1. Organizational Culture

Imagine a day when your leader announces a major change to take place on Monday. You had no prior knowledge, you received no further detail, you had not been involved in the discussions and decisions leading up to this moment. The desired outcome and indicators of success have not been mentioned. You have no access to the reasons why the change is happening, nor what will be required of you. Due to this reality, it is likely your confidence levels would decrease when it comes to leading others through the change.

Organizational Culture can be a great source of resistance if this description typifies the way a company operates, and seems beyond the sphere of influence of middle managers.

2. Lack of Awareness and Knowledge about the Change

Adults are babies in big bodies. We know that a child will always ask ‘why’; so too an adult, as this provides the reasons for the need to change and also the consequences of not changing. Through receiving that information, a middle manager would also understand more about the nature of the change. Yet, even with Awareness (the ‘why’ of change), there is still a need for greater depth to Knowledge (the ‘how to’ of change). 

• Imagine a Chef who has been told to change the pie menu, yet not given the recipe nor an understanding of why the prior item is ‘off the menu’.
• Imagine an Accountant who has been informed by the CFO the accounting system is currently outdated and must change, yet provided no insights into its failings and what is required to close the gaps.
• Imagine the IT Officer’s app has just been scrapped, with no reasons being shared, and no idea or direction as to how to evolve to a higher standard.
• Imagine the HR Officer receiving a directive to change the company’s uniform with no understanding of the what, why or new priorities.

The ‘why’ and ‘how to’ of change is imperative for a middle manager as it will fill in the blanks, opening the pathway to clarity, and further action.

Lack of Buy-In

We’re back to middle managers being real people, with real human needs first and foremost. You are a real person too, and consciously or unconsciously filter any change requests through your values, opinions, background experiences, history and credibility of the sender, and the list goes on. When something does not align to your realm of reality, why would you accept to adopt any change?

A middle manager is almost superhuman, stuck between those above (often out of touch with what’s really happening on the ground) and those below (who depend heavily on the one closest to them for support). Being there for both parties is a balancing act for any middle manager – how long could you continue to serve all those around you, compromising the very core of what matters most to yourself? 

Many moons ago, my mentor taught me to behold resistance, grab it and serve it; after all, it is only showing up to be heard. It simply wants attention, answers and opportunity for  alignment. 

If you lead a middle manager:

• Anticipate, and provide for the needs of the manager during change, before resistance shows up.
• Provide the what, why and how of change, so the puzzle is as complete as possible. 
• Allow time for the manager to process and explore the WIFM (What’s In It For Me) factor.
• Walk alongside the middle manager during change, providing consistent and relevant support.

The post The Top Three Reasons why Middle Managers struggle with Change @ Work appeared first on business en motion.

When leaders are working with their people, fostering collaboration and strengthening competence and confidence, pride, passion and engagement will be the return on a leader’s investment. Does this take time? Sure it does! Does this take effort? Sure it does! Was Rome built in a day? Was Rome built by one person?

Once a strong relationship exists between the one who aspires to lead and others who choose to follow, insights about each person’s reality will exist, providing knowledge of how much challenge or direction each needs, how far each wishes to stretch and what time span each can endure.

Just imagine you are ready to lead a team along a sandy patch. One of your team is in a wheel chair, one has no shoes, one has a fear of sand and yet another is a professional desert runner. Some may want more information than others, some may prefer pre-training on a different surface, some may wish to be physically helped while others may simply ask for freedom to find their own way. Leaders who provide choice to their team members influence the pride people report back. With each wishing to reach the end of the path, a leader willingly finds different ways to reduce anxiety for some and boredom for others, to stretch each just beyond their comfort zone and build their willingness to go beyond the track ‘tomorrow’, facilitating pride and passion.

‘When leaders enable others to act, team members are more than 30% more engaged in their workplaces,’ report Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, while also vastly increasing levels of employee pride. Show me a leader who would not want that!

View supporting data on slide 9

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People feel more connected when their leaders provide appreciation and support for workplace contributions. In fact, nearly 90% of people feel a strong sense of team spirit when their leaders very frequently or almost always engage in this behavior. Conversely, less than a third of people feel a sense of team spirit under leaders who almost never or rarely engage in this behavior.

This leadership practice is often described as ‘encourage the heart’ because heart is the water for the marathon. No heart means no connection which means no return loyalty, engagement and productivity; after all, creating breakthroughs in the face of challenge can be tough work!

Leaders ensure that encouragement is both personalized, being targeted and relevant at all times. Encouragement is provided firstly to an individual showing appreciation for individual excellence, and also secondly to the community to which this individual has contributed. The latter is done when the group celebrates the values and victories, ensuring the success is not just about one person but more so about the team.

Nobody likes to be taken for granted, cites Kouzes and Posner, co-authors of ‘The Leadership Challenge’. When people’s courage, determination and skills are noted and overtake the fear and hesitation of facing a new corporate vision, positive progress will happen; isn’t that what a leader is facilitating? Opening hearts and minds is certainly something to celebrate!

View supporting data on slide 10

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Trust is eroding rapidly in today’s world. Does that suggest leadership is too?

The research from Kouzes and Posner indicates what makes a difference to people’s level of engagement in the workplace is how the people see their leaders behave! Less than two-tenths of 1% of engagement will be explained by who people are, where they work and the roles they play, while an overwhelming 99+% of people’s workplace engagement is linked to a leader’s behavior.

Credibility for leaders comes from actions; ‘doing what you say you will do’. In the eyes of those a leader influences, intent is secondary to action. Why then do so many leading a team still feel that inconsistency with those actions is acceptable, demonstrating differing priorities for different people at different times?

Consistency is the crucible of trust, which takes dedicated time to earn and mere seconds to come crashing down! Among others, one inconsistent message, an unexpected behavior and misaligned policies can cast shadows of doubt over trust almost instantaneously.

According to the research of Kouzes and Posner, co-authors of ‘The Leadership Challenge’, the more a leader:

• Is clear and articulate about a philosophy of leadership
• Follows through on promises and commitment
• Sets a personal example of what is expected
• Invests time on the standards that were agreed to
• Builds consensus around a common set of values with the team
• Seeks feedback about the impact of his/her own behavior

the more trust will exist, translating into increased engagement and discretionary effort, higher levels of joint ownership, more rapid and targeted results with possible heightened loyalty.

‘There is a close relationship between the frequency that leaders follow through on their promises and commitments and people’s trust in management. Trust drops precipitously as a leader’s follow-through declines,’ cite Kouzes and Posner.

People will believe the messenger by frequently witnessing the above-listed consistent behaviors, as a pre-requisite for showing concern and commitment to any proposed vision. Leadership does not have to erode; that’s the great news! It is however eroding currently, simply because consistent leadership behaviors are not being applied or witnessed by enough people, with enough frequency. As leadership is everyone’s business, what are we all waiting for? The solution is clear!

View supporting data on slide 6

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