Best practices can remedy workplace issues
Every technological advancement has a downside, but what plagues today’s connected populace is the lack of face-to-face social skills.
In light of advancing digital and social media technology, what comes as a shock to employers is how potential employees may disregard the standards for business behavior. An example is when employees don’t show up for work after agreeing to accept a position. Or worse, they have been employed for months—even years—only to stop showing up for work and failing to notify anyone else of their departure.
The term for this is ghosting and it flies in the face of common business and employment standards.
This breakdown in what used to be routine business communication has led me to create a change management model and apply it with companies I work with in overcoming this obstacle.
My special area of interest is the change management model for employers and employees called LEAD: Listen, Explore, Act and Develop, which seeks to establish honest relationships between staff members and management in a work setting.
In very simple terms, I use this model to listen to the individuals’ needs, which establishes trust; explore the options for a positive solution, which creates inspiration; act upon those solutions, which builds commitment; and then develop the relationship from that point because when one person is teaching LEAD, two or more people are learning the values of its ingredients. Potentially, an entire organization can grow via the ongoing training and development of its team.
Used properly, LEAD can assist a manager in anticipating upcoming, incremental change within his/her organization as well as improve overall communication. I require that all parties remove their smart phone from the situation.
I’m really just applying the elements and the value of old-fashioned human interaction, which is more difficult all generations—to embrace. Engaging in face-to-face interaction, which is still an integral component of daily business, may not be second nature to a lot of people and LEAD teaches them to be honest and candid, which takes bravery to achieve.
I truly want everyone to aspire to LEAD. It took years to formulate based on the tenets of other change management systems—and it works.
Acknowledgements: Thank you to BC Business who co-wrote this article with me.
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