Change is inevitable both in our personal lives and in the workplace; there will always be change — and along with it, chaos and discomfort. Change leadership is a way of leading your team to embrace change and approach it with a positive, growth-focused mindset.
Instead of resisting change, we can choose to learn new skills, innovate to solve challenges, support others, and seize the opportunities that will inevitably come along. A workplace that nurtures and prioritizes change leadership can thrive in the face of any obstacle.
Here are four ways to implement change leadership in your workplace.
1. Listen to Your Words
Words are powerful tools for perpetuating negativity or inspiring positivity. Do you hear yourself shifting blame or taking ownership of your thoughts and actions? As leaders especially, it’s our job to act as role models to our employees and approach change in a way that motivates our teams to push through the change and grow.
Listening to our words and thoughts can help us see our perspective as owners or as victims. To demonstrate change leadership, we must simply move from a victim mentality toward owner behaviors and actions one step at a time.
Reframing our perspective is taking personal responsibility for ourselves and holding ourselves accountable. In turn, we foster an atmosphere of mutual accountability within the workplace, where employees encourage one another to take ownership and turn their negative thoughts into positive and powerful actions.
2. Focus Forward
We all experience change, and we all handle change differently. For some, change is heartbreaking or overwhelming. For others, it’s exciting and even welcome. We’re never free from change, so all we can do is choose how we respond to it.
By looking forward and focusing on your company’s ultimate goal — not the individual ups and downs — you can encourage your team to keep their heads up and push through. That’s where knowing your company’s why is an invaluable way to remind your team of your mission.
Looking to the future for meaning and value brings hope that causes us to survive and thrive in difficult situations. We are not defined by our circumstances. Rather, we become a collective of our choices and actions in those circumstances.
3. Connect With Others
Life in isolation is not healthy. Extraverts naturally thrive in crowds, but even introverts desire close friendships with a few. Our interpersonal connections indirectly relate to change leadership in that they give us an outlet in times of challenging change. After all, even the best of us struggle to accept change sometimes.
When you feel overwhelmed with changes both in your life and at work, don’t isolate yourself. Sometimes the best cure is solitude; other times, it’s another person. Ask yourself, who do I feel a connection with? Do I have a close friend who will listen to me without judgment? What family members are particularly supportive of me?
Scheduling a weekly team-building event is a great way to connect your employees to one another. Even a simple coffee break where everyone can bounce ideas off one another and share their feedback, successes, and concerns in a pressure-free atmosphere creates connection. Plus, it encourages healthy conflict for an ultimately stronger workplace.
4. Cultivate Gratitude
Gratitude is fundamental for change leadership because appreciating what we have, how far we’ve come, and how much we’ve grown are pivotal in our ability to accept unexpected change.
Ask your team to write down things like what they’re thankful for and what blessings they recognize in their lives, both professional and personal. Ask them to keep their lists and add to them regularly as new thoughts arise. In times of particularly tough change, those lists will help remind your employees that they can work through whatever comes their way.
Change is necessary for growth and development. Anyone who desires a life full of meaning has to face change at some point. In the workplace, change leadership inspires teams to accept and ultimately thrive in the face of change.
Is your organization looking to incorporate change leadership into its operations? Contact us today to schedule a consultation.