Welcome to this episode of Jack Chat and another tiny lesson in leadership, straight up.
In this episode, I need to talk about a downright pesky and persistent problem. Despite 20 years of progress in the field, we STILL manage to screw up change management nearly EVERY time there’s a change in our organizations!
The minute a change pops onto the horizon, it’s like we enter into magical thinking…
(At the whiteboard)
- Send email about the change
- Stay positive (ignore all the ugly)
- Send another email
- Move on to the next project
Oh, and before we send an email to employees, we’ll send it first to leaders as a courtesy just in case they get any questions. Hahahahaha! Who’s going to have any questions??? Our emails will be perfectly clear! Ha. Such nay-sayers. Am I right?
While perhaps slightly exaggerated, we often fall into a pattern like this.
The truth is LEADERS are at the heart of every change effort by creating an environment where people feel cared about and productive when things are changing — not just a courtesy copy on implementation details.
We capture the spirit of this reality here at Slingshot25 when we say, “Change will get you into a mess, leadership will get you out.”
Here are some self-reflection questions to help YOU be a better leader when things are changing:
- What kind of leader am I when things are changing?
- How might I slow down and think about how a change is impacting my team?
- What causes me to resist the special role of a leader when things are changing?
Give those questions some thought…and join me again for another chat!