The effective leader who wishes to induce change will start by changing people’s attitude and behavior.
Wondering what are some effective ways leaders use to implement change?
According to Dale Carnegie, leaders must work themselves towards making the request for change.
1. Be sincere
It is important to:
Know exactly what it is you want to do and what you want the other person to do.
Not overpromise and underdeliver.
Forget about the benefits to yourself and concentrate on the benefits to the other person.
2. Be empathetic
Empathy is about understanding another person’s point of view and asking yourself what is it the other person really wants.
Before you even begin inducing change and telling someone that what they are doing is wrong, leaders have to give honest appreciation.
3. Consider the other person’s wants
Leaders must also consider the benefits that person will receive from doing what they suggest and match those benefits to the other person’s wants.
It helps to use encouragement and give the other person a reputation and a valid objective to live up to.
4. Make the request
When making the request for change, leaders must constantly communicate, convey that this change will personally benefit the and suggest ideas instead of giving orders.
The person will generally be happy to do the things that was suggested.
If all fails, let the other person save face.
Last Words Of Advice!
Implementing change isn’t easy because many people will resist it and you don’t see the immediate results.
There are a few women in positions of power but those few have been selfless, have created movements, and have tremendously impacted History.
These women have had different stories and have impacted society differently but they all created movements, have faced adversity, and broken the traditional rules of a male-dominated society.
Indeed, these women were not afraid of thinking or acting differently, being catalysts for change, bringing distinct perspectives and leadership styles to the table.
They have proven, more than necessary, that leadership has nothing to do with gender.
Wondering who are these women and how have they impacted History?
In no particular order of importance, you will find below a short profile of 5 remarkable women, promoting change around the world.
1. Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama is a Princeton graduate, lawyer and writer of Becoming.
Michelle Obama is also the wife of the 44th President Of The United States Barack Obama. She is the first Black First Lady Of The United States.
Throughout the presidency of the 44th President, Michelle Obama wrote and gave several heartfelt speeches. She initiated several campaigns against Youth obesity with the Let’s Move! Movement in 2010 and acted for the Red Cross in Haiti in 2010.
Her latest speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention revolutionized the role of the First Ladies in the White House and have demonstrated her level of influence.
2. Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza & Opal Tometi
Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza & Opal Tometi were all involved in social works when they came together to create the Black Lives Matter Movement.
After the unwarranted death of Trayvon Martin in 2012 and the acquittal of George Zimmerman, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza & Opal Tometi wanted to give people the tools to fight for human rights, black rights and to generate change.
The Black Lives Matter Movement campaigns against systemic racism, injustice and violence inflicted on Black People. This movement also militates against police brutality, against the lack of empathy and accountability of the American oppressive system.
3. Tanaka Burke
Tarana Burke is an activist and founder of Just Be Inc., focusing on the health and well-being of young women of color.
Tanaka Burke created the nonprofit organization Just Be Inc. to help women to speak up and stand up for themselves. From there, she started the Me Too Movement to help women victims of sexual harassment and assault.
The phrase Me Too took on a broader meaning after the H. Weinstein cases in Hollywood.
With the phrase Me Too, women around the world have been able to share their stories and tell others that they are not alone.
4. Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel is the Chancellor of Germany and Forbes 2020 most powerful woman in the world.
Throughout her political career, Angela Merkel has adopted an analytical, quiet and confident leadership style.
Angela Merkel has commanded respect for several years for her ability to run a healthy economy and to render Germany competitive.
5. Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher, also known as the Iron Lady, is Britain’s first Prime Minister.
Margaret Thatcher served her country from 1979 to 1990 and introduced the United Kingdom to her conservative politics.
Her strong opinions generated both hate and admiration among her peers.
Despite efforts to maintain the status quo and biases keeping women and minorities out of certain spheres of influence, women are rapidly climbing the leadership ladder.
Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.
The company culture depends heavily on the leader’s personality, character and vision…
The culture of the company affects every level of the company and determines:
How you act and operate.
How decisions are made.
How you treat your customers, employees.
How your employees treat each other.
How you handle failures and celebrate successes.
The acceptable code of conduct.
Why certain things are required.
A highly performing company culture increases engagement, retains good employees, satisfies their customers and has better results than any other company.
That is why leaders have to hold themselves to very high standards and realize how much their behavior impacts their workplace.
Wondering how to create a high performance culture?
1. Assess the current state of your company
Leaders have to purposefully create and maintain a healthy workplace culture.
However, they must first be a living model for the culture that they want.
Leaders must take a good look at themselves when assessing the state of the culture: if the culture is unhealthy, then the leadership is unhealthy.
2. Define your why
Leaders must clearly define their purpose, personal mission statement and the vision for your company.
Building a high performance culture is subjective to the leader. It is important for leaders to have an initial idea of who they are, what they want and where they are going before they start hiring.
3. Define your core values
Core values are fundamentals beliefs, a set of principles that leaders follow and that guide then through life.
For example, a company can be based on the core value of radical honesty. In such culture, employees don’t sugarcoat anything, are able to tell the truth no matter the circumstances.
4. Define your version of success
It is important for leaders to define the short term and long term goals, to give their employees a definition of success so they know what to aim for in the long run.
For example, success can be meeting deadlines and hitting results.
Success can also be defined on different levels of technical competencies or on leadership abilities.
Leaders must be realistic about their goals and set clear expectations for employees. Setting unreachable goals will only demoralize your team.
5. Apply the Golden Rule
The Golden Rule is the principle of treating people the same way you want to be treated.
Because leaders are role models, they have to become culturally sensitive and inclusive.
6. Empower your employees
There are several ways that leaders can empower their teams within the company. They can:
Play to employees strengths and place them in the right roles. Help employees gain awareness and achieve their highest potential.Â
Acknowledge hard and good quality work.
Allow employees make mistakes.
Trust in employees decisions making skills. Employees will then feel confident about their abilities and stay engaged.
Encourage training. Employees perform better when they are confident about their abilities.
7. Give your employees a sense of ownership
Employees take more pride and respect more what they do when they have ownership over their work.
Giving a sense of ownership will help you develop great leaders who will in turn inspire and motivate.
8. Promote innovation and change
Innovation is necessary for the survival of each and every company in today’s economy.
When leaders promote innovation and change, people will be more likely to grow, to adapt, ask questions, to try new things and adopt a change mindset.
9. Value transparency
Leaders must encourage a transparent and open culture where information flows freely.
For instance, letting your employees know how well your company is doing will improve trust. Of course, there will be gossip around the health of the company but overall employees will believe that you have their best interest at heart.
10. Practice collaboration
Leaders promote and encourage autonomy and collaboration within their team.
They allow their teams to have fun at work. They have broken down traditional workplace structure, simplified workplace processes and looked after their employees well-being.
11. Appraise customer satisfaction
High performance cultures are hard to come by.
Leaders continuously conduct customer satisfaction assessments because these assessments give a direct indication of team performance and the health of the company.
12. Monitor your culture
There will always be things to improve in a company but it important to strive for more. It is up to leaders to:
Nurture, develop and sustain the culture.
Deliver a set of tools to drive performance.
Show that the health of the company matters.
Give regular updates on how employees are doing in regards to their individual and collective goals.
Last Words Of Advice!
Most leaders, when trying to improve their cultures, focus on metrics and not on the people. If your culture is not where you want it to be, remember that:
One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.
You need to focus on the positives.
You just need to take on step at a time. For example, start by sharing your goals or by being transparent about the current status of the company.
If you don’t think you can practice of implement the culture that you want, find a manager or a human resources person who has the skills that you are missing.
Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.
The best leaders develop their skills on the field and learn from their experience.
They acknowledge that they do not know everything, that their learning process is singular but they are curious and are open to learn.
It is common knowledge that experience is the best teacher. Your experiences will help you develop a leadership style, a communication style, core values, purpose, character and emotional discipline.
Wondering how and which experiences can teach you how to lead?
25 Edifying Experiences That Help Leaders Learn To Lead
Through your experiences, if you take time out to extract the lessons from your experiences, you will become a wiser and successful leader.
#1. When You Fail
At some point in your career, you will fail as a leader or as a person. You will fail to meet deadlines, to perform or to succeed.
However, every leader knows that you cannot let failure define you and that you must go on.
Indeed, failure is most often seen in a negative light but shows you what you are really made of.
Failure are inevitable, are a factor for change, redirects your career, helps you change procedures and your character.
Experiencing failure teaches you to:
Be more self-aware.
Identify the cues of failure.
Don’t punish yourself for failures and forgive yourself.
Measure the consequences of the mistakes and take responsibility for the failure.
Encourage constructive criticism as much as feedback is given.
Make immediate analysis and changes to fix the mistakes.
Be smart and learn from the mistakes made.
Be wise and learn from the mistakes of others.
Create an environment that is safe to make mistakes and to recover from them.
#2. When You Get Familiar With Positivity & Success
Positive experiences are highly memorable and can change your life forever.
Positive attitudes can become difficult to maintain in challenging situations in the workplace. But once acquired, it is a habit that can help you overcome bad situations.
Forgiveness is often seen as weakness in the workplace. However, it is an efficient tool to avoid toxic conflicts, boost productivity, motivation and well-being.
Truthfully, in the workplace, people are sensitive about their work, feelings get hurt easily and emotions get high. It becomes essential to:
Forgive yourself when you have wronged someone or yourself.
Forgive others for their wrongdoings as well.
Becoming a forgiving person will teach you to:
Be compassionate and to let things go.
Not define yourself by your mistakes.
Not focus on the past and to be present.
Do your best next time.
#4. When You Find A Role Model
A role model can be a family member, a friend, a coworker, or another leader.
Role models provide sound advice, ongoing feedback, emotional support, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, higher self-esteem, better focus, stronger confidence.
Emulating their thoughts and behavior can improve your mind and teach you how to lead.
Keep in mind that you can learn from a bad leader as much as a good leader.
#5. When You Enjoy Solitude
Solitude and leadership often go hand in hand.
That is because, though leaders have family, friends, mentors and large network, they are the ones making the ultimate decision for their organization and not everyone will agree with their decisions.
However, solitude can give you time to think, to understand who you are and how you want to lead.
Leadership is also having the power to stand alone.
#6. When You Find Your Purpose or Renew Your Vision
You need to know why you work and your team needs to know why they work for you.
It is the vision that leads you and propels you forward, that wakes you up in the morning, that drives your performance, that is communicated to your employees, that gives meaning to your actions and decisions, and that leans on your belief systems.
Leaders with a vision are ambitious and satisfied with their lives, become hopeful and optimistic about the future, invite change, and select their employees according to their strengths and not their weaknesses.
They are also daring and don’t fear failure, are emotionally invested in their goals, flexible, persistent, resistant to social pressure and are convinced of their future success.
You have experienced different cultures and are now culturally sensitive.
Cultural sensitivity is being aware that everyone is not the same. It means being able to learn from different people, to understand their backgrounds, to collaborate and cooperate with them, without being judgmental.
Cultural sensitivity means viewing everyone as a unique individual. It promotes unity and has become a skill that is most useful in the world of today.
You are now capable of adapting your leadership and communication style to every single member of your team.
You are also capable of shifting the focus from yourself to your team.
#9. When You Thought You Knew It AllÂ
Not because you are the leader, that you have all the solutions or are always right.
In fact, being a leader is being placed in a position of service and humility.
To be a humble leader:
Be confident about your own capabilities.
Take the time to think and to come up with a solution.
Understand that being a leader is not about being right.
Give people the time to think for themselves and to make their own mistakes.
Acknowledge that someone on your team may have better ideas than you do.
Learn to ask for help and to detect if someone needs help.
Learn to ponder your responses.
#10. When You Have Foot In The Mouth Syndrome
Sometimes, we say whatever comes to our mind.
Other times, we blurt out things that we don’t mean but we haven’t measured the real impact of our words.
In these moments, we understand that we should be quiet, that we should learn to speak less and listen more.
#11. When You Get Caught Up In Office Politics
Office politics is often badly perceived because it can be cruel, calculated and manipulative.
Sometimes, office politics is a dangerous and corrosive game but it is a game. It is part of human nature, a social activity, a marathon and not a sprint.
Other times, properly navigating office politics can give you access to leadership opportunities and promotion.
Once you have experienced office politics, you become aware of the power play, of how you speak and listen to people.
You start making sure that you are robust, are not dependent on people or other external factors, that you are emotionally detached from your work and that you can clearly separate your identity from your job.
#12. When You Have To Deal With Toxic Coworkers
We all have been exposed during a period of time to annoying, hateful, toxic coworkers who can drive us crazy.
Whether it’s confronting a team member about their behavior or their performance, toxic coworkers can take a toll on you.
However, it can also help you grow and become a better leader.
#13. When You Have Identified Your Core Leadership Values
Core values are principles that build your character and that define who you are deep down.
In life and in the workplace, your core values will definitely be put to the test.
For example, some people will not hesitate to lie on you or to sabotage your work to advance their career.
Consolidating your core leadership values requires hard work, determination, daily practice and self-discipline.
#14. When You Welcome Change
If you have experienced drastic change in the workplace, you know that is better not to resist it.
Change is a part of life, is a constant and is inevitable. Change shakes things up, disrupts old habits, breathes new life into the workplace and into any project.
Furthermore, it has the ability to stimulate interest in your job. It also creates an opportunity for promotion and to develop new skills.
Leaders are often faced with recurring issues in their personal and in their professional lives.
On a daily basis, they fight to retain talent, to keep their businesses alive, to keep up with the market, to increase their return on investment, to deal with clients, to evolve and to encourage growth.
Problems arise when there is a discrepancy between reality and expectations, when leaders are unable to successfully reach their goals.
Their ability to anticipate and to solve problems will determine their success and will increase their chances for promotion.
Wondering how to acquire problem-solving skills?
What is problem-solving?
Problem-solving is a cognitive skill that is useful in challenging, problematic and uncertain situations that require resolution.
Problem-solving is uncomfortable, takes time, requires practice and need constant monitoring. This intuitive skill is also sharpened by mistakes and failures.
Furthermore, problems encourage growth and change in us. That is why problem-solving requires facing inner demons.
It also helps us acquire innovative skills, people skills, communication skills, data gathering, conflict management and analytical skills.
Leaders who are unable to effectively solve problems lack knowledge in their respective fields, don’t establish practical methods, don’t commit to one solution, fail to implement their vision or to understand the problem all together.
STEP #1 Work on your character
You cannot control most of the situations that you will face in life. However, you can control how you react to them. It is therefore necessary to work on your character and to:
Know yourself, trust your intuition and understand that your ideas are valuable.
Be mindful that problems arise every day and that you cannot solve everything all at once.
Write down all the rules and core values that guide you so you can remember them in time of need.
Be open-minded, explore other fields than your own and to frequent people from other industries.
Educate yourself on your business. Read books and articles on your field.
Avoid jumping to conclusions. Challenge your assumptions before you restrict your opportunities
Be patient but take action before it’s too late and before the opportunity expires.
Pay attention to other people’s opinion but don’t worry too much about the naysayers.
Welcome failure. Don’t beat yourself up or don’t blame yourself for failure. Most successes or most innovations have broken through from failures.
STEP #2 Defining & Understanding the problem
Problems are synonymous with difficulty, issue, trouble, worry, complication, obstacle or setback. Problems trigger fight or flight response when handling a problematic situations.
There is no need to immediately appear decisive or to impress people. You must first define and understand the problem:
Get the information about the problem.
Identify the complexity, the symptoms, effects and root causes of the problem.
Take time to reflect on your situation and to observe.
Talk to the people implicated in the situation.
Look for patterns and for trends.
Find analogies to your situation that can help spark ideas.
Reverse the problem: find the opposite problem or envision a worse problem.
STEP #3 Solutioning
Anticipating problems is the best option. But, the key is to staying focused or finding a solution. You must be able to study all the possible solutions of the problem:
Explore all ideas even if you think that they won’t work.
Suggest solutions that would make the problem worse.
Think about your past experiences when you have been put in sticky situations. It can be a conflict with your coworkers, It can be a discussion with your clients or situations with your family.
Look at what is being done by experts and evaluate the opposite solution.
Ask for help from people around you. You can use brainstorming, mind mapping or road mapping techniques.
Remove yourself from the situation to clear your mind and gain a different perspective.
Break down the situation into simpler components.
Write down pros and cons of the solutions.
Clarify the criteria that your solution must meet.
Test the feasibility of the solution.
Organize your thoughts and pick the solution that will maximize your return.
STEP #4 Making a decision
When you have evaluated all the solutions, it’s time to make a decision. One decision is better than none.
Look up the “unwritten rules“ that you are about to break before making a decision.
Weigh in the consequences of your decisions. Rapid decisions can have serious implications, especially if you are a leader. So, be aware of the economic, social, political challenges of your decisions.
Luckily, the leader does not have to resolve every problem on their own. To make better decisions, involve your team in the decision-making process. However, the final decisions is up to you.
Seek to solve the problem long-term.
Take the necessary time to make the right decision. You don’t need to impress or to act fast, you need to act right.
STEP #5 Executing the decision
After finding the perfect solution and making your decision, start implementing it:
To remain competitive, most organizations stay up to date on every technology, continually propose innovative products and always embrace change. However, putting change into practice is much more complex than it appears.
To that effect, effective leaders have to be confident, self-aware, self-assured, strategic, adaptable, bold, resourceful, driven, accountable and able to think on their feet. Needless to say, ineffective leadership hinders change, creates mistrust, disengagement, misalignment and a loss of moral among employees.
Wondering how to successfully lead change and overcome resistance?
Change is a part of life, is a constant and is inevitable. Change shakes things up, disrupts old habits, breathes new life into the workplace and into any project.
It has the ability to stimulate interest in a job and can be perceived as a new challenge. It also creates an opportunity for promotion and to learn new skills.
Change becomes compulsory and evident in the workplace during societal movements, when the values and beliefs of both leaders and employees no longer match those of the company. Change also happens when the organization requires new skills, new products or services, policies update, restructuring, or relocation.
Resistance to change
Change brings about an initial resistance, can easily become chaotic and unstable. When faced with change, most people believe that they will:
potentially lose their current position,
be demoted, that their career will eventually suffer or that their hard work will be devalued,
be working for a lower salary,
lose control over their own life,
live in the unknown.
The unknown generates strong emotions in people. Therefore, employees tend to resist change when they are surprised or unprepared, don’t understand the reasons for the change, are not implicated enough in the decision-making process.
Indeed, some people will openly express their resistance to change, some will voluntarily sabotage change, others will quietly and passively express their discontent. It is the role of the leader to temper such behavior and push change.
How to implement change?
The leaders must visibly act out the change, must be ready to do things differently and to think otherwise. To lead the change process from start to finish:
Assess your own ability to handle change.Before undertaking such mission, ensure that you believe in the change and that it doesn’t go against your principles. In addition, keep in mind that reacting to the change is much more difficult than initiating it. Either you can start the movement, participate in it or suffer and react to it.
Stay disciplined, resilient and patient. The change process is slow and everybody moves at their own pace.
Be authentic and transparent in order to build trust and to improve relationships.Change is much more difficult to implement when there is a climate of mistrust.
Be open to feedback and to making alterations to the original plan of action.
Ask probing questions to key employees, acknowledge that you don’t know all the answers and be open to learn continually. This will allow you to gather appropriate information, to anticipate issues, to maximize effort.
Evaluate the right amount of change you want to implement. You don’t want to overwhelm or burn out your employees .
Calculate the costs and determine the feasibility of the change to ensure that it doesn’t get out of control. It becomes critical to motivate the necessary time and resources, to place emphasis on the value and sustainability of change.
Analyze the consequences of change before undertaking anything.
Understand the company culture, its values and beliefs in order to best present ideas and to determine a proper structure.
Design a clear strategy and outcome for the process. For example, you can break the change process into smaller steps, prioritize them and create metrics to measure progress.
Identify the influencers and the people who are open to change in your organization. Find informal leaders in your organization, who will motivate others and who will instill pride in their work.
Discuss the implications of change with your employees and increase the number of meetings if necessary. Listen to the questions and concerns of your employees. It is necessary to reassure people about the upcoming changes by explaining to them the reasons and the benefits for change.
Directly address problems, don’t micromanage and don’t openly criticize dissenting voices in order to shut them up.
Keep your energy up during the process, motivate your team and show them the positive sides of the transformation. Persuade your employees that they will benefit from the change to increase commitment.
Encourage collaboration on your team, mitigate conflicts and maintain harmony as much as possible because emotions are high.
Set high expectations and give your team the confidence to deal with changes and gain their approval every step of the way.
Give your employees more ownership of their work to increase commitment.
Expect setbacks. Understand that the risks are worth the rewards and that it is OK to fail. People don’t take risks when there are no personal rewards, there is no clemency towards failure.
Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.
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