Leadership Done Right

Brandon W. Jones

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Change At Your Own Pace

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Have you ever tried to implement a change when one person that wasn’t ready for the change? He/she probably told each team member to, “change at your own pace” which challenged your team members. As a result, that person probably slowed everything and everyone down. He/she probably was a roadblock to the change for the group or you individually. What they may not have realized was that their mentality became a major stumbling block for everyone.

So why is change at your own pace a fallacy?

To know why this is a fallacy you don’t need to look any further than the three drivers of change (technology, people, and information). Technology is constantly advancing. Computers, machinery, vehicles, phones, and everything else technology is constantly improving. With each technological advance, you can improve efficiency, productivity, and effectiveness. Or, you can stay where you are. If you choose to stay where you are, you will be effectively moving backwards because everyone else will be moving past you.

Change at your own paceThe change at your own pace doesn’t work with people either. When you change at your own pace with people, you will either move too fast or too slow. You will slow down others around you or you will encounter resistance when you are changing faster than others. You can’t change at your own pace when you are changing with others. This hurts the team and everyone involved in the process. [Read more…] about Change At Your Own Pace

Understand Your Stakeholders

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Within many for-profit organizations, there are two common models that drive the decisions of all the leaders within the organization.  One model refers to the shareholders and the other refers to the stakeholders.  The models are the shareholder-wealth maximization model and the stakeholder model.  Each model has its own challenges and benefits.  As a leader, it is important to understand both models so you know how to best serve those you lead and your organization.

Understand Your Stakeholders

Shareholders

In today’s business environment there is a strong culture of leaders that follow the shareholder-wealth maximization model.  As stated on wiki answers, “The Shareholder-Wealth Maximization model (SWM) goal states that the objective of a firm’s management should be to maximize the present value of the expected future cash flows to equity owners (shareholders).  Consider cash flows to be the same as profits. Hence, the value of a firm’s stock is equal to the present value of all expected future profits, discounted at the the shareholders required rate of return.”

With the shareholder-wealth maximization model, whether it is the CEO, mid-level manager, or the supervisor, all leaders are taught to focus on maximizing the shareholder wealth.  With shareholder wealth as the driving force, leaders have foregone ethics, moral values, and any other set of standards they held for the purpose of increasing the profit within their company.  Leaders within this framework have taken greater risks or made other decisions that either led to their personal downfall or the downfall of the company. [Read more…] about Understand Your Stakeholders

10 Steps To Make Effective Change

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What Does It Take To Make Effective Change?

As a leader, effective change is probably a very common part of your vocabulary.  “Improve this process to make work go more smoothly.”  “Implement this new procedure to comply with the new regulation.”  “Let’s adjust our focus to improve the profit margin.”  “Improve the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the organization.”  The topic of creating effective change comes up on a regular basis and is disguised by many different words.Make Effective Change Happen

As a leader, it is very common to want to make sweeping changes and make them happen NOW, but it is not always possible.  There tends to be resistance to change because it causes people to go out of their comfort zone.  Effective change requires that people do something new that is unfamiliar or unknown.  People many times are afraid that when the changes occur they won’t be able to perform as well as they do in their current position and it will put their jobs in jeopardy.  They can also be afraid that change will eliminate the need for their position.  These fears are very valid in many cases and cause a tremendous amount of anxiety when people hear the word change.

So what does it take to implement an effective change?  Is it even possible?  Yes it is possible to implement effective change! The steps below explain how it can be done.

1. Identify the problem or reason for change.

Before you can make any effective change, you must have a full understanding of what is currently happening.  Why were the current practices chosen in the past and how were they effective?  Also, why are they needing to be changed and how will the proposed change be an improvement?

You should know both the good and the bad of what is currently happening.  Once you identify both, you should identify specifically what needs to be improved and why.  The worst thing you can do is change something just for the sake of changing it.

If you don’t have a full understanding of the current process, you will probably have a very hard time betting the buy-in of others.  On the other hand, when you have a full understanding of the existing process you will be able to explain very specifically why the existing process doesn’t work and why your changes will fix or improve it. [Read more…] about 10 Steps To Make Effective Change