Page 242 - Just Promoted A 12 Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role

Settling into Your Renewing Organization 227

She was able to gain agreement from another function in IT to provide
some part-time assistance to work on needed data analysis and keep impor-
tant projects on track. Additionally a consultant was especially helpful at ana-
lyzing alternative solutions and helping the group select and implement the
best course of action for them. Two visits were scheduled to other companies
to benchmark certain procedures and see new software in action. Juliette con-
tinued to ensure consultants’ help, and she maintained the hiring and train-
ing schedule. By doing so, she was able to contribute to the broader change
effort in the organization being carried out by a task force. She remained open
to task force suggestions about delays and help with problems. She took their
suggestions, and she maintained gentle pressure to complete the task. She did
not want them to lose momentum, but she also didn’t want them to be over-
whelmed. She was sensitive to everyone’s needs, and was able to keep daily
work flowing while gradually adopting changes.

2. If you are going to miscalculate, err on the side of overpacing, zealousness,
and overcommunicating. Goals that make people stretch are motivating.
Unreasonable goals are demotivating because people feel they are impossible
to attain. Set somewhat challenging time goals, and stay in close communica-
tion with the task forces. It is easier to throttle back than to throttle up.
All leaders and managers face daily urgencies, and the urgencies, because
they have to be handled immediately whether priorities or not, tend to crowd
out real priorities. A phone call, for example, is an urgency that is often not a
priority task, yet it interferes with priorities.
Tighten time schedules, and pay attention to them so that work on the
task force becomes a priority. If task force members know you are concerned
about deadlines, task force work will become priorities and urgencies. If, on
the other hand, you exert no pressure, the deadlines will slip in the face of
other priorities.
When Kevin told his managers and task force members to get the job done
“as fast as is reasonably possible,” he gave them an open-ended invitation to
prolong the task. Impatient about their slow progress, he gave them a dead-
line. Keep people very well informed about the change process. If anything,
overcommunicate.

3. Be aware of the tendency for things to revert to the way they used to be,
if left untended. Look for the signs of “organizational dry rot.” You see them,