Performance loss or performance gain when so much change in a business?
This is a monthly column where I answer a scenario based on real life events so that we can all learn and improve our leadership techniques. Find out below how to submit yours.
The Situation
I am an HR manager and know that there is a lot of change ahead for the business in 2020. We have already had two years of change, which have including cuts and a turnover in the senior leadership team.
The Problem
There is a concern about how some individuals and teams will cope with even more change.
The impact
The impact on the business could be negative. If we lose team members then the financial cost and time cost of recruiting will stretch our teams further. In addition to putting more pressure on the remaining individuals and teams. I am concerned how the business will come through it unscathed.
The Solution
2020 is going to be a year of change for many, if not all of us, for many reasons this year. The thought of change can generate worry and fear for many of us, usually because change is often turbulent and stressful and can result in performance loss. However, when led well change can lead to a performance gain. And we must remember, some change is positive.
Even individuals in 500BC knew that change was our only constant (check out Heraclitus). In light of change being both inevitable and certain (and coming thicker and faster as the decades roll on) knowing your teams have the capacity to cope is essential. Not only for high performance at an individual level but also a team and, therefore, for an organisational level.
Here are the three top considerations for you to successfully manage change in 2020 so your teams are able to cope, ‘StressLess’ and bring a performance gain to your organisation.
Step 1: Become consciously aware of the different types of change that may be ahead
Unplanned change; Some change will be unexpected and can cause turbulence. We want to reduce this as much as possible by planning ahead and visioning what change is needed in the organisation.
Planned change; At least as an HR professional, (most of!) you will be aware of the planned changes for the year ahead in your organisation. So that’s a good starting point for leading your teams through. If not, get visioning and brainstorm the change that is needed to meet the organisation’s goals for 2020. When we know what change we have planned (“visioned”), we can decide if the change lends itself to:
Incremental Change i.e. led as a series of digestible steps (often referred to as continuous improvement), which can often be transformational and lead to a performance gain; or
Step Change i.e. large scale and organisation wide; such as downsizing, removing middle management, decentralising or cultural or process driven change. These types of changes rarely result in the effectiveness gains the organisation anticipated. This can be because of the time and effort needed but sometimes the required change in behaviour is never really achieved.
Summary; Have a think about what change is coming up in your organisation and how it can be managed as incremental, and therefore transformational, change.
Step 2: Assess your workforce
As humans, there is a process that we all go through when we encounter change; the Change Transition Curve. This is made up of different stages:
Immobilisation (shock, temporary disbelief and a sense of paralysis)
Denial (try to shrug off the change and pretend nothing is happening)
Frustration/powerlessness (a range of emotions can be experienced including grief, rage and fear)
Acceptance (often we can feel exhausted from the emotions experienced but realise that we need to get on with it)
Testing out (we try new approaches and behaviours and generate inevitable learning)
Completion and Integration (behaviours and attitudes have shifted and integrated into a new way of life).
During Step Change, this can be even more pronounced but every individual (including you and the other leaders) will experience the Change Transition Curve in differing degrees. Some will go through it within days, some years and some will get stuck at one of these key stages, never fully completing it.
The difference in how individuals within a single team will experience the change will make it challenging for a leader to manage. After all, some individuals can even regress from one stage to another, so a leader always needs to be aware of all the team members.
In an HR role, ensuring the leaders are aware of the psychological process they and their teams will go through when experiencing change is key. Growing this awareness not only helps us as individuals to cope and rise to the challenges presented by change more productively, it also helps in our dealings with others so we can adapt our style to give more relevant support.
Summary; Ensure leaders are prepared with this knowledge.
Step 3: Lead with a balance of High Challenge and High Support
It is important that leaders are not only aware of the Change Transition Curve but also when the giving of their support is vital (particularly at the Acceptance stage and beyond). This is because change is a ‘High Challenge’ situation in a workplace resulting in stress and inconsistent development and performance, if not accompanied by High Support.
Understanding what is meant by High Support will be different per individual and per the differing stages on the Change Transition Curve. But the overall aim here is to create workplaces which balance, in equal measure, the High Challenge of the change with relevant and appropriate High Support (not either/or, but both/and).
The leaders must have knowledge and possess key skills of leadership (often the underestimated ‘soft skills’) to successfully lead their teams through change. These include; explicitness, boundary setting, performance management, giving feedback, being resilient and assertive, having high expectations, understanding reinforcement theory, being situationally consistent, practising active listening and possessing key underpinning attitudes.
Summary; Ensure leaders are aware of their underlying belief and attitude to the High Challenge High Support model. They can then be equipped with the skills to consistently adapt their leadership style to balance the High Challenge of change with High Support.
Conclusion
Knowing the capacity of your teams to cope during times of change seems to be lacking at the moment in your organisation.
As leaders, bringing about necessary and planned change is essential to the high performance and therefore survival of our businesses. But coping with turbulent change is increasingly a necessity in today’s world.
A key feature of high performing teams is that they deal with change with vigour and resolution as a new challenge. How? Because that challenge is buttressed by support and key skills, so any team is confident and capable of doing what is required.
Checklist for managing change for performance gain:
Step 1: Become consciously aware of the different types of change that may be ahead. Brainstorm the vision for the business for 2020 and identify the change needed.
Step 2: Assess your workforce and ensure leaders are equipping their teams with knowledge of how change will affect each of them to raise awareness and increase support of each other.
Step 3: Lead with a balance of High Challenge and High Support by ensuring leaders understand how to do this and are equipped with the mindset and skills to do so.
If you’d like to find out where you or your team are on the High Challenge/High Support book a FREE 40 minute Discovery Call with me and we will run your profile and chat it through!
The StressLess Clinic column
This is a monthly column, which is part of the StressLess Clinic that supports leaders in professional practice. The solutions are drawn from the core of Flying Free or Fly Higher programme, which incorporates Liberating Leadership or Pioneering Professional.
Each month I answer a scenario based on real life events so that we can all learn and improve our leadership techniques. All scenarios are anonymised so it’s just coincidence if they remind you of a colleague; we all experience similar issues!
If you’d like to submit a ‘situation’ to be considered and (if you’re the chosen one!) responded to, please do so via the Contact page on my website! Subscribe to the Skylark Post to ensure you get this monthly column and other news delivered directly to your inbox!
