work, and others may want more autonomy in their work.
2. Look at what you need help with from your people to make this happen. Although the title contains the word staff, that was secretly a decoy. I prefer to talk about employees. Because if you think of people as collaborating, that gives you a better context for changing things. For example, do you want them to be more customer-friendly, more cost-conscious, more efficient or more innovative? Talk to your people about this, exchange ideas together. And don’t be afraid of resistance or fear. Because at least that means people are thinking about it.
3. Analyze what prevents your people from doing that which you would wish. And moreover, do something about it. If you want everyone to work more as a team, but bonuses are only paid on individual performance, that’s not going to work. Or if you want someone to do 2x as much work in a day, but they’ve never been trained in that, you have to make sure they can shadow someone who is more productive. Often you also have to set a good example yourself. If you want employees to be more cost-conscious and you yourself put on very expensive dinners at the company’s expense then it backfires.
Will you always be there with these 3 steps? No, of course not. That would be pretty simple, and there are countless books written on leadership and change management. But it is a good start. If you really want to do this well, you almost always need help from an external coach or consultant to guide you and/or your employees through this. Because you yourself are often as busy enough, have little experience with it, or because an external has no past and therefore no baggage with your people. For more information about our (often subsidized) change management and growth programs, contact us at info@brilliantwork.nl.
