KateNasser.com

Most leaders trigger change. Some are constantly pulling the trigger and often with disastrous results. If you are a leader who craves change, ask yourself:

Do you see change fatigue?

or

Think it’s all change resistance?

I see a great deal of change resistance as I consult to organizations. Most leaders and consultants focus on this for it is the big challenge of moving an organization forward.


I also see some leaders whose leadership philosophy breeds change fatigue. They are either very high drivers or high idea generators and often quite unaware that they are pulling the trigger far too often.


They see change fatigue as just more change resistance and continue on unchanged (ironically enough) with the same leadership behaviors.


They also convince themselves that because their goal is success, the difference between change fatigue and change resistance is irrelevant. Quite the opposite is true.

Change resistance occurs when people are still committed to the organization albeit the current picture.

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Change fatigue can sever their ability to be committed to the organization and redirect it to individual survival.

Moreover, change fatigue can neutralize your strongest proponents of change — those that aren’t resisting. Even they feel lost, disconnected, and incapable of achievement. Once this engine of change is shot, you and your organization can achieve very little.

Change fatigue will most likely occur when your leadership vision is driven by the treasure hunt syndrome or when your vision constantly changes.

The leaders and teams that report to you barely start to work on one initiative or direction when you reset and redirect. Although some of this happens in every organization, as a leadership style it can leave all exasperated, fatigued and disconnected.

The biggest risk of change fatigue is that organizational performance suffers. As a leader you are focusing on future success while the floor you are standing on is sagging beneath you. The new one you are trying to lay has poor supports as well.

• Your direct reports begin to delegate some of their responsibilities to their teams whether they are skilled or experienced enough to handle it or not. The outcomes are substandard.
• Collaboration and teamwork erode because the current path becomes a grapevine of misunderstandings.
• Their exasperation undermines their respect and trust for you and your leadership.

Change Loving Leaders — Prevent Change Fatigue!

1. Build the culture that goes with your vision. If you as a leader crave high innovation and change, then inspire a fun, creative, learn-from-mistakes type culture.

   Do you encourage all the employees to noodle new ideas? Participating in creativity breeds a more positive feeling about change.

   Or are you mistakenly reserving that privilege for yourself or a select few and holding all others responsible for the implementation and delivery? High driver leaders are prone to this misstep.




2. Ensure you understand what it takes to implement. Employees who shine at implementation and operation must see that your vision sees the reality of effort needed. You need these employees that can actually plan, build, or coordinate the building of those new processes, products or services. Do they see that you value and respect their talent for staying the course to the end to make these changes happen?




3. Procure extra resources to implement all your new ideas or make clear what can truly be pushed aside. If the myriad of ideas and changes you envision are to happen, then back fill the operations with additional contractors to truly allow the full time staff to work on the exciting new changes.




4. Communicate with the employees not to the employees. That does not mean they can set any vision they wish. Yet, the dialogue helps you to see a clearer picture of what’s needed for innovation and gives them a better understanding of what is possible going forward.

Knowing the difference between change resistance and change fatigue strengthens your success quotient.

- Fatigue is something you cause which can even crush the spirit of your change proponents.

- Resistance occurs within employees. You can ease and eliminate it with great communication, clear vision, and active employee engagement.

Address change resistance — prevent change fatigue. Fatigue is a pricey diversion with long lasting effects.


From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

Related Posts:
Leaders, Leading Change Requires Networking Our Inspiration

5 Keys to Succeeding with Leaders Who Crave Change

©2012 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.

Time after time we read how people hate change. Yet there is a small percentage who love change to the point of craving it. Have you ever met one? What is it like being around them?

If you work for leaders who are natural change agents and you are not one, you are probably very aware of how it makes you feel. Some compare it to being on a runaway roller coaster or constantly playing musical chairs. But do you know what feelings drive these natural change agents?

Succeeding with leaders who crave change is easier when you can see inside their mind.

The Feelings of Leaders Who Crave Change

• The Better Unknown. While contentment comforts you in the status quo, discontent churns inside someone who craves change. They have an inner sense that the present could be better so why keep it the same?




• Status Quo Doesn’t Really Exist. Natural change agents keenly see everything changing around them and believe that there is no such phenomenon as standing still. They feel they are awake and living in the natural order of change and see your inaction as risky.




• Change Is Exciting. Change lovers believe that everything is exciting in the beginning and then the glow of energy fades. They don’t understand why anyone would stand in the fading shadows when they could use their energy to find the light in future excitement.




• Find The Treasure. Many who crave change wonder what gems are hidden in the future rather than what trouble lies ahead. They are conceptual treasure hunters who don’t see the present as a present — the way that others do.




• Dig Out of the Rut. Change agents see the status quo as a breeding ground for apathy. What feels like comfort to you seems like malaise to them. They want to dig out of the rut and feel frustrated with others who don’t. One leader said about his organization, “I feel like I am pushing a truck out of a rut without a motor.”

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When emotions of change leaders are opposite to those they lead, the stress of change emerges from the gap. Communicating about the opposing emotions brings everyone to a tangible plan on how to manage the pace of change.

It won’t stop the changes (as you may be hoping) but it will allow you and the leaders to discuss a balance of needs without sacrificing the success of the organization.

In my next post on thriving in change, I will cover this topic in more detail. In the meantime …

What is change to you?
An exciting treasure hunt?
A valuable nuisance?
The beginning of the end?


The diverse answers to this question paint a canvas of the struggles of organizational change.

From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

©2012 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.

The Future of Customer Service & Customer Experience Without Silos

More and more C-Suite executives are seeing the business value of a super customer experience. Because B2B and consumer customers have easy access to more experiences and choices, customer experience is becoming a competitive differentiator.

Customer Service Teams

Will this be turning point of recognition that you have long desired?

Historically, leaders have viewed customer service as an expense that fixes company failures instead of brand building moments that contribute to business success.

They have poured resources into other aspects of customer experience (improved product design, redesigned sales channels) all with the view of reducing the need for customer service.

They have also looked for any way possible — from off shoring to automated reps in online chat sessions — to reduce the operational costs of customer service.

Now that customer reactions to those steps have been less than WOW, companies are reconsidering the business value of the culturally focused human touch in building company success. Who better to tap than current global customer service teams?

Customer service teams: Are you ready to embrace the changes needed to fulfill the new role?

Customer Service Leaders: Key Questions to Ready for Success

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Metrics.
How many of your metrics are focused on measuring cost and justifying your customer service teams’ existence vs. measuring customer experience? Of course cost is always an issue. Yet in the new success role you will play, it only takes on meaning if paired with what you are delivering that the customers value.


Re-allocating Agent Time.
Customer service operations managers — how would you react if the leadership asked you to allocate agent time to participate in other customer experience activities — product design review, listening to focus group feedback, participating in projects to redesign the online customer experience? Would you want your agents to contribute to these opportunities or worry that that it would drain your department temporarily or permanently?


Networking to Build the New Role.
Customer service managers — are you currently networking with your peers in other customer experience departments? How are you actively working to break the silos and build success for the company with other teams involved in customer experience?


Retraining Agents.
On customer service teams where there has been an extreme focus on cost metrics (e.g. average handling time), you may need to un-train and retrain agents for this broader role. Are you open to this?

Also, if you have also set the culture to be highly competitive between agents by publishing individual agent metrics, you may need to build collaborative skills to work with other customer experience teams and to focus all on unity of purpose.

This change is low risk and high return. There are many customer service teams who have met their performance metrics without agent competition and internal collaboration improves the customer experience.


Reorganization.
OK customer service managers — now for the tough question. If leaders were to float the idea of reorganizing to integrate customer service teams into other customer experience departments, would you resist? This is difficult for it may mean a dramatic shift in your role and career.

Overcome the fear of this change by realizing the potential for your career in having exposure to these new opportunities. Just as your agents will flourish from this cross pollination of professional development, so will you.

Be aware of the signs that you are holding on and resisting change:

• Insisting it won’t work because the cultures and goals of the various teams are too diverse. Instead establish the new goal of a seamless customer experience and build one culture to match it.
• Foretelling catastrophe in operational performance if these changes are made. Performance has to match the newgoal!
• Interpreting the idea of reorganization as a condemnation of all your efforts to date

Address the last one by stepping up and proactively lobbying to replace the old fixing failure view of customer service departments.

Show leaders in your company that you and customer service agents can build bridges between all customer service & experience teams for the success of the company.

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If you truly want to rid your customer service teams of the fixing failure role, step up and champion the idea of a seamless super customer experience.

The future of customer service and super customer experience will be built without silos. Customer service managers — why not lead the way?

From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

Related Posts:
Super Customer Experience in Harmony With Customers

Leaders, Foresee the Burdens of Needy Customers

©2012 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please first email info@katenasser.com for terms of use. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on customer service experience, teamwork, and leading change. She turns interaction obstacles into business success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.

Leaders, are you conflicted when your best performer is change resistant? As I highlight a change resistor to leaders who engage my consulting and training, many have said to me “but this person is our best performer!”


Behind that short reply from leaders is great risk to the success that lies ahead. Because of this, I ask leaders, can a change resistor get you to Oz? No and neither can denial.

Leading to Oz

1. Leaders, your shock and disappointment are normal. Your denial, deadly. Any employee can be a change resistor. Occupational performance does not guarantee change-ability.




2. Be ready for a show down in the evil forest. Some top performers believe they are indispensable and can resist the change. Before initiating significant change, know what internal and external resources you have to keep everything moving ahead. It also helps the resistors see they are not indispensable.




3. Replace your fear of performance loss with courage and belief in your vision. Most team members will buy into and even contribute to organizational change if they see that it is not debatable and understand what the vision means for them.




4. Redefine performance to include change-ability. Long term success means adapting to change. Discuss this with your team members and let them know that their skill is valuable if they apply it to a changing vision.




5. Top performers and high achievers sometimes want an extremely clear picture of the change before they buy into it because they want to be seen as a high achiever throughout the process. That is not always available. Other high achievers trust in their ability to succeed even in ambiguity.

   Let everyone know that you trust in their ability and know their will be ups and downs throughout the change. Commitment and focus is the key — not perfection.

Lead change with vision, courage, and communication.

What other factors contribute to a top performer resisting change instead of helping to lead change?

From my experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

©2011-2012 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers consulting, training, DVDs, and keynotes that turn interaction obstacles into business success especially in tough times. Leading change, employee engagement, customer service experience, and teamwork. See this site for workshops outlines and customer results.

Leaders, who lead change well during tough times, filter out needless noise. Their experience is the filter. It enables leadership without the bullshit.

New leaders, many in middle management, face an ironic challenge. They are building experience — the filter — while trying to filter!

I feel for new leaders and consult on the great challenges they face to give their experience a boost. They deserve a just-in-time filter for needless noise when leading change.

So here it is — a guide to leadership without the bullshit. Help new leaders. Add your experience in the comments section below to strengthen this filter even further.

Image by: Leo Reynolds


10 Point Leadership Experience Booster

Leading change in tough times …

1. The status quo doesn’t really exist. Things are always changing. Don’t debate if change should occur. It is occurring. Communicate, listen, and engage the team to create success together.




2. Convert why questions to what questions to filter the noise. Questions that start with the word what generate tangible dialogue and understanding.
   Rephrase why is this happening to …

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   What conditions have changed and are feeding the need for more change?
   What are we facing in the future and how do we prepare?
   What roads can we take to get there?




3. Acknowledge the struggle don’t encourage it. Acknowledging the struggle that people have with change is helpful if you also ask them how they will get through it. Else they think it is your job to eliminate their struggle and you enable their resistance.




4. Encourage success by moving forward. Don’t confuse endless talk about the struggle with being an empathetic leader. If you want to be a caring leader make the unknown, known, by moving everyone forward sooner than later.




5. Negativity and positivity are both contagious. It’s pretty clear which one will create success. Admittedly people don’t have to be singing and smiling all the time. If they are very engaged in the change and venting some along the way, it’s natural.
   Yet constant complaining will retard progress and ignoring it is a classic mistake. The power of negativity is there even if you deny it. Call it out and note the impact of it. Identify what is needed instead.




6. Morale matters. Celebrate talents applied to the common purpose. You will see untapped potential materialize into unexpected wins. Even if your boss is a results-only person, always remember that morale impacts results. It is needed. It’s not a waste of time.




7. Perfectionism kills momentum. If you or team members suffer from the blight of perfectionism, override it with the motto make it work. It is rare that you will have all the information, optimal conditions, maximum resources, or complete understanding. When team members raise these points as reasons not to proceed, involve them in risk assessment and problem solving.




8. Personality type differences change from obstacles to advantages with simple training. To ensure that your diverse team members mesh even in tough times, hold a personality assessment workshop before the stress hits. Focus on how to adapt to behaviors and avoid using the results as labels. Make it fun and it boosts morale.




9. Hedging on difficult or necessary conversations confuses people; it doesn’t console them. Give employees the gift of being clear. Honest focused dialogue shows respect for them as adults and builds respect for you as a leader.




10. Redirect extremes into critical thinking focused on results. Tough times provoke stress and emotion that yield rigid outlooks and absolute opinions. Facilitate discussions that reawaken a realistic mindset and empower a can-do approach.

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What have you learned from needless bs at work that leaders can use to filter out future noise?

What will you add to this experience booster? What is your #11?

Thanks in advance for adding your insight here.


From my experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

©2011-2012 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers consulting, training, DVDs, and people-skills keynotes on leading change, teamwork, employee engagement, and customer service experience. She turns interaction obstacles into business success especially in tough times of change. See this site for workshops outlines and customer results.

Fill the gaps of change and diversity with business wins!

On more than one occasion as an organizational consultant, I have detected hidden workplace change resistance long before the leaders and managers. They asked me later, how did you know?

It got me thinking about how I spot change resistance lurking in the cubicles.

I detect clues much like Sam Spade.
I spot …

1. Words that are contradicted by actions or inaction.
2. Words or actions that seem forward focused while anchoring everyone in the status quo.
3. Questions that are actually saying no. These are resistance statements in disguise.
4. What doesn’t fit or make sense given incentives, choices, and conditions.

How can you become the Sam Spade of change resistance?

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Give yourself permission. It’s both OK and essential that you see the reality. Sharpening your sight doesn’t make you a tyrant or a cynic.

Be ever present and conversational. Your conversations, formal and informal, will produce more clues. Presentations where you ask for questions are only a small piece of the picture. To see a more detailed picture, get a closer view.

Trust your ability to handle change resistance else you might overlook a clue that’s right in front of you.

Overcome any fear of conflict otherwise you may block from your mind what you find undesirable. As leaders, your inner strength will guide you through discomfort and give your teams a beam of support during the change.

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Your detective skills help all involved in the change. They unearth obstacles, concerns, and energy drains that everyone can address once out in the open.

Contrarily, overlooking resistance, avoiding conflict, being distant during the angst and stress, tells your teams you don’t believe in the change. If you don’t believe in it, why should they?

Lead change with vision far and near. Like a detective you will unearth both obstacles and success — with and for your teams.

From my experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach


How have you detected hidden change resistance? What specific clues got your attention and how did you handle them?

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers workshops, keynotes, and consultations that turn interaction obstacles into organizational success. Leaders have been booking Kate for 21 years to fill the gaps of diversity with action and teamwork. See this site for customer results and book Kate now.

Are you slow to change even when things are bad?  Thriving in change is not as complicated as you think. Those who thrive in change act on one belief: scale down to step up.

Scale Down to Step Up

1. Abandon absolutes of your thoughts and make space for new ideas.  I always saw myself as a speaker and not a writer.  I now do both.




2. Move constant complainers off the team to boost morale and productivity of committed workers. The re-energized team will produce better results.




3. Reduce false hope that things will change and increase actions to make things change. Take small steps forward. You lessen fear of mistakes and build self empowerment.




4. Eliminate relationships that focus on your weaknesses and step up to supportive connections. I walked away from a 15 year friendship when  I admitted that she was a wart on the spirit of life.




5. Give up comforts that keep you in the present and adopt new comforts that move you forward. I scaled down cable TV. I found all types of fun online learning and discovered more time for interesting new friends and Latin dancing.

Thriving in Change. Throw off the old myth: better the devil you know.  Habit makes the current pain seem easier for now.  But thought-filled action brings new found possibilities and a new found confidence.

Best wishes for your future. I am here as your GPS and catalytic force.

From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please first email info@katenasser.com for terms of use. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, customer service, customer experience, and teamwork. For 23 years, she has turned interaction obstacles into business success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer testimonials and results.

The best service experience for the customer includes being recognized, being known — treated as a regular valued customer. Whether it’s the bagel shop on the corner that remembers your usual order or the greeting in a high status platinum frequent flier lounge, being known is a great experience.

The worst customer experience is not being unknown; the worst experience is to become unknown.

Do you un-know your known customers? The loss that the customers experience causes a huge loss of trust — often an irreparable break. It often happens during times of change. Here’s a checklist to assess and prevent this descent.

From Known to Unknown

1. Have you recently changed business procedures?  Do those procedures treat known customers that you can trust as unknown customers that you can’t? That is how the customers experience it. Remedy: Consider changes in procedure from the view of the customer before finalizing them. Do they serve the customer or just the company?




2. Has your company purchased or merged with another company? Employees aren’t the only people who will struggle with the changes. The customers will struggle if they go from being known long time valued customers to being just IDs in a database. Remedy: Intelligent databases that retain valued information and CSRs who use that information well.




3. Have you recently had turnover in personnel or new hires? The customers can experience a loss when new hires treat them as unknown. Remedy: Brief and train anyone who interacts with customers — receptionists, CSRs, sales, marketing, account reps — on current customers’ buying patterns and preferences. If that isn’t possible due to the size of the business, have the new hires let the customers know they are new hires. It explains the lack of knowledge and prevents misunderstandings.

If customers tell you they are displeased about being treated as a number or an unknown, avoid replying that things have changed. Expressions like, time marches on, it’s the age of technology, one bad apple spoils the bunch, reinforce that they no longer matter as individuals.

It makes matters worse and can irreparably damage the relationships. Instead, use their dissatisfaction as an opportunity to learn even more about the customers and re-secure the bond.

This post is not a plea to stop change; it is a reminder to handle change well to avoid un-knowing your customers.

What else will prevent “un-knowing” the customers? I welcome your thought-filled discussion in the comments field below.

©2010 Kate Nasser, Somerville, NJ. For permission to re-post or republish, please email info@katenasser.com.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, continues to guide and teach diverse businesses and industries how to deliver great customer service for outstanding experiences and long term business success.

Fun Facts to Find Comfort with Change

Much of my work in speaking, consulting, and training produces growth and change.  In April, I will speak at the International Help Desk 2009 Conference on the topic Leading Change and Neutralizing Resistance in Customer Service & Help Desks.   It is always a hot topic because so many humans have difficulty dealing with change.  Most see it as a loss.  In a future article on this blog, I will address this topic more seriously. 

 

On this grey winter day, I would rather share fun facts to find comfort with change.  I hope you enjoy.

 

(You are welcome to share the content of this blog with your colleagues and friends, with other blogs, and in other articles.  I ask only that you credit me as the source with this URL: www.smartpeopleskills.com).

 

Change is going on at this very moment.  Even if you experience change as a loss, you don’t stress out over it when you aren’t aware of the loss. 

1.       “Humans shed about 600,000 particles of skin every hour. That works out to about 1.5 pounds each year, so the average person will lose around 105 pounds of skin by age 70.“ Source:http://health.howstuffworks.com/16-unusual-facts-about-the-human-body2.htm

You don’t shed tears over shedding your skin do you?  No.  Although I would  like to know where all those skin particles go.

2.       ­“Did you know that you get a new stomach lining every three to four days? If you didn’t, the strong acids your stomach uses to digest food would also digest your stomach.” Source:http://health.howstuffworks.com/16-unusual-facts-about-the-human-body2.htm

After reading this, would you resist the change and try to keep your old stomach lining?

3.       “­You may not want to swim in your spit, but if you saved it all up, you could.  In a lifetime, the average person produces about 25,000 quarts of saliva — enough to fill two swimming pools!” Source:http://health.howstuffworks.com/16-unusual-facts-about-the-human-body2.htm

I’ll pass on saving up saliva.  Thanks.

There are positive changes that stress people out as well.

1.       Starting a new fantastic job

2.       Getting married

3.       Buying a house/relocating

4.       Becoming a parent

In these situations, you are aware of the change and often not aware of the loss.  So ironically, people frequently say: “Why am I unhappy?  I’m supposed to be overjoyed!”  If you were unhappy in your job or were unemployed, a new fantastic job should mean happiness.  Yet in the process of learning the new job, you face temporary dips in productivity, in feeling expert, and in confidence.  These momentary losses create stress. 

 

Of course, it wouldn’t be an article on change without quoting the axiom: People fear the unknown.  Really?  Try this silly little exercise.  Close your eyes and imagine all the things in life you don’t know.  Do you feel afraid?  Probably not.  In fact, some people find the unknown to be exciting. 

 

What many people fear is the unknown outcome of a change.  Will I succeed in this higher level job? Will I lead this new organization well after all the layoffs?   Will I find people I like when I relocate?  Will I be able to make the mortgage payments?  Will it resell at a profit?

 

Change the words and conquer the fear.  Years back I made the decision to leave my corporate job, by choice, and start my own business.  Happy time, right?  Yes until the full reality stared me in the face.  All the “will I” fears noted above crept into my brain.  I then switched the words from will I to what and how.  What do I need to do?  What workshops will organizations buy more frequently?  How will I differentiate my services?  What is the biggest success I can picture?  How far can I go?  What and how created action that transformed the fear of the unknown outcome into actual outcomes and success.

 

Whether you are leading a change, swept up in a change, or choosing a change, action is as essential to your success as  the air you breathe is to your survival.  If however you get stuck in fear, I recommend two powerful classic books to move you to action: Transitions by William Bridges and The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino. 

 

What else helps you feel comfortable with change?  Please share your comments in the field below.

 

Visit this blog again for much more on thriving in change. Subscribe to the RSS feed to receive action alerts!

 

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach

Speaking and Training on Customer Service, Teamwork, Thriving in Change

908.595.1515 (USA)

Thanks for 20 years and counting …

MA Organizational Psychology

Continuous Learner