Change is a good thing, right?
Businesses and organizations refine and adjust their strategy based on
many things, including the changing needs of their client-base and the market
place. One of the most significant catalysts for change is new leadership.
Once the announcement of a new leader is made, the change process begins.
And then, all the people say, “Oh, joy; a new leader who will want to change
everything.”
As they say, change is never easy. There are multiple upon multiple
studies showing that just the idea of change causes fear and stress for those
involved. However, sometimes new leadership is not just necessary, but also
vital to organizational growth and, even perhaps its very survival.
New leaders, be they CEOs or mid-level managers, certainly bring their
own personality and management style to the top of the table. If they come from
outside the organization, the most valuable asset they bring is not their
education or years of experience, but a perspective quite different from those
on the inside.
Good leaders know that recognizing and utilizing differing perspectives
to make decisions about what must be changed is crucial. The difficulty in
implementation comes from team members with the “We’ve Always Done It This Way”
mentality, and those mired in GroupThink. Without trudging down the rabbit hole
discussions of those two issues, I think it is safe to say that they have their
own particular challenges which require situation-specific actions to address.
When I began my career in the early 1980’s, organizational leaders
based decisions on input from their division or department heads, who gathered
data from their subordinates in a very controlled fashion. Employees worked 8am
– 5pm (or 9am – 5pm), Monday through Friday, and spent evenings and the
weekends with their families.
Thirty years later, more Millennials are moving into positions of
leadership, and facing an ever-evolving multi-generational workforce with
different, and often competing, demands for engagement and working conditions.
The younger generation not only expects, but demands to have a seat at the
table and expects to move to another company in a few years to take the next
step in their careers. They also don’t want to watch the clock, or be
constrained by having to be in an office every day.
Older workers, such as those from the Greatest Generation and my Baby
Boomer generation need to feel respected for the knowledge and experience for
which we have worked so hard for many years to earn. We also need a seat at the
table, or at least know that the new, younger leadership has heard and
acknowledged the issues we bring to light. Like the younger crowd, I love
working from home, but I also like the idea of having evenings and weekends
free.
The leadership challenge with a multi-generational work force is
finding a way to meet the differing needs, while building a cohesive and open
organizational culture that allows and encourages employees to be passionate
about their work and their organization’s success.
In the words of former Secretary of State Colin Powell from his book, My American Journey,
"The day soldiers stop bringing you their
problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost
confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either
case is a failure of leadership."
Stepping into a new leadership role is an exciting experience. It is an
opportunity to develop a vision for excellence and innovation, and to share
that vision with an actively engaged organization. All leaders face challenges,
however, it is their response to those challenges that determines their
success.
If you have been a new organizational or business leader, what words of
wisdom would you share with those who want to be, and one day will be, a new
leader?
NOTE: This post also appears on LinkedIn.
Before
founding her own consulting firm in 2013, Dawn
Gannon served as a respected project management and administrative operations
professional in the military, higher education, and women’s healthcare fields
for 25 years. She holds a Masters of Business Administration and a Graduate
Certificate in Organizational Management from American Public University, is
a contributor on LinkedIn, and the author
of the Management
in Motion blog.
Dawn
currently serves as the Past Chair of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s Women’s Council, and teaches
health and safety classes for the American Red Cross. As an
infertility survivor she has been a featured speaker within the Fertility
Community, and written numerous articles on the topic of childfree living.
