Reactive leadership = Change fatigue at the top
Do you have change fatigue rippling through your SLT and down into the team?
The past couple of years have been focused on delivery, getting money through the door and all hands have been on deck. A totally unique situation for everyone.
Is blame culture bubbling away under the surface?
Now that there is some headspace as we head further into 2023, it feels like there is more opportunity to let frustrations and resentment boil over with other team members.
The shift from delivering over the past couple of years back to their old roles may give rise to tension and snipes at one another.
Or sometimes moving that role into the new iteration of what the business needs as a result of the pandemic can create some underlying tension between members of the SLT. Tension that previously didn’t exist.
Are toes being trodden on, a snipey passive aggressive blame culture is bubbling away within the board and then quickly over spilling into the wider team?
Change fatigue
As organisations adjust to a post Covid world and all the changes it has brought with hybrid working, flexible working hours and redundancies there is no wonder that your SLT are feeling the squeeze. It has filtered through from the top (see my previous article I wrote about the CEO Squeeze last year here)
The wider team are looking for the answers from their SLT and heads of function for the answers. When nobody really knows what the answers are as we readjust to new ways of working.
It’s nothing new… change fatigue that is. There are endless papers and templates to help manage organisational change, driving through initiatives to make the business more efficient, or adapt to technological change, for example.
But this time it feels different.
This time. Most of the change is forced from outside / environmental changes - post pandemic, global instability, a recession and energy price crisis. It feels like everywhere you look there is bad news; war, cost of living crisis, a devastating earthquake, flooding, the list goes on.
Organisations are trying to recoup losses, restructure their businesses and are reacting to the changes instead of managing and controlling them.
Being able to respond to these changes with thought out and considered strategies just hasn’t been possible.
So what even is change fatigue?
How to break the cycle in your SLT
1. Communicate - Seek to understand each other better
Learning better ways to communicate with each other, and giving each other the time to talk through what’s really going on with allow the team to pull together. Changes in team members and the dynamics have taken their toll. Rebuild the team from the inside to foster an atmosphere of collaboration, not competition
2. Be open and honest
Really listen to the problems that they're struggling with. Whether that's personal issues, struggles with the new hybrid working arrangements of just being just plain knackered - opening up a wider conversation will help to mend those bonds and create strength within the team that allows them to support one another again.
3. Think long-term
For three years now, we’ve had to be more reactive than usual as we navigated unchartered waters. It’s time to set a long term strategy - look to the horizon,
4. Lead from the top
Demonstrate the behaviours you want to see in your organisation, When the SLT are pulling together and showing how its done, the rest of the organisation will start to follow suit.
5. Tell them why
Create and follow through on a comms plan for your leaders to embed throughout the organisation. Show your employees what you are doing, why its important, where you need their help and what they will get out of it. Give them timescales. Tell them the bad stuff that will happen as well as the good and get trust back in your team.
Now is the perfect time to organise some team training and away days. To open up the conversation away from the office. Being in a different environment will inject lots of energy into your team and start to recreate the relational trust between team members.
So my top tips to change your company culture from the top:
1. Remove your SLT from their normal surroundings. Take some focus time away to rest, reset and refocus as a team in a safe space. This will encourage understanding between the team and eradicate any bubbling tensions.
2. Open the communication where all ideas are welcomed. Ensure that the rest of the business is aware that it is NOT a jolly but an opportunity to refocus on the company mission and vision.
3. Better communication will lead to better and quicker decision making. It will also have a positive impact on any stress.
4. Look at any changes from a people perspective. How will the company thrive over the next couple of years - through the eyes of the CEO down the ranks.
5. Write a new brand manifesto and refined set of company values that reflect where the company is now and how far it's come. Reignite a spark for the future of the organisation and allow the team’s voices to be heard.
6. Bring everyone together through honesty, openness and collaboration - this will reenergise the SLT.
7. Focus on wellness. A happy and healthy team = a happy and healthy bottom line.
If you would like to know more about how my team can help you solve your change fatigue issues with our workshops and how you and your team can work happy together by understanding each other in a different way then send us an email.