Helping Employees Deal with Workplace Change
Most people are very uncomfortable with change in the workplace —professionally and personally.
Even if it were change for the better it is often an unwelcome event as it takes employees out of their comfort zone. Intellectually, they may realize that the announced change will make the workplace and/or their jobs better. However, the typical emotional reaction is ambivalence (uncertainty, simultaneous and contradictory thoughts and feelings toward the action).
The better employees accept and deal with change, the more productive and engaged they will remain or become.
Qualities of People Who Thrive on Change
A smaller universe of people, not only deal well with change, but welcome and thrive on it. According to Carol Kinsey Goman, PhD, writing for Sideroad.com, identifying those qualities of people who embrace change and creating these qualities in your staff encourage smooth change transitions. Her article, “Help Staff Deal with Change at Work,” outlines these qualities and techniques to transmit these tips to your staff.
The qualities:
- Confidence. Self-confidence is always a winning quality. Its value is never more evident when welcoming change at the workplace.
2. Loving a challenge. Those who are competitive and love challenges often look forward to exciting changes at work.
3. Ability to cope. Those who are adaptable, as most creatures become through evolution, deal well with changes. They resist becoming overwhelmed or discouraged. These people simply “go with the flow.”
4. Good work-life balance. Most people that have a sense of balance in their lives, between the personal and professional, adapt well to change. It seems that those employees that have other interests, beyond the workplace, deal with change much better than those who are “married” to their jobs.
5. Creative people. Employees who are naturally curious tend to embrace change as a new adventure in gaining knowledge, fueling their inherent creativity.
6. Love of collaboration. There are those who prefer working individually, often alone. Others, however, like collaborating with a team to achieve solutions. These people also often thrive on change.
How can Managers Help Infuse These Qualities into Employee Mentalities
Try the following techniques to interject these qualities into your employee personas to help them deal with change in the workplace. The company and its employees will revel in the benefits of change in the ever-evolving business arena.
Quality Number:
- Focus on individual and team strengths. Use individual and team strengths to help employees accept change and implement necessary procedures with a smile, instead of a frown.
2. Emphasize optimism. Focus on opportunities that come with change, not the natural uncertainty and potential negatives. These opportunities typically include the ability to grow, gain knowledge, and overcome challenges.
3. Inject a sense of humor and levity. People can cope with change much easier when you lighten the mood. You minimize the inevitable stresses and pressures of change, while offering your employee a safe, comfortable “landing spot.” Few techniques exist to better lighten up a dower or stressful situation than some appropriate humor and a spirit of fun.
4. Encourage your employees to have other, meaningful life experiences. Support your employees’ getting a real life, hobby, pastime or other interests. Convince them that you understand and encourage a strong work-life balance. Your employees will appreciate your concern and position on this subject. Whether or not they verbalize their need for balance (or even consciously understand that it exists), your employees will appreciate your interest in their total—not just workplace—well-being.
5. Show respect for people’s natural creativity. Nurturing an employee’s “inner genius” generates and fuels creativity. All employees have creativity and innovation. Bringing it out can be challenging. Mandating it is impossible. However, publicly displaying your knowledge of and respect for your employee’s individual and collective creativity can make workplace change a highly successful event.
6. Take the time to sharpen your collaborative skills. You cannot mandate a collaborative employee. You can, however, influence a team mentality and active sense of collaboration, by showing the value of collaborating to achieve a goal. Design a collaborative environment that rewards employees for helping reach objectives necessary to implement changes.
These qualities help everyone deal with change. Approaching change at work with a supportive, challenged and self-confident employees delivers a long-term win-win result for managers, employees and the organization.
Sources: Sideroad
— Debbie Olinyk, WJS, Chief of Human Resources