When you are creating or evolving your business strategy, it’s inevitable that your organization will change. Whether you are planning changes to your goals and targets, organizational structure, business model, target market, technology, culture, or leadership and management practices, it’s critical to manage the people side of your business strategy.
What’s the difference between Strategic Change and Change Management?
Strategic Change is the purposeful evolution of your organization’s direction, goals, structure or culture. It is:
Visionary
Big-Picture
Planned (or having a play for the unexpected)
Change Management is focused on implementing the Strategic Changes successfully. It is:
Structured
Focused
Action-oriented
One way to think of it is that Strategic Change tells us why we are changing and what is changing, while Change Management tells us how we will accomplish the changes
Many people think that resilience is a trait - that you're born with it or you're not. But what if I told you resilience is a skill! You can build resilience as an individual leader or as an organization!
Are you a resilient leader? Does your organization have resilient leaders? Are they able to bounce back quickly from setbacks and meet challenges with optimism? Are you able to pivot quickly when things don't turn out the way you expected? Are you able to see the positive in challenging situations? Resilience is key to doing all of these things!
With all of the challenges in our environment, why wouldn't you want to be more resilient?
How many of us take the time to listen deeply? Often, we listen to respond to what is being said rather than to understand what is being said. We listen to the words, but may miss the meaning. Listening deeply may take a bit of time, but I think that it's worth it because when we listen deeply, we will:
💫 Broaden your own problem solving skills
💫 Solve challenges more effectively and efficiently
💫 Build trust with your colleagues, peers, employees, and supervisor
If you're an individual leader that's ready to level up your listening skills, let's talk! If you are part of an organization that wants to evolve your culture to one that gets better results in less time, let's partner to embed this skill in your culture.
When I talk with executives about their culture, especially during uncertain economic times, I get the question, "Is now the right time to invest in culture?" Well...
💥 84% of the value of an S&P 500 company is linked to their employees' talents, skills, knowledge, work ethic, and health
💥 Engaged and inspired workers boost the bottom line by as much as 21% and have a 41% lower absenteeism rate
If those aren't reason enough to invest in your company culture, I don't know what is!
Companies with a healthy culture are also more flexible and agile, making them better able to succeed in uncertain economic times.
If you're ready to evolve your culture, let's talk!
All statistics taken from Gallup.com
Let's talk self-awareness!! Did you know that there are two types of self-awareness?
Internal self-awareness is how clearly we see our own values, passions, aspirations, fit with our environment, reactions, and impact on others. Internal self-awareness is associated with higher job and relationship satisfaction, and happiness and helps reduce anxiety, stress, and depression.
External self-awareness means understanding how other people view us. Research shows that people who know how others see them are more skilled at showing empathy and taking others’ perspectives. For leaders, this is critical to having better relationships with your employees, increased employee satisfaction, and being an effective leader.
Are you curious about internal and external self-awareness? Do you want better employee engagement and a culture where your leaders contribute directly to employee satisfaction AND the bottom line? Let’s talk!
The "one-size-fits-all" tag on clothing isn't really true - It mostly fits, some people. If that's true for clothes, I think it's even more true for growth - as an individual leader or as an organization working to grow their leaders and evolve their culture.
If you are ready to:
Take your own leadership skills further 💪
Create a new leadership development experience 🏋
Evolve your culture through your leaders 🌎
Then let’s talk about how!
Last week, I asked you to flip the script - instead of focusing on where you could do better or develop yourself, I asked you to write down what you do well - your strengths, gifts and accomplishments. Now, here's why...
Use that list to be your own hype person! What is a hype person? Someone that talks or writes about something or someone with the intent of getting others excited or interested.
Use your list to:
🔥 Inspire self-confidence in who you are and what you bring to the table
🔥 Engage and excite others by letting your light shine
🔥 Approach your next big ask with confidence
I'm flipping the script today - Instead of talking about how we could do better, I want to talk about acknowledging your accomplishments, strengths, and gifts.
Take some time to write them all down - whether they're professional or personal. 📝
Next time you come up against a challenge that you're not sure you can meet, pull that list out, and remember that you can meet this challenge because look at all you've already accomplished!!
One of my least favorite phrases is "leadership hacks." Hacking something is breaking in or patching it up. Leadership isn't something that can be broken into and (IMHO) shouldn't be patched up.
Leadership is a journey. Leadership is a privilege. Leadership is a practice.
The next time you see "Do these 5 things to be a great leader," or "3 simple tips to boost your leadership," ask yourself how you want to grow:
By patching things up? Or by deliberately making progress and getting better every day!