A manager needs to move her team off the company’s server to cloud-based software. The implementation of the cloud-based software will allow the team to lower costs and be much more efficient. But, the manager is facing challenges. The team members are experts on the software they currently use (some have been on the team using the same software for over 15 years) and are not happy with having to learn a very complex new technology. Two team members have even threatened to retire over this forced software change. This manager has been implementing the change very slowly, trying to keep everyone positive and happy.

Unfortunately, and perhaps surprisingly, managers who prioritize keeping their people happy and comfortable usually have poor long-term job security. These managers are secure for a period of about three to five years before they are either let go or moved to a less significant position in the organization.

There’s a good reason for replacing or moving these managers to positions of less influence. While they were focused on keeping their people happy and comfortable, the world was rapidly changing around their department and organization. As the world moved forward, their department didn’t. Because these managers didn’t get their departments up to speed, major problems in the areas of customer satisfaction, quality, timeliness, or cost-competitiveness occurred.

To be a successful leader in today’s world, your focus needs to be on getting your people to handle rapid change as it comes along. And the problem with rapid change is it usually makes people feel uncomfortable, and possibly unhappy and fearful.

The following seven recommendations can help keep your people uncomfortable and help ensure your department or firm’s long-term success.

1. Read the writing on the wall. Today, there is much writing on the wall about where the world is heading. New technologies. Artificial Intelligence. Robots. Five Generations in the workforce at the same time. Higher customer demands. Faster service requirements. Increasing quality standards. More employee demands. All of these changes are going to have a significant impact on your department or organization’s success.
2. Raise the bar! What are you doing to raise the bar for each one of your employees in areas such as learning new technologies, improving customer and employee satisfaction, quality, response time, etc.? If you don’t significantly raise the bar, who will? To not raise the bar, even for one year, means the world around you moved forward during that slice of time…but your team did not.
3. Over-communicate the need for change. One of the reasons that managers and leaders usually see the need to change before the general workforce is because they have more available information from which to make decisions. The more information you can provide to your people regarding the economy, environment, and your customers, the more people will understand the need to change.
4. Implement fast change…not slow change. All our research demonstrates that fast change is easier to implement and be accepted by employees rather than slow change. The easiest way to get people to change is not to give them a choice. As one CEO recently stated when faced with the need to rapidly realign the needs of her firm to the competitive environment, “The people are going to change or we are going to change the people.”
5. Hold people accountable for results. When it comes to change, many people like to blame others. Don’t give people the opportunity to blame others for not achieving results. Ensure that everyone is clear about what results are expected from them and in what time frame.
6. Re-define loyalty. In the past, a loyal employee was one that worked for you for a long time. In fact, some organizations had an informal corporate motto that went like this: “Keep your nose to the grindstone and don’t make waves.” If you lived this motto, you were guaranteed a long career. In today’s new environment, the employee who is out there chopping the water—making us all feel uncomfortable about what we should be doing but are not doing fast enough—is the loyal employee. The individual who complains that we are not changing fast enough to keep up with the times is now the loyal employee. The old definition of loyalty will put us out of business. We must get excited about change and “chopping the water.”
7. Get passionate and excited about change. If you really care about your organization’s long-term success, you will encourage employees to change the way you do business…even when they don’t want to make the change because it’s uncomfortable. Talk to customers; talk to the employees on the front line; talk to people in industries different from the industry you are in; read books that talk about the future; and go out and talk to your competitors. All this will result in an information base to help you become more confident, passionate, and excited about the need to change and stay competitive.

Great leaders keep their employees on their toes. They expect more from team members because they know they are capable of more. To stay successful in today’s economy, we all have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

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A lack of recognition and celebration of success in the workplace is an issue we encounter in many organizations. When we interview managers and supervisors and ask them why they don’t spend more time recognizing and celebrating successes on their team, the following three reasons are most often cited:

1. Too busy. These days, most of us find ourselves doing a lot more with a lot less team members. When you are too busy getting your most basic day-to-day functions completed, it isn’t shocking that taking time to recognize and celebrate success is sacrificed in order to get the job done.
2. Putting Out Fires and Solving Problems. When customers are unhappy, the number one priority tends to be putting out the most immediate fires to solve a problem.
3. Not satisfied. Managers and supervisors who tend to have Type-A personalities are driven to accomplish tasks and tend to put off celebrating and recognizing success. A line we often hear from these managers is, “I will be happy when…” followed by a significant accomplishment they hope to see in the future. Unfortunately, these managers tend to always put off their success and happiness to a future date.

It is challenging to celebrate and recognize success when you are too busy putting out fires, or you are unhappy with your current level of accomplishment. But, now is the time to prioritize recognizing and celebrating your daily successes. Here are some ways to celebrate success in the workplace.

Commit to your vision: When you know what your target is, it’s much easier to recognize and celebrate your results. Leaders need a clear, positive vision of how success is defined for their team, department or organization. Will your success be defined by outstanding internal and external customer service? Great teamwork? Record sales and profits? All the above?
Be grateful: When you are genuinely grateful for the honor of leading a group of people who made the conscious decision to follow you, it’s easier to find and acknowledge successes on your team. Even on bad days when everything is going wrong, grateful leaders will find something positive to acknowledge.

Make it a habit: Habits are created by the repetition of thoughts turned into actions. If you are in the habit of finding someone’s success to recognize and/or celebrate every day, you will eventually be a leader who easily and naturally takes the time to recognize others and celebrate their success.

Start off positive: Start every team meeting by asking, “Since the last time we met, what has/is going well or right?” This is a great opportunity for you as a leader to learn from others on your team what they feel is worthy of recognition or celebration. This will also raise team spirit and set the mood for a positive and productive meeting, even if you have to address tough topics.

There are two side benefits of adopting these four keys to celebrating success. The first benefit is that when people feel recognized because you honored or celebrated their success, they are much more willing to support you as the leader in your work to make the organization even more successful.  The second benefit has to with the law of attraction. The more you honor others by recognizing and celebrating their successes, the more others will find reasons to honor you and do the same.

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1. Doesn’t trust their team: Not trusting their team makes it impossible for their team members to get things done. When managers do not trust their team, they tend to not delegate and end up doing the tasks themselves. With little trust, they justify their command and control management style. The end result is usually a lack of communication with the team, resulting in delayed projects.
2. Do not value a work-life balance: These bad bosses have little respect for team members’ personal time. These managers feel that since they are the boss, the employee should feel grateful to have a job. With a commodity type of attitude, these managers assume they should have 24-7 access to placing demands on the team members.
3. Tell, don’t ask: Bad bosses tend to make demands on people without gaining input from the person they’re managing. These bosses tend not to listen well and are not good at taking feedback. Eventually, this bad boss is making decisions on only half of the information available because their team gives up hope that communicating important information will be valued by the manager.
4. Takes credit and passes the blame: Employee engagement killers love to take the credit when things go exceptionally well…especially when the boss did not do any of the work. On the opposite side of the fence, bad bosses never take responsibility when things don’t go well and feel best when they are throwing someone under the bus and passing the blame.
5. Practice the “need to know form of communication:” Bad bosses are always too busy to take the time to communicate to the people who will be impacted by the information. They withhold information as a form of power and justify the style as only communicating when people “need to know.”
6. No recognition: Bad bosses are way too busy to take the time to recognize people for what’s going well or right. But, they always have the time to let someone know when the results don’t meet his or her expectations.
7. Ungrateful: Bad bosses treat people like a commodity. They couldn’t care less if it is you or someone else who gets the job done, as long as the job gets done. They place almost all their value on the task and very little value on the relationship with the people who are doing the task. Bad bosses have a hard time saying two of the most powerful words in the English language, “thank you.”
8. Uses disrespectful communication: Bad bosses feel that it’s alright to communicate to someone in a disrespectful manner. This could include swear words or inferring that someone is stupid or didn’t think before they made a decision. Either way, disrespectful communication makes many people feel inferior or inadequate as a team member. Last, disrespectful bosses have the bad habit of giving a team member negative feedback in front of others on the team.
9. Lie: Bad bosses tend to communicate what they think they need to communicate to accomplish their goal, rather than telling people the truth. The outcome is that team members do not trust anything the boss says because it’s impossible to know when they’re telling the truth.
10. Brown nose: Bad bosses are great at kissing up to their boss or others in power. To try to make themselves look good, they treat people below them poorly, in hopes of getting even more done.
11. Always say “I” and seldom say “we”: Bad bosses sound like they are warming up for the opera… My, my my, me, me, me, I, I , I. What bad bosses have trouble saying when great things have been accomplished is we.
12. Hire mediocre performers: Bad bosses don’t like to be outshined, so they hire people who are not as smart, gifted or talented as they are. Plus, when someone is not at the level of the bad boss, it makes it even easier to talk down to him.
13. Promote mediocrity: Bad managers don’t encourage people to learn, grow, develop and take risks. They prefer to operate in a status quo environment. One of the bi-products of this is bad managers usually have fewer direct reports who are promoted to other areas in the organization. These managers lack the skills to take on additional responsibilities in the organization because they have been raised in an environment where growth and development has been punished, not rewarded.
14. Exhibit frequent moodiness: Have you ever worked with a boss where you had to check with others before going into their office to talk with them because you never knew what type of person you were going to meet that day? Sometimes they were happy and a joy to be around. Other times, they were downright nasty. Moody people are one of the most difficult types of people to work for because you don’t know which side of the bed they woke up on.
15. Play favorites: Bad bosses define loyalty differently than great leaders. Bad bosses define loyalty as how loyal you are to them, no matter what the situation is. They then treat people differently, based on who they determine to be loyal. One way this difference shows up is some people on the team are held accountable, while other poor performers are allowed to slide.

If you haven’t done it recently, take our bad boss quiz that was published in The Only Leadership Book You’ll Ever Need.

So here are the behaviors that will kill employee engagement. Can you imagine working for a boss like this? I don’t know about you, but I would quit. No one gets paid enough to put up with that crap

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I’ve interviewed many HR professionals who’ve asked, “How could someone so smart be so stupid when it comes to people?” What is this all about? Many times, we work with a leader who is high on IQ, intelligence, and low on EQ, emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups.

There are four major components of emotional intelligence:

Understand your own emotions: The ability to identify and understand your own emotions is the first key to success. When you understand your own emotions, you can recognize them and see how they affect your thoughts and behavior, know your strengths and weaknesses, and increase your self-confidence.

Manage your own emotions: A key to being a great leader is the ability to change quickly when you recognize that your behaviors are inappropriate and aren’t helping you build relationships or accomplish your goals. Everyone experiences the feeling of anger from time to time. People who have high emotional intelligence recognize that expressing that anger and telling someone what they really think may or may not help them accomplish their goals. Because of this, they consciously make the decision to wait before talking to this individual so they can communicate their feelings without the emotion of intense anger and achieve their desired results.

Accurately interpret the emotions of others: The second step is to be able to interpret the communication of others, both verbally and nonverbally, and figure out what emotion is behind your counterpart’s communication.

Manage the relationship of self and others: When you have a high EQ, you have the ability to understand what you’re feeling, the ability to manage your emotions, the ability to understand what others are feeling or thinking, and most importantly of all, you recognize that what you do and say, has a significant impact on actions, communication, and your counterpart’s feelings.

Studies by Daniel Goleman, the author of several books in the areas of emotional and social intelligence, confirmed that a person’s IQ is only responsible for 10 to 20 percent of an individual’s career success. That means there’s hope for everyone. Now you have the answer to those times you’ve asked yourself, “How could someone so brilliant be so stupid when it comes to working with people?” To be a great leader, it helps to have a strong IQ, but it helps even more to have a high EQ.

Here are some ways to improve emotional intelligence, build stronger relationships and become an even more successful leader.

1. Listen: My father once told me, people like you so much better when they do the talking. It’s so true. By listening to others, you indirectly tell them that you value their opinion and you care about them as a person. Almost always, when you do a great job listening, you’ll not only show that you value the other individual but you’ll learn something new in the interaction.
2. Identify emotion: The ability to identify and understand not only your emotions, but the emotions of your counterpart, is a critical component in building emotional intelligence.
3. Observe and understand nonverbal behavior: Although it is difficult to determine an emotion based on one gesture displayed by your counterpart, you can fairly accurately determine emotion by observing all of their nonverbal messages.
4. Walk in their moccasins: One of the best ways to identify and understand emotions is to ask yourself, “If this situation being described by someone else was happening to me, what would I feel?” When you can put yourself into someone else’s shoes, you will find it easier to understand emotion and relate to others.
5. Be willing to quickly adapt and change: After recognizing your emotions and the feedback you receive about other’s emotions, you need to have the ability to adapt and change when it’s necessary. A great example of this is when you start to provide a solution to your significant other in hopes of helping them solve a problem, but you then quickly learn they don’t want your help. What they really want is for you to listen. Leaders without a high EQ need to be told to shut up and listen.
6. Know your weaknesses: When you know your weaknesses, it’s easier to be aware of your shortcomings and how you may need to quickly adapt when you receive feedback from your counterpart.
7. In times of stress or challenge, get calmer: In times of conflict or stress, people who are high in emotional intelligence have the ability to get calmer, say the appropriate things and take the appropriate actions to resolve the conflict or relieve the stress. Ultimately, their goal is to not only resolve the conflict but build an even stronger relationship in the process.
8. Ask others for feedback: Asking for feedback is a sign of confidence and strength. Being able to act on the feedback and adapt how you interact with others to build even stronger relationships is the evidence that you not only understand emotional intelligence, but that you are able to effectively manage relationships.

Remember, leadership is about other people. By applying these 8 tips to improve emotional intelligence, you can build stronger relationships and achieve your personal and organizational goals.

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An unwillingness to resolve conflict creates tension, frustration, worry, anxiety and usually, a lack of positive, constructive communication. But what is most important to managers to recognize is that unresolved conflict undermines your ability to effectively lead. When you fail to resolve a conflict on your team, the individuals involved in the conflict, as well as others who observe the conflict, lose respect for you. It’s almost impossible to be recognized as the leader when you aren’t respected.

So why are so many managers hesitant to lean into conflict?

Some simple answers include:

• They hope the conflict will resolve itself
• They are fearful that confronting the problem will make the situation worse
• They have had bad experiences when discussing the topic with the person in the past
• They don’t think the conflict is that big of a deal
• They don’t ask about topics or situations that they’d prefer not to know about
• They feel they can still accomplish their goals and meet their needs by working around the conflict.

When I looked at our updated Leadership Development Assessment (LDA) Benchmark data recently, I was excited to see that one of the top three differentiators of the Best of the Best leaders (top 25 percent) is the ability to solve problems and resolve conflict.

Although the Best of the Best leaders are higher on nearly every question in the benchmarks, they are approximately 10 percent higher in the category of conflict and problem resolution.

The Best of the Best Leaders are clearly doing something differently to gain a rating from their bosses, peers and direct reports that is 10 percentage points higher than everyone else in the Benchmark. From my work with them I’ve learned nine things these leaders do differently when it comes to resolving conflict:

Know the importance of attitude: Your attitude and beliefs will have a huge impact on your ability to resolve the conflict. Having confidence in yourself and believing that by leaning into the conflict you can improve the situation will benefit you as a leader. However, the opposite is also true. Lacking confidence in your abilities or having a negative attitude or vision, will most likely create a negative outcome.

Assume positive intent: Most times, when you develop a negative attitude about someone’s role in a conflict, you assume the other individual has negative intent. Great leaders assume the best about people. Leaning into the conflict with the belief that the other individuals involved also want to resolve the conflict, do the right things and improve the relationship, will help you open up dialogue to resolve the conflict.

Don’t complain…take action: An old sage once told me, “I don’t complain anymore.” He went on to add, “I figured out that 80 percent of the people I complain to don’t actually care about my problems. And, the other 20 percent are actually happy that I’m more miserable than they are.” Complaining is almost always talking about things which you believe you do not control. Focusing your mind on what you do control, believing you have the ability to positively impact the future, and then taking the necessary actions to resolve conflicts will make you the type of leader people want to follow.

Quickly apologize: When you apologize, you take the target off your back. A great opening line to any conflict you are involved in is: “I’m really sorry about what happened. It turned into a conflict and that was not my goal. For my part in creating this situation, I’m sorry.” Unfortunately, some people’s egos are so gargantuan that they impede their ability to apologize for their role in a conflict. When you lack the ability to apologize, I guarantee that this will motivate some people to keep shooting at that target on your back by pointing out your deficiencies that contributed to the conflict.

Be quicker to forgive: Forgiveness is a great healer in letting go of anger. Did you realize that when you’re angry, others have control over you? We all know someone who is angry at their parents, their spouse, their kids, their employees, or their boss and use that anger as their reason for where they are in life. It’s simple but hard for many people to do. When you forgive, and then take action, you regain control over your life.

Determine the benefits: A question every leader needs to ask when faced with conflict is, “What are the benefits of letting the conflict linger?” What are the benefits to you as the leader; to the individuals involved in the conflict; to the team; to the customers and to the organization? Almost always, you’ll find that there are few, if any, benefits to allowing the conflict to continue. Most of the time, resolving the conflict brings many benefits to everyone involved.

Listen: Most conflict is created by people opening their mouths. Use your ears more than your mouth. Asking questions and having a genuine desire to better understand your counterpart’s perspective will help you in resolving conflict. Since people like you so much better when you listen, many conflicts are resolved quickly when people communicate, listen, and truly understand.

Stay calm: It’s easy to stay calm when you have a positive attitude, a positive vision, and a belief in yourself that you have the skills to get the conflict resolved.

Take action now: Most conflicts don’t improve by ignoring them. As a manager who has a desire to be a great leader, people are looking to you with hope to make tomorrow even better than things were today. To improve the team and work environment, conflict needs to be resolved. Put the above listed tips into practice to develop the right attitude and resolve a conflict today.

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Change proves to be a challenge not just for supervisors and managers, but for employees as well. This adds another dimension to the already difficult situation: guiding the employees through the change. After all, organizations don’t change, people do.

The following are eight suggestions that will help managers and supervisors guide employees through organizational change.

1. Involve employees in the change process. Employees are not so much against change as they are against being changed. Any time managers are going to implement organizational change, there is always a lag between the time the change has been discussed at the management level and the time the change is going to be implemented. Managers like to play like an ostrich and believe that they are the only ones who know about the changes that are going to take place. Unfortunately, while their heads are stuck in the sand believing that no one else knows, employees are effectively undermining the future changes with negative informal communication…the company grapevine. The sooner you involve employees in the process, the better off you will be implementing the change. A formal communication channel is more effective at implementing change than a negative informal one.
2. Interview employees regarding their feelings. It is critical that managers and supervisors understand what employees are feeling regarding the change. It is only when you accurately understand their feelings that you know what issues need to be addressed. Implementing change requires the ability to market and to sell. It is difficult to effectively sell without understanding your buyer’s needs, concerns, and fears.
3. Concentrate on effective delegation. Too often managers and supervisors feel they must use self-protective measures, especially during organizational change. They start by trying to police all activities. Don’t try to cover all the bases yourself. You should concentrate on effective delegation during the early stages of the change process. Effective delegation is particularly good for two reasons: first, it helps you manage and maintain your workload, and second, it gives your employees a sense of involvement. Involvement positions employees to share responsibility for change.
4. Raise levels of expectations. Now more than ever, you should ask more from your employees. It is expected that more work needs to be done during the change process. While it may be most practical to expect less in terms of performance, raise your levels of expectations and theirs. During change, employees are more likely to alter their work habits, so reach for the opportunity and push them to try harder and work smarter. Require performance improvements and make the process challenging, but remember to keep goals realistic in order to eliminate frustration and failure.
5. Ask employees for commitment. Once the change has been announced, it is important that you personally ask for each employee’s commitment to successfully implement the change. It is also important that you assure the employee that if there are problems, you want to hear about them. If a negative employee does not tell you, they will tell other employees why the change will not work.
6. Expand communication channels. The change process usually means that normal communication channels in the firm need to be enlarged. At this time, your employees will be hungrier than ever for information and answers. You can “beef up” communication. First, give employees an opportunity to give you input. Start by becoming more available and asking more questions. Get employees’ opinions and reactions to the changes. Maintain your visibility and make it clear that you are an accessible boss. More importantly, be a careful listener. Second, keep employees updated on a regular basis. Just letting your employees know that you have no new information is meaningful information to them. Strive to be specific; clear up rumors and misinformation that clutter the communication channels. Remember, it is almost impossible to over communicate.
7. Be firm, committed, and flexible. As you introduce a change, it is important that you see the change through to completion. Abandoning it halfway through the change process accomplishes two negative impacts. First, it destroys your credibility. Second, it tells every employee that if you take the stance of a dinosaur, the change will pass by, even if you lose your job and become extinct in the process. Remain flexible, because you will have to adapt to situations to successfully implement the changes.
8. Keep a positive attitude. Your attitude as a manager or supervisor will be a major factor in determining what type of climate is exhibited by your employees. Your attitude is the one thing that keeps you in control. Change can be stressful and confusing. Try to remain upbeat, positive, and enthusiastic. Foster motivation in others. During times of transition and change, try to compensate your employees for their extra effort. Write a brief note of encouragement on their paychecks; leave an affirming message on their voice mail; take them aside and tell them what a great job they are doing; listen to their comments and suggestions. Last, try to instill organizational change as a personal challenge that everyone can meet…with success!

The post 8 Tips to Help Managers and Employees Deal With Organizational Change appeared first on Peter Barron Stark Companies.

1. Family upbringing
   Our attitudes about change are partly determined by the way our families reacted to change during our early years. People who live in the same house, attend the same church, shop at the same stores, and drive the same routes daily throughout their formative years may have more difficulty dealing with change than people who grow up in several different neighborhoods. In the same vein, those who become accustomed to associating with people with the same values and ethics may find it more difficult to appreciate the diversity of today’s work force. An employee who was raised in a family that viewed change as a challenge to be tackled will probably have a more optimistic outlook about change than a person who was raised in a home that considered change an unwanted evil that upset the predictable family routine.

2. Past successes and failures
   To a great extent, the ways in which we have experienced changes in the past determines how we view the change process in the future. If our past experiences during times of change have been mostly positive, we will have a more optimistic outlook about the change process. But if we have experienced failure during periods of change, those failures may color our outlook about future changes.

3. Mental outlook
   People with high self-esteem and self-confidence are better equipped to deal with changes in both their personal and organizational life. They can see the change process from a broad perspective. They have confidence, not only in themselves, but in the leadership above them. Self-confident people have an understanding of their part in the change process and see the value of dealing with change positively. This positive mental outlook enables them to consider the possibility that the change process might even provide greater opportunities for them and enhance their personal and career growth. Insecure people, on the other hand, just see the change process as threatening.

4. Communication
   The way in which the change process is communicated to people within the organization is a critical factor in determining their reactions. When upper management plans and communicates effectively with all employees and explains the reasoning behind the change, employees are much more likely to buy into it. Changes that are mandated with little communication, on the other hand, are often poorly received, since employees may feel that the change is being “shoved down their throats.”

5. Ability to control the situation
   People are more likely to understand and implement changes when they feel they have some control. Keeping the doors of communication open and soliciting input from employees lets them know that their contributions matter. This, in turn, helps give them a sense of control during periods of change.

6. Job satisfaction
   The satisfaction that employees have with their job determines a portion of their reactions during times of change. Employees who experience a high degree of job satisfaction are better able to weather periods of change. They are more positive in their approach to their work and can see change as an organizational necessity. Unhappy employees, on the other hand, view change as just another annoyance in a long list of complaints. Chances are, whatever the change, disgruntled employees will view it as having a negative impact on both the organization and them personally.

7. Level of trust
   In organizations where there is a high degree of trust and each individual employee is treated with respect and dignity, there is less resistance to change. In organizational environments where there is a high degree of distrust, change is viewed as just one more of management’s tricks. In such organizations, change will be resisted, not because employees find it unwarranted, but simply because they mistrust everything management does. In these cases, employees see the necessity of change but they don’t trust the change agents.

8. Age and values
   Reactions to change are also partly determined by age and values. Generally, but not always, people tend to become more resistant to change as they age. The older they get, the more comfortable they are when operating within known parameters and predictable routines. Values also play a big role. People who place a high value on stability, the status quo and control over their environment may be more resistant to change than those who value risk-taking and exploration, and get excited about the unknown.

9. Timing
   Timing also has a significant impact. If a change occurs at a time when an employee is feeling financially secure, he or she may view the change positively. However, if the same change occurs during a time of financial insecurity, the employee may see it negatively. How fast an employee receives word of the change also affects the response. If a change has been thoroughly communicated within the organization over a long period, the employee may more readily accept the change. However, an employee who is suddenly confronted with change may be resistant and even try to sabotage the change process.

Keep these 9 factors in mind when your organization is facing changes and you will help make the change process easier for your employees, and yourself.

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