Don't ignore early warning signs of people's poor behaviours, even if things look normal.

In prior posts I have often explored the opportunities to implement Howwe.io as a modern strategic platform for driving an organisation’s plan execution more quickly, in a more connected and real-time way than by using Excel or by reviewing progress of endless strategy deck PowerPoints. Or by ‘driving’ via a Project Management Office (PMO) or building dashboards of data. Every process has strengths and weaknesses and of course, whatever change process you decide on, it is important to stick with it and see through your commitments.

However, if you wonder why things often may not move forward as smoothly as you’d like, I thought it may be helpful to review what are some common early warning signs of behaviours with the people around you. Even if things may look normal, are there early warning signs of poor unaligned behaviour that you should be picking up, despite everyone in your strategy or transformation meetings nodding their heads and agreeing with your suggestions to move forward? Have you seen behaviours that may flag that not all is as it seems?

Reactive Unsupportive, Fence Sitter or Supportive, Excuser

Someone who is ‘sitting on the fence’ and may give the appearance of being a neutral i.e. they don’t mind your idea, but neither will they be proactive in its adoption. Perhaps you think that this agnostic or passive view is quietly supportive? In fact, their ‘neutral’ stance is often negative among the group, and the water-cooler talk. While the CEO is trying to drive the business forward, these non-supporters are still holding you and the company back.

Equally, a member of your C-suite may be extremely supportive outwardly until it comes to learning, implementing, leading and driving the needed changes in their business unit and managing the changes needed within their team’s behaviours. Then, they will react to what is suggested you may get any number of excuses including the ones below:

EXCUSE WHAT THIS REALLY MEANS

Yes, but I’m too busy right now. DELAY

Do we need a/ have we reviewed all systems? DELAY

I’ll look at this next XXX (pick any future date..…) DELAY

Proactive Non-Believer/ Accuser

The silent majority often fit into the above regarding change of behaviour, even if the change of behaviour is relatively small, they are just ‘anti’ and naturally come up with excuses. There is another group of more confident individuals who may decide to utilise any new idea or work programme to imprint their views and style on the organisation. This group are the accusers and will go on the offensive proactively and will gaslight your ideas. Some questions that will come up from this group of more vocal individuals are:

ACCUSATION WHAT THIS REALLY MEANS

Why do we need to change? DELAY

My division is ok, surely, we don’t need to change. DELAY

Are you telling me how to manage my team. DELAY

Are you trying to micro-manage me? DELAY

Are you deflecting me from what I’m doing now? DELAY

My team are happy with the way they work now. DELAY

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, watch out for what your leaders are saying to you and not telling you. The outwardly supportive “I’ll look at this next year, really means ‘no’. It means, 'I’m going to wait it out and avoid the effort, I won’t pitch in, and I’ll let others do the heavy lifting.' Which as we know is suffocating to the CEO’s overall success. The gaslighters and accusers may suffer from a 'not invented here' syndrome, but if they haven't put their considerable energy into being supportive quickly then change through them will be impossible.

Unfamiliarity through being disengaged and just offering excuses causing delay from inaction, is also perilous for the company’s culture. This lack of curiosity leads to the comment “it seems overly complicated to what we really need” – when it's not - which is simply indicating that they haven’t asked the right questions, or that they even understand their own challenges to successful execution, and how things can be far better and different from the status quo; therefore, they don’t understand the value potential to the business and are holding their team and the company back. Simply put, the excusers are putting themselves ahead of the business imperative and totally ignoring that familiarity, rhythm, and repetition breeds efficiency. Additionally, the disengaged offer no alternative that would ‘objectively’ be a better solution, they are just resisting any current ideas and are against any change, investment or effort on their part, or their team’s part, to provide a better and more efficient way of working.

This is where leadership, and teamwork comes in. Change does require a solidarity of vision, associated learning effort, and drive to get over (any) associated ‘hump of change’, to release the extensive value available.? Change is tough. It demands top-down leadership, vigilance and attention to the plan, and it needs a drumbeat of consistent repetition, and compliance to pre-agreed behaviours. Good leaders understand this and lean into this and with the right systems and processes behind them to help drive and execute, ensure that they have the right people demonstrating the right behaviours at all times on their teams. They all understand how important alignment is, and sticking to, and tracking company goals, and they generate excitement about a shared vision, and seeing the benefits of executing more reliably with shorter timescales and more consistency. #change #CEO #leadership Howwe ANZ Pty Ltd Howwe Technologies