Leadership Lessons: Supporting Change

It's Not the Strong That Survive, But Those That Adapt Best...

It was Darwin who first explained that the species which best adapted to its environment were the most likely to survive. In today's changing business environment, organizations also need to adapt -- or risk extinction.

Some Perspective

So how do you compete in the face of constant change? As the pressures of change build, the changes can become more complicated and difficult to control. When that occurs, managers often feel they are doing well to cross just one thing off their daily list! But what about your employees... how are they coping with daily changes?

Your managers need to deal with the emotions, fear and anxiety that come with change as they interact with their team members.

I've often experienced organizations in which strategies seem to change with the way the wind blows. At least that is how it is perceived by employees. For example, Ralph was a manager of a telemarketing firm a few years ago. Changes in the "No Call" listing as well as a shift from outbound to inbound marketing strategies caused a major disruption in the way the company was doing business. Employees lived in fear of losing their jobs and wondered whether or not they would fit in. Turnover was an immediate problem, and the "survivors" were left with more fear and oppression of re-training and new rules.

Ralph came to me with this fundamental problem: How could he give his team leaders the skills to lead call center teams through the change, with minimal turnover and maximum productivity? I told him that if team leaders could develop their skills to support and manage change, they would have a direct impact on the success of the organization.

A Solution

To make this kind of impact, team leaders need to:

• Understand why change happens and how people react to it.
• Learn how to support the team members as they struggle with change.
• Involve team members in a change initiative by promoting their understanding and ownership of the change and its benefits.
• Plan for individual or group follow-up sessions that support the change process and reinforce personal and organizational goals.

Supporting Change is a Vital Learning program that provides the tools managers need to understand and interpret change to more successfully manage their team through it. By working to support change and address the team's comfort level with that change, the manager can more effectively facilitate acceptance of a new way of doing things.

Change can be good! New initiatives can gain acceptance more quickly. Lost productivity, turnover, and decreased performance can be minimized if managers are trained to "manage change". In this 4-hour workshop, your team leaders and managers will learn skills such as:

• Understand the phases of change
• How to react to organizational changes
• Strategies of supporting change
• How to keep pace with flexibility

To learn more about "Developing Performance Goals and Standards" or the complete Vital Learning leadership development curriculum download this 4-page PDF or watch this brief video.

The Vital Learning curriculum is available in Classroom, Online, or Blended delivery options and includes the following essential topics...

Disciplining - understanding how to discipline others to eliminate problem behavior
Complaints - being able to effectively manage complaints
Coaching - knowing how to productively coach job skills
Project Management - being able to run projects, both on-time and on-budget
Conflict - understanding how to successfully resolve conflict
Developing Performance Goals and Standards - understanding how to establish performance goals and standards
Providing Feedback - knowing when and how to give feedback
And more...
For detail go to www.TheLearningEngine.org