Rodger had impressive academic credentials, including an advanced degree from one of the country’s leading business schools. There, he learned how to slice and dice balance sheets, examine income statements, and perform business analysis—skills that are great tools for anyone at any stage of a business career.
He graduated at the top of his class and had a choice of employers. He joined the ABC Company and was soon identified as a person with “high potential.” He was given challenging assignments that had direct impact on the company’s future strategic positioning, and he was given a staff to help him in these endeavors. He quickly established himself as a functional expert.
Unfortunately for Rodger, he also had an Achilles heel that became more and more visible over time. His inability to manage conflicting interests within his team became a liability.
Although this matter is being addressed, many of our finest educational institutions continue to fall short when it comes to teaching their students the correlating “people” skills and competencies for business—failing to supplement business theory with the practical managerial guidance that allows them to lead and engage others through workplace change. Don’t let this happen to you.
As you manage the required shift of your organization’s new direction, you’ll be adjusting your team’s strategy, people, and processes to keep up with or get ahead of the latest business wave or technological avalanche. You may meet many of these challenges with your inherent skills, but others will require time and attention to come to fruition.
Organizations differ widely in how they provide a supportive framework and the necessary resources for addressing areas for professional development, particularly the management of change. But don’t fret if your company doesn’t have deep pockets for training, generous tuition reimbursement, or a learning center. You’re better off knowing “a lot about a little” than “a little about a lot,” because research tells us there are certain skills, among many, that can spell the difference between your managerial success and failure.
Skills are task-oriented, involving knowledge transfer and measurable behavioral modification. They involve ability, and they may be learned in a classroom or at a seminar. For managing change, you need both analytical and execution skills.
Analytical skills are gleaned from any MBA textbook. These skills involve your ability to analyze the current state of organizational affairs—that is, people, processes, systems, finances, and structure—against what you deem to be a more desirable endpoint. This involves troubleshooting, identifying gaps, analyzing root causes, and identifying the possible courses of action.
Execution skills are where the managerial rubber hits the road. These skills involve your ability to relate to your team and to determine what intervention method to utilize to make the required changes.
You need to be proficient at these skills:
Envisioning—. Your ability to determine that ideal organizational end state and to communicate it to others.
Inventiveness—. Your ability to think of numerous nonobvious and creative ways of getting things done.
Negotiation—. Your ability to work persistently and constructively with colleagues to secure resources or assistance that is needed to support the team.
Decision making—. Your ability to choose among multiple courses of action with certainty, using all perspectives and data available.
Teaching—. Your ability to help a team member learn experientially.
Interpersonal skills—. Your ability to communicate, listen, confront, persuade, and generally work constructively with others, particularly in challenging conditions.
Implementation skills—. Your ability to introduce or refine processes that generate the desired results.
Training in these skills is easily accessible and relatively adaptable. It’s also cost effective. You’ll explore all these skills throughout the rest of this book.