WHO IS GOING TO BE THE FIRST?
You
know your business is doing well, but you also know that complacency
can be a killer.
You know that if you are the market leader, your competitors are studying
you right now to find out how to catch up with you.
You know that if you keep doing today what you did yesterday, you are falling
behind. In fact, you know that what worked for you yesterday could be your
death tomorrow.
You know that change is what you must do when you cannot keep doing what
you are doing now, and you know you cannot keep doing what you are doing now
if you want to continue to be successful.
So you know that your company and your people must constantly change. You
must develop new products and services, and you must find new and better ways
of doing things.
But do you know that the first person to change must be you?
Over the years, I have seen many business leaders exhort their staff to step
out of their comfort zone and embrace new ways of doing things, when all the
while it is clear to everyone that they, themselves, are doing what they have
always done. As a result, their words are hollow and fall on deaf ears. “Why
should we change,” people ask themselves, “when the boss is not prepared to?”
Successful change programmes begin with an understanding of why your company
cannot keep doing the ‘same old, same old’, and what must be done differently.
Next you must have a vision of how the company and everyone within it will
be better off for changing. Then you must communicate this information to your
staff in a way that makes sense to them. But most importantly, you must lead
from the front.
Leading from the front means relating the change you want everyone to make
to your own situation, and then changing your own behaviour. For example, suppose
you wanted to improve your company’s performance by getting staff to adopt
the attitude that ‘only the best is good enough’. The first step would be for
you to identify commonly occurring occasions where you have fallen into the
trap of thinking that ‘near enough is good enough’. The next time such a situation
occurs, do something different, something that shows you believe that only
the best is good enough.
Then tell your staff what you have done. Make sure they understand that this
is not what you would have done before - that in the past you would have just
done enough to get by. Explain that it was not easy for you to make this change,
but that you now understand that you must try harder if the company is going
to continue to succeed in this crowded and competitive market place. Remember,
it is not enough to change your behaviour, your people must be able to see
that you have changed.
Having been the first to change, you can make your expectations clear to
your staff. Tell them how you want them to behave in the future. Set the standards
for acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.
Leadership is all about setting the right example, not just saying the right
words. People will be more affected by what you do, than what you preach. You
must teach and motivate by modelling the new behaviours.
So, if you would like your people to change, follow the old saying, “If it’s
going to be, it’s up to me.”
Take the first step. That’s what leaders do.
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