Drive Transformation: The Vital Role of the Champion!

Senior leadership provides the credibility necessary for change to be successful. It is critical that your senior leadership supports the change effort from the top and makes a large commitment to it; whether the change involves new processes, new policies, new systems, or human capital.  If your employees feel that your leadership team does not care about the change effort, they then think, “Why should I care if management doesn’t?”  A clear vision and case for the change needs to be communicated to all levels of your organization by using stories to paint a picture of what success looks like and your desired results.

Appointing the right person as champion of your change effort is vital.  This individual should be someone from the senior management team, but who is well-liked and respected by both your management team and front-line employees.  This individual should be someone who is not afraid to address the elephant in the room and not just someone who does management’s bidding and afraid to buck the status quo.  This person is ultimately responsible for the involvement of others, including your senior management team, at all levels of your company in the change management process.  The champion needs to have the authority to align behavior to the change process.  Most importantly, the champion must have the ability to listen and connect with your employees.

All levels of management need to support and actively lead by example the behaviors needed to drive active involvement in the change.  This may require additional management training.  Actively seek out and act on the feedback of your employees.  Remember, your employees all adapt differently to change.  Oftentimes as part of the management team, you have had time to debate and discuss the change, whereas, your employees have not.  Extend that same courtesy to your employees, by pulling them into the process from the beginning.  Employees will see any issues or problems from the outset as they know their jobs best, as they are hands on with your processes, customers, etc…  Employees will then also better understand your desired results and feel ownership in the process – making communication and buy-in of the change much easier.

Lastly, as the change process is occurring, pay attention to the change itself.  Ask your employees how the change can be improved?  What barriers to implementation are occurring?  This shows your front-lines that you are involved and they should be too.  Remember, if your senior leadership team does nothing, neither will your employees.

Idea Share of the Month!

Create an innovation champion.  An innovation program must be managed – it is not a put into place and it will run itself type of program.  A point person should have accountability for managing the program and working with the team to improve the system as necessary.

Frame of Mind Consulting understands the unique DNA of your organization, which is necessary to turn any organization into one capable of leveraging the full idea potential of its employees.  Would you like to drive connectivity and ownership throughout your company?  Contact me at (860) 559-7942 to set up your complimentary consultation during which you will receive some invaluable tips that you can apply to your business right away.

Is Your Level of Trust Empowering?

Empowerment is about giving your front-line employees the authority to act in the company's best interest in achieving company outcomes and strategic goals. Front-line employees see 80 percent of all opportunities for improvement as they are the ones who are ‘hands on’ in your processes, vendors, systems and customers.   They have a clear focus on what works and what does not work in your company.  Leadership is often too far removed from the process to have that same level of focus and understanding regarding the job at hand.  In addition, your leaders may be too busy putting out fires or strained in terms of resources to have the time to proactively think about ideas that will achieve desired outcomes and strategic goals.  To add to the complexity, leadership often does not effectively communicate goals down to the front-lines, so what your employees think leadership is seeking is often different than what leadership is really seeking.  When this disconnect and miscommunication happens, a lack of trust occurs between your employees and leaders that is hard to rebuild.  Lack of trust is the enemy of empowerment.  Employees are then not fully engaged with or invested in their work and your leadership team wonders how to motivate them?

For empowerment to occur and ideas to flourish, bi-directional trust must occur.  Employees must trust leadership if they are to come forward with their ideas and leaders must trust that employees are capable of implementing the ideas they come up with.  It can be difficult to give up control on the part of leadership team and to trust your employees to support and achieve organizational goals and desired results, once they are communicated to employees effectively.  Once employees see that they are authorized to implement their ideas, they engage with your culture and ask what they can do to demonstrate best practices to achieve your company’s outcomes and strategic goals.  Empowered and actively invested employees make better decisions and implement them more successfully.

Idea Share Tip of the Month!

Employees give in ideas based on intrinsic motivation – not for rewards or money.  They want to see their ideas being used and most of the time ideas come about because they want to make their job easier or better.

Frame of Mind Consulting understands the unique DNA of your organization, which is necessary to turn any organization into one capable of leveraging the full idea potential of its employees. Would you like to drive connectivity and ownership throughout your company?  Contact Page at (860) 559-7942 to set up your complimentary consultation during which you will receive some invaluable tips that you can apply to your business right away.

Do You Deliver What You Promise?

Employees know lip service when they hear it and see it.  There are many reasons why your leadership team may start out with good intentions and then fall short of what they promise to deliver.  Your employees do not see those intentions - they only see the end result.  Oftentimes, it is a case that your managers don’t know what they don’t know.  Perhaps they were promoted into their position for their technical skills and not their people or communication skills.  It is imperative to have the right people in the right position.  Another reason your managers may pay lip service is that they do not truly believe anything will change or they secretly don’t agree with the change so they quietly sabotage it.  Just because you communicate a message, doesn’t mean your managers ACCEPT that message or interpret it in the way it was meant to be interpreted!  Another barrier to true engagement, is the - management vs. employees’ mentality.  In today’s competitive landscape, it is critical that your management team supports and aligns with not only your company’s strategy and vision, but connects with your employees as well.

When management pays lip service to employee engagement, your employees quickly see right through it and it breeds distrust.  When distrust is prevalent, your employees feel unheard and devalued.  It is risky for employees to come forward with their ideas, as they are fearful.  Fearful if they open their mouths regarding their ideas, that their managers will dismiss the idea.  Or that the idea will be considered too small and then they will be ridiculed, look foolish or be embarrassed among their peers, or worse yet, lose their job.  These fears are very real for your employees.  Therefore, it is crucial to build an environment of trust that promotes confidence among your employees and supports their efforts to achieve your company’s outcomes.

There are some steps you can take to actively engage your employees.  First and foremost, actively listen and show concern for your employees and then follow through on what you learn!  Second, communicate your goals and communicate them again and again!  This involves changing the nature of the dialogue in your company from top down to bi-directional.  Transparency and accountability is also of paramount importance – clearly define roles of responsibility, confront problems head on; and link rewards to outcomes.  Be realistic about the issues in your company and do not gloss over them.  Lastly, show the impact of implemented ideas both on people and systems to gain some level of agreement with the change from your employees to obtain maximum buy-in.

As your company’s strategy changes – so must your employees and operations.  Actively engaged and invested employees will seek out best practices and ask what they can do to meet company goals – if you ask for their help in navigating the change.  Actively invested employees want to share their ideas and expect their ideas to be taken seriously.  They will put in more effort beyond the scope of their job to become subject matter experts and will implement their ideas more efficiently and successfully.  Most of all, invested employees will look out for the best interests of your company – not just their own personal agenda.  Employee feedback is the most valuable resource in your organization as it allows you to understand what is working and what needs to change in your company.  Are you asking the right questions?

Idea Share Tip of the Month!

Management must trust that employees are capable of implementing the ideas they come up with.  Confident, trusting employees want the freedom to implement their ideas.  They also want to understand the impact and value that their ideas have brought to the company and to the work environment.  In contrast, unconfident, mistrusting employees want structure and want to be told what to do – either because they are not sure what they are good at or because they don’t trust that they won’t be punished for mistakes.  “I just did as I was told,” thus minimizing accountability along with discretionary effort.

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Frame of Mind Consulting understands the unique DNA of your organization, which is necessary to turn any organization into one capable of leveraging the full idea potential of its employees. Would you like to drive connectivity and ownership throughout your company?  Contact Page at (860) 559-7942 to set up your complimentary consultation during which you will receive some invaluable tips that you can apply to your business right away.