One of the more anxious events in someone’s career is enduring a change of control & leadership transition. People’s fears tend to go sky high when a new Leader takes over, with many thoughts along the lines of:
Will I lose my job?
Will they bring their own team in?
Will they change everything about how I do my job?
Will my pay/benefits be cut?
Will my quality of life go down/up/sideways?
It’s natural for people to let their mind race, and it may be racing in “packs” as they talk with their co-workers and supervisors.
Change is mandatory in business, but it needs to be managed aggressively. An employee’s mind can be like a freight train when it starts to run. A leaders role (and in my opinion, OBLIGATION) is to NOT allow it to become a freight train if it heads in the wrong direction. It is the leader’s role to tell them….
What their leadership principles are (how they manage)
What a vision for the future could be. Make it a better tomorrow than today
Start ACTING in accordance with both who you ARE and where you want to GO.
Last, a novel concept:
Catch people doing something RIGHT. Not wrong. Call them in. Celebrate it. Make it a habit to recognize the productive behavior.
Another reason why leaders should do this? It feels pretty darn good for all those involved.
Recognition injects Oxygen into a culture, something a business can never have too much of.
The Great Production Team of LM Foods, LLC, Celebrating An Everyday Positive Moment