eBusiness Weekly
Arthur Marara
The United Kingdom advised that it will be relaxing the raft of Covid-19 measures it had put in place to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Among some of the changes, there will no quarantine for people who test positive for the virus.
There is no obligation to continue wearing masks in public as is still happening in the other parts of the world. Further, no need for PCR tests for those visiting from abroad. The reason for the relaxation is a conscious decision to start living with the virus. I had made the point earlier in one of my articles that there is no normal to return to. What is needed is now out of willingness and readiness to live with the virus.
We are indeed operating and living in times or rapid change, where we need to begin to embrace agility, responsiveness, and speed in terms of making critical decisions. This requires leadership at its best to lead through these environments. We constantly need to be learning how to lead through changing times.
In these times of change if you do not upgrade your game you will soon be relegated the dustbins of corporate antiquity. In fact, change is necessary to keep us moving, to keep us growing, and to keep us developing. The question is how to do you lead through change. I want to focus on a few principles that I think can help in this journey.
Leadership determines success or failure
There is ample authority in the various researches that have been conducted globally that a change leader has a critical role to play in the determination and successful implementation of change programs for an organisation. Nothing happens without leadership. It is also true that everything happens with leadership.
Organisations that have succeeded in change programmes they built on the strength of their leadership. This speaks to the priority of leadership in the success or failure of a transformation programme. There are six pillars that a change leader needs to understand and deliver to the teams that they lead for the change to be successful.
Pillar 1: Confidence
Change is not only inevitable, it’s mandatory. For business, this is even more critical because organizations that fail to change and improve for the better ultimately get out of business.
The organisation will also face serious performance gaps relative to more adaptive competitors, and to stay competitive it needs confidence. In such an environment a leader needs to be confident. This means you need to be confident in the vision, and strategy.
The team that you lead will also have confidence in what you are doing if they see confidence in you. This self-assurance gives your team the confidence to implement the change. In the absence of confidence, people would not only doubt their leader but they would doubt themselves.
Pillar 2: Clarity:
Leadership in changing times needs a great level of clarity. To be a successful change leader, you need to tell your team the reason behind the change. This means outlining the details and scope and timelines. There is always an interest in the people to know how the change is going to affect them. If you do not succeed in clarity, you may end up experience fights from the people who are supposed to be supporting you.
For example, if employees feel the proposed changes may result in retrenchment and loss of jobs you may not actually get a buy in from them. It is not always that a retrenchment has to follow when you want to implement an organisational transformation.
There is need for intelligent engagement with the team so that you get maximum support for the proposed change. The best leaders go great lengths to explain the rationale behind change in the manner that can be understood by those they lead.
Pillar 3: Communication:
Great leaders need to learn to communicate and connect with the teams that they lead. You cannot succeed in implementing change when you have not been able to communicate the details relating to the change and when you want to implement it. Communication is key when you want to implement change.
There is nothing called over-communicate when you are asking your people or organization to change. Most change initiatives often fail due to lack of good communication. Communication is paramount when it comes to change management. Enrol for communication training if this is one of the areas that you need attention.
Pillar 4: Consistency:
A leader must be extremely vigilant with those they lead, and reassure their people that during the transition times there will be alignment between what they hear and what they witness. This is where consistency comes in. It is the professed and enacted behaviour by the leaders in the context of change. You cannot be seen to be saying one thing, and on the other hand doing the exact opposite.
Pillar 5: Commitment
After you have exhibited confidence, clarified your vision, communicated your “how and when” and followed up by consistently, “walking the talk”, you need to take into account another pillar, commitment. You would need your followers “buy-in” and “commitment” for the change initiative to succeed. If the team believes in the change and are ready to support, it makes a difference.
Pillar 6: Collaboration
There is power in collaboration. Get your team’s “collaboration” and the team’s “commitment” to secure a successful change initiative. Collaboration speaks to teamwork. Teambuilding is not an event, it is a journey.. You need to work on building team spirit in your team. Change is never easy for anyone, but if you have confidence, clarity, communication, consistency, commitment, and collaboration it can help you be successful within your initiatives.
Arthur Marara is a corporate law attorney, keynote speaker, corporate and personal branding speaker commanding the stage with his delightful humour, raw energy, and wealth of life experiences. He is a financial wellness expert and is passionate about addressing the issues of wellness, strategy and personal and professional development. Arthur is the author of “Toys for Adults” a thought provoking book on entrepreneurship, and “No one is Coming” a book that seeks to equip leaders to take charge. Send your feedback to [email protected] or Visit his website www.arthurmarara.com or contact him on WhatsApp: +263780055152.
