Last weekend I attended and assisted in training, at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, the Executive Skills Series class: Exercising Leadership to Facilitate Adaptive Change.
One thing that struck me, is that we often rely upon our technical expertise so much, that we don't want to make the effort to learn how to change our thinking, our environment, or our paths. Change is scary, it's the unknown, letting go of our control and what we know.
Yet, when I think of the times that I "let go" as a leader and listened to my co-workers' suggested actions and paths, they were turning points in my leadership experience and learning, as well as, how they viewed me as their leader. That is the key to successful adaptive change in my experience -- when your team members participate in the change, they believe in and facilitate the change to endure, and they start to really believe in their leader.
I am reading "Leadership on the Line -- Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leadership" by Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky in preparation for a National Fire Academy Leadership class that I am observing this weekend.
If you are looking to make a major change in your organization, this is a must-read. Adaptive Leadership is when you approach organizational leadership to create real change, which people don't tend to like, and therefore, try to eliminate you from their organization to prevent or stop the change.
An important concept to accomplish successful adaptve leadership is to think politically and develop partners in your cause. Particularly, partners who have the authority and commitment to help you accomplish your organizational change, especially members in the change.
Partners should be internal and external to your organization. Make sure that they are real partners, that they believe so much in what you are doing that they won't leave you when there is pressure to do so or when their other commitments take priority to your change.
Short-term leaders make the mistake of thinking that they have enough power or authority to lead without partners, that is usually their downfall and why they only stay in an organization for a short-term, even if their ideas of change are mandated and supported by their authorities.
I recently facilitated a multiple fire department team meeting. The team had MANY items that they wanted to cooperate on to produce cost-savings for their communities, but the monthly team meetings were not moving toward accomplishing their goals. It was time for a team review to align their collective intention by defining their mission, specific goals and objectives with completion timelines. Since they had so many items that they wanted to accomplish, I helped them prioritize and organize subgroups to work on projects in between their monthly meetings.
If your team is not accomplishing your team goals, take a regularly-scheduled meeting to review the following:
1 - Is every team member committed to the team and its goals?
2 - What are the team's goals (long-term and short-term)? Are individual goals different?
3 - How am I contributing to the team's success? What can I improve or change in myself?
4 - What has worked for the team in the past?
If your team is having trouble communicating effectively, an unbiased third-party facilitator, like myself, can help keep the conversation honest and productive. Please contact Rogers Consulting at www.RogersConsulting.us to discuss your organizational needs and develop customized training or coaching for your team to reach its best potential.