Strategic Human Capital Insights

Leadership Landscape: Identifying & Understanding the Subtleties of Transition Leadership

Today, we are experiencing unprecedented change in ways we could not have imagined. One day, life was normal, and the next day we were dealing with a ‘new normal’ for which there was no blueprint. This is discontinuous change at its finest. During this time, change leadership skills are more important than ever before. Managing people whom you will need to bring with you on the change journey and critical thinking through your business operations that need to adapt to our new VUCA reality are the ‘new normal.’ This is the new reality. Our old reality is gone.

The Internal People Side of Change Management: Transition Leadership and the Change Trajectory

Transition Leadership:  Dealing with how employees transition through the phases of change. 

Transition Leadership focuses on the people side of change management. Transition Leadership requires the leader to go far beyond the processes used in change management to the gray area dealing with employees’ emotional reactions and responses to change. Here the leader must fully understand the psychology of how change impacts the organization at the individual level.

Leadership Landscape: Beware of the External Horizon

Of the many facets of Change Management, this focuses on the leader, the environment, change, and the process responses required for success. 

• Some leaders make things happen - The Proactives
• Some leaders watch what happens  - The Passives
• Some leaders wonder what happened? – The Reactives

Our first focus will be on the knowledge and skill sets required to manage the elements of change coming from outside the organization. Think of it this way - no one else in the organization can do this but you, the leader.

Here’s what we mean by Change Management: Change Management deals with change that comes at an organization from the external environment. That external environment can be external to a division while still internal to the organization. From completely outside the organization, other changes can come from industry, competition, regulation, government, etc.

You can’t escape all the literature, conversation, and often just ‘noise’ around the topic of leadership. We hear what leadership is, what it isn’t, what it was, and what it will be.

In the current operating environment, there is no substitute for quality leadership. Leadership is required on both a process and people level. Let's take some time to focus on the five emerging skills and competencies around future-focused leadership. 

1. Organizational Agility for Business Readiness and Responsiveness
   
   
2. ‘Altrocentric’ Leadership - Soft Skills:  Renewed, Refreshed and Revisited
   
   
3. Managing the External Side of Change Management:  The Organizational Journey
   
   
4. Managing the Internal Side of Transition Management:  The Individual Journey
   
   
5. Leader as Corporate Steward - Risk Management
   
   

Why is the topic of leadership getting so much attention today? Our world and our organizations are living in a new reality, and there is no more escaping this point. Old organizational paradigms that have served us for the past 50 years are quickly approaching their ‘sell by’ date. Our new reality results from the aggregate effect of change converging at multiple levels? Too many people, it seems so sudden. It’s not so sudden! 

We are thrilled to announce that Joanne Flynn, Founder of Phoenix Strategic Performance, will be speaking at this year's National Association of Women MBAs conference in Washington, DC.  The topic of the conference is, "Aspire. Ascend. Break Through."  What a powerful statement, not only for women, but anyone looking to make a strategic transformation in their
business.

The conference will be held from October 9-11, 2014 in Washington, DC.  The National Association of Women MBAs will welcome hundreds of female MBA students, professionals and entrepreneurs to the Hyatt Crystal City Hotel for three days of networking and personal development through keynotes, speaker presentations, panel discussions and an on-site career fair with valued corporate sponsors.

Joanne's session will be focused on the critical importance of planning in your business, whether you are a start up, or a Fortune 500 company.  

When we talk about resistance to change, it's easy to say, "Organizations don't change. People do, or they don't".  While true, change will only occur when change cascades down throughout every level of the organization.  

Case Analysis: Phoenix Strategic Performance 

How often does a significant strategic organizational shift occur, and then the follow-up implementation is treated as ‘business as usual’ (BAU)?  This happens more often than it should.  Why?  It appears to be less disruptive and seemingly easier.  However, we know it is organizationally naïve to believe that ‘business as usual’  will somehow meet new strategic goals.  Yet, this happens all the time.  In our latest case study, we focus on just such a change. 

There has been a dramatic change in the market place.  Our senior leadership has decreed a strategic change, however, there has only been an insignificant and painless amount of change in implementation of that strategy.  The change in strategy is in response to a dramatic shift in the marketplace - a ‘change in kind.’ 

The DiSC Profile is a very powerful tool used in organizations globally. It assesses people for their underlying personality styles. In addition, the social styles model presents a methodology for understanding the feedback from the DiSC Profile. The key elements that make up personality and motivators can be used to manage effective interpersonal relationships, manage people and understand how to plan for and manage change through people in any organization. 

Here are three ways to help successfully

align your people with the change process:

1. The DiSC Profile, People, and Managing the Change Spectrum: Background

What is the DiSC Profile, and regarding change, what do the results tell us? The DiSC Profile helps us understand personality styles, our own and others. In addition, the DiSC Profile provides the key to understanding the all-important motivators underlying each personality style. This helps us understand people on a much more profound and complex level.

Anti-Change Is Systemically Embedded.  And We STILL Ask, “How Come Change Management Is So Difficult?"

We use the term change very casually these days.  Change literature is all around us.  Change management is now considered a core management skill.  Organizations talk about how employees need to embrace change. So if there’s all this noise about change, why is the reality of change management more like pushing molasses up a mountain?    

Let’s take a look at what is really at the core of why organizations exist.  By understanding what is really at the core of why organizations exist, we might then be able to understand why studies still show a 60 – 70% failure rate for organizational change projects. 

Is there really a difference in the types of change confronting us now? 

Change is all around us.  The word 'Change' has been so overused that we can no longer determine its precise meaning.  For example, a moderate change in process is far different from a change of epic proportions.  The same word, ‘change,’ has significantly different meanings, outcomes, and consequences.

The Age of Unreason - Welcome to the New Normal

Over 25 years ago, Charles Handy wrote a book, The Age of Unreason. Its relevance today is still undeniable. The message continues to be both profound and prophetic. 

Handy’s opening remarks state, “We can and should be in charge of our own destinies in a time of change.” With that backdrop, we will focus on all aspects of change and change management. We need to recognize change as a constant part of our ‘new normal,' not as an isolated event. It’s here, it’s all around us, and it’s not going away.