[Q+A] How do I help my team stay positive through change?
Some tactical tactics you can implement today.
What steps can middle level leaders take to help maintain the positives of a company culture though change? - Alvin, VP Sales
A great question I know for a fact many leaders are asking themselves. It’s felt like one thing after another, and as soon as we get a sense of control, things change. We adapt - or not. Resilience is at some of our lowest levels as we have not had time to recharge.
Teams are looking for stability and security and put a lot of pressure on their leaders to make it better. I see it all the time in our client projects. Teams feel completely lost and feel they lack leadership. Yet, their leaders are no better prepared for the changes and they themselves are dealing with the same levels of uncertainty.
Leaders were promoted into roles based on their ability to do their job well, not their ability to be resilient leading uncertainty.
I’ve been spending the past few years helping change-exhausted teams get back on track and take control of their conditions.
When we start a project they feel:
A victim to their circumstances.
Like the organisation is working against them.
Hopeless that anything they do will make a difference.
Put all responsibility on “leadership” (often a “blanketed” term for anyone but them)
When we finish a project they feel:
Clear and focused on where they can make a difference
Connected to their peers and feel less isolated
Energised that they aren’t alone and have a team to support them
Empowered to take ownership, speak up and drive change.
It is possible. Here’s three things you can do to inject positivity into your change exhausted teams.
Keep your world small.
In the early days of the pandemic I came across this article from a submarine operator who gave tips on how to deal with isolation. One of their tips was to keep your world small. It can easily spiral when we put our attention on external sources like the news, social media, etc. Information is helpful until it’s not. I adopted this practice in the pandemic and use it to this day. I encourage teams to measure how much time they focus on what they can control (see diagram) vs what they can influence. We can easily put all of our energy into talking about things we can do very little about. As a team leader, if your team is spiralling, ask “So what can we do about this?” Build the habit of ownership.Celebrate how far you have come.
I work with teams with BIG ambitions and I love it! Helping great people get from A to B fuels my passion. I’ve noticed that teams can often fall into the trap of focusing on what they have left to do, instead of how far they have come. When working with change we need to keep the energy and motivation UP so if you start to see your team flag and slip into victim mode, quickly reset the energy. Start with reflection. Ask your team, “What problems were we dealing with this time last year?” Instantly you will see how much progress has been made. Now ask, “what if we apply that rate of change to 12 months from now?” See how enticing that feels?Cap time for negativity.
I’ve worked with leaders with such levels of conflict avoidance that they wouldn’t allow me to create space for any “negativity”. They were fearful that people would speak up about their unhappiness and it would spiral out of control. I believe this is weak leadership.
If we don’t talk about it we can’t address it.
On the flip side, I have worked with leaders who create waaaaaaaaay too much space for negative talk, even worse they join in! Every meeting becomes a rant and although ranting feels good in the moment, we feel worse after the fact.
Here’s the balance. I always allow space for us to talk about what’s going wrong. It not only keeps the elephant in the room small enough to manage, but it shows they folks aren’t alone in their thinking. I then CAP that time and use the information gathered to shape what we take charge of.
As a leader, don’t pretend “everything is awesome”, create space to listen to your team's biggest pain points but don’t let it take over all the time. Let them know you’ll give 5-10 minutes to vent and then we move on and take action. Whenever I’m on the receiving end of a vent I ask “Do we want to just complain about it or change it?” and take it from there.
[ACTION] Have leadership related questions?
Email me and I’ll respond in an upcoming post (let me know in advance if you want me to change your name for discretionary purposes).