Change is hard,but not over than your potential
If you had to guess how many of your employees were working towards a promotion to become a leader or a manager, what percent would you guess?
75%?
50%?
Well you might be surprised to learn that those are optimistic numbers. It turns out, only 34% of workers aspire for leadership positions and only 7% desire a senior or c-level position.
This nationwide CareerBuilder survey included a representative sample of 3,625 full-time workers in government and the private sector across salary levels, industries, and company sizes.
So why are our managers so stressed?
The business environment is constantly changing and thanks to advances in technology, it’s changing faster than we are able to wrap our heads around. This means our roles at work are constantly changing too. Just as we get comfortable with one task we are given five more new ones.
And a Randstad study cited increased stress as the top reason for avoiding management responsibility. So why aren’t your employees working to climb the corporate ladder? Some say they are happy where they are while others say they don’t want to sacrifice their work-life balance.
This change, while oftentimes necessary to keep your business afloat, is difficult for employees, but can be especially hard on middle managers and leaders because they are the ones disseminating the news of changes taking place – even changes they don’t necessarily agree with but need to enforce.
Reinforcing your managers with the tools to view change as a positive or an opportunity for growth is a crucial skill for a successful organization. If you want your change initiative to succeed, your people need to be on board, and if you want your people to be on board, your managers need to be optimistic about the change.
USE YOUR STRENGTH trained people to adjust how they perceive “stressful” situations like change. While our natural tendencies might be to fear or reject change, we can rewire our brains to be more open and accepting, and dare I say excited for change.
Change is hard in any situation, regardless if it is at work or in our personal lives. But often times there was a reason the change was needed, and when it is properly inaugurated, aka when the people involved in the change are on board, the change is for the better.
Solutions
Give your managers a leg up on getting their team on board for change. Resiliency training can help your leaders manage stressful situations. Resiliency training might just be the secret weapon your company needs for a more prosperous work environment where managers are less stressed and employees actually want to be promoted. When we are able to view the stresses in our lives – like change – as positives rather than negatives, “stress” in our lives is actually a sign of a prosperous life.
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With the complexities of today’s multi-technological work environment, employees and entrepreneurs can advance their lot by checking their bad attitudes at the door and putting on positive thinking caps.
We’ve gone from worker robotics, to worker neurotics. Workers must now transform themselves from reliance on their IQs to self-reliance on their EQ (emotional quotient). The quickest way to emotional intelligence is to learn to control one’s attitude.
What is attitude? Attitude is disposition, demeanor; it is a manner of doing things. It is the spirit that underlies our behavior. It is the bearing and feeling that we put with our actions and the temperament that defines who we are and what we do. While a good attitude connotes a caring, positive and upbeat approach, a bad attitude is sullied by uncaring, rude and negative behavior. Bad attitudes in an organization can become a cancer that can drive customers and good employees away. As employers continue their efforts to downsize, merge, and streamline costs — sped up by technology– employees are caught up in the emotional squeeze.
How do we change the attitudes of employees and frustrated entrepreneurs? A training program on attitudes is a perfect solution. The right training program can help foster a more positive work environment for all employees, increase employee morale, improve performance and productivity and place entrepreneurs in the frame of mind necessary to be successful.
Overcoming the first obstacle – is naming the training program. When you want to change a persons attitudes through training, name the course so they will be excited and inspired to participate. Mandatory attitude training, for example, automatically causes resentment and resistance. Some individuals will say, I don’t have a bad attitude, why are they trying to fix me, or what did I do wrong to have to participate in this program. Like it or not, it is human nature to think the worst about these kinds of programs. Seminar titles like, “How to Stay Motivated all the Time” or “How to Be Better in All that You Do”, work well.
It is helpful to take a measure of key attitudes that you want to change with the training. It is also useful to take the position that this effort is not just employee training for example, but long-term development because you want to change behaviors in the long run. You will want to assess the current state of the organization or your business that leads you to want to change employee or your own attitudes. Ask the questions: What behaviors are occurring that is symptomatic of poor attitudes? It may be that you have observed or experienced behaviors such as short tempers, poor customer treatment, or disrespectful treatment of others, which may lead you to conclude that attitudes training would benefit your organization. A short survey (using a rating scale) of employees for example prior to training, works well with questions that pertain to how they view the present environment and their own behaviors. This same survey can be administered several months after the training has been administered to see what gains have been made.
What is the content for effective attitudes training? – Individuals will enjoy training that is applicable to their whole lives, not just the workplace. Training should be interactive and participatory and use practical examples for learning, focuses on the individual and then the organization. Training objectives for participants:
Some useful elements of an effective attitudes training program include:
Self-assessment and personal inventory- to include personal assessment of how well an employee feels they interact with others inside and outside of the work environment
Developing Personal Effectiveness- to include opportunities for participants to visualize success and their own capacities and abilities, to strengthen inner resources and mental attitude
Assessing Limitations and Strengths – to include taking a realistic look at limitations and strengths and assess opportunities to capitalize on personal strengths. Identify those limitations that may not be rooted in fact but affect individuals capability to fully contribute, create or apply skills.
Understanding the Dynamics of Positive and Negative Attitudes-to include developing an understanding between the relationship between thoughts and actions.
Transition and Change Model – Incorporate a process to help individual employees identify attitudes they want to change and timetable that will let them transition plan.
Lasting change – Can be accomplished if we give individuals adequate time to adopt new attitudes, positive rewards and celebrations for demonstrating positive behaviors. Using the measurement tool to conduct a post assessment of training impact and rewarding participants for positive change will be reinforcing.
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