Leading Change from the Middle: A Practical Guide to Building Extraordinary Capabilities

7. How Can You Lead Change?

Will Leading at the Crossroads of Change always work? The simple answer is no, it won’t. No approach to leading change can guarantee success in building extraordinary capabilities in every project. Various aspects of human nature can undermine such efforts, especially in certain circumstances. Even when leaders rely on rational arguments to encourage stakeholder support—as advocated by Agree-in, Bee-in, Buy-in, and Allow-in—negative emotions can make people DEAF to the call for change. Should these emotions be stimulated in the extreme, no amount of logic can overcome them. DEAF is an acronym for the four emotions that can pose a serious threat to any change effort: disrespect, envy, anger, and fear. These are powerful negative emotions that can set resistance to change in cement. When triggered in stakeholders, they can crush support for your project. Some stakeholders might even begin vigorously undermining your change despite great costs to themselves. Midlevel leaders must not only be aware of these emotions but also apply “emotional intelligence” to keep these culprits at bay in others as well as in themselves. 99 Avoid Making Stakeholders DEAF FIVE 2522-0-book Nickerson_nickerson 3/11/14 3:11 PM Page 99 Leading at the Crossroads of Change offers several CoSTS to guard against DEAF as well as to chisel away at the cement when someone’s emotions have blocked your change efforts. However, it is best to try to avoid these emotions altogether, as they are very difficult to recover from. That is why change cannot be successfully led from the middle without a thorough understanding and application of the tools designed to ward off DEAF. CoSTS to Avoid Disrespect Everyone desires some degree of respect, for it indicates through language and actions that a person is valued by others. Respect is not easily bestowed, however, because individuals vary in their expectations of respect and the appropriate manner in which it can be expressed. For instance, because of his position and experience, Colonel Nichols may expect a certain level of respect, expressed in specific ways that he is addressed, courtesies afforded him, the timing of when he is made aware of various situations, and so on. Kurt may intend to show respect for the colonel, but the level shown may not be as high as Nichols expects. And, as a new employee, Kurt may not know the colonel’s expectations about how respect for him should be demonstrated. These expectations vary not only from person to person but also from culture to culture or according to custom. Inadvertently, Kurt may fail to show the level or kind of respect that Colonel Nichols expects and thus might create all sorts of problems for himself and other leaders like him. Low perceived respect might stimulate emotions that can adversely affect project support from superordinates like Colonel Nichols, as well as from subordinates, buyers, and complementors/blockers. In other words, perceptions of low respect can impede a midlevel leader’s efforts to build extraordinary capabilities. 100 AVOID MAKING STAKEHOLDERS DEAF 2522-0-book Nickerson_nickerson 3/11/14 3:11 PM Page 100 You can minimize a person’s impression of low respect by getting to know that individual, not to mention all the people you will be working with. If Kurt had worked with Colonel Nichols before or spent time with him at the beginning of the project, he should have been able to pick up signals of the colonel’s expectations and how best to demonstrate respect for him. By observing how others interact with Nichols and his response to these interactions , Kurt could also have uncovered important clues to the best way to respectfully engage with him. If by chance you do give people an impression of having little respect for them, then an apology and steps to learn what to do differently can go a long way in repairing the damage. Low respect is bad enough, but disrespect is far worse. In the recipient ’s eyes, disrespect reflects an intentionally rude and insulting attitude. A blocker, for instance, might consider it disrespectful to be brought into a project near the very end of it if the delay appears to have occurred on purpose. On the other hand, the reaction could be entirely different if the delay is perceived to be an accidental oversight. Once someone feels disrespected, a simple apology is not going to be effective, and it...