All the leaves are brown, and the sky is...

The holidays are fast approaching and that means we all have a lot going on. Including singing some really great seasonal music! I was just talking to one of our clients who said she was glad the year-end reviews were completed and is looking forward to taking time off with her family but is concerned about the changes that will be taking place in First Quarter 2015. She wonders, as a Leader, how she will get her team to buy-in to her change effort and if she can’t gain buy-in, how this might reflect on her as a leader.

Our client is not alone with her concerns. Organizations are constantly implementing changes and according to Corporate Leaders like Ken Blanchard and John Kotter experiences 70% of change initiatives fail. In my experience using these and my own change tools with Fortune 500 companies, most change efforts fail due to conflicting priorities, sticky politics or competing goals. My passion is to share what has worked for me in successful transformation change efforts.

In this blog, I am sharing the first step toward cultivating successful change. It is designed for Organizational Leaders that are working on change efforts such as getting their team to buy-in to new roles, processes or systems. It’s important to remember that change is messy and cyclical - rarely linear. So keeping in mind that change is like the cha-cha-cha the “first” step in any change is simply putting your feet firmly on the floor.

Step 1: Know Something: As a Leader, you must be the change you want to see. This means, you must internalize the change and have an urgency for it. At this point in the process, your change effort could be very general without exact details. You may not know much about the change, but you must know that you and your organization can not continue down the same old path. Once you believe that change is necessary, you can now lead your team forward by:

1. Committing to the change before knowing all the details
2. Accepting that there will be set backs and resistance along the way (it is part of the process)
3. Remembering your values and pointing others towards company values
4. Taking time to check-in with your allies
5. Practicing work-life integration – getting enough sleep and taking time to pause and BREATHE

Stay tuned for my next blog right after Thanksgiving, in which I’ll address the next step, “Scope the Change” which includes defining clearly what the change is, when the change(s) will occur and why we are changing in the first place!

Remember if you have any questions or want a free positive change strategy session, I am just a phone call away!

Warmly,

Nina