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Leadership Matters Change - Ready Managers And The Law of Business

John F. Kennedy once said, "Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."

Every day, in hundreds of change situations happening in your workplace, the actions of leaders at all levels are risking the promotion of atrophy. This is simply because many managers are ill-prepared to address the changing landscape of the business. Just as change then is a law of life, so it is with business.

Issues Compounding Change

In and of itself, change is prevalent in your organization. Compounding this are the changing demographics of the workforce on top of issues such as management of strategies for new revenue growth, planned culture shifts and initiatives to contain costs.

Imagine the impact to your organization if your managers ignored these issues?

Typically, your environment begins to look like this: rumors, backbiting, lack of focus, conflict, employee anxiety, lack of energy in service to internal and external customers and a breakdown of trust between managers and employees.

Can your organization sustain a competitive advantage under this scenario? Probably not.

Building Change Managers

It is not enough today that people are promoted from the floor or enter management without understanding the impact of change. Change-ready managers are respected and effective, are able to motive others to be receptive to change and build collaborative environments.

The fact is that people don't leave companies; they leave bad bosses who are ineffective and not respected. They can't retain employees and they certainly can't motivate the ones who stay. A company can espouse family-friendly benefits and have great pay and benefits, but also have managers who are poisoning the well because they simply don't know how to manage the change.

Supporting and Motivating Change

One of the main conditions for the support of change is the degree of motivation among individuals. During the quality movement by W. Edwards Deming, a lot was discovered about how individuals either hold on to the status quo or embrace taking the road to change.

Managers who understand the distractions and emotions of their team members in association with change will be better prepared to support and lead them through it. The right training for managers gives them the tools to first understand the change, interpret it and then facilitate the acceptance of the new way vs. the old.

Change-ready managers will communicate more effectively with their employees, encourage participation and empower them to be able to accept change.

Training Managers to Become Change-Ready

As in life, the law of change for business is constant. That's never been truer than it is today. Implementing a training program to make your managers change-ready will not only make them great bosses, but it will also build teams of greatly- empowered employees who are ready for change. Vital Learning's Supporting Change program will empower your leaders and first-line managers to:

Understand why change happens, how people react to it and how they need to be supported through the struggle. Involve team members in change initiatives by promoting their understanding and ownership of change and its benefits. Plan for individuals or work group sessions to support the change process and reinforce personal and organizational goals. See your local training professional today to get you started building for today and tomorrow.

Quote for the Week

"Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable". - William Pollard

Dave Erdman joined Vital Learning in July of 2003, to begin a revitalization of a company that had long been a leader in Leadership, Sales, Service and Productivity training. Prior to joining Vital Learning, Dave was President of BT Novations (1998 to 2003) a member of the Provant family of training and development organizations.

Dave is an experienced executive in the Training and Development field having led several organizations through major growth and strategic transitions. Organizations Dave has worked with include; VP of Product Development for Deltak, Inc. (1981 to 1985), President/CEO of Kaset International (1986 to 1994), President of Learning International (1994 to 1997), and President of Conceptual Systems (1997 to 1998). Prior to 1981, Dave enjoyed a successful career in Public Television as an award-winning Producer/Director and Production Manager. He has produced and directed programs for PBS and HBO. Dave has a Bach.

posted by 70924 @ 7:57 PM