3 Fixes for Change-Resistant Management

By Paul Diamond, Vistage Web Editor

Many business leaders can find excuses for why their company hasn’t changed, progressed and grown recently. But excuses won’t lead to a more engaged staff, better customer service, new products and more profit. While there’s no “one-size-fits-all” model for corporate success, seasoned leadership and management trainer Bob Prosen suggests that strong leadership can overcome the crippling habits of change-adverse organizations.

Here are three problems that tend to hinder companies from making much needed changes — the type of changes that will help them perform well regardless of market conditions.

Problem: No clear directives. If you’re hearing any of the following, says Prosen, then your company suffers from an absence of clear directives: I can’t get anything done . . . Everything is a priority . . . I wish management would quit changing their minds . . . I didn’t know I was supposed to do that.

Solution: Set only a few company goals that are easy to say and remember. Set individual goals that are specific and measurable. Ask employees to articulate how their jobs directly support the company goals.

“Try this,” says Prosen “walk around and ask your people about the company’s goals. If they can tell you, pull it up on a computer, or point to a nearby sign then you have part of the solution. Employees, who don’t know the top objectives, struggle to directly connect their work to desired outcomes.”

“Remember,” says Prosen “to put the objectives and goals on meeting agendas, in ongoing written and verbal communications, and in marketing collateral. Make your company’s objectives come to life in everything the company does.”

Problem: Planning in lieu of action. Prosen says, if you hear or say the following at your company: “That’s not in the plan” or “We missed the plan and need a revised forecast,” then you are most likely not fully committed to achieving your goals. Many companies go through several quarters before acknowledging they’re not achieving the results they’d planned for, and then say, “Let’s revise the plan again.”

“When companies don’t meet their profit objectives quarter after quarter,” says Prosen, “they eventually blame the plan. Leaders then blame the market or the employees and react by downsizing the company. It’s a vicious, disastrous and expensive cycle.”

Solution: Create plans that are specific, measurable and evaluated monthly. Long-range plans (three to five years) are useful for setting and communicating direction, but should be restricted to senior management. Short-range plans covering 12 to 18 months help employees stay on course and deliver results. Your plans should have easy-to-articulate goals that are owned by specific people. Create a measurement system that’s visible so that everyone knows the results and sees the deviations.

“When deviations occur,” says Prosen, “a company must act immediately to remedy the situation. Problems never get better without action.”

Problem: Aversion to risk and change. Many companies, says Prosen, hold a collective belief that if they keep doing those things that produced positive results, then positive outcomes will continue in perpetuity. With the world around us is in constant flux, this idea rarely holds true. Too many businesses become experts at rationalizing the current situation even while taking high write-offs, reducing their workforce, cutting benefits, dividends, and earnings expectations, and then finally admitting that their financial crisis was the outcome of not adapting to a changing market.

Solution: Take risks, make bold decisions and stick with it. “Management must encourage calculated risk-taking and demonstrate that people who take risks and occasionally miss the mark will live to try again. If you don’t take risk your competitors certainly will,” says Prosen.

Vistage speaker Bob Prosen is the best selling author of Kiss Theory Good Bye – Five Proven Ways to Get Extraordinary Results in Any Company. For more information see Prosen’s article, “The Leader’s Daily Checklist,” and more on his newsletter signup page. www.bobprosen.com (972) 899-2180