Tuesday, February 24, 2009

How to Manage Change in Hard Times: Don't Micro-Manage

Micro-Managing breeds more distrust ...

On the Project Management blog, Jonathan Gilbert, PMP, director of client solutions for ESI International talks about Managing Change Through a Downturn:

“Trust needs to be the underlying environment in any change initiative,” advises Gilbert. “Currently, there is a paucity of trust in organisations, as organisational members question the need for downsizing, and organisation leaders wonder how hard everyone is really working. My experience tells me that when times get tough, leaders tend to deal with the massive disequilibrium of tough times by micro-managing, which breeds even more distrust.”


Read the article for Gilbert's three steps for successful change initiatives.

Gilbert then lists his four top skills for improving your abilities to manage change successfully:

1. Deep listening: the ability to hear and empathise with the people being impacted by the change
2. Emotional intelligence: a facility to understand the physiological, neurological and emotional responses that we all have to change in our lives
3. Questioning: the ability to ask questions that allow people to have their own insights about what the change really means (as a leader, you cannot tell people what insights they should have – they have to arrive at them on their own)
4. Patience: an ability to suspend urgency for a time while people work through their responses to change because everyone will adapt to change at different rates.


Good words. To improve your emotional intelligence, take The EQ Course.




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