Discussion?

sent your ideas on how these findings will impact your team. When you make the link between what you do on a day-to-day basis and how that can support the overall change initia- tive, you’re showing dedication and demonstrating that you want to help. This understanding works well during any type of company-wide process or technological change, because you can begin to recommend better ways of doing what you already do.

2. Learn to live with ambiguity. There is usually uncertainty during change. For instance, perhaps leadership hasn’t answered all your questions because not all of the details have been worked out yet. Executives may also have legal reasons for not releasing information. The point is, sometimes it’s in your best interest to roll with the ambiguity.

Of course you should raise your concerns and ideas, but then keep focused on the task at hand. However, if you feel that ambiguity is disturbing the workplace or if you see executives ignoring real concerns, let your man- ager know the downstream impact in a polite yet firm manner.

3. Understand your leadership style first. Even if your business card does- n’t have a powerful title, you are still a leader. And every leader has a particu- lar style and specific strengths. It’s well worth your time to figure out what your style is, how it is seen by others, and how you can apply it to maximize your strengths. Most leader- ship assessments come down to four types of leaders: loud and proud; cheer- ful and optimistic; the strong, silent type; and data driven. You may also be a combination of them. In any case, knowing your own leadership style can help you effectively manage up the organization, coach employees and

Backseat Leaders

THE GLOBAL ECONOMY HAS TURNEDthe rules of leadership upside down and shaken them vigorously for good measure. Where there was once a fairly defined hierarchy—Boss A tells Worker B what to do and B does it—there’s now a flat landscape where everyone is expected to take the reins as needed. That means if B has an idea—a way to make a process more efficient or a new way to get customer feedback—he or she is allowed, even expected, to make it happen.

In other words, everyone is now a leader. This is great news for entrepre- neurially minded employees—but it does pose a challenge for an employee who wants to create change but does- n’t “officially” run the show.

It can be more challenging for em- ployee-led grassroots movements to spark change, but it can be done. While you may not have the long- term resource commitment your boss does, you can still be proactive—and successful—if you have a clear vision and a firm commitment.

Being an advocate for change, regard- less of where you fall in the organiza- tional chart, can put you in the position of being a team leader—and someone who has great career poten- tial. If you’d like to start sparking pos- itive change within your organization, read on for ten ways to be proactive:

1. Align individual priorities with organizational goals. No matter where you work, chances are your organiza- tion has overarching change goals it is working to meet. Don’t just wait to be told what to do—look at those goals and figure out what you can do as an individual employee to support them. For instance, if your company just announced that it is acquiring another to strengthen its product line, one of your individual priorities might be to learn more about that company, its customers, and what it does. You could even ask your manager to pre-

peers, and lead future change projects. Your knowledge will also help you to recognize different leadership styles and thus frame your own communica- tion to meet the needs of others.

4. Change what you can change: yourself. There is an old saying that too many cooks spoil the soup. Simil- arly, too many leaders during change can make everything confusing and fragmented. If you are not in a posi- tion to formally influence the change, instead of trying to create a leadership role, take the opportunity to change your own attitude, behaviors, and beliefs. You can do this by setting real- istic goals for yourself and then elicit- ing feedback on them from peers, managers, and perhaps even cus- tomers. “Remember that organization- al change and personal change have strong similarities: You must clearly identify what you want to change, what the change looks like, and the specific steps and milestones for meet- ing them.”

5. Influence what you can’t change: others. Even if you aren’t the one run- ning the show, you can still influence the direction of the change. And your position of being “one of them” could even give your opinions a boost with your fellow employees! A good way to build trust and respect with your col- leagues is to give meaningful and timely feedback with the sole intent of increasing effectiveness and job satis- faction. Cultivating this atmosphere of openness among your peers will help you influence change, because know- ing others’ motivations and interests will help you to explain how the change project will meet their needs. And don’t forget, another great way to influence change is to model the behavior you want to see in others.

6. Become an early adopter and ally for change. Adapting early to change and being an ally for it is one simple and visible way of leading change when you are not running the show. This entails wanting change to happen and working toward that goal as soon as you have a logical explanation for a particular alteration or modification. The nice thing about being an ally and early adopter is that you aren’t seen as someone who is just giving face time to the change; you are actually doing it and helping to spread enthusiasm among your team members.

7. Create a community of peers. Many change projects have frontline staff or employee councils that serve as the eyes and ears of change. This group relays information, ideas, and

L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e O c t o b e r 2 0 1 2 7

CHANGE CREATIVITY

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by Christina Schlachter and Terry Hildebrandt

concerns back to senior leaders so that the change plan can be adjusted as needed. If your organization has a change council, ask to be part of it. If it doesn’t, offer to help organize one. For change leaders, there is no replace- ment for direct feedback as to how communications, plans, and new pro- jects are being perceived in the field.

8. Help other employees cope with change. Even if you’re excited about change, not everyone will be. Some team mem- bers might feel confused, angry, frus- trated, or exploited. To make the tran- sition easier for them, first, be on the lookout for signals that someone needs help coping: absenteeism, depressed or despondent behavior, or attacks on team members. You might intervene one-on-one, or help steer a bickering session into a change session. You can also help others cope through active lis- tening. Try to act as a sounding board, and help the other person reduce emo- tionality and increase rational discussion.

9. Encourage communication among your peers. Remember, the sum of the parts is always greater than individual contribution levels added together. So, regularly ask yourself how you can help build a better organization by dif- fusing confusion, expediting the flow of information, or reaching out to oth- ers. Communication between peers and through management helps make your job easier in a number of ways. It uncovers what is valuable to the busi- ness and what is not, it minimizes the amount of time required to achieve goals, and it maximizes productivity.

10. Believe in the change and speak up. This isn’t so much about self-help as it is making positive ideas a reality! As change begins, start talking about how great it will be. And if change is not yet happening, talk about past accomplish- ments to capture the emotions, excite- ment, and energy your team needs to forge ahead. Whether you are a junior employee or the CEO, show your en- thusiasm for the project. Change comes from the heart, not from corporate mes- saging. A sense of possibility for the future of the company is contagious!

If you see that a change is needed but you aren’t the leader, don’t just sit back and be told what to do—be proac- tive! When you show your commitment in creative ways, you’ll be asked to run the show sooner than you think. LE

Christina Tangora Schlachter, Ph.D., and Terry Hildebrandt are coauthors of Leading Business Change For Dummies (Wiley). Christina is founder of She Leads. Terry is CEO of Terry Hildebrandt and Associates. For more information, visit www.leadingchangexperts.com.

ACTION: Be a more proactive leader.

ating the Big Mac secret sauce, perfect- ing the frozen French fry and inventing the Chicken McNugget, along with developing manufacturing patents that drive productivity improvements.

Kroc established relationships with McDonald’s suppliers on a simple hand- shake built on trust, loyalty, and fair- ness. Many find it hard to believe that even today McDonald’s most strategic suppliers still operate on a handshake! Francesca DeBiase, McDonald’s VP of strategic sourcing, Worldwide Supply Chain Management, says the rationale for handshake deals is just as powerful today: “Many of our strategic suppliers have worked with us for decades. They know we base our partnerships on mut- ual trust, respect, and financial success.”

How has McDonald’s sustained this culture for 60 years? The world’s most successful business relationships have several things in common: everyone involved in the enterprise collaborates through innovations and sharing value to produce the long-term win-win. Or in the case of the McDonald’s three- legged stool, the win-win-win.

These successful relationships follow five principles: 1) Focus on outcomes

not transactions; 2) Focus on the what, not the how; 3) Agree on clearly defined and measurable outcomes; 4) Optimize pricing model incentives; and 5) Governance structure should provide insight, not merely oversight.

These rules create competi- tive advantage and are a key to how companies work

together to inspire innovation, create value, and reward success. Vested Outsourcing means creating outsourcing relation- ships where companies and their sup- pliers become Vested in each other’s success. Partners strive to drive bene- fits for the company outsourcing and its supplier or service provider part- ners. From the start, Ray Kroc used an outsource model for operations. He creat- ed alliances with restaurant owners/ oper- ators and suppliers that operated with long-term thinking based on trust and transparency. He and McDonald’s engaged suppliers who were entrepre- neurs, who invested in the McDonald’s System. He worked with them to devel- op products and processes that served owner/operators and brought profit and growth to the supplier’s bottom line. LE

Kate Vitasek ([email protected]) is faculty in the University of Tennessee’s Center for Executive Education. Karl Manrodt ([email protected]) is a professor at Georgia Southern University. They are co-authors of The Vested Way.

ACTION: Seek the triple win in your business.

MCDONALD’S HAS A SECRET SAUCE.And it is not what you think. It’s about how McDonald’s keeps their three key stakeholders—the company, restaurant owner/ operators, and their suppliers—in balance with a Systems First mindset based on trust, loyalty, and fairness to ensure no stakeholder wins at the expense of others.

Kroc famously said, “None of us is as good as all of us.” He knew that he couldn’t implement his vision alone. His philosophy led to the McDonald’s System, based on the belief that everyone in the System should win.

Kroc often referred to McDonald’s Corporation, the owner/operators of the restau- rants, and suppliers working together to build his vision as the three-legged stool. He stressed that each leg needed to do well for the group to prosper. If one leg did not grow in capabilities and prof- itability, it weakened the stool. Kroc wanted everyone involved with the business to thrive.

Kroc turned his vision into an estab- lished ecosystem based on trust, loyalty, and fairness that motivates suppliers to invest in McDonald’s business. His System is credited for revolutionizing the restaurant business and helping McDonald’s rack up corporate leader- ship awards including a No. 5 ‘Most Respected Company’ ranking from Barron’s in 2011. Businessweek recently included McDonald's in its list of the 20 Best Companies for Leadership.

For suppliers and restaurant owner/ operators, being in the System means not being afraid of investing heavily in the McDonald’s System to create a compet- itive advantage—in key business dri- vers such as cleanliness, quality, value, assured supply, safety, and being better, not just bigger. It also means everyone —even suppliers—are highly motivat- ed to bring innovation to McDonald’s. In fact, suppliers are credited with cre-

McDonald’s Secret Seek to achieve the triple win.

PERFORMANCE WIN

8 O c t o b e r 2 0 1 2 w w w . L e a d e r E x c e l . c o m

by Kate Vitasek and Karl Manrodt

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