Leadership Development: Fix it Fast!

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Leadership Development: Fix it Fast!

You’ve just been given a new assignment. It’s a promotion and a big challenge. Your responsibility is to fix a division that has been doing poorly. The CEO has personally instructed you that it better be fixed. He was nice about it but you could tell he was short of patience and expected results; soon.

How do you approach this challenge? Take these steps.

1. Watch and listen. That’s right; the first step is not drastic action. There is very seldom a need to make an instant change. There are many people who will tell you what’s wrong and what you need to do. Listen to them but don’t take action based on their observations. They only see the situation from the outside and probably don’t understand it completely.

2. Talk to the people in your new organization. Get to know them and let them get to know you. Developing this relationship will not only help you get to the root cause of the problems, but will also help when you are ready to make changes.

3. Make a plan. This doesn’t have to be a big, complex plan. Just a general idea of what needs to be done first.

4. Share your plan with the rest of the organization. Be honest, but tactful about a need for change. Believe it or not, some of your people will not realize there’s a problem. The best approach is to explain that you see some opportunities to make the organization more successful rather than saying you see problems that need to be corrected.

5. Involve them in the change. Once you’ve explained those opportunities you see, invite the people in the organization to help make those changes. People who feel ownership of the change process are much more likely to embrace that change.

Remember, there will always be people who like things just the way they are. Sudden and drastic change will just make them hunker down and resist. They’re much more likely to help if they feel they’re part of making things better.

Yes, the boss wants things fixed yesterday! This process doesn’t have to be a long one, but if you don’t take at least a little time on these steps you’ll need time later to fix the new problems you caused by taking the wrong action.

 
More tips like this are available in,
Don’t Worry, You Can Do This! What New Supervisors and Managers Need to Know About Leadership.