Leading a business transition through a cultural change, to deliver dramatically increased value, is a tough assignment.
Getting the people side right can make all the difference.
Business transitions are times of heightened emotion where perceptions, feelings and hunches trump logic.
Everyone's decision making is emotional, not rational...subconsciously under the control of their emotional brain (limbic system), not their analytical (neocortical) brain.
When people make decisions, their decisions are not just about rational data weighing of the pros and cons. Buying a car, choosing a mate, selecting a new home, following a career path, perceiving how the world works is all decided emotionally.
Emotion is always operating below the surface and the executive doesn't recognize how important his or her feelings are at the time of the decision. That is why it is important to help leaders of organizations be emotionally stable, free from the fear of failure, when making important decisions.
Albert Einstein once said, "We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles but no personality. It cannot lead; it can only serve."
Transformation leaders must have a clear collective vision and communicate it effectively to all employees. By acting as role models, they inspire employees to put the good of the whole organization above self interest.
Transformational leaders know and science has discovered emotional's deeper purpose: the timeworn mechanisms of emotion allow two human beings to receive the contents of each other's minds. They are using the power of emotion to get managers to innovate through taking risks on-the-job.
Yet, after years of cost-cutting initiatives and growing job insecurity, most executives don't feel like putting themselves on the line. Add to that individual performance incentives, where a one-year term determines a large bonus while investing in risky long-term payoffs takes a back seat.
Most managers postpone risky decisions for fear of failure---yet to make incremental mistakes can lead to innovative successes.
That's why it is difficult to make the shift from a play-it-safe corporate culture to an innovation-driven culture.
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