Has anyone ever asked you that question – how do you want to be led? Have you ever asked your team that question? If you were fortunate enough to be offered training in leadership, you’re probably familiar with the concept of situational leadership, which suggests providing different levels of support and guidance to your people based on the … ahem … situation. …
Trust, Change, and Timing
“Trust is the mechanism that absorbs uncertainty.” That quote – which I heard on David Lancefield’s excellent leadership podcast Lancefield on the Line, the episode in which he interviewed Dr. Marcus Collins – kinda blew my mind. It expresses so much, so simply. In fact, I’m seriously tempted to just stop this article right here (is it an article if …
Do you trust YOU?
Something interesting came up in conversation with a friend last week. We were talking about communication, and the ways in which that word – “communication” – doesn’t mean enough. I’ll go into more on that in a future article, but for now, what I want to tell you about is something she said that kinda blew my mind. To truly listen, …
Be careful what you say!
Change and Communication. Everyone – including me! – tells you to communicate about change. Tell people the why, what, and how. Multiple times. Listen to what they have to say – they’ll have valuable input. And they’ll help you understand how the change is affecting them, so you’ll know how to respond. Communicate! And it’s all true. But there’s one thing people …
Got uncertainty? Good!
There is nothing certain about change. So if you, as a leader of change in your organization, are feeling uncertain? Good. That’s real, realistic, and normal. Trying to pretend otherwise isn’t going to help you succeed – in fact, it’s likely to lead to problems. Your people probably feel even more uncertain. And while there are plenty of proclamations out …
The Comfort Zone and Change
We’ve all heard it. “Get out of your comfort zone!” And (absurdly), “Get comfortable being out of your comfort zone!” It’s considered the bare minimum, Captain-Obvious-level advice for anyone who wants to change, grow, and succeed. (As a side point, I consider the second directive to “get comfortable” outside the comfort zone to be ridiculous. If you’re comfortable, then by …
The power of irrelevant criteria
Obvious statement alert: good hiring practices are important. All too often, though, companies just sort of seat-of-the-pants their way through the hiring process. Different hiring managers have different criteria that may have nothing to do with any candidate’s actual potential. I’ll acknowledge that my dislike of people who wear shoes without socks may have impacted a decision or two in …
Is change hard? Or …?
There’s a common belief that change is hard. I disagree. I think mostly change is uncomfortable. The human brain loves routine, habit, consistency, familiarity. Shifting away from that – creating change – means the brain has to work harder… and fundamentally, the brain prefers to be lazy. It’s a neurobiological energy-conservation thing, as I wrote about here. Leaders of change in …
Changes to change?
All your change initiatives roll out precisely according to plan – right? No? Hmmm… Welcome to reality. As boxer Mike Tyson said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” And as the Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth Carl Bernard von Moltke said, “No battle plan ever survives the first encounter with the enemy.” In other words, your …
What’s under the resistance?
Resistance is the bane of many change managers’ and leaders’ existence. And many of them try to just power through, using carrots and sticks – offers of rewards and threats of punishment – to get employees on board with change initiatives. In the timelessly annoying words of Dr. Phil… how’s that workin’ for you? My experience would indicate: notsogreat. When …