Breaking Through Resistance
Posted on 22. Jun, 2010 by Gary in Gary's Blog
On June 11th Mike Levine, Adam Klein and I hosted the third in a series of Senior Executive Leadership Breakfasts at Newsweek’s headquarters in New York. This session featured Jon Katzenbach speaking about how to use the informal organization in a company to ignite change.
Jon, who wrote the seminal book on team effectiveness, The Wisdom of Teams, has a new book out called Leading Outside The Lines. His perspective is that to accelerate the pace of change in an organization you have to use the informal part of the organization to push the formal side of the organization into action.
The formal side of the organization is about planning and logic. The informal side of the organization is about passion and emotional commitment. Jon’s main point was that to overcome resistance Senior Leaders must find the influencers inside their organization and enlist them in the change process before going company-wide. Find out what they’re thinking, let them experiment, take action and deliver a win. Then leverage their work and their influence in the organization to build buy-in.
The breakfast attendees, CEO’s, COO’s and division Presidents, found the concepts very appealing. But the real payoff came in the discussion about the resistance they face in their organizations and what to do about it. Several of the participants focused on the problems they have getting their direct reports to really embrace change.
As a psychologist, my perspective is that it takes a lot to get senior people to take the leap of faith required to embrace change. First, you’re talking about people at the top of organizations who have been successful doing what they’ve done for years. They’ve seen countless flavor-of-the-month “change events” that have delivered less than brilliant results. Why should they believe this next one will be any different?
If you can overcome that issue, the next hurdle is dealing with the fact that not many executives have led successful change efforts. In some ways you’re putting them in a difficult position: “I haven’t seen this work before and I don’t really know what to do myself”.
The way best way to break through this resistance is to start small and create a quick victory. In working with executives who are leading change efforts, my approach, once they’ve explained their vision and rationale for the initiative, is to get the team to take an action quickly that results in almost immediate, positive change.
You can talk all you want about why change is necessary and will improve performance. But nothing trumps resistance more than a tangible win.
Delivering Unpopular News — When You Haven’t Bought In
Posted on 15. Jun, 2010 by Gary in Gary's Blog
I was recently asked to contribute to Toddi Gutner’s Management Q & A section of the Wall Street Journal on the question of how to deliver unpopular news to employees when you yourself are not totally “on board” with the message. Here is the article:
Question: What advice do you have for delivering an unpopular message to your employees, particularly when you may not have bought in to the message yourself?
–Student at UVA’s Darden School of Business in Charlottesville, Va.
Answer: It’s hard enough to deliver unpopular news to your employees, but it’s even harder when you struggle with the message yourself. If you’re in a position with your superiors to push back on the decision, you might want to try that first, recommends Gary Schuman, president of CDL Consulting, a leadership and change management consulting firm in Baltimore. “If you lose that battle, then as a leader you have to figure out a way to get onboard with the message,” he says.
To that end, take the time you need to get your own feelings about the decision in check. If you haven’t fully bought into it, “your employees will be able to tell in the tone of your voice or your body language that you do not believe in what you are doing,” says Ray Skiba, director of human resources at Streck, a manufacturer of clinical laboratory products in Omaha, Neb.
The worst thing you can do is send a mixed signal: “I don’t believe in this but they’re making me do it.” That may seem like the safest way out of challenging situation, but you’ll lose credibility with your staffers. “You’re making it clear you’re powerless in this situation and you’re selling out your responsibility as a leader to stand behind company policy,” says Mr. Schuman.
Once you’ve done your internal work, prepare yourself to deliver the message. If there was team involvement in the decision, ask one of the team members to listen to how you plan to address your employees. “The more prepared you are, the better the outcome,” says Mr. Skiba.
Next, consider your communication strategy. “Explain why the decision is important to the business, how the decision was made, and why it is important that the plan be executed,” says Kimberly Bishop, founder of a career management and leadership services consulting firm in New York.
Give your employees ample time to digest the message. Since it took you some time to accept the information, realize that your employees will need time as well. “When the message has been delivered, be available to answer questions, be visible and approachable to help individuals get to the point of acceptance,” says Mr. Skiba.
Realize that once your employees see that the decision has not totally destroyed their work environment, they may be more willing to let go of their anger. “You might want to get your group together a week or two after a decision has been made and ask people what’s been working and what hasn’t been working since the announcement,” says Mr. Schuman. Then see if there’s any action that you can take to improve the situation. Your availability to your employees and understanding of their experience will go a long way in making them see you as an effective leader.
The call for leadership
Posted on 11. Jan, 2010 by admin in Gary's Blog
Employees want strong and effective leaders. They want to know someone is at the helm who can get them out of this current mess. It’s senior management’s responsibility to take on the current economic situation directly. If an organization is staffed for double-digit growth and that’s not in the cards, management can’t ignore the situation. But instead of massive lay-offs, they could rethink the way the organization is structured, make decisions that prioritize what work DOESN’T get done, redeploy talent, or actually spend money to encourage innovation that opens up new revenue streams (i.e. Apple and the iPod/iPhone).
Where have all the business leaders gone?
Posted on 04. Jan, 2010 by admin in Gary's Blog
The economic crisis has sent severe shockwaves through the world-wide business community. This has stimulated relentless reporting on job loss, foreclosures, rising unemployment, companies disappearing overnight, the fragile nature of the stock market, and bailouts of institutions too large to fail. Unthinkable events for a business world wired for positive news and continual growth.
Gary Schuman is a consulting psychologist and president of CDL Consulting,
Inc. His areas of expertise are leadership, coaching, large scale change
efforts and senior-level team building. His approach in working with
organizations is to provide practical, hands-on solutions that can make a
tangible difference in the way individuals and organizations operate.
Gary received a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Florida State
University. He is a frequent speaker on the topics of Change, Management,
Coaching, Leadership, and Career Development.