Being a facilitator
One of my coaching clients asked me recently what I thought the fundamental difference is between leading an established team and leading change. My answer was this. When you are leading an established team, you are managing people, processes and performance. Your expertise is called upon from time to time to moderate points of view, clarify matters that become unclear, but, generally safely steer a steady ship. When you are leading change, however, you are in the continual state of flux. Everything is a moving piece on an uncertain surface and your role is to make sense of it in the moment and translate it into change. It’s your role as change leader to facilitate understanding, knowledge gathering and progress in all that surrounds you.
There are steps we can take to be agents of change who create the optimum environment for learning and growth.
Make connections
Get to know each of your team members, looking past subconscious biases, and uncover the strengths, weaknesses, and potential in all of them. Develop team members with stretch projects, challenges, and responsibilities. And, encourage them to grow a network of their own stakeholder connections and take steps to sponsor and support them in doing so.
Prioritize communication
Focus on transparency, consistency, and contact. There is no such thing as too much communication. There is no such thing as ‘the right answer’. There are only choices that we make in the moment. Learn to deliver bad news sensitively, knowing that it is not what you say, but how you say it. Encourage diverse views and respect them. You do not have all the answers after all.
Create collaborative culture
Rather than encouraging a competitive environment focused on wins and being the best, focus on the process of collaboration and the role of people in that. The emphasis is on growth through learning, ideas exchange, innovation, creativity, and stretching the envelope. Create a safe space where criticism, blame, and judgement are banished and mistakes are celebrated and learning emphasized.
Focus on potential
Organize roles, responsibilities, and tasks based on the unique talents and interests of each team member. Having uncovered team members’ aspirations for growth and learning, match goals and objectives that align with these. Connect your team members to how assigned tasks align with their goals and objectives, so achievement of potential becomes self-fulfilling.
Know that everyone is capable and resourceful
Your role is to unleash capabilities in everyone. Believe in every individual’s capacity to learn and grow with the right encouragement and support. If the environment is not right for the team member, treat them with respect and compassion in the journey of self-realization.
What difference does this make? It allows teams to be agile and flexible in the face of constant change. Every team member connects to the over-riding ambitions and goals in a way that ensures that when the path ahead is unclear, they remain committed to their true north. In doing so, the conscious leader optimises achievement of highest potential in the overall team.
If you want to up-level your leadership to be a Conscious Lawyer, reach out to engage in C-Success Coaching at https://www.kiranscarr.com/coaching.