Blog Archives

Manager to Leader: Promoting Change

7/28/2014

As you move from manager to leader a big part of the role becomes promoting and managing change. In order to be effective as a leader you have to be able to have your team or organization buy into the change that you are promoting (such as a new strategy, process, or technology), engage them in the effort and guide them through to accepting the change. What are the key avenues for promoting change as a leader?

Understanding the transition that employees will be going through - anyone experiencing a change typically goes through three phases (as described by William Bridges in his book "Transitions"). He says that there is a letting go phase where people are fearful, uncomfortable, and questioning the change, a neutral zone phase where there is time for creativity and innovation as the past is gone and the new is not quite here yet, and a begin the new phase where employees begin to accept the change, and perform to their initial levels again.
Get feedback - as your are going through a change it is important to solicit and listen to feedback from your employees. There may be things that you need to change or tweak as a result of their input. Also you can understand whey they may be resisting a change and take actions to help them move through that resistance.
Model the new behavior - as you are initiating change in the organization make sure that you are exhibiting the behaviors that you would like the organization to shift into. Employees will do more of what you do than what you say and look to you as a model for the new habits.

Promoting change can be hard as people often are uncomfortable with it, but the more that you understand and take the actions above the more you will be acting like a leader. What changes are you and your organization going through today? What can you do to promote the change more effectively?

0 Comments

Manager to Leader: Engaging and Motivating Employees

7/21/2014

0 Comments

Have you ever had employees who were just not that engaged in the work that you are doing? Or not that motivated to get things done? Well as a leader it is critical to have the skills to be able to influence and engage with your employees in a way that makes them want to step up and work in the environment that you are creating. What does that take?

Building trust - as Steven M.R. Covey says in "The Speed of Trust" it takes good character, competence, and communications to build trust with others. The higher the trust on your team or in your organization the quicker things will be able to get done. If trust is low in your organization how can you build up one or more of the components of trust with others?
Understanding what motivates your employees - is it money, recognition, time off, feeling like they are contributing? The more you understand each of your employees the better that you will be able to engage with them on what really matters to them. Each person may be motivated differently and therefore you need to motivate them in different ways.
Engaging them with stories - influencing and motivating people through experiential communications often makes them want to move forward. Telling stories, using metaphors, creating avenues forward through purposeful communications can really draw employees with you as you try to move the team forward.

In teaching a leadership for non-supervisors class recently I saw first hand how much staff wanted to be engaged, step up, work on issues that mattered to them, and build their capacity for leadership. They needed opportunities, modeling of habits which would show them how to more effectively work with others, and leaders who could motivate them properly by understanding who they were.

How engaged and motivated are your employees? What could you be doing better from the areas noted above to engage your employees more?

0 Comments

Manager to Leader: Setting a Vision

7/14/2014

0 Comments

What does it take to be an effective leader? One component is setting a vision. But how hard is it to set a vision? Don't we all have ideas on how we would like to see things? That can be the case, but a true leader has dug deep, looked at their core values and beliefs about life and how they want to serve it, and created a vision that truly resonates with the person that they are. They understand what their true strengths are, how they best can utilize those strengths to make a difference, and they have the conviction to follow through on those values and beliefs.

So how can you understand your convictions? Well ask yourself some of the following questions:
What are my beliefs and values?
Where am I demonstrating those beliefs and values?
Where are my values and my organization aligned? Where are there differences?
What can I do to bring them more into alignment?
What needs to change in order to for me to live out my beliefs and values even more?

You may need to ask yourself these questions more than once in your life as you evolve and change, but the more that you do it, the more that you can grow and set a vision that is congruent with who you really are.

0 Comments

Moving from Manager to Leader

7/7/2014

0 Comments

Are you a manager but want to move into a leadership role? What is the difference and what are the skill sets needed to really be a leader? In my experience a few of the major components of moving from manager to leader entail:

Setting a vision - being able to be visionary and set a guide post for where you want your organization, team or division to move is one of the key components of being a leader. Leaders often envision something that is new or different or out of the box. They are able to be creative and innovative to inspire a new way of being.
Engaging and motivating others - in order to be able to truly move towards that vision leaders have to engage and motivate others to come along with the it. They have to encourage others through delegation of more opportunities, inspiring them to want to grow towards a vision by rewarding and recognizing them, and engaging them in a way that makes them feel like they are contributing to something bigger.
Leading change - inspiring a new vision can create resistance in the organization. By learning and guiding the organization through the change leaders can truly develop lasting results in their organization and with their people by shifting habits and behaviors.

Do you have these skills to be a leader? If not, which one can you begin to practice today to move you to the next level?

0 Comments

Art of Leadership Blog

Manager to Leader: Promoting Change

Manager to Leader: Engaging and Motivating Employees

Manager to Leader: Setting a Vision

Moving from Manager to Leader

Monica Thakrar

Archives

Categories