#4 Leading through Change - The What

For most of my leadership journey I spent time learning about the characteristics of a good leader. Along the way, there has been a focus on a specific path that has become extremely important and that is how to lead through change to drive execution to the vision.

There are 3 major transformations efforts where I was part of the teams that were charged with leading and executing the efforts.  The first significant transformation effort was creating, communicating, and socializing an enterprise architecture organization and processes; ensuring an Enterprise Architecture (EA) Organization and the EA artifacts would add value to the overall organization. The team included Business and IT leaders and the effort was met with resistance initially. The IT community had two main areas of concern. First, the application and technical teams struggled with the level of accountability to an organization that would dictate designs and solutions with no perceived post-implementation involvement.  The other area of IT concern was that the organization would add a level of bureaucracy and paperwork to a current process that was already time consuming. The business organization were concerned with making changes to any processes while continuing to execute the day to day business.

In the first transformation effort took eighteen months before the transformation team hit the first key milestone.  This was the plan. Announcing the creation of an enterprise architecture organization, explanation of the architect's roles and then providing specific details on why everyone in the organization would be impacted is a very important milestone. It was the start of socializing the change. Following the plan crafted by the transformation team, momentum was leveraged and the effort continued to move forward. Architecture artifacts provided information and insight to the details of the operational environment through the definition of the current state. With the information documented and organized effectively, the duplicity of business processes and applications was obvious. The most visible area of duplicity was the address change process. It impacted several business units and more than 10 applications. This level of duplicity and complexity impacts the organization's ability to respond quickly to competitive levers. Any business need that would require changes made to the address change processes or applications would involve analyzing multiple business processes and applications which require significant time, potentially impacting a business strategic goal or gain a competitive edge. The EA organization showed value within the first 12 months through the artifact information and guidance provided early in the change process. The software development lifecycle (SDLC) was modified to include the enterprise architecture processes and artifact creation and updates.

The next transformation effort was done at another company. A new division was created that would be the first division at this company that would sell products and services direct to consumer instead of through a broker or agent. This was a a core strategic competitive differentiation for this company and was a pivot point for accomplishing sales goals. Through executive level support and perseverance, significant accomplishments were made to drive success until the 2008-2009 recession.

The latest transformation effort was to create the strategic plan for the church my family was attending. The church leadership wanted a plan to grow the church in ways to invite and engage the community to be involved in the church family. The changes would be transformative; doing church in a different way. There is a saying in leadership circles, "If you want to know if  you can lead, lead volunteers and see if you an make things happen."  A team was recruited, met weekly, developed a vision and draft plan. This information was presented to the congregation of 400 people to inform and start the process of socializing the change. As you can imagine, there were many questions. It was planned that this would be the situation so as much questions and answers were done during the time allotted and additional church meetings would be scheduled frequently to ensure they would remain informed. This was the start of the "buy-in" process.  In the next post, #4 Leading through change - The How, discussion of the eight steps of leading change successfully from John Kotter's book, "Leading Change" will be reviewed.

Change is hard.  There will be obstacles in driving change.  Unfortunately resources, cost, skills, and other factors can derail the effort to gain the momentum necessary to make the changes that are needed.  Listed below are eight mistakes or reasons why change can fail.  Please review the list. It is important to understand why the process can fail so that they can be mitigated.  List from John Kotter's book "Leading Change" to why change efforts fail:

1. Culture of complacency
2. Lack of support from the top
3. Realizing the power of a vision
4. Under-communicating the vision
5. Letting obstacles deter or detract from progress
6. Failing to create short-term wins
7. Declaring victory too soon
8. Neglecting to anchor changes firmly in the organization's culture

If you have any comments or questions, please post them in response to the blog.  I would truly like to hear opinions from others regarding leading through change.

Leadership: Is the Term too Ambiguous to Delineate?

This week, I was reading the comments in response to a question from Ian Mitchell on LinkedIn where the question was asked, "What is the single most important quality for a leader to have?" It has been posted for a month and has 1,442 comments. The responses have been all over the map. Integrity, trust, compassion, follow-ability, authenticity, etc.  

Over time, definitions of terms can change and/or adapt to society changes, environment changes, and generational differences, and the list goes on. However, as this happens, terms do not evolve, the get modified to include the new definitions.

As these terms have their definitions augmented, it makes it much more difficult to create effective leadership training, causing a void that impacts the work place, church, government, etc.  

Google the term "leadership characteristics" or "leadership styles." There are a phenomenal variety of phrases, made up terms, and buzz words that have watered down the expectations about what a leader is responsible for thinking, doing, and learning. This approach is ineffective and confusing for those learning to be new leaders. For those individuals aspiring to move from mid-level management roles to higher levels in an organization, leadership is critical. How can leadership be taught when the definition is not consistent enough and it is based on biases that are based on individual perceptions?

I have spent the last twenty years studying leaders and the meaning of leadership.  While the basics have remained the same, the people in leadership have changed. It is my experience that the fundamental leadership characteristics have been watered down or left behind altogether.  For example the majority of the leaders, both positional and informal, I have encountered recently have been self-centered.  Because of this, integrity, trust, and transparency have been lost, especially in the corporate world.  

I have spent time on and off over the last 8 years blogging on the topic of leadership. Not many followers, much to my chagrin. I feel strongly that there is a need to equip our leaders of the future. Blogging is my attempt to help those who are not leaders to gain knowledge of tips and techniques that help foster their quest for further leadership research. Experience and research are the sources for the information covered in the blog.

I would like to hear other insights on this topic. What are your thoughts? Have we strayed from knowing what characteristics are key to a good leader? What do you think of in regards to leadership when you hear names like John F. Kennedy, Colin Powell, Winston Churchill, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Teddy Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela? The list goes on with other key leaders that made a difference through their leadership.

Integrity includes trust, character and transparency. Servant, self-awareness, and compassion could be included together. Resilience, adaptability, flexibility are similar. Humility, understanding, confidence, influence, vision, respect, knowledge, foresight, courage, etc.  Each of these are very good characteristics to have as a person, not traits just for a leader to possess.

Leaders have to have followers. This is a truth. With that being the premise, then ask yourself, why do you need followers?  John C. Maxwell wrote a great book called, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. This book changed my ideas of leadership and attributes that are key to being a person of high integrity.

#3 Making Decisions - The What

I was reading an article from Booz&Co from 2013 called Leading with Intellectual Integrity and a statement stood out as it affirms my current blog series. With this blog, I want to help leaders not only know the "whats;" it also provides some insights regarding the "hows."

The sentence from the article reads, "We found that business literature contains a great deal of advice for chief executives about strategy and execution, but much less is written about how to become the kind of person who can bring the right judgement to bear on business decisions, especially when facing a disruptive environment."

The article goes on to say that it is difficult at best to try and glean the characteristics that delineate a poor leader from a great leader. This leads to the premise for the article in that the best place to start would be with intellectual integrity. The article defines "Intellectual Integrity" as exhibiting discipline, clarity, and consistency so that all of one's decisions fit together and reinforce one another.

Based on my experience, the best leaders follow a consistent method for decision making. I have put my faith in the center of my decisions and it has served me. Because the teams who work for me understand my decision making process, they understand the focus and priorities for their efforts.  Working from home is a request that requires a decision.  My management team knows that when they ask me to work from home I ask two questions.  Can your priority activities for the day be done from home and what are they? What can I expect to be done tomorrow when you return to the office?  Because they know my criteria, as soon as they ask permission, they supply the answers without a prompt.  

It is not easy to determine and define your internal decision making process so you are consistent and measurable.  Be aware, you will need to tweak the your decision making process as you learn and grow in your roles within an organization.  I will also tell you from experience that it is absolutely critical to learn how your decision making process fits within the company's organizational culture where you work.

Many leaders are "wishy washy" in their decision making. The simplest example is looking at a restaurant menu and being paralyzed by the choice.  Rather than ask everyone at the table for input, consulting the waiter, and changing the order after it's placed, the effective leader examines the choices, considers her appetite and budget, then makes the decision. At the dinner table, indecision simply wastes time. In the business world, knowing how to make effective decisions can make or break a career.  You need to know the criteria for making decisions.

In the next blog in this series, we'll look at some of the "hows" for making decisions, and provide examples of great - and not so great - decisions.  You will be able to choose some of these ideas for your own tool box.

#2 Movating People as a Leader - The How

Motivating teams has been a consistent challenge throughout my career as a leader. Motivating people and keeping them motivated takes two key participants; the leader and the followers. The common saying; you can please some of people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time, gives you an idea of the challenges in motivating a team.

So, how can you motivate teams?  As the leader, your challenge is to figure out how to get people with different backgrounds, skills and goals moving toward the same goal. As you think through these questions, add your thoughts and solutions to your toolbox. You will need them in your future leadership efforts.

• 20 percent of the team does 80 percent of the work.
  How do you motivate someone who feels overworked and that others on the team are not "pulling their weight?"  
• Motivation incentives are almost always monetary in nature.
  How do you motivate if you take money off the table?
• Teams often reflect the attitude of the leader.
  How is your attitude?
• It is one thing to communicate with people because you have something to say.  It's another to communicate with people because you believe they have value and something to say.
  Are you listening enough and talking less?

Techniques must be tailored to motivate the individuals on the team.  The way you talk with your team members will vary based on each person's learning style and attitude. What types of people do you have on your team?

A team often has a mix of these types:

• Positive Attitude:  Usually is someone who is a strong performer, loves her job, and has a persistent positive attitude.
• Complacent Attitude:  Usually is someone who just does "whatever" is required.  They most often are quiet and do not adapt to change well.
• Complainer Attitude: Usually is someone who will complain about everything; good or bad. They're either overworked or bored, the weather is too hot, or too rainy, or too cold. There's always something wrong.
• Negative Attitude: These people are only in the building to collect a paycheck and are negative about any attempt to improve or change anything.  
• Snobbish Attitude: Constantly comparing themselves to others, they are quick to point out others' flaws, especially if someone else is promoted or achieved an accomplishment.

With a team of people comprised of multiple types of attitudes, how do you motivate them towards one vision or goal?  It takes hard work and perserverance.  Start with communicating with the people on your team who have influence with other team members. Influencers can change others' attitudes.

Not just work affects work. Everyone has activities and events that take place outside of work. Someone dealing with issues at home will face challenges at work with staying positive and focused. As the leader, stay informed of situations like this on the team so that you can assess and repair any negative effects on the team's motivation. Remember, people's attitudes may change depending on outside factors and the specific situations. Rely on your influencers and leaders to help assess the overall team motivation and morale.  

Let's get to the techniques that have helped me in the past. You may find that a situation needs more than one tchnique to mitigate impacts on motivation.

Let's take a look at this touchy subject:  Performance Appraisals. A person's performance rating for can affect their motivation more than any other factor.  Everyone believes they have done a great job and should get a high score.  It is very important for you as the leader to review the team's individal self-appraisals. A leader who knows how a person views himself will be better equipped to address any performance situations without causing the person to respond adversely. Another impact to morale during performance appraisal time is the discussion the team members have amongst themselves.  If the people feel they were treated unfairly, there will be negative impacts to morale and subsequently motivation. The list below contains tips that have worked for me. If you have others, please post up your tips and techniques in the comments.

1. First, as the leader, you need to be communicating at least once a quarter with each employee regarding performance. Include successes and areas for improvement.  Don't just run down a list; spend time telling the details about how they succeeded in meeting your expectations or how they fell short.  Give specific examples.  This is so important if you want them to understand clearly what is expected. There should be no surprises in an annual performance review!
2. One of key activities is for the leader to understand the direction coming from executive management regarding consistency of performance ratings.  Any type of rating system is subjective to the leader reviewing the work. Without clear guidelines and examples in place for the corporation, it makes it very difficult for leaders to be consistent across teams and departments.   
3. Visualize the different kinds of responses from employees and prepare your responses in advance:

• Mad/Angry - discuss what specific words or message has them upset and why.  It is important to find out the cause of those feelings and ensure you can respond.  More often than not, you will know which areas are touchy for this person.  If the conversation escalates, tell the person you will reschedule so you can review the comments that are upsetting them and determine if they should be modified.  I strongly recommend that you inform and review with your HR representative to ensure the language used in the appraisal meets corporate guidelines.
• Crying - again, ask the person what specifically causes then emotional distress.  Once you have this understanding, you can offer to change the words or ask them if they would like  you to reschedule the meeting.
• Disdain or Complacence - this is someone who is clearly not motivated or even engaged.  This has to be addressed so that it does not negatively impact others on the team.  
• Argumentative or Resentful - this is usually an individual who feels that even though there were guidelines expressed to keep the process consistent across the organization, they feel they are exempt from it and should get a higher score for one reason or another.  This is where you need to ask probing questions so that you can understand the superior feeling coming from the person and address it.  These two emotions will permeate through the team faster than any of the other emotions listed.

In summarizing performance appraisal impacts on motivation, the key is to understand the person's emotions, determine mitigation or method to defuse the situation, continue with the review of the appraisal or reschedule, and finally leverage the human resources department if the situation necessitates it. Please keep in mind that the person has the right to feel how they feel whether you agree with it or not.  Their perception is their reality, and open discussion is the only method to resolve any differences.  Even if you still do not agree with one another, you must arrive at a conclusion or escalate to get closure.

Let's look at motivation changes when the direction or vision is changing for the team.  John Kotter's book Leading Change is the best reference book I have found on this topic.  In the book, Kotter has an 8 step process to create/lead a major change successfully. One of the key steps that will impact morale if not handled correctly is step #4; Communicating the Change Vision.

There is an entire chapter dedicated to communicating change to an organization.  However, for the purpose of this post, let's focus on the impacts to the team and their morale.  When a team feels they were not included as part of the discusion in regards to the change impacts to them, morale and motivation will be greatly impacted.

• Include the team in discussions early so that they are part of the process.
• Keep the communication simple and specific.
• Explain the specific impacts to them and help them see their role in making the change a success.
• Frequently communicate the status of the changes and impacts through emails, casual conversations, team meetings, department meetings, etc. Ask the sponsor come talk to the team and talk about the difference they make.  This will boost morale and motivation.  
• Create a one page document and laminate it for all to hang in their work areas.
• Play a series of games that provide incentives to win. Competition is a great method for message retention.

In summary, make it fun and make it challenging.  The more that the team talks about the change, the more they will feel ownership and be motivated and involved.  In my experience, the team will rise to the challenge and be highly motivated for success. 

In closing, you will need to keep team motivation on your radar and address an issues seen quickly.  Motivated teams that understand the direction and will follow you as a leader are far more productive and happy in their jobs.  You as the leader must also exhibit the right attitude and motivation.  Lead by example.

Please respond with your tips and techniques in motivating teams.