Last week, Royal Dutch Shell abandoned a 9-year, $7 billion effort to find oil in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea. The decision was made in the face of tumbling oil prices and unrelenting pressure from environmental groups. The decisions you and I make are probably not of this magnitude, but in our world, no less important.
As a leader, you must learn to not only tolerate change, you must learn to create it – and help others do the same. The challenge: The road to the future is paved with uncertainty. And, for many people, your picture of the future is not clear and inviting – it is dark and foreboding.
As I reported a few weeks ago, I have begun a personal experiment with a work style that may someday be the global norm. My Free Address approach is not particularly radical compared to the changing standards of the world at large, but for a chicken guy, this is out there.
Leaders love progress. Progress is always preceded by change. So you might assume continuous improvement would be a good thing… not always. Many leaders and organizations get lulled into mediocrity by a continuous improvement mindset.
Recognize and reward the behaviors you want to see repeated. This is a universal and timeless principle of leadership. Professor Michael LeBoeuf called it the “greatest management principle.” Maybe, maybe not, however it is an extremely powerful idea. Therefore, none of us were shocked when we discovered it as one of the best practices of High Performance Organizations. If you want to change a culture quickly, here’s how we say it… Honor Values in Action.
Here’s the context for today’s question: “I am a new leader in my organization. However, I am not a new leader – I have leadership experience in a previous company. Unfortunately, my experience doesn’t seem to count here. I’m having trouble getting traction in my new role. What advice do you have for me?”
I’ve had some amazing guides over the years. In Tanzania, my guide was named Teacher; in Botswana, Rutzi saved my life – more than once. And, in Nepal our guide helped us make it to Everest Base Camp and back safely. However, guides are not reserved to adventure settings.
Change – besides, religion and politics, there are few other topics that are so polarizing. Some people are opposed to change regardless of the reason, rationale or logic. Others, often leaders, make a living creating it. The irony is, even some leaders don’t love it, but they instigate it anyway. Why? Leaders understand: Progress is always preceded by change.
This is the last post in my series on the five levers of change. Please don’t mistake the placement of this fifth lever with its value. If we use the first four levers of change: Communications, Measurement, Resource Allocation and Reward and Recognition, and fail to embrace the practices of Performance Management, our change efforts are still in jeopardy .
How do you honor the people in your organization? A couple of years ago, I was making a focused effort to improve in this arena. I knew intuitively different people place different value on various types of recognition. However, to truly honor people, I needed to know specifically what was of value to them individually.