CHAPTER 9
Changing the Speed of Change
Change management. Leading through change. Change in [fill in the blank].
Whatever you want to call it, change has been an issue in business since the beginning of, well, business. It will always be an issue. Because things change. They just seem to change a lot faster than they did a generation or even a year ago.
I am not just talking about technology. Workplaces and marketplaces are more diverse, and customers are more demanding for everything from value to price to where and how things are made. Competition can come from anywhere in the world to challenge your products and services—and quickly. In any given twelve-month period, most organizations will change their focus or direction several times. Regardless of your industry, the size of your company, where you are located, and who your customers are, most likely every year something will—and must—change in the way you do business.
Some changes may be big changes, like a merger and acquisition or a change in leadership. Some changes may be proactive changes in what you sell or the service you provide, such as a technology firm going from selling products or hardware to selling services like cloud storage. Some changes may be reactive changes driven by a need to compete in the marketplace and respond to a competitor that is aggressively taking market share, like a communications company moving to combine services and refocusing everything from sales to engineering to field operations. Some changes may be more everyday, like a change in team or department leadership.
Regardless of your business, the winds of change blow harder than ever, and the only thing certain is that things are uncertain. Right? Yes. But that uncertainty? It has always been there; it's just more prevalent today. And the winds of change? They do blow harder, but they are the same winds that have been blowing since forever. Whatever change you are facing, changing the leadership mindset to one of serving up and coaching down mitigates that uncertainty and allows leaders in the middle to lead at the speed of change today. And not just at the speed of change but through change.
As leaders in the middle we must learn not just to survive and manage through times of uncertainty but also learn to lead and grow so we, our teams, the people we report to, and the organization as a whole can thrive, even during times of uncertainty.
This requires levels of certainty and speed that leaders in the middle are uniquely positioned to create.
Forget About the “What” and the “Why.” Focus on the “How.”
I couldn't possibly understand and cover all the changes facing leaders in the middle even if I wrote a book specific to a department like sales and marketing or engineering or for an industry I have decades of experience in, like insurance or mobile communications. But here's the good news: Specifics of change do not matter when serving up and coaching down.
In fact, leaders in the middle should forget about the “what.” What good is experience anyway? Does anything in business look like it did a generation ago? Why then would anyone expect what someone did before to translate into experience to deal with change today?
If my kids saw the phones I used when I started working in the mobile phone business (and I always had the latest phone), they'd think it was a child's toy and start laughing. I know this is true because as I wrote this, I showed them one of those phones and they laughed and called me an old man. I grounded them for a week. Okay, a day. Then one of them asked me a question that gave them all a “get out of jail free” card: “Why were phones like that back then?”
I love when my kids ask me why something happened. It shows interest and curiosity . . . to a point. But you know what happens most times after you answer that first “why” question: Dad, why were cell phones like that? Because they were just trying to be phones. Why? Because the Internet was something that was only on computers. Why? The explaining goes on forever. And ever. I'm tired just thinking about it.
And I realized that's just it. It isn't just the “what” that doesn't matter: It's the endless stream of “whys.”
I'm not saying asking is bad, but what is the intent of the “why” question being asked? Too often it is not to listen to understand; it is either to find a hole in your argument, make you prove to them why you are right, or just to ask another question and another without listening. Taking the time to explain “why” often leads nowhere—except to another “why.” And another. And another. No answer ever satisfies your kids, and it won't satisfy your people either. Because “why” doesn't work; we need to stop focusing on the “why” and start focusing on the “how.”
No, Really. Stop! Stop the Why.
It's not that I don't appreciate the curiosity behind a good “why” question or finding your own “why.” Simon Sinek's TED Talk and books have tens of millions of people finding their “whys” (i.e., purposes) and the “whys” behind their “whys.” I love his concept: Clarity of purpose and making sure you aren't working for bad people or companies that destroy or dismiss its people's purpose is essential. But in day-to-day business, we get so hung up on finding our “why” and asking “why,” we never get to the “how.”
Think about it: “Why do we manage change?” should not be a question any leader in the middle needs to answer beyond “Because if we don't, we fail.”
The real question is what we discussed in serving up: “How do we manage change?” The answer to that question has less to do with what experience you have and more to do with the skills and mindset that must be in place before the changes happen—before you even get to the “what” of the details and changes. It must be part of the culture and central to the workplace belief system: Your people will follow your lead through change, questioning only to understand direction, not challenge it.
Imagine that. What if you just told every employee on your team to “line up or line out!” Don't question the decisions! Just do it, and do it now! That would make this whole “dealing with change issue” go away, wouldn't it? Think about it: There's no need to convince every member in an organization that the change is necessary and should be a good thing. There's no need to focus on the “why” because the “why” is unaffected or unnecessary to know. Buy-in would be immediate and everyone would be focused on the “how,” making the organization able to move and change much faster and making change a competitive advantage.
Done! Only problem is that's the military, not business. In business, that approach is a fantasy. Our people would feel insignificant, undervalued, and most likely leave or just do what they were told and no more, collecting a check while they looked to leave. You may be heading into battle when it comes to change in business. You may have even read Sun Tzu's The Art of War (or cribbed what you know about it from the movie Wall Street like I did). But your people are not a platoon, and no one is going to die (literally) in a corporate fight to stay competitive.
But there is truth in this statement: As leaders and organizations, if we had to spend less time convincing our team members why things are changing—eliminating the whole fear of the pain of change and go straight to buy-in—change would be less of an issue. Especially when the best-laid plans go awry and you need a new plan to deal with the change.
The solution for leaders in the middle is somewhere in the middle—between “we need our team members to trust in the leadership's direction” and “the leaders need to value the team members thoughts, insights, and contributions.”
Remember: A “How Person” Is Using the Serve Up/Coach Down Mindset
With the serve up/coach down mindset in place, you understand your responsibility to your boss(es) and your people. You understand your job and theirs is not to question why the organization is changing. Instead, you are inspired to focus and act on the how—to be the “how” person: how to successfully implement the change.
As a leader in the middle, your job is to make your boss look good. You must believe that your leader and organization know more about the “what” and “why” than you do when they make decisions about change. You must focus on the “how” when anticipating and facing that change: how to do what you do better and more effectively than anyone else to serve those you report to and the organization as a whole.
As a leader in the middle, your job is to coach the people you lead, and because you have, they already know they are valued. They don't need to worry about the “what” and “why.” They just need to prepare for, face, and solve the issues that face the organization, implement the game plan, and not let anyone or anything stop them.
If all that sounds magical and thus a fairytale, understand that's a problem with mindset in general. The status quo by definition resists change. Teams that have been coddled to doubt rather than coached to win are entrenched in that mindset and have the wrong perspective because their leaders in the middle had the wrong perspective too. As a result, they never embraced or understood the power and importance of their positions.
Thus, even before the uncertainty of change set in, there was already an environment of uncertainty. Leaders and their organizations that have a serve up/coach down mindset thrive in cultures of change. Uncertainty is only an outside variable that teams must excel in facing. Within the organization, there is only certainty, giving it the powerful ability—top to bottom—to move swiftly and embrace any and all change with 100 percent commitment, no matter the situation. Leaders in the middle control this power by serving up and coaching down.
Still sound like a fantasy? Let's consider what this mindset allows you to achieve through a scenario from the workplace (a change in leadership) and the marketplace (centralization of services) that should be familiar to most leaders and organizations.