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Leading Through Change Part II: Reframing
Leading through change is challenging because what you’re expected to say doesn’t always match what you feel and believe. These reframing techniques help you work through your thoughts and reduce the gap between what you say and what you show.
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Leading Through Change Part I: Take Time to Reflect
When you run too fast, you lose touch with how you’re reacting to a change. Reflecting on your own reactions will minimize the gap between what you say and what you show. The alternative is incongruence that will erode people’s trust in you.
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How do you deal with someone who is always negative about change?
Dealing with change is hard enough on its own. When you have to cope with a teammate who’s always negative, it can be unbearable. Here are some techniques to manage the naysayer.
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Should I be honest with my colleagues?
This just in: new research on the effects of being honest and what it means for you. I’m constantly encouraging people to engage in the productive conflict that will move their team (and their organization) forward. The biggest stumbling block is people’s fear that...
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How long do I wait before terminating someone?
My favorite source of topics for posts are the questions I get at the end of my speeches. Last week, I was giving the opening keynote in a room full of mayors and local government representatives. The speech was called, “Change Has Changed.” It’s about the challenges...
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Are you using these annoying phrases?
“Help me understand what you’re trying to achieve.” Once upon a time, I encouraged you to use this phrase as a signal that you’re not connecting with someone’s point and you need them to clarify. Sadly, too many closed-minded, judgmental, passive-aggressive jerks...
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Managing Constant Change
I hear people talk about change in organizations as if it’s something new. That’s total crap. Change has been around for as long as business has. But I do think it’s fair to say that something’s different now. Change has changed. It’s more frequent, more complex, and...
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Do You Enforce Consequences for Non-performance?
It’s World Cup time again. This global football-fest is always a great source of teamwork stories, including that moment in 2010 when I got called as an “expert” to comment when France’s players refused to practice in protest of one of the star players being expelled....
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Simple Steps to Rehabilitate a Bad Reputation
I was working with a team recently that had developed a bit of a bad reputation. The management team of their organization had decided that they were complacent, stuck in the past, and not driving hard enough for growth. The team leader admitted that there was a...
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How to Deal with a Defensive Person
Defensive people are the WORST! It drives me nuts when I give even the most minor piece of feedback and the person on the other end gets all hot under the collar and ignores every word I said. Grow up, people. You’re not perfect and pretending that you are is making...
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Should you pick your battles?
“Do you agree that we should pick our battles?” This was a question I got during the Q&A session of a keynote speech I gave last week. I think I surprised the questioner with my response, which means I might surprise you too, so here goes. If you are “picking...
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How to deal with a down in the dumps coworker
Your colleague is having a bad day (or week, or life). She grabs the empty chair from beside your desk, rolls it over and flops down, legs spread, head back, arms dangling—defeated. She proceeds to unload her troubles on you. You get all the gory details. Once the...
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