In business, the majority of us have actually been cautioned at some point in time that, “if you’re not going forwards you’re actually going backwards.” Essentially, this cuts to the core of why adaptation is vital to a positive and robust business. Strong companies change with the times and evolve. Unhealthy companies ignore change, go stale and then fizzle out. In this article on business mentoring, we review a four step process that Melbourne Business Coach & Mentor Stuart Hayes recommends to cause lasting positive change.
Change is the key ingredient of growth and in business change requires vision, a driving team and a tight context if it is to be generated successfully and positively. This is why excellent leadership is so important in a business.
However while talking about change, it’s important to not throw the baby out with the bath-water in that, on the other side to change is the importance of consistency and consistency is likewise important, especially in processes that relate to product, quality, revenue and perhaps, to an extent, natural development.
So, this pair of contradictory principles will need to coexist in a healthy business. Just how do we develop that? The answer is to realise that successful companies require both change and also consistency. Change being the domain of business leaders while consistency being the terrain of business managers.
Thinking about these two side by side, it is not very difficult to see why consistency together with change (or for that matter managers and leaders) are frequently testing to unite successfully.
In this article, I’m going to take a look at the central elements of masterful leadership including how these components work together to create positive and sustainable change. As an experienced leader, the formula I utilize to produce this adaptation involves a straightforward four step process which I strongly recommend, here it is below:
STEP 1
Ask And Answer The Tough Questions
Periodically, I wonder whether it is more challenging to know where you are truly starting from or where you’re specifically seeking to reach!
As business people and entrepreneurs, we commonly fall into the trap of seeing the world through tinted glasses and then fail to truthfully recognize where we are setting out from – our ‘Point A’.
Recognising your real point A isn’t easy: it is only achieved by having the courage to identify, ask, then honestly respond to all of the confronting questions that relate to your company, your methodology as well as how you are moving to it. You know the questions; they are the same ones you typically stumble over when they hit you unexpectedly at a party!
My tip: pull on your thickest skin, find somebody else to identify and then ask the questions that ought to be asked … and don’t allow your ego to get in the way of the honest self-contemplation that needs to come next. It may amount to the difference between your success and failure.
STEP 2
See The Vision, Feel The Reason
Identifying both the specific details of your ‘change vision’ (your ‘point B’) in addition to the specifics of your deep-and-heart-centred-reason-for-change is also challenging. If there is a # 1 secret for attaining positive and also sustainable transformation, however, this is it!
Without specific details, your vision is merely a dream. Without a deep and honest reason as to why you want to chase your vision, you will struggle to inspire many people towards it. People need to share your passion. Making the effort to connect with the core reason for change that deeply moves you, will be your best chance to move your team to head in the same direction with you.
Fortunately, those colleagues that do share and then welcome your vision will certainly stick with you and end up being the driving influence for delivering it. This is why first-rate leaders understand the carrot is mightier than the stick.
My tip: identify the kinds of individuals you require to drive your change vision. Take enough time to define specifically who they could be and then what it is about your vision that may move them.
STEP 3
Develop A Clear And Simple Plan Of Action
From here on, the key elements of your success are sticking to what works, keeping it uncomplicated … and continuing to feed the passion that connects your driving team to your vision.
Having actually clarified your ‘why’, allotting uninterrupted thinking time to pinpointing the essential aspects of your ‘how’ is all-important.
My suggestion: try to engage your driving team in this course of action:
– Recognize the repeatable jobs that will achieve your goal (and keep them simple).
– Determine both the resources you have available as well as the resources you will need (actually need!).
– Determine the finite checklist of things that could block your progress. Establish contingency plans for any that are legitimately risky.
STEP 4
Accomplish Positive Change That Lasts
Staying on course and achieving positive and lasting transformation is a 99% leadership and a 1% management blend of fuel, context and accountability.
The fuel aspect is PR in its purest form. Its objective is to build and then maintain momentum: communicate the vision, teach the simple, repeatable actions, celebrate successes … and ultimately educate your driving group to do the very same things. Each reinforcing that the change vision is valid and that the team’s approach is the right one.
Significantly, as leader, the code of conduct or ‘context’ you develop around your team as well as its behaviour is fundamental to their ability to stick together and then accomplish results. Your team will look to you to live up to this code at all times and as you do it will start to take a life and power all of its own.
This is where keeping on track and accomplishing positive and lasting change needs your personal commitment, guts as well as discipline: being consistent with the message you teach and also getting in touch with your team in a genuine way when delivering it is most important.
Your capacity to produce and maintain a solid context is directly commensurate to your capability to do these things, and with a solid context your group will self manage; self align; move mountains; and then produce the favourable and lasting changes you want.
My recommendation: Take a deep breath and be prepared to be human, to admit shortcomings and to be open to change yourself. You will certainly be valued and followed as a leader in a far more powerful manner when you have the nerve to do these things.