Functions

The function of a leader and a follower will differ during a period organizational change or personal transition. Both have something important to contribute to the process. Thus, being in a change mode can be very productive because it is a time when the key players intentionally pause to consider the highest and best use of their abilities, and to think about what might be keeping them from being more competitive.

The Follower

• Encourage your co-workers to seek assistance and ask for clarification when they become confused or concerned about doing the right thing. Being able to check out rumors prevents the spread of false or misleading information.
  
• Openly state your position on issues especially when the general view is off target, out of date, or simply incorrect. Speaking out to challenge generalizations or to correct misstatements gives others the courage to contribute their views as well. People need to know where others stand in order to stay on course with a sense of confidence.
  
• When passing information to co-workers, avoid making indirect references to unofficial sources. If you haven't heard it first hand, check out the original source before you pass it on. Use your personal power whenever addressing issues in an open forum, using "I" statements to say what you believe can help shape the attitudes of other people.
  
• Challenge anyone who whines or complains to be more specific about his or her concerns. Above all, make sure that they don't repeat their objections and opinions to anyone else, especially not to management, until your co-workers agree that the complaints are valid.

The Leader

• Use your positional authority to realign people so that a positive attitude is maintained within each work unit. If there are naysayers who can't be convinced that learning has value, try to move them to another unit where their negative attitude wouldn't slow down those who wish to learn.
  
• Separate training problems from discipline issues. Make sure everyone understands the difference between saying "Something's gone wrong here, who's responsible?" and "This was not expected, how did this happen? One statement personalizes mistakes while the other looks for the cause without assigning blame. It's always important to find out whether a mistake was caused by a resistance to learning, or because an employee was trying something new and just didn't get it right. The former might call for disciplinary action, while the latter might best be handled by additional training.
• Encourage everyone to publicly express complaints and criticisms of what isn't working, and to offer suggestions for how the problem might be fixed. Resist the temptation to revisit past inequities or injustices. The learning mode is about preparation and moving forward. Stopping to settle past issues may waste precious time and energy, because many of the old issues will disappear or no longer be relevant.
  
• Instill confidence by focusing on what employees are doing right. Learn to recognize signs of improvement, even minimal positive gains, and don't let even the slightest upward movement slip by unnoticed. Your staff are watching to see whether you're aware of, and pleased by, their progress.

Getting Support For Yourself

The rapid pace of change coupled with the demand for advanced technology does not allow sufficient time for you to rely solely on what you know. Besides even if you had access to all the information available, you won't have time to digest it before you had to act upon it. So, it's important to establish trusting relationships with people above and around you who will challenge your flight path when they think you're flying off in the wrong direction. Or when you do screw up because you ignored their input, rather than write you off as an idiot, instead they offer corrective criticism that will help you learn from that mistake.

Each time you accept that you don't know something and want to learn what it is you don't know, you're signaling your willingness to reconsider, begin anew, examine old habits, think in new ways, and acquire additional skills. It's in this learning mode where the needs and interests of the corporation and its employees are purposefully called into question, opened up for examination, and carefully measured to determine whether anything is out of alignment.

Think of this as a regular maintenance check-up like you might do for your car. You discover that some parts are wearing faster than normal and need to be replaced before their failure causes serious damage further down the road.