By Manny Roman
Who likes change? I do! I love change. Change makes life interesting. Change causes, maybe even forces, us to grow. Even if the change is unwelcome, dealing with it makes us more resilient, stronger and teaches us things we would otherwise not know. I am, of course, talking about change that does not actually destroy us.
A common statement in business is: “Either you are growing, or you are dying.” I always had difficulty accepting that a business must grow or die. My personal statement would be: “Either you are changing, or you are dying.” Hopefully that change is for the better. Good leadership will explore all opportunities and embrace the good and necessary changes for the betterment of the organization and the customers.
I read recently that people don’t resist change itself. They resist being changed. This rang very true to me.
People change all the time. They change phone service providers and TV channels and restaurants and houses and cars, even significant others, etc. They make the choice to change things in their lives quite often and if they don’t like that change, they change the change.
What people resist is being forced to change. The resistance is to other people, or outside forces, pushing them to change. When this happens, people tend to become immovable objects and may even push back. They may not really object to the change itself, they object to the forceful drive to change.
It is a great leader indeed who effects changes with the consent of the people. Leadership guru John Maxwell defines leadership: “Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.” Successful leaders “influence” a change rather than force the change. They frame the changes to each individual’s need, wants and desires. Essentially causing the individuals to want to change. This is the key to good leadership: To influence others to want to comply.
A necessity of leadership is to know the people very well. Leaders must know what buttons need to be pushed to successfully influence each individual toward the desired change. Even if the change is to be executed by everyone, each individual will more readily accept the change when their individual buttons are activated.
How can a leader determine these diverse individual buttons? “Communication is key.” I say that all the time. The best way to communicate with your people is to conduct good, consistent and recurring one-on-ones. These scheduled communication events with each individual will establish a rapport and a road to influence in both directions.
When I propose to leaders and managers that they should conduct regular one-on-ones with their people, I very often get: “I’m too busy to take the time for this.” My reply is always: “Are you saying that you don’t have time to communicate with your people?” This, of course, causes irritation and the conversation usually ends or changes topic.
But this column is about change and I digress. And, the above is a very bad example of an attempt at effecting a change towards enhanced communication in the absence of the correct buttons.
So, embrace change. Find ways to implement productive and pleasant changes in your business and personal life. When change is being forced on you, ask yourself why you feel that way. What are you resisting? Are you resisting the change itself or the force behind it? Change is the spice of life and the cat’s pajamas. I have no idea what the cat’s pajamas mean, and my cat refuses to wear them, but it sounds like something good.
Manny Roman, CRES, is association business operations manager at Association of Medical Service Providers.
