by Progress Consulting | Sep 29, 2015 | Manage Change
At Progress Consulting, our mission is to help organizations X•L•R•8•Progress™ – to see their optimal future more clearly …and realize it more quickly and easily™.
This posting explains how to better manage change to X•L•R•8•Progress™ !
My colleague and mentor, the late David Simmonds, referred to the ability to lead change is the ultimate test of a leader.
Sadly, success in the implementation of change is relatively rare. Consider these grim statistics.
- Most major change initiatives, whether intended to boost quality, improve culture or reverse a corporate death spiral, generate only lukewarm results and many fail miserably (Harvard Business Review, “Leading Change Why Transformation Efforts Fail”, John P. Kotter, 2000)
- Studies of past mergers show that two of every three deals have not worked; the only winners are often the shareholders of the acquired firm who sell their company for more than it’s really worth (The Economist, January 1999).
- Investopedia.com agrees that historical trends show that roughly 2/3rds of big mergers will disappoint
- US government data indicates that 90% of small businesses fail within the first five years
- Of the small businesses that do survive their first five years, half fail at some point during the following ten years
- A Conference Board survey of 71 companies examines the “state of the art” in initiating changes in business enterprises
- 82% of survey respondents identified change management as a priority
- 99% expect an increased need for change management over the next three years.
One of the greatest wastes of productivity and human potential is the poor management of change. By the time many organizations address the issue of resistance to change, the hemorrhaging of resources and morale is well underway.
Most resistance to change is created. Whatever is created can be prevented. Therefore, adopt a two-part strategy:
- First, prevent the most common forms of resistance
- Then, apply specific skills to manage any resistance that does arise.
Resistance is usually created by approaching change management as an exercise in project management.
We believe:
Change Leadership + Project Management = Change Management.
“Change leadership” is usually the missing piece. Change leadership requires an appreciation of why and how people change and it requires a lot of courageous effort.By contrast, change efforts are driven by the leaders’ own negative emotions such as anger and fear. They literally fan the flames of resistance by treating questions, comments, criticism and evensuggestions as a discipline problem.
One senior executive proudly assured me, “When I manage change, I take no prisoners”. So who declared war? In this case, it was the author of the change process who went into battle and treated the implementers as the enemy. It shouldn’t be a surprise that he soon found himself in the fight of his life.
Certain resistance is potentially beneficial but is often discouraged or ignored, such as where senior management mistakes some critically important advice from employees as resistance that needs to be quashed. These well-intended leaders seem to think they have considered every relevant perspective of their change initiative. The more complex the change, the less likely this is true.
And they don’t fully understand how change is a very human process that will be experienced by stakeholders very differently on a very personal and individual basis. To get this across, we begin by explaining to our clients:
Organizations don’t change until people do.
People do not change until persons do.
Change is a very personal experience.
This is our way of explaining that the successful management of change blends the science of project management with the science, art and compassion of psychology in the form of Change Leadership. When done well, everyone or nearly everyone is better off then they would have been had the change not been achieved.
The measure of successful change is not the absence of resistance. It is the effective and efficient achievement of the intended results. Keep your eyes on that prize. Lead people until that prize is within their reach. And then celebrate the results with them.
For help or more information, tour the rest of this blog, peruse our website or take advantage of a no cost or obligation 30 minute consultation. Sign up here
by Progress Consulting | Sep 22, 2015 | Build Leaders
At Progress Consulting, our mission is to help organizations X•L•R•8•Progress™ – to see their optimal future more clearly …and realize it more quickly and easily™.
This post explains how to build leadership to X•L•R•8•Progress™ !
A narrow view of leadership is “getting other people to do what you want”. But that’s not much of a legacy, is it?
A broader, richer, more holistic view was described by John Quincy Adams this way:
If you inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
The business case for such leadership is employee engagement.
According to the Conference Board of Canada, employee engagement is a heightened emotional and intellectual connection that an employee has for his/her job, organization, manager, or co-workers that, in turn, influences him/her to apply additional discretionary effort to his/her work.
This describes a win/win scenario:
- Win for the individual – greater workplace satisfaction and enthusiasm, and
- Win for the organization – enhanced investment of employee inputs at no additional cost.
And it is the product of the type of leadership that Adams describes.
An organization that inspires people to dream more, learn more, do more and become more builds its capacity to accelerate progress. Such a workplace is rewarded with the high morale, low turnover and freely given discretionary effort of employee engagement.
Think of times when you said, “I’d do anything for that person”. What qualities did that person exhibit? How many people say that about you? How often do people say that about all of the executives, managers and supervisors in your organization?
Companies pay a fortune in methods and techniques designed to engage their employees. Yet the most powerful method of all is as simple as it is complex – providing inspiring, authentic leadership. And it is a quality that is always available to anyone who seeks to develop it.
For help or more information, tour the rest of this blog, peruse our website or take advantage of a no cost or obligation 30 minute consultation. Sign up here
by Progress Consulting | Sep 15, 2015 | Coach For Growth
At Progress Consulting, our mission is to help organizations X•L•R•8•Progress™ – to see their optimal future more clearly …and realize it more quickly and easily™.
This post explains how to coach growth to X•L•R•8•Progress™!
In his landmark book, The Fifth Discipline, author Peter Senge promotes the concept of creating a learning organization – an organization that continuously expands its capacity to achieve its mission.
If that isn’t the mandate of a CEO or division leader, or any leader, what is?
Coaching is one of the most powerful ways to build the capacity of individuals or teams. And it is one of the fastest growing means of accelerating organizational success.
Why are so many businesses engaging a Professional Coach? As knowledge increasingly becomes an accessible commodity, many conclude that their competitive edge comes from realizing the potential of their enterprise and their people. Realizing potential lies at the very heart of coaching.
If you are like many of our clients, you are racing against time to prepare a new generation of leaders to replace the large contingent of seasoned executives who are poised to retire.
The stakes are high. The future health and net worth of your organization depend on how well you meet this challenge.
Different enterprises try various strategies, including:
- Fast-track rotational programs for high potential future leaders
- Specialized training
- Intense mentoring, and
- “Baptism by fire”
What is YOUR strategy for building future leaders? And how do you know how well your strategy is working? How are you tailoring your approach so that each future leader achieves his or her potential? How are you imposing enough creative tension to keep your future leaders highly motivated and in an optimal learning mode, without creating stress levels that impede their performance and drive them into the arms of your competitors?
Professional Coaching can address all of these issues and more.
Professional coaching is especially invaluable to C-Suite executives who, because of confidentiality, often have no one they can talk to openly and candidly.
And, of course, coaching is often the ideal response to the employee or team whose performance falls short of the potential that you know to be there.
For help or more information, tour the rest of this blog, peruse our website or take advantage of a no cost or obligation 30 minute consultation. Sign up here
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