Supporting Change is a Crucial Skill

So how do you compete in the face of constant change? Let’s face it; change has become a constant in business. You know your marketplace is rife with wrinkles due to an ever-changing economy and other variables that may be out of your control.

Some Perspective

As a manager you are doing well each day if you can cross one thing off your list. But what about your employees, are they fairing as well? There is an old adage that it all rolls down hill. As the pressure of constant change rolls, often the changes become more complicated and difficult to control.

Your managers need to deal with the emotions, fear and anxiety that come with change as they interact with their team members.

I’ve often experienced organizations where strategies seem to change with the way the wind blows. At least that is how it is perceived by employees. My friend Dennis was a manager of a telemarketing firm a few years ago. Changes in the "No Call" listing and a shift from outbound to inbound marketing strategies caused a major disruption in the way the company was doing business. Employees lived in fear of losing their jobs and wondering whether or not they would fit in. Turnover was an immediate problem and the "survivors" were left with more fear and oppression of re-training and new rules.

Dennis came to me with this fundamental problem: How could he give his team leaders the skills to lead call center teams through the change, with minimal turnover and maximum productivity? I told him that my experience has been that if team leaders can develop their skills to support and manage change, they can have a direct impact on the success of the organization.

To make this kind of impact, team leaders need to:

• Understand why change happens and how people react to it.
• Learn how to support the team member’s as they struggle with change.
• Involve team members in a change initiative by promoting their understanding and ownership of the change and its benefits.
• Plan for individual or group follow-up sessions that support the change process and reinforce personal and organizational goals.


Managers need to understand and interpret change to prepare them to more successfully manage their team through it. By working to support change and at the same time addressing the team’s comfort level with that change, the manager can more effectively facilitate acceptance of a new way of doing things.

Change can be good! New initiatives can gain acceptance more quickly. Lost productivity, turnover and decreased performance can be minimized...if managers are trained to "manage change".

How effective are your managers at supporting change? Contact Mindy Seiffert to see how you can help your managers improve.

Communication Failures Impact Manager Performance

Many people fail to realize their effectiveness as a manager stands or fails on their ability to communicate. No matter what organization you’re in, department you lead, team members you have, or person you are...to manage is to communicate. The ability to communicate effectively helps build a well- oiled and productive organization.

Some Perspective

Consider warehouse manager Paul’s style: Paul barges into the warehouse in a heated rage, waving his arms wildly. He is incensed at the slow down in the days shipping as a major client order becomes delayed. Without asking questions, he begins barking orders to the shipping supervisor, Ray. Paul believes Ray should “light a fire” under the staff, and under the packing crew, so that the materials will be boxed quicker and ready for shipment. Ray tries to interject some valuable information to Paul to no avail. Paul turns and leaves in the same huff he entered with.

Had Paul been less dominant and overbearing in his style, he would have taken a moment to visit with Ray about the real cause of the slow down. He would have discovered that it had nothing to do with the packing crew and everything to do with a lack of supplies to fill the order.

What happened to Paul? He was a top performer on the shipping line and seemed to get along well with the team. But ever since he was promoted to warehouse manager, he has had a difficult time. How many Paul’s do you have in your organization?
Great contributors do not automatically make great leaders.

Our experience has proven that the communication skills required to perform as an individual are fundamentally different from the skills critical to leading a team.

Here are seven warning signs that you may have a Paul on your hands:

• Uncontrolled emotional outburst.
• Acts like he/she is smarter than anyone else on the team.
• Gets angry fast, especially when someone communicates something is wrong
• Quits having team meetings in order to give more time for work
• Uses methods/programs for productivity improvement without getting input from the team
• In conversation with team members, he/she interrupts and dominates the conversation without showing concern for other members’ views.
• When you need him/her, he or she is usually unavailable.

A Solution

The management skill level of first-line managers affects team member retention, overall productivity, and even profitability. It’s the relationship between team leader and team member, built on mutual trust and respect, that builds a strong relationship. It begins with effective communication.

Being clear about how you expect your managers to communicate, and teaching them how to do that has a great effect on your organization.

The impact is that your managers and team leaders will be able to:

• See that communication is a two-way process.
• Construct clear, concise messages in the interest of the listener.
• Manage nonverbal behaviors to reinforce the intent of the messages.
• Listen actively to improve communication.
• Create a climate of open communication, which increases team members’ motivation and commitment.

This improves relations with team members and increases productivity.

Learn more about implementing managerial communication training in your organization. Contact Mindy Seiffert for details.

Why Do Managers Hate Giving Feedback?

Most managers I’ve observed avoid giving negative performance feedback like the plague. How many times have you seen a team leader fail to give appropriate feedback in the face of poor performance?

I’ve seen it all too many times. In fact, here’s an example of one I saw recently. . . I’ll change the names to protect the guilty.
Jane was an employee in a major manufacturing plant. Jane and her supervisor Ellen had worked together for five years. Ellen began to notice a slippage in Jane’s productivity. But Ellen hesitated to discuss the reasons for the slippage with Jane.

Jane was having problems understanding a new procedure that had been implemented, and it was impacting her performance, although Jane thought she was doing fine. Three months went by and Jane’s productivity continued to suffer.

What was going on here? Ellen was avoiding the discussion, and nothing was getting solved. Ellen’s hesitation was only partially about that uncomfortable feeling one gets when talking about poor performance. In addition, Ellen did not have a clear process to follow in providing the feedback that Jane needed, so Ellen felt the contemplated conversation would be a personal attack on Jane. Ellen did not know how to stay objective and handle the situation effectively, so she hesitated.

That hesitation did not give Jane a chance to explore her difficulty with the new procedure, this situation led to months of low productivity for Jane and the group. In the end, Ellen was forced to take disciplinary action with Jane rather than the “corrective action” she would have been able to take earlier. In the end it worked out except that along the way productivity went down and both Jane’s and Ellen’s reputations were dented. But at least now, it was a win all the way around.

Do stories like this happen in your organization?

Some Perspectives

Performance feedback has three basic benefits:

• Structured regular updates on how well individuals are performing to standards. It’s an opportunity to both address potential concerns and praise excellent performance.
• Ongoing performance feedback leads to more accurate team member self-perceptions, clears up misunderstandings, and gives the team member a chance to ask questions.
• Ongoing performance feedback provides an information base for later management decisions on human resource issues such as pay, promotions, transfers, assignments, or termination.

Think about your organization. Here are two questions you need to ask:

1. How accurate and timely is the performance feedback?
2. Does it advance the goals of the organization?

With the proper skills, your team leaders will be able to provide performance feedback in a timely and quality manner. This professional environment will increase the number of positively motivated employees who create momentum and productivity in your organization.

A Bad Hire Costs More Than Just Money

The Business Issue

Your managers are not consistently hiring good people, people who hit the road running right away and then stay around to become really productive. The lack of good hires has impacted productivity, morale and even turnover. Why can’t they hire winning talent?

Some Perspectives
How many times have you seen a new hire and you knew in the first few days that this employee was not going to work out? Once is too many.

Hiring the wrong person has many and varied negative ripple effects on a team. But why do bad hires occur? In my experience, there are four fundamental reasons:

1. The people interviewing candidates are not clear nor do they agree on what it takes to be successful in the job.
2. The people interviewing do not know how to conduct an effective and legal interview that uncovers pertinent information so that they can make a well-informed selection decision.
3. The interviewing team does not have the most effective members to interview and select the best candidates.
4. The candidate isn’t provided an effective opportunity to understand what the job and work environment is like, so they aren’t making a well- informed decision when they say “yes”.

How many times have you seen new hires who had a different impression of what the job required, but now that they are on the job, it’s not working for them or the hiring organization? Fundamentally the candidate-to-job alignment is off balance. When this happens, the likelihood that the candidate will be retained is low, and then the search starts all over again.

How many times have you seen three people interview the same candidate, and they seem to be looking for three different kinds of candidates? Unfortunately, it happens all too often when the team conducting interviews is not clear and in agreement about what is required for people to perform well on a job and as part of a team.

How many times have you seen a manager do the interviewing and selection all alone, rather than seeking the participation and input from team members currently in the job? That happens a lot. The reason given many times is “it will take too much time and we can’t spare the time off the job.” Unfortunately, the time spent and the productivity lost as bad hire after bad hire occurs far outweigh involving knowledgeable team members in the interview and selection process.

A Solution

In today’s fast-paced world, managers and supervisors are asked to lead the interviewing and selection process, and they don’t use a structured process. They haven’t been trained in interview and selection skills and strategies, and they may use team members who also have not been trained, or they may decide to conduct the interview alone. All that adds up to the probability of inconsistent success at hiring.

There is a solution. “Hiring Winning Talent” helps managers, supervisors, and team members understand how to use a structured process to identify, select, and hire the best and brightest people - people who truly fit the work requirements and the organization’s requirements.

Wouldn’t it be great if all new hires hit the road running and then stayed around long enough to become really productive? "Hiring Winning Talent" can help your managers, supervisors, and team members do that. The 8-hour skill-building classroom workshop will help your leaders and team members hire winning talent and do it consistently

For more information about implementing the Hiring Winning Talent program in your organization, contact us.