Often we have to make changes at work and in the way people do their jobs. We also have to help our people, those on our teams, make those changes from time-to-time. We know that adult behaviour change is hard, it takes time and pressure needs to be applied consistently to arrive at the required destination.
Taking time to make changes is often in direct conflict with the speed at which the business wants to change. Your people need time to change.
I want to be clear here, your people need time to change and they must also have the will to change. You can’t instill that “will to change in them”, it comes from the inside out.
So, as manager and coach, seeing what is coming in your businesses environment will help you generate your own ideas about how things might change. Asking questions of your direct manager for the purpose of supporting your people is key. Predicting upcoming change requirements will help you help your people.
To be successful, help your people make change in small bits, I call them shifts. A small shift over time can help people get different results in their work. Small shifts in two or three areas over time can mean a world of difference in performance on the job.
Each small shift needs to be supported. Support needs to at regular intervals most likely weekly. The time to support each shift can be as little as 10 minutes. It’s time enough to focus on what happened in the last week, what needs to continue, what needs to stop or what the person needs to start doing.
To get a double win, courageously championing a team members shift will help them move forward and will increase engagement for that person, hopefully strengthen their resolve, save money, and strengthen the team too. Courageously championing change in more than one person at a time sets you apart from just good managers and starts to build you up as someone people want to work with!