People Strategies: Strong leadership helps workers combat crisis of change

Do you remember the Maxell commercial where a guy is sitting in an overstuffed chair in front of some huge speakers with his hair flying straight back and the skin on his face straining against the volume of sound coming from the music on Maxell's tape? Whether Maxell knew it or not, it captured an image of how most people feel as a result of the unbelievable onslaught of change in their lives and organizations.

No organization is impervious to the massive changes in our society and the world around us. Most companies are reeling from the fast pace of high technology, escalating customer demands and nontraditional competition. Directly or indirectly, employees feel the pressure of today's changing business conditions. Change, by its very nature, wipes out people's energy.

How can an organization pursue growth without employee energy? Isolated cases of purpose-centered and self-led people are not enough to drive the corporate strategy forward. The question becomes do people and organizations get stuck or do they find a way to embrace change?

The Inventure Group of Eden Prairie, Minn., interviewed 14,000 people about their level of energy when working amid constant change. The interviews grouped employee energy into the following categories:

committed expressing a firm sense that they are in control of their actions and involved in helping the organization during challenging times;

overwhelmed expressing a feeling of too much to do and not enough time to do it;

burned out overwhelmed for so long that they have continuous fatigue;

waiting putting in time but not energy; and

rusted-out behaving with total victimization, "It's no use, not now, not later, not ever."

It was striking that 40 percent of the interviewees indicated that they were above the norm on burnout. Of the burned-out employees, 90 percent would leave the organization if another opportunity came along.

How would the employees in your company or department respond? A simple exercise is to take a blank sheet of paper and place the five energy attributes across the top. List employee names in each column based on your experience with them. From there it is easy to calculate percentages and to see how employee energy is balanced among the five attributes.

Companies do not have the option of ceasing organizational change, but they do have options for dealing with the impact of change on employees. There are three general categories to consider: company clarity, leadership strength and individual accountability. Each is closely related, even interdependent. The best practice is to actively engage in all three areas simultaneously.

Company clarity is essential for employees to act in the company's best interest through constant change. Employees need to know the vision of the company, its strategies and how they are expected to make a contribution.

Without clarity about company intentions, employees will react to whatever is in front of them in whatever manner they see fit, or they won't act at all. This is so common that we take it for granted and often don't see it as a productivity issue. Can you imagine the cumulative impact of uninformed and unprepared employees?

Leadership strength comes from the ability to coach employees through change events, self-esteem issues and the company direction. Leaders have the most direct impact on performance by their ability to articulate company intentions and by promoting individual accountability. Leaders inspire people to overcome challenges, to make individual and team contributions, and to focus on the company purpose. Executives and managers can increase their leadership competence by investing in contemporary education.

Individual accountability is when employees are self-motivated to improve their skills and they are committed to making a contribution to the company. Some employees just take accountability because of who they are and are usually the most productive and balanced employees on payroll.

Leadership strength and company clarity are both needed to increase individual accountability in an organization. A company must decide that this is critical to the bottom line and give employees the environment, skills and opportunities for taking responsibility for their own commitment.

When an organization is not equipped to deal with constant change, employees can feel like the guy in the Maxell commercial listening to a screaming volume. With conscious effort, change can feel rather like a hum in the background because a company is populated with employees who can deal with it.

(Linda Bower is a speaker, executive coach and human performance improvement consultant in Rogers-ville. Send questions about people, problems and productivity c/o SBJ at PO Box 1365, Springfield, MO 65801 or sbj@sbj.net.)