When we set our minds to do something there has to have some meaning or purpose to be gained. Too often we can succumb to routine and monontonous tasks that mask the meaning in our lives. Whether in work, at home, or life in general it is hard to argue that the search for meaningness is a compelling and driving force. How can we be meaningful and significant?
In the realm of leadership we wear many hats. An important role of a leader is to be a change agent. We facilitate change within our organizations. Pat Zigarmi spoke about a general resistance to change in her TEDTV presentation Leading Change. She said people will resist change, not for the purpose of change, but because the players involved don't yet understand the reasons and benefits of the change. They don't know how the change will benefit them or the organization. They haven't drunk the Kool Aid yet. In other words, people will resist change until they find the meaning in it.
There is one certainty in our world and this is that change will be necessary to grow and adapt. We live in a continuously changing environment. New technology, faster communication, better transportation... all of these help to facilitate change at break-neck speeds. So, how do we as leaders rally the troops around change, especially when there is an endless supply of it? We do this by sharing the vision and incorporating meaning.
A simple guideline to follow when sharing vision is to answer 5 questions:
In the realm of leadership we wear many hats. An important role of a leader is to be a change agent. We facilitate change within our organizations. Pat Zigarmi spoke about a general resistance to change in her TEDTV presentation Leading Change. She said people will resist change, not for the purpose of change, but because the players involved don't yet understand the reasons and benefits of the change. They don't know how the change will benefit them or the organization. They haven't drunk the Kool Aid yet. In other words, people will resist change until they find the meaning in it.
There is one certainty in our world and this is that change will be necessary to grow and adapt. We live in a continuously changing environment. New technology, faster communication, better transportation... all of these help to facilitate change at break-neck speeds. So, how do we as leaders rally the troops around change, especially when there is an endless supply of it? We do this by sharing the vision and incorporating meaning.
A simple guideline to follow when sharing vision is to answer 5 questions:
- Who - will the change affect?
- How - will the change be implemented?
- Why - do we need it?
- When - will the change take place?
- What - is the change going to do to make our lives better?
Vision decisions should proactively answer these questions when explaining changes to followers.
Now, how do we attach meaning?
If I am the General Manager overseeing a retail store, and my pay is based on the bottom line, my purpose and meaning for adopting a new process is unique to me. To the hourly employee who will have to learn some new processes that streamline work flow their meaning will more than likely take on a much different form. So, how do I invoke meaning out of the team?
The answer lies in the individual, and it is the leader's responsibility to discover what the individual meaning is. We must find out why they are on the team in the first place in order to make the change mean something to them, which will help the adoption of new methods become a more rewarding task rather than a loathsome objective that is going to disrupt the way things are. Meaning is unique, yet many can share in the vision when they attach meaning to the task at hand.
A wise man once told me, "It is hard to make a living doing what you love, but if you can learn to love what you do you can make an incredible living." You have to find the meaning and embrace it. It is very much a part of leadership to present change in a meaningful way that maximizes the effort associated with change. This is the personal touch of leadership. If the vision alone is pushed without attaching meaning the efforts will be forced. When the vision is shared and meaning is attached change can seem almost effortless.
We live in an ever-changing, constantly moving, adaptive world. It takes a rooted understanding of the meaning in our lives that motivates us to keep up.
JP
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