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Category Archive: Leading Change

Lipstick On A Pig

Posted by on June 17, 2016

I am convinced that we will do almost anything to keep from having to change the real problem. I see this in my own personal life and I see it in the workplace all the time.

Instead of admitting something is not working and killing it we give it a new and improved rebranding thinking somehow that will mystically make all the real issues go away. We fail to remember that every time we roll something out as new and improved, something else just became old and obsolete .

Superficial change makes us feel good and even seems to give us some temporary momentum. The hard cold truth is we just kicked the can down the road and it will be waiting for you in a week or a month to kick it again.

If it’s a people issue, never forget that conduct is the visible result of inward character. Stop dealing with behavior and start looking at their beliefs. Bottom line, after appropriate attempts to help someone improve, there comes a point in time that you need to pull the plug. Termination is always a better outcome than manipulation.

Leaders prove their real value to an organization in the trenches of leading change. Those who lack the courage to make the hard calls will put lipstick on the pig every time. Those who value the success of the organization over themselves will kill the pig and throw a party with barbecue for everyone.

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The Most Effective Teams Adapt To Change

Posted by on June 8, 2016

The ability to lead change well is both art and science. The development of the plan and the definition of the metrics are often the easy part. When to make the change and at what pace are challenging. The role of teams in leading change is defined in this Forbes post:

“A recent Economist article stated that “teams have become the basic building-blocks of organizations,” and I disagree. I disagree because they’ve always been the building blocks of performance, and it’s only now that leaders are beginning to realize the power of “we” and networks after working so long for “me” in hierarchies.”

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3 Ways To Respond To A Difficult Boss Who Resists Change

Posted by on February 17, 2016

I once spoke at an annual conference for the utility industry on the subject of change. The major takeaway was that long after this recession cycle is over we are never going back to the way things used to be.

The world has permanently changed the way we live and especially the way we work. The power of technology and the globalization of world economies are driving change in an unprecedented way.

At the end of both my presentations we had a question and answer session. The dominant question from everyone was what do you do when you know change needs to occur but your boss either does not see the need or simply will not give up on the status quo?

The first thing you must do is to continue to respectfully continue to tell the truth. The moment you give up and become a yes man you have stopped doing your job.

The second thing you must do is check your motives. At the end of the day if I have tried to be helpful and share my perspective in the right way then I can go home knowing I did it right.

The third thing is to realize that it is not in your job description to change your boss any more than it is to change your mate at home. When we hit the wall is when we assume responsibility that was not given to us and become frustrated when the people above us don’t seem to get it.

After several months of respectfully communicating what you see from your perspective and nothing seems to be changing and you get the impression that they don’t want to hear it anymore. The you must realize that in the end you will either change the corporate culture you are working in or if you stay too long it will change you.

When I have reached this point the change that needs to occur is not in my boss but where I am working. I will not settle for a paycheck becasue the world is in a mess and I want to make a difference.

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4 Things Successful Change Leaders Do Well

Posted by on February 8, 2016

It has often been said that the pain of the present must become greater than the fear of the future for change to really work. Although that may be true, it is an over simplistic assessment of the reality of just how complex leading change is both for individuals and organizations. This HBR post takes a much more comprehensive approach:

“We know that two-thirds of large scale transformation efforts fail. But that’s not a terribly helpful piece of information―unless we’re looking for confirmation that this is hard, really hard. What is useful is to understand what leaders can do to substantially increase the odds that their companies won’t be among the two-thirds of those that fail.”

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Change Management And Leadership Development Have To Mesh

Posted by on January 12, 2016

Operating in silos is always a dangerous thing in any leadership culture. This is never more true than trying to lead an organization through a major change initiative. It can feel extremely top down and in reality it’s a great opportunity for leadership development. Great HBR post:

Leadership development and change management tend to be top priorities for many organizations. In spite of this, a majority of organizations tend to fall far short of their goals for both. One major reason organizations struggle is because they treat both leadership development and change management as separate rather than interrelated challenges.

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In Search For The Silver Bullet

Posted by on January 11, 2016

In Jim Collins latest book How The Mighty Fall he talks about companies that start on a systematic downward spiral that leads ultimately to total failure as an organization. One common problem he found is that when they finally realize they are in serious trouble rather than dealing with real problems they search for the quick fix approach of finding the right silver bullet.

When full blown panic sets in there is a frantic search for several silver bullets that can be dramatic big moves such as game changing acquisitions or a risky new strategy or an exciting innovation or new leadership, anything that can save us. The following is list of several silver bullets observed:

Grasping for a Leader as Savior: The board responds to threats and setbacks by searching for a charismatic leader and an outside savior.
Panic and Haste: Instead of being calm, deliberate, and disciplined, people exhibit hasty, reactive behavior, bordering on panic.
Radical Change and Revolution with Fanfare: The language of revolution and radical change characterizes the new era: New Programs! New cultures! New Strategies!
Hype Precedes Results: Instead of setting expectations low—underscoring the duration and difficulty of the turnaround—leaders hype their visions initiating a pattern of overpromising and under delivering.
Initial Upswing Followed by Disappointments: There is an initial burst of positive results, but they do not last; dashed hope follows dashed hope; the organization achieves no buildup, no cumulative momentum.
Confusion and Cynicism: People cannot easily articulate what the organization stands for; core values have eroded to the point of irrelevance; the organization has become just another place to work.

There are no quick fixes or silver bullets for organizations that have complex long term problems that have built up for decades. The new realities of the global economy did not create these problems it merely acted as a catalyst to reveal them.

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5 Habits Of Truly Disruptive Leaders

Posted by on November 11, 2015

Stability of the process was an extremely valued outcome in the 1980’s when I started my corporate career. The idea of disruption was clearly perceived as a threat to be avoided at all cost. With todays changing global marketplace that is a luxury we no longer have. Fast Company challenges the status quo again:

On its face, leadership’s goals don’t seem to line up with dictionary definitions of disruption. Here’s Merriam-Webster‘s:

disrupt: (verb dis·rupt \dis-ˈrəpt\) to cause (something) to be unable to continue in the normal way; to interrupt the normal progress or activity of (something)

Surely leaders should do the reverse, providing a steady hand on the tiller and guiding their teams to consistent and predictable victories—right? That’s been the formula for organizational success for decades, at any rate.

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4 Critical Team Dynamics for Leading Change

Posted by on November 4, 2015

How many teams have we put together over the years to help us lead the change process only to realize several months later that nothing happened that was sustainable? In John Kotter’s excellent book on Leading Change he gives four key characteristics that must be in place for the team to be successful.

Position power: Are enough key players on board, especially the main line managers, so that those left out cannot easily block progress?
Expertise: Are the various points of view- in terms of discipline, work experience etc.- relevant to the task at hand adequately represented so that informed, intelligent decisions will be made?
Credibility: Does the group have enough people with good reputations in the firm so that its pronouncements will be taken seriously by other employees?
Leadership: Does the group include enough proven leaders to be able to drive the change process?

When I have been responsible for leading major change initiatives all of these types of people must be involved. The other important dynamic is that you must avoid people who will try to take over the group and lead by positional power and the other extreme of individuals who will not engage and confront the brutal facts with their active participation.

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When It's Not A Good Time To Lead Change

Posted by on July 11, 2014

I learned a long time ago one critical leadership principle that has lasted all these years. You must find out the right thing that needs to be done and you must do it in the right way. There is one more critical piece to the formula, it must also be done at the right time or everything blows up.

Ron Edmondson nails this one on when not to lead change: “I’ve never been a proponent of the saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Sometimes you need a change and nothing is “broke”.

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Leaders Don't Change These Things

Posted by on May 9, 2014

We live in a time of constant change and the ability to leverage change may be the single most important responsibility of a leader. However, there are some things that should never change and you must guard them at all cost. Mark Miller reminds us of some of those non negotiable items:

“Last week, I wrote a post asserting that leaders must create change. I stand by that. If you and I can’t create positive change, we won’t be allowed to lead for long. However, there’s another facet of our role. We are also the guardians for what should not change.”

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