Category Archives: Business & Leadership
3 Start-Up Tips for Non-Profits
1. Relationship Building
2. Reputation is King
3. Results Matter
Organizational Intelligence: Confronting a Fear-based Working Environment
Employed as a leadership coach for various organizations over the past two years I encountered many working environments; some great, some good, and unfortunately, some bad ones. The one most demoralizing is the fear-based working environment. You know that place of employment, where there’s little to no motivation to passionately pursue and expand organizational goals. The problem isn’t the employee but leadership’s inability to foster respect and build trust. In a fear based one working environment, the leader (manager or owner) controls with fear, creating negative vides in the workplace. This type of environment is challenging to say the least. In an economy like ours (December 2009), it is much more difficult for any employee to leave their job for a better work setting, so they stick around hoping for any kind of change. Like the movie, The Matrix, it’s like being caught in a never ending simulated reality; once you’re in it, you can’t leave. If you do leave, you have to get at the end of line, and wait for weeks, even months to be called for an interview. So what‘s an employee to do? The ideas presented in this blog post will help you navigate through this kind of working environment.
In a fear based working environment employees’ walk on eggshells wondering when the leader will show up to reprimand someone publically. I personally witnessed this scenario first hand many times. I remember a situation where employees were doing their jobs when suddenly the owner appears, standing quietly in a corner unannounced, watching to see if anyone says or does something slightly out of line. As soon as employees’ became aware of this person’s presence the atmosphere changed, giving each other “the look”, as if, “Be aware, she’s here!” As the owner walked around, the employees became quiet, perhaps hoping she would not choose any of them to pick on.
On other occasions, procedures or systems were changed simply by the owner’s whim or because a client-customer made passing comment or mild complaint. Instead of keeping or making a slight adjustment to a working system, a whole new system was devised and implemented. And most critical of all, reprimands were too often made in the open or in meetings, not in a private office.
Liz Ryan, author of Ten Signs of a Fear Based Workplace notes:
“Fear shuts down our ability to think creatively, collaborate, and bring passion to the job. When getting through the day requires a focus on keeping one’s head down, taking no risks, and sucking up to anyone in management, your organization’s soul has left the picture.”
A fear-based working environment is difficult to change, since the owner/leader is set in his or her ways. Insecure leaders who think critically of others, rather than optimistically breed fear. Weak employees, who fear confronting the obvious elephant in the room, would rather put up with it, keeping the status quo. A leader creating this type of environment is usually caught in trap; to change would mean he or she would have to admit they have been managing wrongly, and would need to change their ways. So the struggle to achieve excellent working cultures stalls organizational effectiveness, even quenching the human spirit.
How does one confront such a leader? The best way to do this is through group confrontation, where several respected, tenured and highly qualified employees approach the leader in private with a short list of observations. What is a leader to do, fire this elite group? If a leader has any sense he or she should receive this honest feedback to gain respect required to lead effectively, then create the changes needed to transform themselves and their working environments.
What are other suggestions required to turn this type of working environment around?
3 Definitive Tests of Intregrity
When I think of the word integrity, immediately the biblical story of Joseph comes to mind. This story is found in the book of Genesis, chapters 37 to 45 – it’s worth a concentrated read. In this story, three major challenges were encountered by Joseph that would test and measure his integrity; his worth as a person. I have presented these three tests in question form for your consideration. Let’s see if you can pass the definitive tests of integrity:
1. Does your integrity waiver when everyone around you is against you?
Joseph, the youngest among a band of 11 brothers, was envied, verbally abused, scorned, rejected and sold into slavery by his brothers after he shared a few stories about how the others would bow before him and serve him. Simply put, his brothers’ couldn’t stand the youngest and most favored son of their father to rule over them. Joseph became so annoying to them that when they found a place and opportune time to get rid of him, they did, by selling him as a slave to a caravan heading toward Egypt.
What would you do to save your life in this situation? Would you renounce your dreams, change or stop telling your story to preserve your life? Many perhaps would, only a few would allow the hand of Providence to have its way in time. Joseph did not sell out his dream, even when everyone around him was against him. This is integrity.
2. When you are falsely accused, do you try to clean it up?
As a slave in the land of Egypt, Joseph landed a position as a steward, as overseer and manager of his master’s house, meaning his was the executor of his master’s business dealings and wealth. This position placed Joseph in his master’s estate; close to his personal belongings and his family, even his wife. His master’s wife had something for Joseph for quite some time, she wanted to have sex with him. One day, when her husband went away on a business trip, she saw her opportunity to seduce Joseph; by accident Joseph found himself alone with his master’s wife. She tried to force him to come to bed with her but he refused turning his back on her, he fled out the door in a hurry. As he fled she managed to grab a hold of his garment, tearing it off of him. She was then left with a piece of Joseph’s property, so she devised a plot to accuse him falsely. When her husband arrived from his trip, she told him a lie to get even with Joseph for not sleeping with her. Surely, she was covering up her own lust and intentions toward Joseph. Joseph’s master was angry and had him put in prison.
When you are falsely accused, would you try to clean up the mess to set the record straight? Would you lawyer up? Joseph loved his master, and did not want to make this incident a public disgrace for him, so he kept quiet and allowed Providence to have its proper course. Many would try to get out of it but Joseph kept quiet, trusting that a just God would soon vindicate him.
3. Once you gain a position of power over those who’ve hurt you in the past, do you try to get even?
Much later, after Joseph’s troubles were over, he found favor in Pharaoh’s eye. So Pharaoh promoted him to a position of great influence over Egypt. He was responsible over food allocations for the country, and eventually after a severe famine that took hold in the region, he became even more significant to the world. Joseph had risen to the top; no one had this kind of power except Pharaoh. Egypt was the economic power of the world at that time, and Joseph was given status to rule and administer the food portions to the world. But Joseph had one more test to go through; he needed to be reconciled to his brothers who had sold him into slavery. One day his brothers came to ask for food, since the land of Canaan had severe famine. To make my story short, Joseph’s brothers encountered Joseph twice but did not know who Joseph was since he had changed physically over time, and perhaps with Egyptian garb he became less detectable. Joseph needed to forgive his brothers, and he did, even though he had enormous powers to do as he pleased with them. Joseph kept his integrity intact through this whole process. Forgiveness was the measure of Joseph’s integrity.
How many of us, in positions of great power over others, could forgive a wrong done to us by those seeking our help?
Everybody Needs a Coach at Some Point
Coaching, in its many forms, is simply creating a trust relationship with someone for the purpose of optimizing relational exchanges, thereby, facilitating learning, building more self-awareness, sharpening personal and leadership skills to produce excellent outcomes.
Coaching transforms lives by giving on the spot real time feedback, where the person being coached can make reasonable choices in the moment to adjust decision-making and behavior. Effective coaching facilitates a person’s transformation by producing new thinking coupled with new actions. If you desire to advance from your current state of “being and doing” you will most certainly need a coach to launch you to the next level. Latino Townhall offers the following coaching services:
Life Coaching: This type of coaching identifies personal restraints, then seeks to build strategies to bring the individual into greater realms of self-awareness and life purpose, so the individual can access and experience living at a higher level.
Leadership Coaching: In the end results matter to your supervisor, shareholders and consumers. To lead others you must gain their respect and trust so you can harness their collective power to garner greater results. A leader must learn to create an environment where team members can be empowered to enhance overall team performance, thus moving the agenda of the organization forward with superiror performance.
Strategic Coaching: Learning to gain perspective is everything! This type of coaching increases strategic thinking and implementation skills, which helps the individual move his or her business in the right direction by going through a three-point process to gain greater depths of perspective; these three perspectives are mastering hindsight, foresight and insight principles.
Transitional Coaching: Many individuals are challenged while transitioning from High School to college, from one job to another, mid-life crises, even transitioning from a career into retirement. Transitional Coaching helps individuals think through the ramifications of transition, then finding solutions for moving with success through these cyclical and common transitions. Transitional Coaching is about understanding and coping with loss, then engaging new strategies as you move into the next phase of your life. The goal of Transitional Coaching is helping individuals experience a “culture shift” rather than a “culture shock” as they move into a new season of their lives.
7 Reasons to Acquire a Coach:
1. Coaching engages your untapped potential.
2. Coaching increases self-awareness.
3. Coaching builds your confidence as a leader.
4. Coaching increases learning capabilities.
5. Coaching sharpens your personal skills.
6. Coaching fine-tunes your social competencies.
7. Coaching takes you to a whole new level in “doing” and “being.”
Email Joel at LatinoTownhall@gmail.com (cut and paste email) for more information.
The Integrity Wheel
We should all seek wholeness and emotional health through the proper channels of course. For some of us, the process to become “whole” and “healthy” is discovered through spirituality, counseling or other areas dealing with the inner self, which brings about personal healing, growth and maturity within. In other words, you and I should strive to become a better version of self where all of our parts (spirit, soul and body) function at greater levels of personal performance. I choose the “circle” to exhibit this model since a circle is symbolic of something that is perfect and whole.
The Integrity Wheel is an idea or concept I developed a few years ago to assess one’s personal integrity in four areas, where you and I live and function on a daily basis:
1. Our Private Life
2. Our Personal Life
3. Our Professional Life
4. Our Public Persona
Each level has at least three areas to probe and evaluate (Go to link: Integrity Wheel). For instance, your personal life consists of many things. In my opinion, the most important areas is your marriage and family life, the way you view and practice financial planning, and your transparency (truthfulness, honesty, and openness) within the relationships that are most important in life.
Assessment Questions:
1. Private Life
a). What is your source of truth? Bible, Pagan Philosophy, other texts. Is your truth dynamic or static?
b). Is character important to you? If so, how do you go about cultivating character? Do you have mentors, who you allow to speak into your life? Are you constantly seeking self-improvement or just live day by day?
c). When searching the web, have you ever put your browser on “private settings” to view sexually illicit material? Is keeping your thoughts pure and unsullied important to you? What do you with a lustful thought?
2. Personal Life
a). How healthy is your marriage? Communication, Intimacy, Resolving Conflict, Openness, etc.
b). Is spending time with your children a priority? Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Annual Vacations. The common cliche’ is “Love is spelled T.I.M.E.?” This infers that time spent with your kids is loving them. I differ, you can spend time with your kids and have a true connection with them. How do you spell LOVE?
c). How do you view debt, and financial planning? What’s your view of wealth?
3. Professional Life
a). How close are you with other employees, direct reports, even your supervisor at work? Are you relationships improving? Do you avoid opportunities to grow in your relationships?
b). Is speaking out for just causes and doing things right important to you at work? Do you cut corners to get work accomplished?
c). Is there a secret relationship developing in your life at work (emotional affair, flirtatious relationshp, etc.) Does your wife know about the “opposite sex” relationships in your workplace?
4. Public Persona
a). How involved are you with your community; neighbors, civic organizations, etc.? What do these people say about you behind your back?
b). Reputation: How do you build one? How important is having one out in public life?
c). What’s your involvement in your “house of worship”? Would people in this setting vouch for your reputation?
Take a few moments to reassess your integrity. The quality of your life just may depend on this assessment.
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The Integrity Wheel, all rights reserved (c)2008 by Joel Garcia, Founder and President of Latino Townhall, Inc.
Are you having an emotional affair at work?
“A touch creates heat, heat creates a spark, and a spark turns into a fire.”
-Rev. Paul Goulet, Senior Leader ~ International Church of Las Vegas
It doesn’t take a Rocket Scientist to tell you that you’re having an emotional affair at work. Those who are
having one should know better yet they continue in their risky behavior, thinking they can get by undetected and unscathed. According to Gail Saltz:
“Emotional cheating (with an “office husband or wife”) steers clear of physical intimacy, but it does involve secrecy, deception, and therefore betrayal. People enmeshed in nonsexual affairs preserve their “deniability,” convincing themselves they don’t have to change anything. That’s where they’re wrong.”[i]
It’s this “deniability” that blinds them, and sooner or later, their clandestine affair is exposed. Emotional affairs are more prevalent in the workplace than you may think. In a study looking at infidelity statistics in the United States, the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy revealed 15 percent of wives and 25 percent of husbands engage in sexual relationships outside of marriage. That’s quite alarming by itself, but when emotional affairs are thrown into the equation, the numbers jump by more than 20 percent. In this day and age, it seems no relationship is safe from an affair. Emotional affairs at work tend to make up a large percentage of these numbers, and some research shows over 50 percent of opposite sex, work friendships end up turning into something
more.[ii] I remember sitting in a meeting with a high profile public leader, discussing his embarrassing exposure. The affair started subtly until they were alone and the rest is history. Once exposed it was a BIG disappointment to all involved. An emotional affair starts with a simple wink, then a compliment, an accidental bump in the hallway, and an innuendo here and there. Then all the sudden strong “feelings” take over and an uncontrollable urge and curiosity sets in to experiment further. Boundaries are then tested until it’s too late, you’ve gone over a boundary line. So what actually is an “emotional affair”? An emotional affair is an affair of the heart and mind, where a person sends subtle messages to another conveying a playful purpose yet keeping the relationship secretive in nature. If you want to know you are having an emotional affair at work, take the following assessment:
An Emotional Affair Assessment:
Is it your custom to…
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ask a particular person of the opposite sex out to lunch or coffee?
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purposefully go “out of your way” to talk to someone of the opposite sex each day?
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have closed door meetings with a person of the opposite sex?
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share marital problems or details about your marriage to the opposite sex that your spouse would not want others to know?
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look forward to seeing a particular person of the opposite sex at work each day?
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playfully text or email a particular person of the opposite sex on a regular basis?
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use innuendo language with a person of the opposite sex?
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be consumed in thought about a particular person of the opposite sex during or after work hours?
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inappropriately touch (rubbing up against another person, back rubs or hip bumping in the hall ways) someone of the opposite sex at work?
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write a private message to someone of the opposite sex, whom you happen to work with, on Facebook, Twitter, etc., without your spouse’s knowledge
- If you answered 2in the affirmative, you maybe a little misguided or just a big flirt, be careful!
- If you answered between 3 to 4 questions in the affirmative you’re in serious danger or on the boderline of having an emotional affair, and need to reconsider your boundaries before something more serious happens.
- If you answered 5 or more questions in the affirmative, then you are having an emotional affair at work, and need to stop your behavior, seek counseling or speak with a mentor.
What boundaries can you design (personally or in policy form) to curtail an emotional affair in your workplace? Does your workplace have a code of ethicis in place addressing this type of behavior?
Footnotes:
[i] Could you be having an emotional affair? By Gail Saltz, May 21st, 2009.
[ii] Emotional Cheating Signs – Could These Be Signs Of An Affair? Monday, February 21st, 2011.
The Anatomy of an “A” Team
An “A” Team is a concept many of us should be familiar with by now since it has been used many times in sporting analogies, staff meetings and other cultural settings. As a matter of fact, the recent Hollywood movie bearing the same title has illuminated the theme once again. One thing is for sure, when someone speaks about an “A” Team, they are talking about the “best of the best” working together on a single team. An “A” Team must have more than the obvious working for them, such as possessing great talent, having a high degree of discipline, and more importantly working together in unity.
On my drive home one evening, the letter “A” came to the forefront of my mind. I did not know “why” at the moment but I began to examine its construction very closely; studying its shape, angles and connection points. Soon three distinct features emerged before me. First and foremost, the letter “A” has two anchor points acting as the foundation. Second, the letter “A” has a horizontal beam in the middle supporting both sides. Finally, the letter “A” is connected at the top culminating at a fine point. Each part contributes to the shape, look and feel of the letter “A”. After this brief revelation three essential features working for it:
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An “A” Team is solidly anchored upon at least two enduring principles (Convictions).
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An “A” Team has a strong support system (Community).
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An “A” Team is connected from top to bottom (Communication).
Let me elaborate on each point more clearly. (Note: I will use the words team and organization interchangeably):
1. An “A” Team is solidly anchored upon at least two enduring principles
First, allow me to define an “anchor point”. An anchor point is a foundational and enduring principle that your team is founded upon or known for; values, virtues, and creeds that grounds the team firmly. Anchor points should give us “purpose” and “meaning” for existing; the things that really matter at the end of the day. Anchor points bind a team together. Your team would not exist without anchor points. If you were to choose two anchor points that define your team, what would they be? Here’s an anchor list I created for you to work with, you may have more thoughts:
- Integrity: truth and transparency.
- Branding: image and value.
- Organizational: service reliability and product integrity.
- Work ethic: working hard with a sense of pride.
- Compassion: creating a family culture; nurturing and caring for each other.
- Trust: building a culture of interdependence, honesty and openness.
If your team members were asked to list two things about your organization, what would they come up with? Would all them pretty much say the same thing or would it pretty much look like a laundry list of complaints? What two anchor points make your team or organization sustainable through stressful events and great challenge?
2. An “A” Team has a strong support system
An “A” Team has a strong support system by adopting mentoring programs where everyone is seen as a key player, producer and emerging leader. A strong support system is based on “trust”, nothing more – nothing less. Team members with strong support systems intact – respect, honor and support one another. An “A” Team built around a supportive environment provides training and mentoring, speaks the truth with grace; they look after each other, and they hold each other accountable. Teams with strong support systems are stronger, better, possess high morale, and produce excellence throughout the organization. Is there room to say more?
3. An “A” Team is connected from top to bottom
A team that is disconnected experiences much conflict but so do teams who are highly connected. Conflict is inevitable and common, especially when talented people are expected to play or work together on the same team. So what’s the remedy? A team must build strong ties from top to bottom by creating and maintaining strong communication systems. Communication helps with the flow of work, production and removes ambiguity. A team who cannot communicate is a team doomed to fail. Effective communication:
- Brings clarity to vision and mission.
- Challenges teams members to conform to a code of excellence.
- Confronts weakness and mediocrity.
All communication starts at the top, however, even those at the top must be able to hear what’s happening at the ground floor, meaning those who are actually putting “feet” and “might” into producing results. Those working the “shop” floor per say must hear frequently from the top brass, as well as provide vital information by providing constructive feedback. How does this happen? Each team member must purposefully, systematically and creatively communicate. There are times when you need to meet with your executive team, and that’s fine, but not at the expense of neglecting others! A team leader must remember to also gather the middle managers; hear them out and inject your wisdom into their daily strategy. Finally and most critically, you must gather the whole team from top to bottom to share vision and remind each player of the mission and purpose of the organization. It would behoove team leaders to take a walk at least once a week to visit and chat with team members; to watch them in their arena of action, and to appreciate and honor them in front of others. A team that communicates effectively and feels connected to the “top” is a team that feels invincible.
What other dynamics are involved with “A” Teams?
Leading with Love is the Most Excellent Way
Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.(1 Corinthians 8:1)
What is the greatest quality of leadership? Is it solely based on possessing enhanced knowledge and being known as a competent person, or is it an ability to get along with others to command their respect and loyalty? If you could bundle “leadership” into one word, what would it be? Some have simply summed up leadership this way, “Leadership is influence.” This is true but influence, like anything else, must have a bedfellow! I strongly believe “Leadership is influencing with love.” I found this truth embedded in the wisdom handed down by the Apostle Paul to the Corinthian church in what is known today as the love chapter. If you understood the makeup of the Corinthian church you would understand why Paul would even have to bring up the subject of “love” in the first place. Since love edifies (builds and contructs others within), the gifts of the Spirit needed a little more sugar when administered to others. A spiritual gift, which includes prophecy are gifts of grace dispensed to the members of the community for the edification of that community. Not all members have the same gifts, therefore, it is necessary that each member use their gift accordingly so that all members may benefit from each other; with love of course as the central motivation. Basically, using the gift of prophecy would be, “How would God speak administer His thoughts and intentions today if He had something to say to us?” It is obvious He would speak to us with a passionate love as the mediating ingredient to bring about change within while compeling us toward Him.
Love compels a person to change; this is the nature of God toward the saint as well as sinner. Think about it; a redeemed yet mixed church (pagan and Jewish) had some problems getting along with each other. Does this sound familiar to you in a diverse workplace or perhaps in today’s culture? The Corinthian church possessed extraordinary spiritual gifts yet they were spiritually immature of their application to others. So Paul had to intervene between chapters 12 (explaining spiritual gifts) and chapter 14 (the proper use of prophecy), to lay down a formula for delivering the thoughts and intentions of God’s heart to others, so that the gifts of the Spirit could have greater impact to transform
. To translate and speak God’s thoughts and intentions to others requires love as the centerpiece ingredient. So Paul takes his time to describe the multi-dimensional aspects of love.
In 1 Corinthians 13, you will note that Paul deals with the positive side of love by saying, “Love is…”, and at times he deals with love by stipulating the opposite aspect of love, noting, “Love is not…”. Here’s a sample of what I mean:
Love suffers long [and] is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up. Love does not behave rudely, does not seek its own. Love is not provoked, thinks no evil. Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
If you were to list each item above separately on a sheet of paper, what leadership principles can you draw from each one? For instance, Paul says that “Love suffers long (patient), and is kind.”
So what does “patience” and “kindness” look like to you in the workplace; at home?
Take a separate sheet of paper, write each section of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 down; think deeply, critically and make out a list of characteristics for each one.
The Value of a Coach
Coaching, as a discipline of helping others achieve greatness by assessing strengths and weaknesses, improving life and social skills has been around from the beginning of time. We catch a semblance of a coaching encounter in the Genesis narrative where God inquires of Cain’s actions to help him see the pathway of his poor decision-making, his ultimate choice and ensuing consequences. From this point on, and throughout Scripture, a pattern of relationships and interactions emerge where one person seeks the counsel, wisdom, and life guidance of another person. For instance, at critical junctures in King David’s life he sought after Ahithophel’s wisdom (2 Samuel 16:23 & 1 Chronicles 27:33). As leaders we need to take note of David’s humility to seek out trusted advisors who possessed greater insights for personal breakthroughs.
In the New Testament Apollos was a charismatic and powerful itinerant speaker but he lacked critical content from his message. After Aquila and Priscilla heard him speak they took him aside to talk about a missing ingredient to his message. Apollos only knew “the baptism of John”, an antiquated teaching by this time, which revealed his inability to access a critical component of the gospel message. When Aquila and Priscilla finished their “coaching” conversation with Apollos, the narrative ends with a dramatic change in Apollos’ ministry:
On arriving [to Corinth], [Apollos] was a great help to those who by grace had believed. For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.” (Acts 18:27 & 28)
Apollos became an enlightened preacher after his brief encounter with two seasoned coaches. His understanding of the story of Christ’s entire life, from John’s baptism to Pentecost, was now brought up to date. Coaching clarified and filled in the missing gaps, which made a tremendous difference in Apollos’ life and ministry.
If coaching had value in the first century, surely it’s needed much more today from the entry-level staff member, to the mid-level manager as well as the top-level executive. Most people, however, don’t see the value of a coaching relationship. Kim Fulcher, CEO of Compass Coaching notes the value of coaching, “Coaching looks at where you are at the moment and what you want for the future, and helps you build a path.” Most people are effective in some areas of their life and leadership but lack the necessary skills to fill in the gap of “where they are at the moment” and “where they want to be in the future”. In some cases, leaders with great potential would rather move along in mediocrity than evolve into the station they were destined for; exuding personal excellence, being influential and leading others effectively.
The value of coaching is crucial in today’s world more so because of the rapid speed of the information and technology age. In the age of acceleration, if you don’t “keep up with the Joneses” you may just fade away for lacking essential knowledge to advance yourself or your organization.
A coach, therefore, is instrumental in the following three areas where you and I basically think, process and produce results:
1. The Intangible World of Ideas
This phase is the intangible world of ideas, vision, and images of the future that come to mind. It’s amusing to conceive a picture of what the future can be like but to bring something to reality is a different story. Just how many of your ideas ever get activated? At this stage we must ask and ponder the following question: What is possible? Anything is possible according to Pablo Picasso who once quipped, “Everything you can imagine is real.” As a leader, if you’re having difficulty with the “intangible world”, coaching can help you process those intangibles scrambling around in your head, and help you assemble them into a meaningful strategy.
2. Your Choices and Actions
At this stage a coach helps you take a concept, your vision or the image in your mind and frame it into meaningful symbols and stories to communicate to your team members. At this stage you begin to put legs to your ideas by first communicating them to others, then mobilizing others to aid you in turning your intangibles into something meaningful for yourself and others. The ability to process is key at this phase; it’s about the journey in between the conceptual world and its reality where a coach can become helpful. The most important aspect of this “process” is thinking through the ramifications of your choices and actions before you begin to implement your plans. This stage is about gaining the clarity necessary to foresee and minimize problems, and maximize desired outcomes. Coaching becomes very valuable at this stage.
3. The Realm of Realities (The Tangible World)
Now, take a few moments to critically assess your current world; your present “realm of reality.” At this point you have to ask yourself – Do I like what’s been created? At this stage you are living with your creation. It’s either going to look great, reflect mediocrity or simply look like a disaster. The realm of realities is basically your final outcome or product; the results of your choices and actions.
Do you like what you see? If not, is it worth changing? Can you change it alone? Did you listen attentively to your team for input? How do others on the team perceive the outcome? Do you value their feedback? After you’ve answered these and other probing questions it’s time to start back at phase #1, the Intangible World, to repeat the cycle all over again. Will you repeat the same mistakes or will you need a coach? The answer to your question depends on the value you give to coaching.
3 Indispensable Ingredients for Corporate Change
When I think of transitions, both personal and corporate, I can’t help but to think of Joshua’s great task of transitioning a large community from a desert experience into the Promised Land; a land flowing with “milk and honey”. Individuals as well as organizations can learn three simple principles of corporate transition from Joshua’s example. This experience demanded three indispensable ingredients from Joshua. They are:
1. Courage (Mental Fortitude)
Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their fathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. (Joshua 1:6, 7 NIV)
Courage is a prerequisite for corporate transitions. We commonly refer to this type of change as reorganization or organizational reinvention. Change is not always easy to implement for any leader since it challenges the status quo culture. “Status quo” thinking is embedded in our human nature; we like to keep things the same because change is too costly and demands too much from us. Courage is simply having the mental fortitude to do the right thing, that is to redirect the organization, regardless of the criticism and obstacles encountered along the way. Corporate leaders leading change must be ready to encounter resistance. Therefore, mental fortitude to inspire, lead and supervise any change effort is required from leaders.
2. Community (Engaging People through Vision and Responsibility)
So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: ‘Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your supplies ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own.’” (Joshua 1:10, 11 NIV)
Corporate change must involve the whole community under your care. When you prepare people for change, transitions become almost seamless. A leader starts preparing people for change by assessing current and critical resources for the change effort, and establishing timelines for task completion. In other words, what is needed for the journey of change, and how long will it take? From the passage above, the people gathered supplies (resources) for their journey, and set a timeline of three days to accomplish corporate consolidation of these vital resources. The ability to acquire and maintain resources is critical for any change effort. You must know what you have, so you can determine what else you need for the journey. Some things must be eliminated, while new resources and people will emerge to help you with the change process. Effective change occurs when leaders engage their team members through vision and responsibility.
2. Consecration (Personal and Corporate Cleansing)
Joshua told the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.’” (Joshua 2:5 NIV)
