What does your team need from you during times of change?

Change is inevitable in a business and you will encounter this at some point during your career. It can come from many places including opportunity, crisis, chaos, or turnover. But the process is very similar.

I’ve been on both sides of these situations (and I’m sure you have as well)

As you’re navigating these waters, don’t forget about your team. They’re feeling the same apprehensions as you. The same fears and same uncertainty.

How you lead in this situation will determine the ultimate success of your strategy.

Links

Learn more at https://www.adamliette.com

Activate The Warrior Within https://www.adamliette.com/awaken-the-warrior
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Transcript

So good to have you with me, as we try something a little different moving to video format on the show, too. And this really exciting, really welcomed change to how we've been doing things. And I'm looking forward to it. And that got me thinking about a couple things kind of coming all at the same time versus the fact that I'm doing changes within my own business. I'm seeing changes in so other businesses that I'm involved with. And one of my biggest mentors, just recently decided that there's going to be a massive change in his business, actually completely shutting down the business in order to reconsolidate and come out on the other side better. And so it got my mind thinking about the fact that change is constant, right. And as leaders, part of our job is to navigate through change, to be able to go through those waters and come out the other side. And there's ways to do it. There's certainly different skills and different tactics that you can do. And this episode is going to be more about your relationship with others on the team during these times of change, because like I said, they are inevitable. And they can come from multiple places, it can be times of turmoil, chaos, or even opportunity. It doesn't always have to be a negative thing.

But even times of opportunity where we see potential big things that can come to the company in a good way, that's still a time of change. And our employees, our team feels those times, even we as individuals like these times are never comfortable, because we are much happier and homeostasis like we like things that are consistent. But that's not business, right? No matter whether this is coming from a place of chaos, turmoil, or even positive change, a lot of the outcomes are still the same. And so a lot of these are very universal things. And just remember that these are the times where you need your team more than anything. And so there are some very specific ways to do that. The first is, even though things are changing, transparency is going to be your friend. Now, that phrase transparency brings up a lot of different feelings for people. But let me just start with the like the guiding notion that no black ops, like you, as the leader are not permitted to be doing things without telling others without at least making it known that there are things that are on the table, and you're considering options, and that you're planning different things. That doesn't mean everyone's in the room.

That doesn't mean everyone's invited to give their opinion to contribute. But it does mean that you are at least transparent about the fact that things are in a time of turmoil or chaos or positive change. And that you are thinking about it, you're meeting with other team members about it. And this what the meetings are about. Okay. Nothing makes people more uncomfortable than knowing that you're planning something that you're working on something but we can't have any idea. We meaning we the people in the company can't have any idea what's going on. Those closed doors make everyone uncomfortable. And the first slide anyone thinks is are they talking about me? Because this is actually like the same process we use when we're redeploying someone when we're getting rid of someone. It's the same process. So what kind of discomfort are you causing amongst your team members? By not being transparent by not having this be an open book? By having links to Google files that are suddenly private? It's like am I'm not permitted to see that is what they're telling themselves. What does that document say? And now they want to know. Or even worse yet, they make it say something that's extremely negative towards them. And it may not be even about them, but they're going to make it about them because people self preservation is a thing. Okay, acknowledge that.

But overall, like if there are problems you need, they need to be known if revenue is a problem that needs to be clear and upfront. If you're thinking of chef's shifts in the business direction, that needs to be open as well, doesn't mean you're telling them the outcome, but again, just letting him know, hey, we're seeing some opportunities. We're going to explore these. Everything's fine guys. Keep on what you're doing. What we need for you to do is to just hold down the fort while we go figure out this big opportunity. Now they're excited about the fact that they're in the tactical work, see how you're able to do that site shift, and make people excited about their jobs, because it's going to allow you the leader, the opportunity to go pursue this passion project, you completely one, add that potential scenario of people feeling down, or people feeling paranoid into a place of opportunity, and love and giving, and all those things that we incorporate into our culture when we're building our teams. Okay, that's the first one, just transparency, it's your best friend, trust me. Just be open as much as you possibly can.

The second is a second third kind of go together, because it's all about the two different types of leadership that we need within a company. The first is inspirational leadership, your team needs to be inspired, they need to have motivation to move forward, they need to know what like the today, goals are the week goals, the month goals, they need to know what they're working towards, they need to know how to win. And that all comes from inspirational leadership. So they need to know what they can do best to support what you're doing, as one of the leaders in the organization, give them the vision, give them the inspiration to do that. That carries on for about 510 minutes. And then they have to get into the work. And that's where emotional leadership comes in. They need to feel supported on a day to day don't put them on an island, I recorded in the last solo episode last week about being on an island as leader, it's really uncomfortable. There's things that we have to do to overcome that. And we're leaders, what does our team do when we put them on an island. They're not equipped with the tools or the experience that we have in order to navigate those experiences. That's what emotional leadership is really about. It's about providing them that steady support in order to navigate those waters.

To know that I have a lifeline that I have someone I can turn to when I have questions When I need help. But also when I just need to yell a curse word at the world, because I'm frustrated. And I know someone is going to listen to me, not necessarily try to solve my problems, but at least to know someone is there to listen to me. And last, and probably the most important thing is I want you to look internally to the company. And see the opportunity that you have. You know, I was just listening to a podcast from Lila Hermoza, who's talking about the idea of the company that you want. When we start with goals, when we figure out what we want to become, start with the org chart, and make it nameless, what does the company have to look like to achieve the goals that we're after? When we start with nameless. And we're looking at skills and positions that we're going to create. The fact is you have no idea what you have in your company. Even if someone's been in this role over here, they've been doing this kind of work. That doesn't mean that's the work, they're going to be doing six months from now.

People rise to the challenge people do want change. People do want to evolve as human beings. And a lot of the things that I think we do as leaders is we can help inculcate that change. We can help to inspire them to reach a new version of themselves. One that makes them more fulfilled. There's a whole lot of nostalgia in America right now, for some reason about, well, back in the 50s. You could work this job and be able to do this. I mean, some of those jobs, were literally putting the same bolt on the same part. Eight hours a day, five days a week, rinse, wash, repeat. Let me ask you a serious question. How many of you are going to be happy? Putting the same bolt on the same part of the same machine standing in the same place for 40 hours a week for 40 years? I don't think any of you will be happy. I know I won't I'll be miserable. Doesn't matter what the paycheck is this part where pay doesn't matter. fulfilment matters. Find the fulfillment that your team is after. Find what motivates them as individuals, you will see the best side of people. They won't want to be compensated for it, of course, and the best part is, when you rise their level of contribution, you can also rise their their level of monetary compensation because they're now contributing at a different level. And I do believe that people rise to that. I've seen it time and time again. I've seen it for myself. We're being challenged to do more. With both motivations. The motivation of self-fulfillment and the motivation of more money is a great contributor.

But start with the idea that the jobs that your team currently has, will not necessarily be the job they do have. Instead, let them rise to the occasion. Let them help you. And this word, these four really come together. You can't do that if you're running Black Ops, and you're not being transparent, you can't do that without inspirational leadership. And you certainly can't do that without emotional leadership. Because they will need support during their own transition, during their own rise into that new person they're going to become, and you as the leader are responsible for that.

And that brings us really the last thing is just Extreme Ownership, extreme responsibility, you are responsible for everything that is happening to you right now. In these times, in some way, manner, or form, you are responsible. You know, this is kind of a mind blowing thing for me, I was working with a mentor who said, Imagine you get a car crash? How are you responsible for that, like, Well, was it my fault? Like, that's not what I asked as How are you responsible for that? How could you be responsible for that? And gave me scenarios, this full backstory of like being in a car crash, because you were rushing along and like this happened? And that happened? It's like, how were you responsible? And I said, I don't know. Like, I was still in the blame game, deflect mode. And he said, Well, in this story, you were in a hurry, because you were five minutes late. Because you overslept your alarm, because you stayed up too late the night before? Because you're watching this TV show. Do you see the number of decisions that you made? That put you in that position to be in that car accident? Wow. Now I know, okay, then then that's just an example. But now you know, that you do have some level of couple more responsibility for everything that's happening to you right now. Even you're listening to the show, if you're in this place, and you're like, woe is me, this happened. And now this is happening. Stop for a moment and ask yourself how you're responsible. And really answer it. Find the way you were responsible for this circumstance. Accept it, and move on. something great happens when we accept that level of responsibility and move on from it. Now we're able to lead from a different place. Because we no longer have the scapegoat to fall back on. We have to accept responsibility. People will respect you for it. And most importantly, you'll respect yourself for it.

So to wrap things up, times have changed times of chaos, turmoil. They're inevitable. You're going to encounter these if you don't want to, I don't work. I mean, don't be a leader, for sure. This is where all the work you've put in to yourself, to your team, to the processes systems that you put in place, to your customers, to your marketing, everything comes together in these times. If you let it will you let it that's the challenge for you today. Let these opportunities come to you. Stop fighting them so much and just lean on some of these very simple principles in this episode.