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SENSE OF URGENCY VERSUS REALISTIC PATIENCE

One of the most critical responsibilities of a transition leader involves maintaining energy, momentum, and productivity in the face of change. Having a sense of urgency or a need to “get on with it” is an important element of the revitalization process for the leaders and for other members of the group. In addition, leaders are likely to receive pressure from above to hurry up and get people moving toward the desired outcomes. The skills associated with a sense of urgency allow leaders to be action oriented and keep things rolling. Leaders who have a strong sense of urgency move on issues quickly and motivate others to work at a rapid pace, stay focused, and get results. They value action and know how to get things done.

Equally important but rarely addressed in times of change is the importance of having enough patience with the transition process. Realistic patience involves knowing when and how to slow the pace to allow time and space for people to cope and adapt. This means recognizing that people need differing amounts of time and effort to understand and adapt to change. As in any grief or loss experience, there is a natural cycle to the process of letting go of the old and connecting with the new. Leaders must learn how to honor this cycle in others if the transition effort is to be successful in the long term. Failure to have patience with people can actually increase their resistance, and thereby hinder their process of adapting.

Leaders who overdo sense of urgency and downplay realistic patience are too insistent, too quick to announce changes, and too eager to take action. They fail to prioritize, making everything equally urgent. This fosters resistance and even fear. Often, in a rush to make their marks, these leaders instead erode their credibility and stymie the energy, motivation, and creativity of the very people they need on board to make their initiatives successful.

When managers do the opposite—when they overdo realistic patience and downplay sense of urgency—everything is a work in progress, deadlines are extended, and employees wonder whether the planned changes will ever take place. In an attempt to protect themselves or others, these leaders seem to hold off the change. But rather than appreciating the “protection,” people are more likely to feel that such leaders are causing more stress by putting off the inevitable and not making firm decisions. This indecisive and uninspiring leadership also frustrates those who are ready to move on.

So what does it look like when a leader addresses both sense of urgency and realistic patience? How does managing this pair of competencies help establish a team that is committed, trustworthy, and loyal? Leaders who balance sense of urgency and realistic patience focus on four key actions:

1.  They articulate expectations. Clearly explaining why, how, and when things need to happen sets up expectations and creates a healthy level of stress and pressure. It also establishes a mechanism for monitoring and addressing performance.

2.  They accurately gauge pace. When such leaders say something is urgent, it really is. They don’t panic, overreact, or make everything equally urgent or important. They are able to prioritize. They recognize when to slow down in order to speed up later.

3.  They give support through the struggle. Helping the team get on with it without driving them past the point of productivity gives people a chance to keep up when they are struggling. These leaders make a conscious effort to provide extra support and guidance when appropriate. They give people feedback so they know whether they’re getting it or not. They foster credibility by achieving a balance between urgency and compassion.

4.  They demonstrate flexible control. Leaders who set the right tone between control and flexibility are respected and viewed as competent—as well as caring and in touch with employees.

Leaders who demonstrate a healthy sense of urgency

  create clear expectations and timelines

  explain why the urgency

  provide data to support the urgency

  set and adjust priorities

  provide resources and clear obstacles

  remind about deadlines

  encourage more than berate

  articulate the “now” and the vision

  walk the talk

  make timely decisions

  create healthy level of stress and pressure

  monitor the team’s ability to deliver

Leaders who exhibit realistic patience

  explain the why and how of what needs to be done

  coach people who are struggling

  are patient with the emotional realities—their own and those of their followers

  understand that performance may initially lag

  set interim targets for people

  put things into different words or contexts to help bring people along

  don’t stay patient forever—but give people space and time to learn and cope

  set a range of outcomes so people have a chance to be successful

Making It True

What steps can you take to strike the right chord when it comes to demonstrating both a sense of urgency and realistic patience? Here are some guidelines:

Meet them where they are. If you want to lead people somewhere new, you need to understand where they are. What have they experienced in the past? What have they been told before? What is completely new? What do they value? What do they fear they are losing? What do they have personally at stake? Remember that your role in the leadership process probably puts you in a position of having more input, more control, more information, and earlier warnings than those who are looking to you for guidance. In those moments when you are frustrated by the hesitancy and reluctance of people to change, remember that, unlike you, they are probably just learning about some of the changes for the first time. It will require patience on your part to allow people the time and space to go through the natural stages of letting go before they will be ready to catch up with you. Try as you might, you can’t shake people hard enough to put them on your timetable for acceptance and recovery.

Prioritize and pace. Be sure to set and honor priorities. Arrange activities and events in a way that will build to the new reality in stages. While there is always much to do, every event cannot be urgent and every task cannot be a number one priority. Change and transition are demanding experiences that can exhaust the most committed of employees. Set stretch targets that are achievable. Whenever possible, create interim milestones that will allow people to achieve success along the way.

Take time to listen. Allow people to air their gripes and complaints. Some of what you will hear grows out of the pain of having to learn new methods and strategies. On the other hand, some of it may reflect valid evaluations of the gaps and discontinuities in the evolving design. In either case, it is important to allow people the time and space to vent their concerns and voice their alternative strategies—even if nothing can be done to alter the overall plans.

Avoid swift judgment. Don’t dismiss, write off, or label employees too easily or too quickly. People differ in ways that can affect their degree of readiness and rate of response to transition. These may include personality, experience, situations outside work, and organizational expectations. Remember that the initial stages of the normal transition response pattern include denial, withdrawal, and frustration. Even a more evolved reaction will often include various forms of resistance, anger, and rejection. Displaying the patience that encourages people to work their way to a healthier commitment can pay huge dividends in the end.

Don’t squash resistance. Establish a climate that processes resistance rather than attempting to squash it. Generally there is useful information in the way people resist change and transition. All change involves loss. The nature of resistance can inform you about what people value and what they are afraid of losing. At a minimum, that sense of loss needs to be acknowledged. Perhaps more important, there may be embedded information about aspects of the environment that should not be swept aside or lost in the course of change. There may be wisdom in maintaining some things as they were.

Coach, teach, and model. Spend some of your time and energy in coaching, teaching, and modeling the adaptive process for others. If you can honor the past and model the present and future, you will encourage others by your example.