conversation planning: change - ddi.pdf · authentic, and occasionally difficult—that you will...
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© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2015. All rights reserved.
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Conversation Planning: ChangeBonus Tool
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© Development Dimensions International, Inc., 2015. All rights reserved.
Your First Leadership Job
Congratulations! You’re now in charge. Perhaps it’s your first time as a leader,or maybe you want to fine-tune your skills. Either way, you’ve begun one of themost rewarding chapters of your career. But, like many beginnings, the first fewyears can be challenging. Fortunately, you don’t have to tackle this challengeon your own. Your First Leadership Job gives you practical advice straight from others who have walked in your shoes. Not only does it include dozens oftools to ensure your success, it’s also based on the authors’ and DDI’s extensiveexperience and research, which ultimately have led to the development of millions of leaders around the world. In fact, a quarter-million leaders will bedeveloped this year alone via DDI training.
Your First Leadership Job is divided into two sections. Part 1 introduces the concept of catalyst leader—one who sparks energy, passion, and commitmentin others. Your transition to catalyst leader is a major step in your leadershipjourney. This book provides essential tips to put you on the catalyst path. Ultimately, leadership is about the many conversations—frequent, clear, authentic, and occasionally difficult—that you will have daily. Your First Leadership Job builds awareness of the fundamental skills you’ll come to rely onto make every one of these interactions successful.
Part 2 devotes 13 chapters to critical core leadership competencies, includingcoaching for success, hiring the best employees, turning dreaded appraisals intodiscussions that propel performance, and handling difficult employees. It alsoincludes a chapter for first-time female leaders.
Look at Your First Leadership Job as an indispensable companion to becomingan awesome leader—one who will make a positive, lasting impact on your team,family, and career. Visit www.YourFirstLeadershipJob.com to learn more.
Introduction
BECOMING THE VERY BEST FIRST-TIME LEADER
TACY M. BYHAM, Ph.D., is theCEO of Development Dimen-sions International (DDI). Tacy
has worked with dozens of global organiza-tions, creating custom solutions to improvetheir leaders’ performance. She believes thatbetter leadership is not only about the work-place, but also about better communities and,ultimately, a better world.
RICHARD S. WELLINS, Ph.D.,is a global expert in leadershipdevelopment. Your First Leader-
ship Job is Rich’s fifth book on talent manage-ment, including the best-seller, EmpoweredTeams. His research has been featured in Fortune, Business Week, CNBC, NPR, BBC,and Forbes.
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Your First Leadership Job
When organizational change efforts flounder or fail, employee resistance isoften cited as one of the primary reasons. People just don’t like change! That’s acommon misconception, but it’s easy for leaders to blame resisters rather thanto consider that they themselves might have failed to engage their team members.
When leaders assume that people naturally resist change, they overlook the possibility that team members’ concerns might be legitimate (Ford, et al, 2008).As a result, leaders miss opportunities to enhance or improve the change andengage the very individuals whose support they need. This planner shares bestpractices around change to use with your team and provides guidance on howto approach a person or team about their resistance to change.
Best Practices
You can use the following best practices at any time during the change to helpensure a successful implementation, particularly if you have resistant teammembers. Which will you use?
q Keep the benefits of change in sight—generate a list of every benefitof the change you can think of—for individual team members, the teamas a whole, and the organization. Share the list with team members andencourage them to add other benefits. Post it for everyone to see in ateam area or on an intranet site.
q Recognize that people approach change differently—People reactdifferently to the same change, so don’t try to talk them out of their feel-ings. Instead, use the Empathy and Involvement Key Principles to helpthem adapt in their own way.
q Lead by example—If you’re asking people to keep a positive attitude, tobe open to change, to get involved, etc., then be a role model by doing soyourself. Be the first to volunteer and dig in. People will see you’re willingto make the effort.
q Maintain a sense of urgency—help team members stay focused on theobjective of the change. Encourage them to identify ways to monitorprogress and measure results.
TOOL
CONVERSATION PLANNING: CHANGE
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Your First Leadership Job
q Build commitment to the change—encourage team members to contribute their own ideas by:
q Making idea generation an official objective in their performance plans.
q Adding idea generation as a running agenda item at staff meetings to monitor progress.
q Encouraging participation in task forces or subcommittees to help make their ideas a reality.
q Volunteering to be the first team to put a change into practice.
q Recognize and reinforce incremental progress—identify people usingnew processes or procedures; seek out even the smallest indications thatteam members are acting in new ways in order to encourage them, aswell as their colleagues, to continue the momentum. Remember to taketime to celebrate milestones and indicators of success.
q Continue to measure and monitor progress—ensure the change isaccomplishing its objectives by:
q Continuing to seek feedback and concerns as well as provide coaching and support.
q Removing any obstacles or roadblocks that might prevent people frommaking progress.
q Expect that mistakes will occur—position the mistake as an opportunityto learn. First, empathize with the person. Then use the Share Key Principleby disclosing mistakes you made in similar situations. Encourage the person to share lessons learned with fellow team members.
q Build confidence—use the Esteem Key Principle to build team members’ confidence that they can successfully implement the change.Share examples from previously successful change initiatives.
q Additional best practices you plan to use:
q _______________________________________________________.
q _______________________________________________________.
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Your First Leadership Job
Discussing Resistance to Change
Use the following questions, along with a Discussion Planner, to prepare for a conversation about a change. These tools will help you get a better idea of how to approach a person or team so you can help people overcome their resistance to the change.
1. Briefly describe the change you believe a person or team is resisting.
2. With whom do you need to discuss this situation?
3. What have you seen, heard, or felt that leads you to believe a person or team is resisting this change?
4. Why do you think people are resisting the change? (Select all that apply.)
q Not sure they have the right skills to implement the change.
q Concerned that their knowledge or skills are now less important.
q Worried that the change will make it harder for them to meet other work commitments.
q Do not understand why the change is necessary.
q Surprised by the change; were not involved in planning or implementing it.
q Like the way things were before the change.
q Other:
5. How do you feel about this change? (Select all that apply.)
q Anxious
q Enthusiastic
q Frustrated
q Confident
q Other:
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6. What are your concerns about this change?
q How to address the team’s reactions.
q Having the skills to implement the change.
q The effect on other projects and priorities.
q Other:
7. What challenges, if any, will you face in conducting this discussion?
q Handling negative reactions.
q Reordering assignments and tasks.
q Balancing getting the change implemented with listening to and acknowledging concerns.
q Disclosing thoughts, feelings, and rationale in a way that doesn’t influence the team to react negatively.
q Other:
Review the best practices you’ve selected. How will applying these encourage people, particularly resisters, to embrace the change?
______________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
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When will you use these in your conversation? Make sure to note in your Discussion Planner!
Ford, J.D., Ford, L.W., & D’Amelio, A. (2008). Resistance to change: The rest of the story. Academy of Management Review, 33(2), 362–377.