15 Life Lessons on #Leading a #Team in #Change

Over the last 20 years of my professional work experience, I have been in leadership situations leading a team through a change process.  Either I was hired to lead the change or I was just chosen to be the person to be in-charge of a change process.

Change by itself is not so easy, particularly, when you have just transitioned to a leadership position which will have to drive the change.  By change I mean, either you were entrusted with transforming a business strategy or identified to fill the void in leadership where leadership issues existed.   

Such a transition can be taxing for your team and to YOU.

Here are some lessons I have learnt in managing such transitions, through intuition and by learning from mistakes.  Bottom line, lessons well learnt and still learning…

Lesson #1: Know every team member well and let them know you better

Lesson #2: Build an emotional connect.  Trust is emotional and not rational

Lesson #3: You can’t expect others to be like you.  Your team members are different and that makes them valuable

Lesson 4: Commit to do what is good for your team.  They will do good what’s good for the  organization and you.

Lesson 5: Make your team feels good about the work they do. More importantly make them feel good about who they are.  This is at the heart of Engagement.

Lesson 6: Make them feel secure working with you.  Protect them and take ownership to their failures and responsibility for their success

Lesson 7: Be honest.  Feedback that is honest is difficult to give and take.  But, works best for all those involved.  Seek honest feedback and take it with your chin up.  All of them understand that you are human too.

Lesson 8: Involve them in solving issues.  On most occasion they know what needs to be done, but no one ever asked or didn’t care to listen.

Lesson 9: Listen. Listen. Listen.  Listen to their emotions beyond words.  Good listeners are always Liked, Respected and Loved.

Lesson 10: Commit what you can deliver. False promises erode relationship.

Lesson 11: Keep them informed about progress.

Lesson 12: Let there be fun.  Just the right quantity.  Say “serious fun”!

Lesson 13: Ensure they work as a team.  Most issues are behavioral, which are misunderstood as intentional.

Lesson 14: Keep your team skills growing.  That’s an investment you make to achieve your objectives and for their future.

Lesson 15: If you are a MOM – Manager of Managers – ensure that there is a clear understanding of how we treat our team and all of them are aligned.

These lessons are just commonsense, but quite uncommon when you are on the line of "fire".  Conscious reflection, honest feedback and good intentions of a leader are crucial for make a team navigate "Change".