Your most P!$$ED off team members hold your greatest insights to what needs to change.
When we started a multi-year culture transformation journey with a multi-national organization, the leaders had wisdom.
Alongside the team at EQ Strategist we conducted interviews of individuals “hand picked” by the leadership team, knowing they would hold the keys to the transformation ahead.
Team members throughout the organization, from management to operators.
That’s where I first met KF.
He was ready to quit that day and the leadership team knew it. That’s why they chose him, and fortunately he had the courage to say yes. He shared everything that was “wrong” with the place. “Leaders don’t listen”, “I don’t feel safe to speak up”, “I am not valued here”….It almost seemed therapeutic.
Deep down I knew he wasn’t just there for the pay check. He loved his role, and once upon a time he loved the place he worked. He really wanted things to change. He just didn’t know where to start. He felt he lacked authority and influence.
At the end of that interview we asked him if he wanted to be part of a select group that would be empowered to help us create this monumental shift. To be a change champion. My sensory acuity saw a glimmer in his eye and a slight smirk on the right side of his face. “It’s not going to be easy, and we can’t do it without you.”
I truly believe it was the opportunity he was waiting for. For people to believe in him more than he believed in himself.
His english was admittedly limited. When he understood it’s not just the words you say, it’s how you make people feel, he grabbed the mantle.
This guy’s attitude and behaviour completely turned around. He was the one on stage that revved up the team at morning meetings. High fives, appreciation, he had a complete 180 shift to contrast what people knew of him. Team members who have known him as the handbrake, now saw him as the wind in their parachute. And this was not an individual in a senior position. He was “just” like them.
My true belief is that a turning point for many who were cynical of change and whether this transformation would stick, was led through them watching the monumental shift and turnaround in people just like KF. He was the hope that people were looking for. Damn, if KF thinks this can work and he hated this place, things must really be changing for the better.
He became a star performer and instrumental in the transformation, and through the process, one of my most memorable experiences, because he transformed himself!
Inside your organization you have a KF. A star performer who for whatever reason has become disenfranchised. Go and speak to them. Check in with them and listen intently. They hold the keys to shift your companies culture to a psychologically safe environment. Involve them, Empower them and watch them become the person they never believed they were.
Have you had a similar KF turnaround story?
