Set Your Sights on Success: Lead Your Staff Through Change and Have Fun While Doing It 

Change may be for the better, but that doesn’t always mean it’s easy. As a leader, if you aren’t carefully planning for change within your practice, you’re missing out on an opportunity to strengthen your team. Not to mention you might be putting your practice at risk of going backwards, seeing as 70% of change efforts fail, not due to the change itself, but to employee resistance and poor change management.  

We know that if you take the time to prepare your team (and set aside some time to have fun in the process), your practice has nothing to worry about!  

Set the Tone 

How you approach change is how you conquer change. According to Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work, having a positive mindset increases productivity by up to 31%.  

Make sure to identify team members who may be particularly resistant to change and address their needs before things begin. Every personality type has a role to play in change management. 

Lead With Vulnerability 

If you want your team to feel comfortable with being open and honest about how they’re handling change, you should be too! After all, how can you expect staff to be willing to share with you if you aren’t willing to share with them?  

We often think of a leader as being stoic and fearless when faced with a challenge. While you may want to be strong for your team, consider how being vulnerable might open opportunities to build stronger connections. Here are a few things to keep in mind: 

1. Accept that change can be difficult – this can relieve some of the pressure.  
2. Let go of expectations that may be too high and remember that no one is perfect.  
3. Make sure to find the right balance – there's a difference between sharing and oversharing. 

When vulnerability feels tough, remember you’re not alone! 

Know Who You’re Working With 

Knowing your staff’s strengths and weaknesses can be key to understanding who can provide support during each part of the process. This is important for both the team leader and staff to understand each other to in order to work together. You may have taken an MBTI assessment, the StrengthsFinder test, or similar quizzes before. While these tests may not tell us everything about each employee, they do provide valuable insight into how each person might handle change, and how they might be able to make the process easier. For example, if a staff member is especially talented at planning company outings and getting folks together, you may want to ask them how to keep the team motivated when things get tough.  

Enjoy the Process 

Sometimes the best way to relieve the pressure of a big change is to simply have fun. Whether it’s treating your staff to a fun dessert, playing a game, or setting aside time to relax and take a break, leaving room for fun is critical to reducing the burden of change.  

Embrace Change 

To prep your staff to be ready for anything we created the following resources for you: 

• Change Champions Personality Types Guide: Learn how each staff members’ unique strengths can contribute to the success of your team and delegate roles based on preferences. 
• Change Management Toolkit: Eyefinity’s got all the tools you need to conquer change, including access to our cost/benefit assessment. 

Fill out our form to get access to all our Championing Change resources.