- Self-Awareness - Leaders should examine how they feel about the
change. If the leader expresses one
point of view during a change announcement but their body language, voice
tone, and facial expression say something completely different, employees
will be confused and incredulous.
Remember “it’s not what you say but how you say it” that
contributes to the perceived meaning of your message.
- Social
Awareness – It is important
for leaders to understand the personality and values of their employees. People have different priorities, needs
and life circumstances. An
effective leader uses EQ to think about how the change will be viewed by
his/her employees. Questions for
leaders to ask are: What are the benefits of this change from my employee’s
point of view? What concerns will
my employees have about this change? and What reactions can I expect from
my employees when the change is announced?
- Relationship Management – Having asked the critical questions the leader is now prepared to communicate the change not from his/her own point of view but from the employee’s point of view. Communication plans should include an overall announcement and also one-on-one meetings to customize what is communicated to each employee. Meetings also allow employees to ask questions and express their concerns directly to their manager.
The EQ of Leading Change
When
something changes it is human nature to immediately think of how it impacts
you. For example after hearing about the
upcoming merger of American Airlines and US Airlines my first thought was “what
will happen to my American Airlines miles?”
It was all about me!
Leaders of
change can learn from the phenomenon that people tune into WIIFM (What’s In It
for Me) when planning change in their organization. It takes emotional intelligence. We have all heard about IQ, our Intelligence
Quotient, but many believe that EQ, our Emotional Intelligence Quotient, is
almost more important for people in leadership roles.
The concept
of emotional intelligence was popularized by Daniel Goleman based on his brain and behavioral research
and contained in his book
Emotional
Intelligence (on Amazon #ad). The
theory emphasizes the importance of awareness, control and management of our
emotions, and the emotions of other people.
Here are a few tips for
leaders of change that we can learn from emotional intelligence
In looking at the announcements American Airlines made about the merger we can see how they looked at the change from various points of view: shareholders, employees, and customers. Apparently my frequent flyer miles are safe...whew!
Labels:
change,
communication,
emotional intellegence
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1 comment:
You're right self-awareness is the most important aspect of being a leader. You need to be able to carry yourself together. He should not be thinking about himself. But he should think for the good of the group. I also have an article about change. Check it out, if you have time. Just follow the link:
positive changes
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