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Key Steps for Engaging Employees in Change

Even if change is ever present in people’s everyday lives, there are still a whole lot who find it discomforting, especially when they are not prepared for it or if it is imposed on them.

There is a way forward…

Engaging employees in change is much easier if they are given adequate information about what’s going on. The earlier that good communication processes are in place, will help maintain relationships with the workforce and ensure that the potential for full engagement is possible.

To make the best to get everyone on board – as enthusiastically as possible – here are a few reminders that will help managers be better at leading and delivering change.

In successfully engaging employees in change, the first rule of thumb is to foster good relationships with them. Talk to your people and – perhaps even more importantly – listen to what they have to say as well. When those in your team trust you, they’re much more likely be agreeable to any changes you propose. Keeping talking to them will build the necessary confidence that adjustments are not only for your betterment, but will be of value to them as well.

Another opportunity to better engage your people fully, would be to always seize opportunities for change when they crop up. Prospects for change leading to performance improvement are always nearby when it comes to the workplace. Engaging employees in challenging change situations will be much less difficult if you always take your chances in developing them and letting them grow in new ways as a matter of course.

So if they are used to appreciating the positive values that comes from change when it’s in their favour, they won’t be afraid to face different changes with optimism rather than fear and doubt.

It’s also vital to make certain that you are clear in stating the changes you want to make. By letting your people truly understand precisely and accurately what is in need of a change, they will be more prepared to accept the idea – and the consequences – and to really get involved to help you find solutions for delivering the outcomes you need.

Engaging employees in change is also be a whole lot easier if you show them that you’ll be participating in the change as well. By taking the lead in stepping out of your own comfort zone, yourpeople will have a better understanding of why it needs to be done and that you are fully behind it – even if there are some difficult circumstances that you need to accept personally too.

Finally, it’s very important to make only one big change at a time. This will lessen the shock value; enable full focus on delivery and will let people cope and be comfortable with the process. Success on any change occasion will help if they need to face more in the future.

Engaging employees in change is a very do-able option. Indeed, when they are fully informed and involved, many employees relish changes for the added interest and challenge they bring to the workplace.

© Martin Haworth 2011. This is an expanded version of just one of many change management ideas, from Resilience in Change. For your free – downloadable today – ‘Managing Change’ Super-Simple Success Tips e-book, visit http://www.ResilienceInChange.com

How to be a Management Legend

Being a management legend in your own lifetime might seem to be something of an impossibility. A dream you sometimes dream when you are having one of those spare moments (like you do!).

So, here’s the skinny on how to make this possible, with the minimal of effort.

When you look at the quality of management out there in the real world right now, you might find that being a legend is not that difficult.

Here are three prerequisites of legend status:-

A good manager is able to deliver the required results. Indeed it isn’t hard to drive employees hard and for a while to run any business or team in an environment of fear.

Legends are more than this.

Any old manager is able to make friends with the employees in their team and be that ‘Good old boy (or gal)’ for a while. Being a good buddy for those you manage isn’t hard for a while.

Legends are more than this too.

Some good managers are able to come up with a bit of a plan for the foreseeable future (and there are less even of these than you might think). It’s something of a plan on the ‘back of an envelope’ sort of thing, but it’s better than nothing.

Legends are different to this as well.

So, to create legendary status as a manager, there are four key steps that go beyond the ‘good’ and become legendary:-

1. Deliver Results

Legendary managers go beyond delivering for the short-term, vitally important though that is – especially in the climate of right now.

Focus on results for today is simply not enough to get your legendary badge. You have to go further.

There needs to be an understanding that whilst today is allowed to take up some of your management style, legendary managers have an eye on the future too. A future where there will be broader demands on the team to deliver results and to be much more effective that will need to be accommodated.

So legends are constantly considering the needs to be even better in the future. To develop their people through challenge and support that encourages risk-taking for employees – but in an environment where they feel safe enough to give it a go.

Results for today are who we have become as a society – as good managers – the greatest and the legends do more to focus on the today – and the tomorrow.

2. Create Relationships

Legendary managers are well thought of by their people. Indeed they are memorable and would often feature on that most famous of lists – three people who have been the biggest influences in your life.

Legends know that relationship building is not something that you can turn on and off at will. They know that the very best really, truly, live relationships.

They don’t really need to work at it – except perhaps at first – because it’s something they do naturally. Building relationships is about being out there with your people. Talking with them and much more importantly, listening to them and valuing them because of that.

Legendary managers are able to tread that fine line that divides familiarity with relationship. They – and their people – know what’s allowed and what isn’t.

Relationships are also about fairness, equality, trust, rapport, keeping promises and more. Relationships are that togetherness where each would – and will – go the extra mile. Manager and employee – together.

3. Vision for the Future

Legends come from having a motivation and drive that is irrisistible. An ability – a charisma – where their people can’t help but come along with them.

To get there requires inspiration and the skill to see the possibilities and share that energy with your people. When you dream for yourself, you know that it’s possible.

When you bring your people along to collaborate on the possibilities, then they will always remember that you had them there with you at that momentous time.

Having a vision is a great idea. Co-creating a vision together with your people is unexpected and unbelievable – they will love you for it.

Being a management legend is simply an amazing opportunity not only to deliver the results you want, but also to do that with purpose. The purpose of being with your people on their journey too.

Be Yourself as a Manager – No-one Else

There’s a way of sensing when a manager is ‘putting it on’. It’s a sense many, if not all employees have, to some extent or the other – and they will quickly sniff you out…

It’s very tempting as you manage a team new to you. They expect great things of you, the ‘new broom’ manager coming in to shake things up a bit and make the difference.

It’s a clean slate for you too, as you move into this new management role. A new team of people to work with. Maybe even a new organization too.

Those old experiences where you could have been so much better are behind you. Maybe these new employees won’t know the old you. That one who might have done the job even better.

So you try to be something different from before. Perhaps it goes beyond the learning you’ve had from the past, where things didn’t always go quite to plan.

You are free of those times where you got caught out – more likely got caught short – in your management. So you can start again here – and be different.

When you learnt those lessons, perhaps even some of them were made public – in addition to those where you yourself knew that you could have been better, you could have wished them away. But, if there was anything about you, you didn’t because you learned about yourself. Learned how to ‘do differently’ (otherwise known as ‘better’) next time.

So now you have the big chance to be different and you want to try it on. Thing is, that sixth sense of your people. They can tell when a manager isn’t being authentic. They just can. Employees have suffered generations of managers and so they know when you are simply not being the true you.

And you know, they want the true you, because that’s where they are able to get to know you – understand you and, above all, respond to you and the way you do things.

If you try to be someone you aren’t, it will be clear. And in addition to seeing through you playing a part, they will come to resent you for actually trying to be someone you aren’t. They will feel besmirched that you weren’t trusting with them from the start by showing them the true you – the inner you.

Your authentic self as leader will be the easiest and most effective way to be your best and you really will be respected for it.

And as you lead from the heart, the model you set will be followed by your people. They will be authentic with you as well.

Change is the Name of the Game

Change management can often be seen as delivering discrete activities towards a defined outcome. A series of changes in any organization requires a plan of action for delivery, which once complete, means we can get back to the day job.

Yet that’s just the time to think of change again.

The principle of change is one that can mean concern and worry for anyone. However grounded, confident and flexible we are, the thought of change – especially where it’s imposed on us – can be daunting.

Because of the inadequate manner in which change has so often been imposed, many employees see change management as one of those activities managers and leaders get involved in that can only bring distress and pain.

Good managers know that the clichéd ‘change is a constant’ is the best attitude and that there are ways to embody the spirit of change in a positive and developmental way. Thus changing the perception of change almost entirely for their fortunate people. The way it can be.

By taking active steps to deliver change management initially on just one single occasion to be inclusive, flexible and open, whilst retaining the outcome goal required, managers can change the reality of change to be a fun, engaging and empowering activity for their people.

So, once a manager has become much better at managing change and their people come to trust them and where they are going, a whole new opportunity comes along.

You see employees like best to be challenged in their work. They like to learn new stuff; they enjoy being stretched; they love to take new risks. Indeed they want to come to their work to enjoy their day and be fulfilled in what they do.

This does not come from delivering exactly the same stuff each day. The sausage-machine mentality doesn’t work well for most employees.

A manager good at helping change become a fun and exciting activity, where risk is minimized and the edginess of fear removed, can bring the two together.

Engaging a team in seeking change that will make a difference makes for exciting workplace. It makes individuals work much more effectively and enables outcomes to be extraordinary.

Where the status quo is the safer option, these amazing teams will actively hunt out change opportunities to create even better results than before well, just because it’s a fun and creative thing to do.

‘What can we change for the better?’, will become their mantra, every day in every way.

By leveraging the energy that change can precipitate when change management is delivered in a good way, a manager will be able to radically magnify the performance of any team.

Not only will results be exceptional and out of the box, but their people will be engaged and love to stay, contribute and do even more of this stuff. And as manager who is captaining this ship, what a testament to their capabilities too.

Living with Change and Facing It with Acceptance

In today’s economy, recession is pretty much the name of the game in many organizations. In such difficult times, it’s inevitable change will come. And whatever business you’re in, people are going to be affected…

In a lot of organizations these days, financial challenges will mean it’s time to cut costs. And because of the vast number of workers getting laid off by their respective companies, money will be tight, meaning people will find it hard to afford all their consumer needs, in all but the most basic essentials.

Of course this begins the vicious financial cycle, where less spending often causes businesses to struggle, bankrupcies multiply and businesses are forced to shut down. Which in turn causes even more unemployment.

The income versus spending cycle, with the frequent hardships for so many people, makes it hard to find much comfort for anyone. So instead of letting those negative feelings fester, it’s time to appreciate how to live with change and learn some ways to face it with acceptance – even confidence and excitement!

With recession the main problem – at least in the short term – one option is to see beyond the present and consider the bigger picture – the real opportunities that change can present, even if right now, things are looking tough.

Many people get into roles they are not fully aligned with, partly because they received poor guidance at an early age; partly becuase they chose wrongly for themselves and partly because roles evolve in different directions to what they anticipated.

So, here’s the thing. A great first step to be able to accept the changing workplace environment is to let go of comfort zones. Living with change is especially hard after the stable and dynamic business environments of the past ten years. So when it’s time to move forward into the unknown, it’s very understandable to feel some apprehension.

Instead of dwelling on the downsides, it might be best to accept the fact that it’s time to move on, with the option to return to those comfort zones at a later time – if that’s really essential! For now, how about taking that progressive step to really engage with and accept that the time for change is now.

Next, since living with change, for this discussion, may mean changing direction, it would be really smart to research will help to acknowledge and then welcome new opportunities with a more open disposition.

By releasing preconceived notions that are held already about the most appropriate career, will enable personal growth, enjoyment and – because people perform best when they are being authentic – success too.

Finally, it’s vital to manage perspectives and be optimistic. Yes, accepting and even being pro-active with change is can be a frightening thing, being positive about it is a major asset to adjusting and getting comfortable again.

Living with change and facing it with acceptance may be hard at first, but with the tips mentioned above, it shouldn’t be that difficult in the long run. It might even be fun!

Delegation – To Whom? When?

In a recent interview, Ron Dennis of the McLaren Formula 1 team said,

“I’m the executive chairman, but if I delegate a role, I’ll step away & let that person get on with it”.

When we lead and manage teams, we cannot stand alone and do it all by ourselves on our own. Our role is to get the best from the many…

Delegation is all about clearing our own desks of the ‘stuff’ that comes at us and giving the tasks to others. We do this for a number of vital reasons:-

1. We delegate to others strengths

Low confidence is one of the biggest challenges that organizations face. Helping others to see their greatnesses is a big step on the way.

So we give them work they are good at, love to do and can deliver perhaps even better than we can ourselves.

‘Catching others doing things right’, is a great mantra for any manager or leader.

2. We delegate to others weaknesses

Now, where this works it’s a great solution on all sides. When we show confidence in others to develop their weaker skills – as long as we hold their hand on the way – it builds capability and also team capacity.

Care is needed that we acknowledge exactly where these are not weaknesses just because they haven’t had the time to develop – they simply are a weakness.

And we don’t push something that will only reduce confidence and a sense of failure.

3. We delegate our own weaknesses

Why struggle with talents we don’t have? Where we know that we simply aren’t good at some things why keep trying?

Great leaders give their own areas of absolute weakness or ineffectiveness to others who are not only more capable, but also will benefit from showing their capability too.

4. We delegate our own strengths

Of course there are some elements of work where our role requires our personal skills and usually leaders are recruited because they are good at it.

Where succession planning, employee development and motivation would find it valuable, delegation of areas where a leader is very skilled is a worthwhile activity.

It also helps leaders from staying within their own comfort zone too – just doing what they are good at – which can be synonymous with what they ‘like’ to do.

5. We delegate to develop people

We might pick out specific activities that we usually deliver ourselves and pro-actively choose people who would benefit from having these delegated to.

This is part of structured development planning where the delegation is a focused ‘gift’ from the leader to the individual.

6. We delegate for efficiency

As highly paid leaders, we can, of course, choose what we do. Because of this, we need to be fully focused to ensure our organization gets full value from the higher reward the role gives to us individually.

In effect, we delegate everything we possibly can where – very honestly – we decide whether an activity can be delegated with no loss of performance in the organization – sometimes in the longer- rather than the shorter-term.

We can then get on with our own job description and let others get to theirs.

A couple of key points on delegation

As Ron Dennis said this week in the article in the Mail On Sunday Live magazine, delegate and leave them alone to get on with it. There is a rider to this. Be there, at least at first where they might need support.

Delegation is not about closing the door and letting them struggle.

Great leaders keep a watchful, supportive and distant eye on those to whom they have delegated.

How far can you go with delegation? Well, probably much further than you think.