Leadership – is it evident when things are going well? – or do some people step up and demonstrate leadership when things are tough?

Hands up who has heard these phases…?
Do more with less / work smarter not harder / it’s all about productivity / efficiencies

What are the issues facing organisations right now…? While consulting with my corporate clients, I am hearing the same issues over and over, do more with less, productivity efficiencies, cost cutting and the list continues. While these issues are not new and have certainly been around for many years – I am increasingly concerned about the impact that this short term view is having on the diligent employees that seem to have to ‘pull another rabbit out of the hat’ just to survive and get to the next hurdle. How is the balance being struck between – immediate results and longer term professional development and employee engagement?

For these efficiencies and productivity gains to be successful – employees and managers need to see the world through a different set of eyes, have a radically different perspective that what was deemed successful in the past.

But how do you help a person change the way they look at the world? Appealing to their hearts and minds?

We often see these organisational initiatives as a mechanical change and neglect the personal change required, assumptions are made that the people will fall into line, change the way they are operating as soon as they see the benefits of the initiative. On a cognitive level we understand the changes, probably spend time considering the personal impacts and make some minor adjustments to our work flows etc.

The significant and enduring changes required in order to thrive and not just survive need a little more assistance that the mechanistic and technical approach that we are used to. It needs to be considered at the assumptive and subconscious level for a person to be able to even consider making any adjustments to the way they look at the world.