THE TRANSITION: Part 1 of 7 - 5 Research-Based Strategies For Leading Through Change

“The world breaks everyone, and afterw ard, some are strong at the broken places.” - Ernest Hemingway

You've probably led or been a part of many change strategies at your workplace. None can compare to what the type of change we are dealing with right now.

We are all dealing with a multi-layered "crisis" driven change strategy:

• Global - the entire world is going through a global pandemic
• Professional - many have either lost their jobs, businesses or in some cases now how to adjust their home life to include their work-life ASAP. New technology and skills to learn or upgrade etc
• Personal - keeping you and your family safe health-wise, adjusting your family life dynamics, griefing through the loss of the life we had, adapting the way we connect, the "new" mental and physical adjustments we have to apply in order to leave our homes as we adapt to leading and communicating effectively with a virtual team who might also be going through this multi-layer of change as well (whew - yes it's a lot!)

So if you haven't taken a deep breath, give yourself a hug and say "hey, I'm proud of you, you're doing your best", now is a good time.

You've handled quite a bit in the last 4 weeks.

I know that many of us are still trying to figure out how to keep moving through the daily "new normal" of life. Life hasn't stopped. Some of us are still working, leading others, trying to figure out how to help your kids with homework, being away from and also trying to support ageing parents and grandparents, and/or in some cases find a new job or pivot your business entirely.

I've shared some brain-points to consider (take it in based on your mental and emotional capacity,) take what resonates with you and leave the rest or bookmark for later. Know that your heart knows what you need the most and that you have the fundamental skills that will allow you to confidently respond to people and the changing situation of our daily "new normal".

Due to the overload of information and new changes, your brain might temporarily "deprioritize" your leadership and healthy coping skills, (in an effort to conserve energy) as it redirects all resources to manage our basic human needs (water, food, and shelter,) during this crisis.

Use the keys below to help unlock more of the skills that already exist in your leadership tool kit. Let me know which key resonates the most.

A: ALLOW GENEROUSLY

"We cannot selectively numb emotions, when we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive emotions."- Dr. Brene Brown

 Allow yourself to feel all of your feelings (pleasant and unpleasant) without explanations or validations. Avoiding or struggling with our emotions can often lead to more confusion. This month give yourself permission to broaden and lean into your emotional data, an essential first step to understanding and increasing your emotional intelligence.

Emotions are physiological states created in the brain to make sense of our world and can influence our thoughts, attitude and behaviour.

Paying attention to your emotional data can help improve how you express yourself, challenge your biases, and identifying the areas where you might be unconsciously getting in the way of your team's success.

Note your basic "home/default" emotions (mad, sad, scared, glad, love, powerful, anger, fear, peace), pay attention to the meaning you assign to it, including the behavioural outcome attached to each of your emotional setpoints. By allowing yourself to explore your emotional data (thoughts, narratives, bodily feelings, and behaviour), you increase your ability to lead with intention and inclusion, (Self-Management) empowering you to:

• communicate more effectively
• adapt quickly to changing situations as they arise
• build empathy with others
• increase your ability and capacity to build trust whilst creating meaningful and fulfilling relationships.

P: POSITION YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE

“Adversity reveals character." - Dr. Ben Barry

We meet the best and worst of ourselves during a crisis. As we adjust to the "new normal," our inner critic (aka the ego) will place our personality and leadership style under a microscope, examining every characteristic (habit, mannerisms) in terms of how we think, feel and behave.

"Personality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving." - American Psychological Association

What will your Pandemic Persona reveal? Will, your inner critic, visit often sharing daily bulletins on "What you should have done or how you should have done it?" 

Data from our inner critic is usually framed in an:

"I AM NOT .............. (good, smart, articulate etc.) ENOUGH polluting the lens through which we see ourselves and others.

When we see the world through the lens of our 'Inner Critic", we tend to downplay our skills and knowledge, impacting our ability to assert our authority and knowledge of the topic at hand, negatively impacting your leadership brand and voice. Position your personality by focusing on your quirks, your strengths and all that might show up through the lens of compassion. The change we go through during this season will influence our leadership style, use Self-Awareness to influence with intention.

You are doing your best, so use the data to observe, adapt and pivot as much as you need to. You are doing better than you think.

R: RELEASE ASSUMPTIONS AND JUDGMENTS

"Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive." - Dalai Lama

Release assumptions and judgements about yourself and how you think you "should" navigate personally and professionally through this pandemic.

We are all writing new "rules" daily trying to navigate this "new normal" and what it means to exist, fulfill our responsibilities at work, pivot our business, find new work, support others, love and live. No one gave us a playbook with tips on "How To" process and manage grief, sadness, anxiety and fears we all have around the uncertainty of the future (spoiler alert: there isn't one). As mentioned by Corporate Social Media Trainer, @cherjones

"We're all in the same storm, but we're NOT all in the same boat." - Cher Jones, Corporate Social Media Trainer

Our current reality provides an opportunity to write our very own personal playbook, at our own pace, our way - we're all in this together, however, we are all going through this differently with different ways of processing information and coping skills. If all you can manage today is cry, or if it took you one hour to write an email or 3 to complete a report, then this is today's success. If you were able to call one person, then this is today's success. Life as we know it has changed. The world, as we know, has changed. Release assumptions and judgments by managing your "shoulds." Remind yourself to make it through the day by getting through the moment in front of you. Help manage your assumption bias by writing some compassionate slips for the week ahead and give them out to yourself and others when you find yourself in the judgement zone.

Allow judgment to suspend by extending some compassion to yourself, that way, when an opportunity comes to extend kindness to others, you can quickly go in your Compassion jar and gift it to someone who needs it the most.

I: INCLUSION BEGINS WITH I

"To lead without a title is to derive your power, not from your position but your competence, effectiveness, relationships, excellence, innovation and ethics.'- Robin S Sharma

Lead without a title by including all parts of yourself in the unfolding process of this new journey. What are some of the values you would lean on? Would any of your biases change? Would you be more inclusive? Less exclusive? As noted by Leadership Expert and author of Leader Without A Title, Robin Sharma, "lead, not from your position but your competence, effectiveness, relationships, excellence, innovation and ethics."

Who would you be if you set your title aside and give yourself permission to be whom you need to be at the moment? How would you lead at the moment? What biases would get in the way? Many are praising Marriott's CEO, Arnie Sorenson as the most authentic and moving leadership message of our times. You can watch it here.

What will be your Arnie moment? This season you might have an opportunity to be the "I don't know how we will navigate all of this, but here's what I know for this moment, this day, this week" leader.

Your title (as per your job description) drives your behavioural traits, traits your brain uses to create your iOS- Internal Operating System, which is used to stay aligned with your leadership and career intended outcome. Your brain is involved in everything you do and uses your past to create your current reality. This new reality, there isn't a template or job description with neat lines that spell out "How To Lead During A Crisis, Whilst Working From Home"

You are creating this new description as you go along, updating your iOS - Internal Operating System as you go along. Expect lots of blank spaces or unknowns. Try to lead with Courage (making the best decision and taking the best next step in the moment), Compassion ( be kinder to yourself than usual) and Curiosity (explore all possibilities, reframe failure, ask for help). Recognize the gaps, identify where you need support and know when to switch to what Hersey and Blanchard call the four styles of Situational Leadership:

• Telling
• Selling
• Participating and
• Delegating

When we remove the titles, we get to become the leader, our families, teams and the world needs right now in this present moment. Leading without a title also gives you a unique opportunity to flex leadership muscles you didn't know you had.

 L: Leverage Your Strengths

“When we build on our strengths and daily successes — instead of focusing on failures — we simply learn more.” - Tom Rath, Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements

You entered this crisis with many skills and competencies. During a crisis, the brain might "reposition" what it considers to be important (hint: not your skills). Remember that the brain is involved in everything you do, so "program" it to remind yourself of what matters - like your strengths. Learn to leverage your strengths during this season. We can only listen to one voice at a time - choose the version of yourself you would like to lead with.

Leverage your strengths for deeper insights into the self by:

• Paying attention to how much data you consume from your 'Inner Critic". or social media. Is it helping you manage your day to day better or sending you to the "worry zone" faster? Awareness is key. Put your "Inner Critic" or your social media or Covid consumption on mute or pause when you need to and choose a more compassionate lens to see your days through.
• Remind yourself of your existing strengths (what you focus on grows) by noting what you do well. You came into this "new normal" with specific skills and competencies positioned to help you win. Leverage them. Be of service and offer your skills to others. Research shows that when we help or finds ways to help during a crisis it can help ground and center us. On the other hand, sometimes the person you need to be of service to is you. Remember to add yourself to the list as well.
• Focusing on your strengths will help you focus on the strengths of others. Studies have found that when leaders focus on the strengths of others, this can lead to lower stress, more engagement and a more compassionate approach to failure and giving feedback. The same applies to your relationships and children as well. We are all confined at home to help flatten the curve.

You are staying at home during a pandemic to stay safe, help flatten the curve and is also working from home, taking care of your family, leading a team whilst also trying to ensure that you take care of your mental and emotional health.

For those who are fortunate enough to still have a job, this isn't a normal "working from home" season. We are all at home, trying our best to flatten the curve for a global pandemic and working from home, whilst trying to explain, support our loved ones and also make time for ourselves. Personality quirks will be heightened and you will discover new things about yourself and others you might find hard to accept, deal with, don't like and just don't have the bandwidth for. Be patient with yourself, your loved ones, your staff and yourself (yes I said it twice, this isn't a typo). Everyone is doing their best. including you.

We're all in this together, but we're all going through this differently.

About THE TRANSITION

The TRANSITION is a 7 part leadership series powered by KDPM ConsultingGroup Inc, a Leadership, Diversity, Inclusion and Workplace Wellness consulting firm that offers transformational tools, training and workshops, grounded in the science of human behaviour, positive psychology, and neuroscience, to create impactful human and organizational change.

KDPM Consulting Group Inc. recently launched The WEll-BEING Playbook - a racially and culturally diverse digital resource designed to help companies provide inclusive wellness practitioners and offerings to their employees. More on The WEll-BEING Playbook here.