302 – 5 Keys to Leading Change

John Over the last two decades, I’ve been on an insatiable quest to learn everything I can about leadership. What makes the best leaders so good? After running companies small and large over the last 20 years, today I speak on stages all across the world to audiences who are interested in that same question. My name is John Laurito. I’m your host, and I invite you to join me on this journey as we explore this very topic and what makes the best leader so good. Welcome to tomorrow’s leader. 

John Well, hello there. So, like Mrs. Doubtfire, we help you with your hair. Welcome back to the show, Tomorrow’s Leader. Welcome to today’s episode. I’m John, your host. And we’ve got lots of exciting things for you today, including another riddle. I don’t have a winner for the prior episodes yet, but that is soon to come. But I will be revealing today’s riddle. I will also be sharing with you today’s concept around leadership. You tune in here to learn new insights, new things that will make you better in life and in leading. And leading is life. And life is leading. So today is no different. You’re going to leave here better than you came in. But first things first. Let’s go for today’s riddle. Today’s riddle is brought to you by. John Laurito, I guess. I don’t know. I don’t really know where it came from, but I think it’s a pretty good one. Okay. Um, a guy is going the wrong way down a one way street, and he passes right by a cop. But the cop does not pull him over or give him a ticket. Why? Why? 

John OKay. That’s it. Simple and direct. Let me know your thoughts again. Text me, email me, call me, whatever. Or send carrier pigeon. Let me know your answer. And the first one to get it correct will get some notoriety and be announced on tomorrow’s leader. Now, in 91 different countries across the world. So okay. So I was thinking about something very strange. The other day I was realizing that and I know I’m sure many of you can identify with this too, and probably the same case for you. But I have realized that I don’t think so. I have a big king sized bed, like one of these California king beds. I’m a big guy. I need a lot of space. Obviously, I don’t need the whole bed. And don’t you know if I sleep like normal personal sleep diagonally? I sleep on one side. But what’s interesting is I. Believe I have slept on the same side of that bed for its entire existence since I’ve had it. Which. Oh, it’s been a number of years. It’s a great bed. It’s super comfortable. It’s one of these, you know, the memory ones, whatever you call it, forget what the name of it is. 

John But it’s fantastic. Highly recommended. By the way, I took some reason for many years I didn’t realize the value of investing in a good bed and wow, does it change your life? We spent a third of our life in bed. Why not invest in something? It’s going to make you comfortable. So you wake up in the morning feeling better. If you get just a little better sleep, that dramatically impacts your whole day. So anyways, this is not a sales pitch on a bed, but it is a point that I’ve slept on the same side of the bed for its entire existence. I sleep on the side that’s closest to the window. For whatever reason. It’s not closest to the bathroom, it’s closest to the window. I like. I like the light in the outside, whatever. But I don’t know. I’ve never slept on the other side. So tonight I think I’m going to try and sleep on the other side. I don’t know. Might be a totally new experience. I might get a better sleep. 

John I make it a worse sleep. I don’t know. But it’ll be new. It’ll be a change. And that is today’s topic is change. Why do we fight change so much? Why is it that we do not, that we resist change? We just don’t like change. And the bottom line is we just get into our rhythm and our habits and we just don’t want to do new stuff. Oftentimes, it’s just more comfortable to do what we’ve always done. It’s more comfortable not to have to think about anything. Right. We we learn something. We figure something out. It’s just, you know, there’s no discomfort. It’s just we know what to expect. We know exactly what’s going to happen. There’s no surprises. It is just predictable. Right. And we like that. That’s our comfort zone. It’s human beings. That’s our comfort zones. So as a leader, how do you lead an organization? 

John Through change. And I will tell you, I’ve worked with so many different leaders and so many different industries. And I myself, as you know, have been a leader for many, many, many years. And there’s times when you do not lead yourself well through change, and it is impossible to lead your organization through any kind of substantial change unless you are good at it yourself. And I’m going to give you five keys that are essential to leading through what I call the pains of change, because change brings pain. And there are times where I’ve gone through change that was imposed on me and had to adapt. There were times where I was the one who was driving the change and had to have other people adapt. These are five really key things that are absolutely essential. 

John And I will tell you, if you follow these, it will dramatically impact your ability to lead people through change. Not three of these or four these follow all five of these. And here they are. If you’re driving, don’t do this. But if you’re not, take notes. Okay. Actually, these points are going to be in because I’ve got a fantastic production team, editing team. They’re going to put this in the show notes for you. Props to them. Great, great team. They’re going to put it in there for you so you can look pull it up on that right in the show notes. But number one, these are the five components, the leading through change. Number one, paint a clear picture of success. So, in other words, what does it look like once we get through the pains of change? I mean, what’s in it? What’s the with them? What’s in it for everybody on the team? How are their their lives? Better. What rewards do they have? I mean, if we truly hit a home run in doing this, this new initiative, and we adapt quickly, we succeed in making this change, what does it mean? 

John I mean, why is this change so important to our future as an organization and everyone’s future in here? Now, this could be anything. I could be a new software system. It could be moving to a new location. It could be a new channel of doing business. It could be a whole new process with something. It could be new people, it could be anything, could be a rebranding. It could be moving into a different sector. It could be closing down a business. It could be starting a new business. All of this involves change, and it is essential to move your people quickly through change and effectively. And that’s number one, paint a clear picture of what success looks like so they can grasp it and understand a little bit more about why they’re making the change and why it’s important to do it. That’s number one. Number two, and this is really critical because I see a lot of leaders skip this. 

John They think if they avoid this, that this will make it a little bit easier. In reality, it makes it much harder. Paint a realistic picture of what the challenges are ahead. Okay. Don’t make it a rosy picture. That’s just, you know, pie in the sky. Paint it very clearly as to what the challenges will be. What is it going to take to get there? What frustrations are people going to encounter? How long might they deal with this frustration, these frustrations? How long will it take to get success? How often are we going to want to turn back and give up? How will our day to day lives change? I mean, what’s going to be the worst moments we’re going to encounter? I mean, truly paint the picture for them, because if you can do that and you can explain to them, hey, listen, we’re all going to deal with this, here’s what’s going to happen, but here’s how we’re going to get through it. 

John One is we’re all doing at the same times, we’re all going to get through this together, but it’s not going to be absent of bumps in the road. It’s not going to be perfect. There’s going to be some things the cracks in the system we’re going to learn as we go through this. Okay. But what it’s going to take is our discipline to be consistent with taking steps forward through the chain. So that’s number two. Paint a realistic picture of the challenges ahead. Here’s number three. Have a plan as to how you’re going to deal with those change pains. Okay. For example, hey, if there’s new skills needed, so a lot of pain comes from just needing to learn different things and have new skills to deal with this. Okay. Well, how are you going to develop people and. Train people on those new skills. How are they going to ramp up and get more comfortable with things that are new to them and that are uncomfortable? 

John You know what are going to be the ways that people are going to be able to give feedback and talk and give lead up to other people in the organization as they’re going through change and things are not working or they’re broken and their frustrations are high. You know, how do they vent? You know, who do they talk to? What’s that going to look like? What are the how are you going to build the team? The other cohesiveness of this team that’s going through all the changes? Are you going to give them increased flexibility on autonomy? I mean, what is it going to look like? How are you going to help people deal with the discomfort and the pains of going through change and have a plan for the best teams? The best leaders have a plan as to how they’re going to help people deal with this. 

John Here’s number four. Critical, critical, critical. There’s nothing more important going through change than communication. I want you to triple your communication, not just double, but triple communication during times of change, you cannot overcommunicate. Fact of the matter is, people need to hear things seven times before it really sinks in and they understand it. So especially for talking about new stuff, new processes, new people, new roles, new responsibilities, new brands, everything. People need to understand what it means. And in order to do that, they need to hear it repetitively. You have to overcommunicate. This is critical. They need to hear regularly from the leader. They need to hear from you directly, and they need to see you. Don’t just put an email together, do a video, or go in person. Do something where they can see you. 

John They can hear your passion and your conviction and how important this is. And paint the picture again. Number one, paint the picture of success. But triple communication and communication is a two way street. It’s not just you talking, it’s listening, listening, listening, active, listening and listening with the intent to do something about it. Don’t just let it fall on deaf ears. Listen intently. Respond. Make sure you’re clear on what people are telling you. Do something with it, make decisions with it, make changes with it, make. Make the people feel important by giving, by listening as they give feedback. Here’s a fifth thing that’s very critical. Measure progress and celebrate progress. Okay, measure and celebrate progress. This is critical, even if it’s a tiny little step in the right direction. Celebrate a big deal at putting on a spotlight, whatever. Make people aware of the good stuff that’s happening, believe me. 

John Their attention will naturally be drawn to all the crappy things and the problems and everything that’s going wrong. You as the leader need to really big deal those successes. So that’s where they need it. Otherwise they’re going to get distracted by all the shit that’s not going right. Okay. You’ve got to be the one that’s carrying the torch on all the stuff that’s going well. Talk about the progress, share with them, keep track of it, publicize it, make it a big deal. Don’t be afraid to acknowledge the setbacks and the failures. That’s part of it. That’s part of the journey to success. But big deal, the progress as you make steps forward. So those five keys are essential. I’ll just real quickly, again, one, paint a picture, a clear picture of what success looks like at the other end. Once we get through this change, here’s what it means. Here’s what it looks like to paint a realistic picture of the challenges ahead and what this road, this bumpy road is going to look like while we go through it. 

John And three, how are we going to deal with the pains of change? Okay. What are the what’s the plan? How are we going to deal with that? How are we going to train people, get the skills that they need to go through whatever the case is for triple communication, not just double, triple, triple, triple communication and five measure and celebrate progress. So those five things are your keys to being an effective leader of change. There is, in my mind, one that’s one of the most critical skill sets a leader needs in this day and age. Organizations change faster in a more in a year than they used to change in 510 years. It is unbelievable. And they have to. It’s not that they are because they want to. They have to. 

John The world is changing so much faster now. Organizations need to change incredibly fast, which means leaders need to change even faster. You have to be nimble, adaptable, versatile. That is an essential ingredient to being tomorrow’s leader. So I hope this was helpful. Hobo’s valuable. Take it and run with it. Do something with it, give me feedback, let me know what you think. Let me know what you’re doing with it. Let me know the challenges you’re having. I’d love to chat with you. I’m here for you. In the meantime, like share, subscribe, go down below. Give a five star review. You know the deal and we’ll see you next time. Thanks. Bye. 

John Thanks for joining us on today’s episode of tomorrow’s leader for. Or suggestions or inquiries about having me at your next event or personal coaching, you can reach me at John@johnlaurito.com. Thanks, lead on!