Your team gathers for the Thursday meeting. Last week’s session was tough, its not easy to own your residence in Stuckville.
So a “friendlier atmosphere” is appreciated. Today team members don’t make the conference table the dividing line between the “Old Timers” and the “new blood”. As each manager give an update, you notice a shift in attitude.
You were encouraged when they reported being more mindful of their behavior. Hope grew from the seeds planted last Thursday.
Sure, there’s still a lot of team building to be done; trust takes time. But they are more upbeat about the future than ever before. Compassion is allowing them to see each other not as the competition – or even worse, the opposition – but as people.
The conflict started when the new managers brought in from outside the company shared best practices and ideas, ideas that require change. Development demands change.
Reality check
So, how does someone change when they live in Stuckville?
Of course, acknowledging the need for change is critical. But engaging the process of change to expand personal influence is about becoming a better leader.
Remember, Stuckville residents are successful. But leadership development is about future success. It requires acceptance of the reality: what got you here will not get you there!
The beginning place
So, how do you embrace change, especially when it is about your need to change? Consider the following 4-D Change path. Change begins with:
Desire.
Once a needed change is acknowledged, the beginning place of change is desire.
Feedback, experience, success or failure knocks on your door as truth found in the story. Desiring change is fueled by 1) a desperation about limited effectiveness, 2) understanding how the change will improve your lot in life, and 3) the intensity of your quest for freedom … you long to expand your influence.
The desire to become stronger, more successful, and more advanced does its magic. You want to expand your influence with people. Your ability and willingness to learn and change is activated.
Discipline.
Desire leads to doing and doing requires discipline.
Discipline is a systematic method to obtain the desired outcome. This is about creating new habits to support the new you. You must train or re-train yourself to create more effective behavior.
For example, perhaps the feedback is that you micro-manage. You effectively set the expectations for the project and the resources. Now what? You tell them how to do the task; you might even stand over the employee’s shoulder, challenging their every move. Great talent rejects this!
Delegation discipline requires you to 1) communicate the objectives, specs, benchmarks, and timeline … “what success looks like” or the function of the task (80%), and 2) to release your personal preferences regarding how the work is to be completed (20%) let them do it “their way.”
The desire to delegate requires you to be disciplined using an approach such as the 80% function | 20% preferences model.
Determination.
Desire leading to discipline requires resolve. As you know, “old habits” resist change. Habits supporting your new leadership approach require commitment.
Delight.
Breakouts leading to freedom bring a high degree of gratification. Leaving Stucksville is a day to celebrate! The new habit has become second nature.
There you have it, 4-D Change: it begins with desire, executed through discipline, sustained by determination, and with a breakthrough comes greater freedom and delight.
With a little less stress comes more smiles and even laughter.
Your team is becoming less resistant to change. They are on the path to becoming self-managed leaders. They are energized because a) they are alert to how they show up, aware of others and what’s going on around them; they b) have hope for the future and are creating hope for others, and c) they are showing compassion for people and wanting to help them succeed.
The work of liberation demands change and so much more. But with desire, discipline, and determination, freedom’s reward of great delight and less conflict seems possible. Maybe there is a way out of Stuckville after all.
What do you want to change? Why?
Where do see yourself in this story?
Here’s to freedom,
Steve
PS: If you want to be a self-managed leader or want to develop your team, Next Generation Leaders coaching is available for individuals or business teams. Get more details at the team-based coaching page.
Photo credit: Dru! via Compfight
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