It really begins with your personal transition. Your strength, resilience, hope and prayers has now entered the workplace, and it’s desperately needed to foster change. The expressions of these transformative character-strengths and abilities are expressed in the work of your hands. The words you speak or write. Life-changing creativity you convey. You are an agent of transformation in your career + personal life. How are you leading change?

Understanding The Blended Self can help employers better understand how to navigate the emotional culture of a workplace. The fatigue is real. Working from home has drained your ability to compartmentalize. Realizing more than ever that you bring all of you everywhere you go or stay. As mother, father, manager, creative thinker, faithful prayer partner, friend, confidant, confident introvert, mindful extrovert........How you’re managing change is affecting the success of employers’ organizations or your business. Don’t shy away from contributing to this conversation.  Don’t’ neglect mentioning how wisely change needs to be managed inwardly before it can be managed effectively outwardly. 

If you look at this adapted version of the Change Curve model, here are 4 key stages to help guide you as you provide leadership to your team through ambiguity in the workplace while managing the uncertainty in your personal lives. Blending the connection authentically will give you the big-picture plan + answers needed to move forward in a healthy way.

Stage #1.

In the midst of the disruptions you’ve faced so far, it’s not uncommon for your team to have initials feelings of denial or resistance as you grapple with how work must be accomplished now in order to maintain a successful industry foothold. Remembering how difficult it was to manage team members that were resistant to methodology change before the present crisis, I now realize how crucial it is to engage employees with listening sessions so their voices and concerns can be calmly, logically addressed. Honestly, it also takes time to implement change without resistance, so taking the team through a series of manageable steps with break-out sessions along the way are so useful. It allows you to build trust through change so past experiences can be released with dignity acknowledging the relevant creativity used then, + encouraging new ideas to have their moment of celebration now.

Frustration lingering in the atmosphere will need your leadership to eliminate resistance + help everyone professionally communicate how they feel + and what tools they need to persevere. Being transparent and authentic will allow you to connect with empathy, which is needed so badly right now.

Be courageous and drill down to the root cause of the resistance. Be firm in eliminating any prejudices or bias that will stifle progress, which is what the company needs right now more than ever. Stagnation will present a danger to enthusiastic newcomers. It may also cause a blind-spot that could hinder a potential partnership with a stakeholder.

Stage #2.  

Identify the real threats + negative consequences.  Staying in stage 2 can signal danger in attaining the change needed to be productive and successful personally and company-wide. 

4 Questions that will prompt you to transform + adapt more quickly to change:

• What impact has change had on your company?

• What fears are not being addressed openly to give your team an opportunity to feel safe while working in a rapidly changing industry and society?

• Are you regularly meeting with your team to observe any emotional or social dynamics that need addressing in real-time?

• Who is leading the day-to-day charge on change management?

This is not an easy stage. You shouldn’t obsess about the future, rather focus on what actions your team can take to get back on track and feel work momentum taking place. Feelings expressed today may be different tomorrow.

Keep projects front + center with daily management check-ins so weaknesses can be identified, addressed. Remember to thread your successes throughout the change dialogue. It will help the team trust in their ability to handle new challenges with equal success.

Embrace vulnerable conversations with empathy. Be okay with your team needing time for quiet, and prayer solace in order to get grounded + stay emotionally strong.

Stage #3.

Start letting go of the past + what’s lost. This stage is called the “turning point” stage because it’s in this phase that your team starts to individually accept the new processes that need to happen for a newly imagined success to occur. They have grappled inwardly and are now starting to settle on how they can effect change to move projects forward for the greater good. 

This will be a sort of ‘research + development’ phase where your team may test the waters in leadership to see how solid the workplace ground is to experience the new organizational opportunities coming forth. New conversations about old methods are being explored to bring relevant meaning to where the world is positioned now. They are ready to align company objectives and goals with leading processes that will give them, their team, and clients, consumers inspiration, hope + holistic success.

I might add, this is also a critical time to give your team the additional training they need to achieve success in their work areas. There are online advance trainings that can be accomplished even with smaller budgets.

Stage #4.

The last stage amplifies the character-strengths and abilities of your team and the depth of heart of the organization. (This stage can be further separated into acceptance + solutions/problem solving.)

Here, everyone has cultivated increased resilience + hope to embrace the changes and are now seeing the positive effects of the work improvements made. They don’t feel their positions are being undermined and trust is being rebuilt.

Again, how you nurture the emotional culture of the organization will determine its holistic health to reestablish the proven, successful track record it had before the shocking change occurred. 

5 Creative Ways to Help Your Team Celebrate Change:

• Frequent shout-outs! Give consistent optimistic feedback to your team in group and individual meetings, emails, and phone calls. It increases everyone’s faith in themselves + one another.

• Use any day’s failures as an opportunity to ask the team for their insights and lessons learned. This keeps everyone vested and believing they are in a safe environment to grow from momentary defeat.

• Know your team’s individual + collective answer to “Why is it worth it to be here and do what it takes to perform at a high level?” Thread their answers into your organizational convos about every win (big or small) you achieve.

• Give change-makers an opportunity to represent the organization in some meaningful way.

• Have an inexpensive group gathering in the lunchroom with food favs + a photo booth. Laughter will relieve tension, improve the immune system + give the team a great experience to hopefully carry them through the hurdles to their next victory!

  
  

How well are you doing helping your team adjust to the myriad of career + professional changes occurring during this disruptive time? 

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Living Life managing change Today!

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