The ‘Power-Pack’ of Change - Part 4

And there are two ways change comes to us. On our terms or someone else’s, and most of us prefer to chart our own path. In recent blogs I have shared my observations of the common attributes of managers who commit to change, and succeed.

“Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.” - Jim Rohn

There are four attributes that I call the ‘Power-Pack’. The key requirement of the Pack is that all must be present for real change to occur. These four attributes of managers committed to change are:

1. They believe it is necessary for personal and/or professional gain and fulfillment.
2. They have confidence to engage people in more productive ways.
3. They have patient but persistent leaders or guides.
4. They are able to get help and offer help to peers.

This post addresses Attribute #4: They are able to get help and offer help to their team

I am of the school of thought that the #1 responsibility of a manager is to reduce barriers to their team’s success. These barriers fall into four lanes:

1. Skills (know how)
2. Processes (know the way)
3. Resources (have the capacity)
4. Motivation (have the will)

The manager’s job is to discern which area(s) is a barrier to success and to be a problem solver on their behalf.

My favorite boss was a masterful problem solver. His approach was to require agenda item #1 of our weekly meetings to be “what I need from you”. He told me that he can’t read my mind and yet was happy to help me succeed. My job was to surface the areas he could help. This placed our conversation in the form of immediate problem solving vs. whining, and the barriers always fell into one of the above lanes. Agenda item #2 of our meetings was discussion of any prior commitments he had made to me. With each problem solved, our list got smaller and smaller and I became more successful – as did he.

Do you know what your team needs from you? Do you know the problems you could truly solve on their behalf? Theirs and your success may depend on it.