Embracing change is the secret to business growth. It allows us to learn how to do things better and adapt to survive, which is an essential skill in today’s economy! This is easier said than done though. We all like our comfort zones, and it can be really difficult to break out of them. Then, we also have to help our employees get out of their comfort zones as well!
If you want to move your business forward, here is how to embrace change in the workplace and how to get your team to get behind it too.
1) Get yourself in the right mindset, so you can lead by example
You won’t be able to implement a change if you’re not behind it yourself, so take some time to embrace it first. What are the positives that will come from this change? Why is it needed? What will you and your team get out of this change? Re-frame this in your mind, and you’ll be far more effective in embracing and then leading this change.
2) Communicate the change to your support team
The worst thing you can do is spring change on your team and not communicate what it really means. You want to implement change in your business successfully and your team is a major key player in that, so you really need to communicate this in the right way.
To avoid resistance from your team, make sure to:
- Communicate changes that are happening as early as possible -NOT at the point where it needs to be implemented.
- Involve the right people in the process as early as possible – they have valuable insight and need to be the ‘champions’ of this change.
- Share the overall vision with the team – your team needs to understand how this all links together and having a shared purpose increases the chance of success.
- Communicate “what’s in it for me?” for every team member, not just how it will help the business – reward is a massive motivator so help your team get personally invested.
- Provide them with sufficient training and support – how do you need to support them to implement the change successfully?.
3) Nurture the right habits and behaviours in the long term.
When times get tough and things are going wrong, this is when your team will revert to old behaviours and habits and how things were done before. To avoid this, start nurturing the right behaviours now by working on resilience and wellbeing. This will help to make sure that the change is a long term one.
Try implementing one or more of these strategies:
- Rewards – take your team out for lunch or give them the afternoon off if they need motivation.
- Check-ins – have monthly 1:1s to make sure each team member has what they need to succeed.
- Good habits – encourage self-care among your team, especially everyone getting enough sleep, exercise, good food and recharge time.
- Mindset – help your team reframe their thinking if they are struggling and lead by example.
- Nurture initiative – if team members need help, don’t solve their problems straight away. Ask the right questions to guide them to the answer. This will help them start to identify and initiate change to improve working practices themselves too!
Following these hacks will not only help you and your team embrace change, but it will set you up for positive growth in the future!
