Effective Leadership 101: Are you trying to improve your leadership culture?
Businesses need to adapt to the economic tides more quickly and efficiently than ever before. Since the beginning of my career, I have been an active change agent where others were slow to adapt. A Harvard Business Review article stuck many chords for me today. Here are some takeaways that can help your organization make significant, actionable, and sustainable changes.
Insight One
Organizations need “fertile soil” in place before the “seeds” of training interventions can grow.
Improvements are greater in units that had already developed a “psychologically safe” climate in which subordinates felt free to speak up.
Insight Two
If the system does not change, it will set people up to fail.
Failure to execute on strategy and change organizational behavior is rooted not in individuals’ deficiencies but, rather, in the policies and practices created by top management.
Insight Three
Manage internal change like any other project:
- Define organization values
- Conduct interviews to uncover pain points and redefine roles and responsibilities
- Execute and refine new processes
- Demo and Discuss, as needed
- Measure impact of changes
- Sustain values by aligning with talent acquisition and career advancement processes
Insight Four
Periodically repeat change initiatives for each individual business unit.
Treat each business unit as a unique and independent agency with its own challenges and opportunities.
