Change must be a constant in business. If a business is not changing -pretty much on a daily basis- it is actually becoming less competitive every day. Therefore we defined that the #1 Task for every leader is to initiate, facilitate and to drive change. All of you who are involved in change activities know that implementing change is hard. Besides a couple of early adaptors and some people rejecting the ideas outright, we see the majority of people sitting on the fence waiting to be convinced and to see the benefit.
Let me explore for a second why most people reject change. For most people, change is a threat. They are comfortable with how certain things are done or have developed habits to deal with certain situations. So most will see a request or idea to change as a threat to their belief system and will automatically react defensively. The "not invented here" takes over and the natural response in most people is to reject the ideas and push back as much as possible. As soon as we make somebody feel obligated to do something in a certain "new" way or focus on their weakness we arouse negative or fear feelings. This triggers stress symptoms, which we call negative emotional attractors. These negative attractors will trigger a profound chemical response in our body. The body will go into survival mode; blood is directed to the large muscle groups to prepare to fight. The body is slowing down or shutting down the blood flow to "non-essential" areas of the body, thus increasing blood pressure and heart rate, while shrinking the view of vision and reducing blood flow to the brain. Expecting openness to change, being creative or creating exciting new possibilities is no longer possible. In addition, the old and tried tactic of pressuring the person to change has an extremely low success rate. Case in point: even when the consequence of not changing is as serious as triggering significant health problems and possibly death, people will resist. For example: multiple studies have found that more than 95% of morbidly obese people have not lost a single pound of weight one year after having suffered a stroke.
When we use Emotional Intelligence to facilitate change, we focus on the positive; exciting the person about the future and creating a vision for their future based on their strength and desires. The body will produce chemical that open arteries, supplying ample blood to the brain, reducing anxiety and creating space for the person to consider new ideas. Researchers call this a positive emotional state.
Multiple studies performed by Case Western Reserve University clearly show that when we bring persons into a positive emotional state and inspire them, we significantly increase the possibility for positive change.
So how can we facilitate change using this information? The answer is twofold. First, when we want to initiate change we need to be keenly aware of our own emotions and manage them appropriately. We need to genuinely show empathy for the person or team we are asking to change and create a trusting relationship and a compelling vision of the future for the person or team to connect to.
Secondly, we need to find a connection to the person's hopes and goals (vision) in order to create the excitement to sustain the steps to change. Let's look at an example: Most people will not change their leadership based on micromanaging when they had been successful with this approach in the past. At the same time I have not found a leader telling me that he would like to be known as a micromanager. If we can create a picture in the person's mind showing him as a successful, inspiring leader who created followers by selling his Vision, showing Mindfulness and Compassion, we have a much higher chance that the person will embrace the change effort.
To learn more about this Emotional Intelligence based change approach, give us a call or send us an e-mail at info@mayerbusinessgroup.com.
