As we head into this new year, change is an important part of our business plans and strategies. Question is: how do we ensure that we can create a company culture that encourages and welcomes change instead of trying to avoid it. A recent survey by Robert Half found that executives believe that what is most important when leading a company through a change was communicating clearly and effectively, followed by managing expectations. Clear communication accounted for 65% of the responses and managing expectations only 19%. With my guest today, we’ll be talking about how to be an organizational leader who welcomes change. How best can we transform our organization and where do we begin?
Episode 102: Creating and Managing Transformational Change at Work with Jay Kuhns (@jrkuhns)
In the time that I’ve known Jay, which is nearly 8 years, I have always been impressed with how, as a senior business leader, he is able to create change, especially in his role as a leader in human resources. I wanted to share with you Jay’s perspective, experience and ability to drive change, as it is truly unique. Also selfishly, I wanted to connect with Jay and hear more about this topic from him for myself. Jay walks us through the four keys when it comes to transformational change and also shares with podcast listeners how to encourage your team to take risks and make mistakes and why that’s important. I’ve always admired Jay for this reason. He believes as a leader you must set the example starting with trying new things and getting out of your comfort zone.
Jay shares some sound advice on how to influence others to drive change. Sometimes even the best leaders or team members need a little nudge. Jay says that the key is for your leader to set the example. They need to take a risk and demonstrate vulnerability so that others will model their behavior and get outside their comfort zone.
Secrets to Driving Business Change: Executive Sponsor
Jay talks through the benefit of having an executive sponsor and how it can ensure executive buy to help drive adoption, learning and conversation by other members of your executive team. Personally, I love the executive sponsor approach. I think it is a great way to help bring new ideas to the forefront. It also focuses on building relationships with executive leaders, many of who are outside of the human resources silo.
As I mentioned previously, the biggest barrier to driving effective change is clear communication. Jay says that having an executive sponsor is a start but using different communication channels and vehicles in combination with modeling behavior will help the organization shift. You need a combined strategy to help ensure adoption of a new program or policy. Change is a marathon not a sprint which means that constant and consistent communication will help reinforce any type of organizational change.
Another barrier to change is workplace politics. They can send the organization into a tailspin and sometimes derail all the good that a person, team or leader has done to move an organization forward. Jay offers great advice how to help ensure that workplace politics don’t set back your transformational change efforts. He provides sound advice on how not to get caught up in the drama and let it get the best of you.
There’s so much more in this podcast episode. Dive in and hear from Jay and learn the secrets to transforming your organization today.
Connect with Jay on LinkedIn.
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*A special thank you to my production team at Total Picture Radio.
