Change Management Consulting News 
Advice for Transforming your OrganizationOctober 2010
In This Issue
You Can't Lead if You're not Trusted
ISO 9001:2008 Trandition Deadline
News Briefs
Inspirational Quotes

Stanley Cherkasky
Stanley Cherkasky
Managing Partner 
 
 
Change Management Consulting, Inc. (CMC) is a global management consulting and training company dedicated to helping organizations of all sizes improve performance, achieve goals and advance leadership capability.
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Organizational Development


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Welcome to our monthly newsletter. It delivers valuable news, best practices, and resources to enhance your organization's competitive position. Since our focus is on achieving business results, we truly become a business partner to our clients. This is accomplished through a combination of assessments, customized training, and management consulting.
 
Our diversified products and services are complementary, and based on best practices and innovative design. CMC's core competencies include: change management, leadership development, strategic planning, continual improvement initiatives, compliance management (ISO quality and environmental management systems) and Lean Six Sigma.

You Can't Lead if You're not Trusted

 

Seven Ways to Build Trust


Now that the economy is on the upturn, this is a good time to rebuild trust that may have eroded during hard times. There is a close correlation between trust and productivity, and your ability to achieve business results. In fact, trust is so important, that we believe leaders need to make that a top priority. So, what should you do now to rebuild trust? Here are seven easy ways to get started.

1. Trust your team to gain trust. To gain employees' trust, leaders need to understand that this is a two-way street. In other words, you have to trust to be trusted. The best way to build trust is to trust your staff, and to focus on their needs. When associates see that you care about them and put them first, they become more supportive, productive and team players. And remember, each staff member is unique.

2. Be an encouraging team leader. One of the basic human needs is to be understood and appreciated. Appreciation ranks high as a powerful tool to build trust, and it can be delivered in the form of verbal or written praise that is clear, specific, and timely. Give praise and encouragement daily; don't wait until employees do something extraordinary to acknowledge their contributions. Good work that gets recognized is repeated.

3. Demonstrate active listening skills. Good listening provides a number of positive results. It improves morale, rapport, and trust level. To a large extent our "team spirit" is based on how others treat us, and listening is no exception. If you truly listen to associates' views, opinions and ideas, they will feel better about themselves, you, and the working relationship. They will also be more productive and engaged when they feel their ideas don't fall on deaf ears.

4. Treat team members like clients. Salespeople spend a great deal of effort providing value to customers. Leaders can do the same with their internal customers. Motivate your team by treating them like valued customers. Collect information about your staff-hobbies, interests, values-and use it to offer tailored, personalized rewards. Demonstrate that you genuinely value employees as the unique individuals they are.

5. Provide more challenging opportunities. Use open communication to delegate assignments and connect assignments to higher levels of empowerment and visibility. Allow team members the freedom to complete tasks in their own way with checkpoints. Involve the team in brainstorming, problem solving, and decision making. High levels of involvement lead to commitment and increased levels of trust and motivation.

6. Communicate good and bad news with tact and diplomacy. Demonstrate empathy when delivering good and bad news, particularly bad. Understand the emotion, resistance, and discomfort toward change. There's no perfect way to communicate during uncertain times. Transition makes most people uneasy, and behaviors and long-held habits are not easy to change. Communicate clearly, openly, frequently, and most important, honestly.

7. Communicate change as soon as possible. People do not want to hear about change through the grapevine. Communicate even when you don't have anything substantial to say. This lets people know you are aware of their need for information, and you will provide it as soon as possible. Provide frequent updates to keep their need for information satisfied. Uncertainty causes stress and even insecurity. So communicate frequently to build trust and confidence.

Learn more about leadership and organizational developmentContact CMC at (973) 696-7878 for a FREE consultation on techniques to advance your organization's leadership capabilities.
ISO 9001:2008 Transition Deadline
 
All organizations currently registered to the ISO 9001:2000 Standard must transition to the ISO 9001:2008 Standard by November 14, 2010.  The process is fairly simple since there are no new requirements. Contact CMC for a free consultation.
News Briefs

Trust in Leadership

In the Korn/Ferry Institute's Confidence in Leadership Index, the North American scores for credibility and trust in leadership are at all-time lows. Deloitte's annual Ethics and Workplace Survey found that a third of Americans plan to seek new jobs as the economy recovers. The top reasons: a lack of trust in their employers, and lack of transparent communication from leadership.
Inspirational Quotes

Business

"Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Change

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
- Clarence Darrow
 
Leadership

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." -
Martin Luther King, Jr. 
 
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