When I learned from my publisher that someone had ordered thirty thousand copies of The Simple Truths of Service, a book I coauthored with Barbara Glanz, I had to know more. The person was Colleen Barrett. She had read the book and liked it so much, she wanted everyone at Southwest to have a copy. My editor, Martha Lawrence, and I decided we had to fly to Dallas to meet this wonderful woman.
Colleen and I quickly learned we were of one mind when it came to our general philosophies on leadership—especially the topic of leaders loving and serving their people and their customers. That’s what inspired us to coauthor a book titled Lead with LUV: A Different Way to Create Real Success. We even got to share a stage at our industry conference to talk about our book in front of two thousand leaders. (This photo of us on our twin scooters—the best way to navigate a convention center—is one of my favorites.)
A running message in our book is the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It’s something both Colleen and I learned as children and tried to practice. It’s the way we grew up, lived our lives, and led our teams and our companies. It’s interesting how something that seems as simple as the golden rule—thinking about how youwould want to be treated—can influence a leadership style to a degree that can help entire organizations get through just about any kind of change.
When planning a change, many organizations believe the most effective leadership approach is for top executives to make all the decisions behind closed doors, announce the change in an all-company meeting, and expect everyone to get on board immediately.
Do you think those leaders ever put themselves in the place of their people, thinking: How would I want to find out about a change? Maybe. Maybe not.
When you care about your people, the best way to initiate change is to involve as many people as possible to participate in the change process. Why? Because people who are invited to collaborate are more likely to embrace the change and to influence their peers to participate.
During the change process, people are likely to go through five stages of concern.
- Information (What is the change about?)
- Personal (How will the change affect me?)
- Implementation (How is this change going to work?)
- Impact (Is the change worth our effort?)
- Refinement (Are we trusted to lead the change going forward?)
Here is a basic framework for addressing these five stages.
- Frame the case for change. Paint an inspiring vision where people see themselves succeeding. Describe the gap between what is and what could be. (Information/Personal)
- Build the change plan and infrastructure to uncover obstacles to implementation. People will feel better having some influence on the successful execution of the change. (Personal/Implementation)
- Strengthen the change by sharing information and data to prove it is working. Leaders model the mindset and behaviors they expect from others and talk to those who are still resistant. (Implementation/Impact)
- Entrust the change leadership to others. Leaders rely on their people to help lead the change and delegate daily responsibilities, while staying available if support is needed. (Impact/Refinement)
Creating an inspiring vision for people, building a clear plan, showing proof the change is working, and allowing people to lead the change will help your organization navigate the change process the right way. Great leaders like Colleen treat people the way they would want to be treated.
XOXO,
Ken
