All this got me thinking.

As a corporate trainer, and someone who is an avid fan of personal development, I believe we all know that living a life to our fullest is important. However, it’s not just about making the most money. It’s not even about the fame. The real question is… are you fulfilled and satisfied living your life the way you do?

Introducing Midgets and Giants

Many people who live their life in mediocrity carry around a miniature self-esteem. They are forever helpless children who have no clue about becoming larger than life even though they dream about it.

As I often run training for managers, one thing I ask them about is their aspiration. Surprisingly, we make a joke out of being wealthy millionaires, when someone says “my aspiration is to strike the lottery”. The hint of longing is really there, even though everyone bursts out laughing. When asked what stops them, they say it is a practical reality of work, and wealth is for people who have special talent.

That’s really odd because I simply Googled for successful real-life midgets. Not surprisingly, it’s not the size of the being that matters. It’s really the size of your heart. Another person small in stature but big in size is Nick Vujicic, a Christian pastor who speaks about his life being born without arms and legs. Not only does he inspire, he forces people to think beyond the selfish limitations of their own thinking.

“My disability is a gift,” says Vujicic in one of his keynote addresses. Who can really say “my demanding boss is a gift”, or “my project failure is a gift” or “my family poverty is a gift”?

According to Carol Dweck, a research psychologist and author of the book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success talks about two mindsets that people carry: the fixed mindset (or performance mindset) and the growth mindset (or mastery mindset). On one hand, people who appear to be more intelligent and take less calculated risks often end up with more short term success, but little growth. For instance, reaching a target can be very easy and consequently prevents real mastery by achieving that goal.

Mastery oriented people, on the other hand, break away from the norms. Bruce Lee, depicted in the National Geographic series as a hero who fought his way through to the top using a free style martial arts process, was probably someone who used this mindset. He would reject the fixedness of standard martial arts systems and challenge the status quo, which he deemed an obstacle. But just as water flows past its obstacles, he skirted around problems. “Life is problem-solving,” he is quoted as saying.

In my seminars, I often teach the power of positivity. However, there are skeptics in the audience and the only reason they feel that way is because they have been affected negatively by things in their life in the past. One of my roles is to use training as a healing process and a means to open up people’s thinking to the possibility that they could be more and achieve more.

Giants like Steve Jobs had a second chance from the time of his 2004 Stanford Commencement Address to deliver a powerful tool and new way of using mobile devices. But people like Whitney Houston, on the verge of a comeback, never did. While her fight against drug abuse and the environment her marriage (ex-husband Bobby Brown) had apparently brought her did come to and end, her second wind was never given a chance.

This is a sobering thought for us. Even if we don’t make it through, our efforts must mean something. And of course, why wait for a second chance, when we hardly pay attention to our very first chance at life, which we life with mediocrity?

After training different organizations, I’ve become a firmer believer that it is not the knowledge that builds people, but rather their attitude toward success. If they welcome it as a possibility, nothing can stand in their way. If they reject it, there will be no but things standing in their way.

Often, the ability to improve corporate performance is to create a shift in attitude. The winning attitude is a way of life. It is a message that everyone needs to hear and only a few will listen to. It is a continuation of a cry for human excellence — that no matter the culture of the company or the caliber of people who are in it, we must believe in the power of people’s ability to learn and surpass bad times and failure.

The world faces it’s most unbearable year ever. It’s unbearable because there is so much uncertainty and because of this, organizations are shrinking.

So are mindsets.

In the quest for a highly productive organization, we can’t help but wonder how our leaders are going to get us there. I’ve been fortunate to have trained a number of leaders within various organizations, and the same thing strikes me almost every time. Why are the leaders being trained not getting any younger?

In my experience, engineers, IT professionals, service managers, and other young executives should have access to leadership training, but don’t always have the opportunity. Leadership is by far one of the most important components of professional development, and if not capitalized, could be an organization’s Achilles Heel.

When young managers are not exposed to leadership training, they take for granted that whatever they know is whatever should be applied. Unfortunately, we are seeing times that require effective and adaptive leadership. You can’t just pick a leadership technique from a buffet spread and expect it to work magic. Instead, a leader’s complex set of competencies just got more complex.

TREND #1 – ARE YOU REAL?

In many situations, leaders are seen to be selling snake oil. I don’t blame them because the persuasive impact that a good sales pitch has could earn them an extra year on the helm. Unfortunately, with the tenure of CEOs on the decline (an average of 2-3 years in most MNCs), “selling” is now seen as manipulation. Instead, many people within organizations are asking for authentic leaders – leaders who can connect with the actual spirit and the values of an organization, and turn that into a competitive advantage. Strange as it is, through the facade of leadership, leaders appear to be strong. However, vulnerability is now seen as part of the reality of leadership, and often appreciated. In particular, the ability to understand and express emotions that evoke emotions in followers. This is not just talent – it requires a deep level of understanding of human psychology and how these words translate into value in the minds of your followers.

TREND #2 – FLEXIBILITY

I don’t need to mention any more about the generation gaps of X, Y and Z. It’s been debated to death with little conclusion. The point is people are different and there is a need to have flexibility. People don’t want to adapt. They claim it’s a chore. Yet, as humans, we are adaptive, and continue to adapt almost unconsciously.

The call today is for a breaking of old rules that don’t make sense. Gone are the days where one has to report early or work. Today, it’s “manage yourself before I have to manage you”. In the end, leaders need to give room for flexibility, and yet still have a loyal following.

TREND #3 – CONSTRAINTS

The irony is that people demand flexibility in the face of shrinking resources. It appears that there is less money, less time and less opportunity. Read the newspapers and it comes through very clearly – most of the news focuses on a mindset of scarcity and what is not there.

THE SOLUTION

A motivating and authentic leader is someone who walks his talk. The trouble is not that our leaders don’t walk their talk, but the fact is that there are so many different opinions about the way a leader leads. Leaders need a close camp of aides. These aides need to be empowered to help the leader achieve the mission of the organization. By the same token, these leaders need to have the right skills to paint the right picture about what needs to be achieved, not creating their own agenda.

Ironically, I’ve met top level executives who have been demonized by their middle managers simply because of miscommunication. It means that mid and junior leaders have to be exposed to more of the authentic leadership style and stop living in a mindset of scarcity, or in a dog-eat-dog world. This mentality is as outdated as can be, and yet, amid the fear and uncertainty, human beings who are not trained to look at the world differently default to blame and fault finding, rather than tapping into the very authentic emotions that gave such energy to blame in the first place.

Top Leaders need to encourage mid leaders to undergo a transformation of mind, so that they can find their true self and meaning. After all, it has been decades since Socrates’ cry to “know thyself”. In the discovery of one’s true nature, it becomes clearer the values you operate on. It becomes more obvious the motivations that drive you. You no longer need a mask to play the corporate game of cat and mouse.

Such a mindset transformation looks into the understanding of what authenticity really is and how to make it valuable, practical and motivating, while at the same time converting it into a morale booster for those who see the efforts of a real leader, not just some pin-up mannequin put there to boss someone around.

In times of uncertainty, a leader who motivates and controls the heartstrings of his followers is the one who will be able to surge through and achieve amazing results, not because there was more time, money and opportunity, but simply because as a team, the leader galvanized what resources were available to achieve whatever was there, that others weren’t able to see simply because they lacked the mindset of authentic leadership.

Hence, the adage: it is more powerful to use what you know than to just simply know more.

For information about leadership training within your organization, contact us for a discussion by completing the comment box below. Please fill in your name, designation,  contact number  and the nature of your interest in leadership training and we will get back to you within 2 working days.

Technically, the entire process of organizational change is easy to understand. It is the leader who should visualize the change, acquire resources for its fulfillment, and execute plans into reality. But what’s harder to comprehend is why people in the organization resist changes. The hard part is dealing with people and encouraging them to support the organizational change. Frequently, this resistance to change creates problems for the leader and the entire organization. Resistance to change causes delay in progress, dilution of loyalty to the management, decrease in productivity and dissatisfaction among the ranks. It would take a skillful leader to rise above this resistance and initiate the change by gradually gaining the support of organizational members.

Reasons Why People Resist Changes Within The Organization:

1. Fear of the unknown. This is the dominant emotion that pervades human beings when faced with the possibility of doing something new or which has never been tried before. Fear of the unknown paralyzes an individual to think, move and act productively. Very often, this fear is expressed in language like this:

“It can’t be done”
“We have never tried that before”
“It’s too risky”

The solution for this fear is to let organizational members become familiar with the proposed change plan. The leader should create programs that are aimed at familiarizing the members with the visions and goal of the change.

2. Lack of information. Very often, people resist change simply because they don’t have enough background knowledge and information about it. When implementing organizational change, it is the role of the leader to communicate relevant information and details to the people in the organization. The members must be given adequate facts and understanding about the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed change. They must also be briefed regarding the benefits of the desired change if achieved.

3. Personal Interests and Ulterior Motives. A lot of people resist change, not because they think it is a bad idea, but because they are protecting their own interests and motives. When a leader decides to change some things for the better, the tendency is to clash with the interests of the members of the group. For example, changing the organizational structure may end the “political” plans of many people within the management team. For a leader to succeed in this area, he must be able to unite all team effort, discourage ulterior motives, and influence all key members to work towards the common good.

Instead of escaping change, the leader must embrace it! Change is like a pregnant woman waiting to give birth. Before giving birth, the mother first needs to go through pains and pangs. In the same manner, an organizational leader should also go through challenges, resistance and hardships to be able to implement major changes within the firm.

There are many ways through which a leader can utilize the power of teams to implement various stages of the desired organizational change. Below are five (5) powerful ideas designed for leaders who are eager to transform groups of people within the organization as vital catalysts of change:

1. Each short term objective or desired outcome must be assigned to a particular team. Using this strategy, the leader can create “temporary” departments or committees assigned to fulfill key objectives within the overall organizational change plan. For example, if there is a proposed change in company culture, the leader can assign a team to handle the public relations aspect and ensure that resistance is minimized both internally and externally. On the other hand, there is a separate team assigned to “sell” the new company image to the people in the organization and influence them to comply.

2. Give the management team a checklist of things needed to be accomplished for the change to happen. The steps and tasks needed to achieve organizational change must be clearly mapped out in advance by the leader and his management team. After this planning stage, the leader should distribute a unique action checklist to each member of the management team, outlining the steps needed to be accomplished in a specific department within a specified period of time. This allows the leader to ensure that the supervisors and managers are not just motivated to implement the change, but they are action oriented as well.

3. Use the “benign neglect” concept. Benign neglect is a leadership concept demonstrated by mother birds who are teaching their young how to fly. When the mother bird sees that the young bird is mature enough to start flying, she drops the young bird from a high altitude. Desperate to survive, the young bird starts to use its wings and eventually learn how to glide through the air. This process of temporarily leaving all responsibility to a protégé is called benign neglect. It can be used to push people forward and cause them to perform to their full potential. In organizational management, a good way to implement benign neglect is to delegate responsibilities to managers and supervisors that will present major challenges for them.

4. Help team members develop close social and emotional ties. As people within teams get used to working with one another, emotional ties are eventually developed. The leader should cultivate these working relationships and utilize them to enhance the productivity of the organization. Starting team building programs is a good way to enhance friendships and organizational ties.

5. Reward and recognize outstanding teams for their performance. In most instances, some healthy competition among teams can motivate the organization to perform better. The goal here is not to divide the company into cliques and in-crowds, but to motivate each team to display the highest degree of output and effort needed to implement plans for organizational change.

So how can a leader know and assess if his people are ready for change? John Maxwell, a well known author on the topic of leadership, used a terminology called “positive dissatisfaction”. The definition of positive dissatisfaction is “a state of mind wherein an individual or group is no longer contented with the status quo and are ready to take things on a higher level”. The first thing that the leader should ask himself when measuring the temperature of the organization is, “Are my people positively dissatisfied with current circumstances?” If the leader finds that majority of the people in the organization wants to get rid of the status quo and try something new, then it might be the perfect time to implement change.

The leader should carefully differentiate between positive dissatisfaction and a complaining attitude. Both are manifestations of a lack of contentment, but the former is a positive thing to have and the other is negative. With positive dissatisfaction, an individual seeks improvement, change and challenge. With a complaining attitude, the individual is being pessimistic and narrow in his thinking. The leader should make sure that the people in the organization develop positive dissatisfaction instead of a complaining attitude.

Another great way to determine if the members of an organization are ready for change is to make an investigative survey. The survey questionnaire should contain questions that are aimed at uncovering the feelings and sentiments of people towards the status quo. Distributing questionnaires like this will help the leader know in advance what people think, what changes are needed to be implemented, and how to improve important aspects and policies within the organization.

But perhaps the best time to start planning and implementing organizational change is when the leader sees and recognizes leadership potential within the group he or she is leading. In all types of change, leadership is required on top level management and mid-level management. If there is a lack of potential leaders, the organization may not be able to survive the change. There needs to be men and women who can absorb the initial “shock” of change and become the initiators of new policies and programs.

Knowing the temperature of the organization in relation to change can be a somewhat challenging task for a leader or manager. In instances where the organization is not yet ready for major changes, the leader must create circumstances that will increase the level of urgency of his members. Aggressive leadership can speed up the process of change and revolutionize the way things are done within the organization.

Often, training is easier said than done. There is more to it than just putting together a bunch of resources and then inviting employees to a weekend seminar. Training demands a lot of work and planning on the part of the management team. This is the reason why the leader of the organization should pay very close attention to designing and implementing training programs that are meant to aid organizational change.

The following are five (5) effective ways to manage organizational change through personnel training:

1. Train people for specific skills. In most instances, change demands people in the organization to acquire certain technical and interpersonal skills. For example, if a company is switching from a personal selling strategy to telemarketing strategy, it becomes necessary for the salespeople to learn effective telephone selling skills (which can be a whole lot different than selling face to face). Aside from the change in approach, the salespeople will also need to be trained to utilize latest technology related to a specific skill. When people in the organization gain knowledge and familiarity with the skills they need to acquire, the change becomes easier for them to accept. It gives them confidence that they can adapt well to the new circumstances.

2. Train people for specific leadership roles. For change to happen, it is also necessary to equip people for key leadership roles. Change requires a lot of manpower and resources, and it is not possible for the head of the organization to perform all the responsibilities alone. Leadership roles must be delegated to specific people who will then be assigned to specific areas of change. For example, if a company is expanding its operations in a new state or country, it must train new leaders and supervisors who will eventually lead the workforce in the expansion branch.

3. Perform “simulation training”. Typical lecture-type training may not be sufficient to develop the skills and leadership of people within the organization. In many cases, it is better to train people in conditions that simulate the circumstances of the proposed change. Doing mock drills will provide a great deal of help because this will help people actualize the conditions related to the change.

4. Stress the advantages of the new scenario over the old one. During the training program, it is best to stress the benefits and advantages of the organizational change (and why the proposed change is good for the organization). This will help people visualize why they need to expand their knowledge and skills in order to adapt to the new work environment.

5. Manage change by using motivational training. Often, one of the major roadblocks to successful organizational change is mediocrity (or the contentment with being average). Letting members of the organization undergo motivational programs will inspire them to realize their potential and display higher standards of work performance.

The process of how the leader chooses people to belong into his inner circle can be sometimes complicated. Often, it is not the people with the most skill and expertise which make it to the inner circle, but rather those who are similar to the leader in attitude, personality traits, leadership style, and values. Eventually, this leader-member exchange can be beneficial to the organization, but it can also result in certain problems if not handled correctly by the leader of the organization.

The leader-member exchange, or the special relationship between leader and subordinate, has three stages:

1. Role taking. In this stage, the leader assesses a new member’s capabilities and gives him or her certain tasks to “prove” effectiveness and efficiency. If the member performs the task well, the leader may start seeing him as a reliable person in that particular area of work. The member, on the other hand, gains an idea of the leader’s style of management.

2. Role-making. This is the phase where the leader and member engage in an unspoken, unwritten and informal contract or agreement. The member is expected to demonstrate high levels of work output, loyalty, and dedication. In exchange, the leader gives a silent “promise” that the member will be rewarded in terms of material things, or even intangible rewards such as promotion, recognition and authority.

3. Routinization. The two phases mentioned above becomes a routine exchange between the leader and member.

How This Theory Relates To Organizational Change

Implementing organizational change can be one of the most challenging and stressful periods in a company or group’s history. The leader should have a close-knit inner circle who are loyal to him and is willing to demonstrate a high work output even though higher compensation or recognition may be presently unavailable. The members of the inner circle must be motivated by higher ideals, and not just of tangible rewards. If the leader shows members of the in-group the benefits of the organizational change and state what special roles they will play, they will be committed to the very end.

On the other hand, the leader-member exchange can also impede organizational change if not handled correctly. For example, if the member is given too much responsibility, access to resources, and authority, he or she might turn against the leader and seize power. Thus, the leader should be careful not to give too much away of his leadership roles to members of his in-group.

Over time, organizational psychologists have discovered that there are severe limitations in simply providing a one-off training. In many cases, the lecture style of training is merely an opening to information. Information is not learning. While many companies pride themselves with having a learning and development program, it is sometimes nothing more than an information transmission program. What’s missing are really a few ingredients that boost the ability for an organization to transfer learning effectively from the classroom into the workplace.

1. Increase self-efficacy.

In most situation, self-efficacy serves to improve confidence in one’s ability to contribute back to the environment. It means that curriculum should not be just designed for delivery: it has to be designed for confidence raising.

2. Ensure relevance of the training.

Training relevance is often determined by the boss. While this is relevant to push a strategic agenda, it sometimes lacks feedback and input from the ground. Hence, it is important to show that the training is directly applicable and relevant to the trainee too. A clear communication plan for training is essential for such a training to take place.

3. Organizational Justice.

There are several types of organizational justice that have been identified in the research literature. Distributive justice, interactional justice and procedural justice. Basically, it sits of the idea that fairness is important in increasing engagement within the organization. While engagement itself does not increase performance, a lack of engagement definitely reduces performance. Hence, a well-managed work climate that looks into organizational justice and promotes organizational citizenship behaviors often increases the chances of manager training being transferred back to the workplace.

As you can tell, these ideas are the starting point for selecting a suitable training in the first place. However, trainers are often just there to bring content to the table. To make the content valuable, we need training programs that are transferred back to the workplace. The only way to ensure this happens is to enable the learner, and measure the transfer closely.

For more information about manager training, contact us for a detailed discussion!

1. Begin with the end in mind.

This is one of the seven traits discussed in Stephen Covey’s book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, and it applies mainly to planning. An effective leader doesn’t just plan for the sake of planning. Instead, he has a clear vision and idea of what he is hoping to achieve. He sees the end result before he begins to develop any plan or strategy. Thus, based on the expected end result, the leader then formulates and conceptualizes plans that will help the organization achieve the goal in the most efficient and effective way possible.

2. Pick the brains of core team members.

An effective leader rarely plans alone. He or she knows that when it comes to developing plans, the organization can achieve more if the people in it are able to help in the contribution of creative ideas. The leader should sit in with his key people for brainstorming. The goal of brainstorming is to communicate the vision to other team members, and then let them think of various ways and means to achieve the goal. Often, in a brainstorming session, many different approaches to achieving the goal will crop up. It is at this point that the leader takes the helm to decide on the best course of action to take based on the team’s input. This is a participative leadership style, and it truly helps an organization to work together in the formulation of plans.

3. Anticipate problems along the way.

Leaders don’t run away from problems. They embrace them and view them as challenges. While some leaders plan and expect a perfect scenario, effective leaders expect to encounter challenges along the way. They know that in the real world, plans are rarely implemented perfectly. Thus, the leader gives some allowance and space for those imperfect scenarios. For example, if there is a certain budget allotted for a specific task, the leader reserves a slightly higher amount just in case things don’t go exactly as expected. The leader also develops an alternative plan in the event that the original plan does not materialize or is no longer applicable to the circumstances.

Needless to say, developing problem solving skills is a must for any leader to have. Here are some tips and guidelines for developing and improving your problem solving skills:

1. Look at the problem from different viewpoints.

One of the biggest mistakes that any leader can make is to look at problems from a single point of view. This is single dimensional thinking and it often leads to single dimensional solutions. When leaders resort to such solutions, they are only able to temporarily solve the problem instead of fixing it for the long term. If the problem situation occurred in a business organization, what a leader must do is to try to look at the situation from the point of view of the team members, from the management, from the third parties, and from outside onlookers. By doing this, the leader will know different “versions” of the problem and will be able to formulate a solution which will benefit majority of the people in the organization (not just the person involved with the problem).

2. Ask the right questions.

Often, minor problems are just the reflection of bigger or more serious underlying problems within the team. The leader should be able to ask “Why” questions to get into the root of the problem. For example, if an employee is always late or absent, it is better to find out first “why” this person is always late, instead of directly reprimanding him or her. Next, the leader should also ask “Who” questions to know who is truly involved in the problem situation. For example, a leader may ask, “Who is the person directly responsible and accountable for this?” By asking who questions, the leader will know who to deal with, thus avoiding the waste of time straightening things out with people who truly have nothing to do with the problem. Meanwhile, “What” questions are asked by the leader to gather facts, details, and information related to the problem at hand.

3. Make a firm decision.

When it comes to solving problems, no leader is right 100% of the time. It is expected of a leader to solve problems effectively, but there are times when he fails to make the best decision available. In such cases, making a slightly effective decision is better than making no decision at all. Nothing is more dangerous in an organization than a leader who is indecisive. A leader must be firm in his decisions to truly gain the respect and support of his subordinates.