The transformations that we have seen in practice we like to divide in three groups:
- Transformation driven through Excel sheets, follow-ups and boosting of figures;
- Tansformation followed through PowerPoint presentations, presenting of visions and figures, convincing the employees that everything will be all right, although it may not be for some of them;
- Transformational leadership which includes a serious transformation plan, inclusion of employees in the transformation process, follow-up of financial parameters and continuous communication with the employees, which sometimes means giving good news, but sometimes represents communicating tough decisions instead of generic stories.
Should we decide in transformation not to hide behind figures, slides and generic explanations, then it is necessary to have courage and that our emotional intelligence is constantly put on maximum level. If not, we need to find this intensifying „button“ quickly and press on it.
COURAGE is the capability to do something which is not pleasurable and what we are afraid of. Transformation if full of such situations. It is not to our pleasure to say that all of us will have to change and adjust to new business needs, starting from ourselves first. It is not to our pleasure to communicate that a new team leader is coming to a team which until recently has had a boss who was mild in its requests. It is not easy to talk to a person who has been in the company since the beginning of it, and to have a serious discussion on the topic how he/she sees himself/herself through changes and whether he/she is ready for the change ahead of us. It is hard for us if the tranformation reqires that part of organization is downsized in order to invest in some other place...
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE is our capacity to understand, control and express our emotions while understanding the emotions of people around us, as well as a capability to build interpersonal relations of quality with healthy and open approach and empathy. During the transformation, this particular aspect is often neglected, and afterwards we are stunned with the fact that somebody, for whom we took it for granted that he/she was „with us“, is actually not ready for the transformation process, that he/she is worried about so many things, and that he/she does not support the transformation plan. We do get surprised with the fact how people in the begining say that they do understand „where to boat is going“, yet when needed to start the personal change in order to follow business transformation, they rather look for new opportunities with another employer. We do get surprised that people tend to say nothing, and yet voice in the most inappropriate times their dilemmas, concerns and fears of what is going to happen...
Unfortunately, the „button“ for boosting courage and emotional intelligence does not exist. A good news is that instead of such a button there are various mechanisms existing which can be learned and practiced.
Equip yourself on time with these mechanisms, as the transformation is happening around us every day!
