BY JOSEPH V. GULFO
To transition your business to a more innovative
company, you will need to guide a highly trained and skilled work force through
some difficult changes.
As the boss, you may not have the same IQ as the
smartest guys in the office, but it is your job to lead and align these high
achievers, which often involves disrupting the status quo.
Ensuring that your team of geniuses is aligned with
the goal, providing actionable insights, and interacting with other members of
the team is critical to success.
Here are 10 pieces of advice to bosses when leading
your team through change.
1. IMMEDIATE RESULTS ARE NOT
POSSIBLE
Anticipate that creating some semblance of alignment
will take six to 12 months, especially if you are new to the team. Be flexible
and patient and realize that you are working on a mosaic masterpiece and there
is no way of knowing exactly what it will look like on day one. Be confident
that it will be beautiful, no matter what, in the end, and share that
confidence.
2. CHANGE CAUSES FEAR, AND
FEAR STIFLES
You are not here to change your employees; you are
here to change the trajectory of the business or project. Make them
comfortable, not off balance. Geniuses are not mind readers--they will read
your actions for signs of things to fear. Don’t give them easy things to be
upset about, like changing everything!
3.
ORDAIN EACH ONE A LEADER OF SOMETHING
Many high achievers want to be recognized for their achievements.
And in the end, it’s about getting some work done, even if it isn’t integrated
and coordinated yet.
4.
INVITE THEM INTO CRAFTING THE PROBLEM STATEMENT
Don’t do it on your own. That will be viewed as your
objecting to them and their way of doing things. Once your high achievers can
see that things are not optimal on their own, you will have created a window
for change to actually occur.
5. DO IT THEIR WAY--FOR A
WHILE
Invite them into crafting a solution and use their
input; don’t simply take it under advisement. Show them that you can learn from
them. You will learn something and become a better manager for it.
6. AVOID POSITIONAL AUTHORITY
Avoid the temptation to assert positional authority
when you get exasperated. There will likely be some movement then retrenchment
back to the same or even worse behaviors. You will make mistakes, too. Having a
positive and optimistic attitude and cheerleading is your job. Telling your
team to do something “because you said so” doesn’t work.
7.
EXERT PERSONAL AUTHORITY BY LETTING YOUR TALENT SHOW
Deliver on a few big things that really matter, and a
couple that don’t. Once your employees see you do something that they could not
do themselves, or that they have tried to do and failed (like getting more
money for the project) they will begin to see the value that you bring and
respect you.
8. DEFINE YOUR TEAM
You will quickly learn which of these geniuses are the
super-geniuses, which of the geniuses are followed by their peers, and which of
these are beginning to warm to your lead. These individuals will have a few
disciples within the organization who will have figured out what you just
figured out. Poof, you just identified the change masters.
9. GO SLOW AND STEADY
With the blessing and cooperation of your change
masters, start doing what needs to be done to make the operation all that it
can be. Go slow, but steady, maintaining the alignment of the core group as you
go.
10.
DETERMINE WHO IS ON THE BUS AND WHO IS OFF THE BUS--THEN CLOSE THE DOOR AND
DRIVE
At some point, the others will come in line, and there
will be no dramatic showdown. Disruption, if needed, for the good of the
project and the company will be tolerated at this point by the ones who matter
most.
--Joseph V. Gulfo, MD, MBA is the author INNOVATION BREAKDOWN: How the FDAand Wall Street Cripple Medical Advances (Post Hill
Press) and CEO of Breakthrough Medical Innovations. He has more than 25 years
of experience in thebiopharmaceutical and medical device
industries and is former CEO of MELA Sciences.
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