Apprehension is a common side effect of dealing with the prospect of change. Change is scary, no one questions it. But how you handle fear is a strong indicator of how you will handle change. Whether you’re a leader charged with creating and implementing change or an employee who will feel the effects, doing something new, different, and out of the ordinary takes hard work, determination, and a little faith.
Too often, however, great leaders give in to this pressure. Managers move up the corporate ladder looking for more responsibility and, yes, more compensation, but they have never really been trained or educated to navigate the challenges facing a manager or leader. Then all of a sudden smart, hard-working people are on the top rung and they’re like, “Now what?” His boss walks in and says, “We’re going to start doing things a little differently around here and I want you to implement it.” Speaking of instilling fear! So naturally there are mistakes that are made along the way. Your chances of dispelling fear before it arises increase dramatically if you become aware of these pitfalls before embarking on your new strategy or plan with your group.
Author and thinker extraordinaire John Kottler wrote a book called “Leading Change.” He points out that while we strive to focus on the positives and “what you should do” tactics, it’s also important to look at the potential pitfalls that can occur. Kottler suggests that while there are many different kinds of missteps people can make, there are eight critical ones. If you could reduce the error rate early on, you might make the change process a little less painful, maybe even exhilarating.
Let’s take a look at those situations that Kottler thinks are the biggest mistakes, and then think about how you can avoid making them.
1. Forget that change must happen quickly. If you don’t light that fire in your employees or customers, they won’t be motivated to contribute and your efforts will fail. Be sure to create a sense of urgency about the need for change. Show what could happen if the change didn’t happen now so your team fully understands the consequences.
2. Not forming a team to guide the change. Creating change is hard work, but many companies assume otherwise. If you don’t have a guiding coalition that will institute the vision, you will fail. This team must believe in the vision and keep moving forward to create the necessary changes.
3. Lack of clear vision or foresight. How are you going to get people to buy in and believe in what is happening if you don’t have a clear vision of what is needed? And worse yet, what if you have a fantastic vision but you don’t communicate it? Your employees and customers don’t really know what’s going on. Without a clear vision, your tactics and strategies for change will become confused and your efforts will lack direction. Be clear about what you want to happen so that others understand it too.
4. Forgetting to communicate the vision. As eluded above, if you have a great vision but don’t communicate it to your team, your efforts will fall short. Unless you have everyone on board helping out, even if it requires pointing out short-term sacrifices for long-term gains, you’ll never create change; you will only create the fear of the unknown. People want leaders to guide them, and communication is essential to doing so successfully.
5. Let obstacles get in the way of the vision. Negative attributes in any circumstance will blunt positive movement, so don’t marry trying to fulfill a new vision using old structures and standards. Whether it’s a middle manager who disagrees with the change plan or an organizational structure where current jobs don’t encompass enough responsibility to make the change, you need to remove any obstacles (potential or actual) that might stop the change. process. .
6. Not making plans. Notice I didn’t say “plan.” You need to have short-term and long-term plans for how you are going to achieve your goals. If you plan to hit short-term goals, chances are you will hit them. If you only talk about them and wait to meet them, you are taking a passive approach to creating change. Be proactive. Look for ways to set achievable goals throughout the year, and then set plans and strategies that achieve those goals. Ultimately, all the small goals won should contribute to the larger long-term plan.
7. Celebrate victory prematurely. Of course, this is very easy to do, but make sure that while you should praise achieving short-term goals, the game isn’t really over until you’ve solved your biggest problems.
8. Not implanting the new way of doing things in the company culture. It is one thing to successfully solve and meet your goals. Another thing is to live according to the new mantra. Change has not been truly successful until you have embedded it in the culture of those with whom you do business.
