34. Leadership: Change Management Pain

Foreign. Hey, welcome back to leadership in a nutshell. I'm your host, Kenny Chapman. Today we are talking about change management pain. Here we crack the code of the driven mind and change management can be equated to pain. This is episode 34, change management pain. I think I might have created a new word as I was thinking about what we were going to share today. And so how this. What if I created a new word that is pain? Right. Clearly I'm not a super book educated. Well, I said textbook educated. How about that individual? As I've got a lot of life of school of hard knocks, as many of you out there as well know. And so I think about change and pain seem to go hand in hand. And I thought, maybe there's a word called pains, then we'll put those two words together. All right, maybe not. Here's the reality. Is change painful? I might have many of you shake your head up and down with me right now. Yes, of course it is, Kenny. It seems as though every time I turn around, every time I'm asked to grow, every time I challenge myself, every time the world changes, every time there's a global pandemic, every time there's a recession, every time I have my personal relationships in disarray, every time my income is challenged, whatever the case is, you go, hang on, wait a minute. And you know, the reality is all of us handle change differently. And today I want you to be easy with yourself. And I'm going to talk about a little story of a client that I have, and I'm going to share a little bit of insight around how pain and change kind of tie together. There's where my word came from, right? But at the end of the day, you know, we have these change in pain muscles, if you will. And what happens a lot of times, as we know, if we're going to the gym or we're going to do certain things or we're trying new things in life, is muscles can develop fatigue. If we overuse them, we get fatigued. And in a business environment, as a leadership environment, if we're changing too much, too fast, too long, we will create fatigue. On the other side of things, we can develop tolerance, if you will. And the more that we change and the more we create cultures of change, the more we embrace change, the more we understand the why behind change. We can reduce the amount of pain that is inflicted, is received, or even is perceived because we all know at the end of the day, perception becomes reality. So if our team has a perception that this is going to be or currently is painful, then certainly they're going to manifest that reality in their own understanding, in their belief system, in their actions and their behaviors. And so I want you to think about whether the type of mindset that you have, there's. There's two different types of mindsets, really. When it comes down to it, you generally either have a growth oriented mindset or you have more of a fixed based mindset. Meaning if you're growth oriented, you want to grow, you want to learn, you want to get better. If you're more of a fixed mindset, things are the way they are. I was born this way. This is my lot in life. This is the path I was given. A little more fixed there. If you're listening with me here today and you're enjoying leadership in a nutshell, where we're cracking the code of the driven mind, you're probably a little more on the learner side of things because I Deliver this in 10, 12, 15 minute shots in the arm. So you can just learn something today. Not necessarily learn from me. More importantly, learn about you. This podcast is about you, learning about you as a leader. And that's where I want to focus our time today. Okay? So when you think about pain and change, the reality is every time that we create a change of state, a change of personnel, a change in process, we create a dip. And so I want you to picture in your mind right now that there's a line that's going along and it's just running very, very methodically, horizontally. And then boom, you create a change. And as soon as you create a change, there's that bam. It just hits you. And now right when that happens, that line begins to go down. And picture me almost drawing this on a whiteboard for you. That line now has a dip. And it's going down. And the dip goes along and it continues. Then it kind of levels out at the bottom, and then it goes along a little ways more. Then it starts to go back up. And as it continues to go back up, it will eventually cross over the line that it was at horizontally, but ultimately it will continue going up. So in your mind's eye, I hope you have a picture of a dip. And the dip is only going to be as long and as deep as you allow it to be. The leader's job is to manage what we call this change curve. And so the, you know, the change curve is about this dip. How long does it go and how deep does it go? That depends on your communication, on your preparation, on how you've gotten your team ready, on the type of culture that you have, on the type of team that you have, on the type of trust that you have within this said team. And so if we're going to think about pain management, I can't help myself. You got it? Don't turn me off. Stick with me here. I'm about to share what surprised me about this story. So I was recently working with a client at a deep level and I was working with one of the frontline managers and I had done some kind of change management work with this team and this company, team of leaders. And we're making some changes, we're challenging some status quo and some different things going on. And I was talking to this particular manager and he said this to me. He said, well, you know, I'm starting to kind of get my head back on and it's been quite a challenge since you brought these things to our awareness. And then he said this, he said, since you came in and stirred up the pain, now I'm really beginning to understand it and see and realize. And I just went, wow. So literally he said, when you stirred up the pain. And that's why I wanted to come to you today and talk to you about this. Because here's a frontline manager that's learning, growing, becoming the best version of himself that he can be. And just off the cuff, he doesn't even know. I haven't even talked to him about it yet. Because words carry emotion and emotion creates behavior and feelings come from emotion. Right? And so I want you to just kind of think about what this means unconsciously. He's like, man, when you stirred stuff up, it was painful rather than when you stirred stuff up, it was great. I've talked to other managers on that team that feel really good about the direction that know we're going in a positive direction. However, there is change going on. If we equate pain with change, then that's going to have pain. So I just want you to think about it, number one for yourself as a leader today and possibly equally, if not more important, how does your team feel about it? Because at the end of the day, many people at the time I'm recording this, we're in late 2020 and we know that, oh my gosh, many people can't wait to close the door on 20 because change was created for them that they did not choose. Most pain is created and most change is created outside of people's desire. If you would step into pain more, if you would step into Change more. You would step into greatness more because all of your greatness lies right beyond your comfort zone. And your comfort zone is fictitiously keeping you, quote, comfortable. If you're a learner, if you're a lifelong learner with a growth mindset, comfort zones equal pain. And that's why the change muscle gets to be working better and better. When companies hire me and bring in my team over on the blue collar side of what we do and they come in, we could do an on side or we come in and quote, stir the pot. Or if you work with me on the life architecture side of the coaching that I do, we do deep dive work in the purpose guided leadership work that I do, guess what? We are going to face some of your challenges, some of your struggles, some of the things that are holding you back. And it could be pain, painful. But how deep the pain goes and how long it lasts is 100% up to you. So think about it for yourself, my friend. When you think about your own level of leadership, your own team that you have out in the front line, leaders you have on your team, how are they communicating, how are they receiving, how are they handling the changes necessary as you go to the next level, you have to create different things, different behaviors, different responsibilities, different capabilities. That takes commitment, that takes courage, that takes challenge. And here's the reality. Change management, you could say, well, change management is painful. Kenny, what about this? Change management is a promise and I guarantee that, I promise you, you will have pain when you create change. If you go to the gym and you do an off the couch 5k, if you decide you're going to wait until all the holidays are done, or you're going to wait until after the first quarter, the second quarter or next summer or the end of the year. And now you're going to start a workout program, you're going to off the couch and start running, you're going to start going to the gym, your muscles are going to scream at you. You are going to create and inflict intentional pain for growth. That's what life's all about. That's where you step into your greatness. That's where you honor your truth and decide who you really want to be, who you can be and who you are destined to be. My friend, that is ultimately what it's all about. So. Episode 34 Change Management and Pain Hmm, let's see. Is it about pains management or is it about saying change is going to be a promise and sometimes a promise of pain? Embrace it, my friend. Manage how deep it goes, how long it goes, and set yourself. This has been episode 34 of Leadership in a Nutshell, where we're cracking the code of the driven mind. Please give us a like, give us a review. Make sure you're subscribed to our podcast here, because I want to keep on getting together with you once a week and helping you step into your greatness until we talk, my friend. Make it a better than fantastic day and we'll see you real soon. Cheers.