How does a leader during unprecedented uncertainty know that followers are engaged to deliver the performance that could determine survival? With staff working remotely in Lockdown and restrictions, and many furloughed, their engagement on the job must be fundamental and knowing this, a key competence for the successful leader at this time.
It is no surprise to hear that we live in uncertain times and that as a leader and organisation we need to be agile and flexible like never before.
Rapid change is the new order and with that comes new and exciting challenges. The situation means that many of the usual parameters that leaders base their decisions on are in upheaval and strategies can become irrelevant quite quickly. This is unsettling for both leaders and the followers who look up to them for direction and resources to deliver.
Survival requires flexibility of mind and action, both from the leader and from followers. What we need in these times is the very best information to base our decisions on, but that information can be overtaken by change in the environment. If they are the most important resource as many organisations say, we primarily need to know about our staff and how ready and able they areto change and pivot towards the many opportunities that present themselves. So, do you know how ready you and your staff are to change?
Awareness is key to personal development and organisational change. Specifically an awareness of our current beliefs and thoughts that influence our feelings and which then go on to impact our behaviours and our actions.
You would you be better informed and more able to develop and plan for change if you could measure where you and your teams were on areas such as:
Confidence Self-belief, self-awareness, personal capability, personal influence and external awareness
Openness Communication, interpersonal skills, receptiveness, adaptability and attitude
Impact Emotional Commitment, intention to stay, voluntary behaviour, productivity orientation and performance
Engage is a development tool that measures a ‘snapshot’ of mindset, rather than aptitude or capability, personality or leadership ‘type’. Instead Engage measures where you or your team are at this moment in these core areas of performance and openness to change, a crucial requirement for success in uncertain times.
Engage highlights the areas that interfere with or accelerate change and development. Through leadership coaching these highlighted areas provide focus for growth for a leader with a direct impact on these significant challenges we currently face.
Many leaders jettison personal development and marketing in times of economic hardship, even though there is irrefutable evidence that those leaders who prepare for the recovery are more successful in the long run. They can envision the return on their investment. Engage provides leaders a means to do precisely this for growth and development. It enables a before and after measurement of individuals and of teams by simply repeating the Engage measurement process, after an intervention such as coaching. It measures effectiveness and impact.
Whatever your challenges for growth, development and change, coaches with ‘The Leadership Coaches’, using tools such as Engage, are able to support and facilitate your organisation towards success.
Would you rather know than guess how confident, open and impactful you and your followers feel in these unprecedented times? We at the Leadership Coaches are equipped and ready to support you through.
Written by Leadership Coach Ian White
