Showing posts with label change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label change. Show all posts

Tuesday 18 February 2020

managing emotions in transition

managing emotions in transition

 
As discussed, three stages in the transition process in any change, and there are emotions involved in each step. Effective people are better at managing those emotional aspects.
 
During Expose to Change:

It is natural to get all the emotions like shock, angry, upset. The key is to be aware of those feelings and how you are passing through it. Some people, when they are not aware of it, they react to those emotions by way of outburst and spoiling the relationship.

For example,
you might have observed that in the origination, the moment the boss proposes something, the immediate reaction from any one of the subordinates is "NO" or "NOT POSSIBLE". This is the outcome of inability to manage the emotions during expose to change. (But the same person might have anchored the change successfully but leaves the impression that the person always a skeptic and cynical!😢 )

Hence, this stage calls for awareness of emotions and neutralizes it by calm, listen further, and move on to the next step.

Immersion stage:

Once you pass through the first stage, in this immersion stage, you are mentally accepting the change and undergoing the consequence of the change.

When you feel "Let it Go," that moment, you are allowing yourself for the change or transformation to the next transition.

Recovering stage:

In this stage, you are in reflective feeling and analyzing the pros and cons of the changes. You are discovering a new self, which is more rewarding due to the change event.

For example, when you accept that you need to relocate to a new place as a change, in this phase, your mind took the change and started weighing the good and bad. You are about to see the big picture and some insights as well. That is when you are ready for a transformation.

The point is whether the change event is big or small. Naturally, everyone will undergo three phases of transition, and each stage consists of emotions. How you are aware of feelings and getting new perspectives makes you effective in handling any change!

Why do we resist change initially?

As discussed, the change happens due to self-decision or imposed by the environment or others. When the transition happens from external, we find it more challenging to cope up. The reason could be our mind is evolved to 
 
  • Seek certainty by maintaining the status quo
  • Seek rewards and happiness
  • Avoid any form of threat to current lifestyle
  • Minimize the energy to spend on new experiences
This comfort is natural.

Some competent people are aware of the emotions during the transition process, and if we understand the process, easy to manage the transition smoothly.

When others impose the change, everyone needs to undergo the three stages of the transition process. In each step, there are emotions involved. If we manage those emotions in each process, we can handle any change process.

Three stages of transition in any change

 
For example,

In a working place, you are with high expectations of getting a promotion in your job as you believe you are reasonably performing well.
Now you hear the news that you are not getting expected the promotion. That is the change event you need to manage through three stages.


Expose to change:

You heard the news that you are not getting a promotion. The moment you understand this, you are getting shocked, getting angry, start blaming either your boss or organization, feeling low due to a helpless situation, and then becoming upset or sad.

The way you are managing those emotions during the exposure stage is all about managing the transition process.

Immersion stage:

Once you pass through the exposure stage, now you hear the details or justification for not being promoted. You are profoundly going through the disappointment phase
During the phase, you are absorbing and mentally accepting reality.

The way you are managing those emotions during the stage is all about managing the transition process.

Recovering stage:

Then, once you pass through immersion stage, you start introspecting for not being’ promoted, weighing the pro’s and con’s of promotion and you will be getting new insights about your improvement avenues.

The way you are managing those emotions during the stage is all about managing the transition process.

The duration of the stages may differ people to people from a few minutes to a few days😂 !

In all the stages of the transition process, the way we are managing the emotions and look at the emotions from a different perspective is the key to managing any changes smoothly.

Let us discuss those parts next week!

Wednesday 5 February 2020

Managing Changes- Is change good or bad?

Is change good or bad?



As discussed last week, change is a continuous event in life, and we need to master the emotional aspects of the transition process.

In personal and professional life, most of us encounter the following changes.

  •   Relocating to a new place
  •   Changing job from one organization to another
  •   Change of boss 
  •   Shift in career 
  •   From the audience to the active presenter to knowledgeable group
  •   From employee to self-employed
  •   From individual contributor to people manager
  •   Learning a new skill to improve professional growth
  •   Being a bachelor to married 
  •   When an unexpected event happened from our plan 

When you look at the list above, some of the changes are imposed on us by the circumstances or by others and some of the changes we initiate on our own.

For example, relocating to a new place is a change that might have occurred due to others or by our own decision.

Depending on the nature of the change and the inward or outward momentum, the transition process creates different emotional turbulence inside.

Is change good or bad?

Most of the time, the change brings progress only, either in terms of comfort, wellness, material prosperity, or mental maturity.

For example, one of my known friends was asked to relocate to different geography of the same company, without much change in the positional, materialistic, job profile. But the change in a location exposed the friend to the new experience of handling people in different geography and helped him to accelerate the career at a later stage. 

When you relate to the changes in your life, you also will conclude that most of the changes brought good things in your life.

Having benefitted from the changes most of the time, but why do we initially resist the change?

Let us discuss it next week!

Have a great week until then! 

Managing Changes


 
Throughout life, one thing is continuously happening to every one of us  “change.”

The change is either triggered by external factors or our self-drive. Whether the change is internal or external driven, the process of transition is mostly painful. The pain is not due to specific CHANGE event, but due to the TRANSITION  process, which we undergo internally.

What is meant by change?

Moving from existing, comfort state  to new, unknown perceived discomfort zone



In between moving from a comfort state and settling down in a new state, we undergo a psychological transition process.
 
For example,

You are informed that a new boss is going to head to your organization. The moment you get the information, you may undergo internally mix up of emotional reactions and thought process like

Whether the new boss is comfortable to work? (doubt)
What will be his / her expectation, will we meet his / her expectations? (anxiety)
Will there be any change in my job profile or growth aspects? (fear)
 
Likewise, there are many changes for which we undergo different emotional reactions depending upon the nature of change.

When we do not know to manage the emotional transition process, we become a victim of the change event, and eventually, we lose the growth potential.

There are many books had been written on change management from an organizational perspective. In my opinion, we need to learn the process of transition from a personal perspective. If we are aware of the process, then as a manager or leader, one can drive the change management quickly at an organizational level as well.

Hence, we need to be aware of the change management process on the following
  • Change management  process and the emotional aspects in each stage
  • Knowing to manage the emotions at each stage
  • Some insights of changes to our quality of life
  • How can you proactively initiate some of the changes internally driven?
  • Leadership role in managing the changes smoothly in an organizational setup
 Let us discuss next week and solicit your views!

Monday 30 April 2018

How to change the mindset of others?


One of the frequently asked questions in most of the conversation with business head or managers is, “How to change the mindset of my team?”. Business head intends to change his fellow manager's thought process or mindset. Similarly, managers also expect to improve his fellow reportee’s thought process.It is reasonable expectation a senior person likes his team member to look at the things as he sees.

Let us understand the process of changing the mindset of others.

Mindset means we set our mind or thoughts towards something in a particular fashion and our behaviors/actions are in line with thought process or mindset. Now as an elder, if you want to change the mindset of others, you need to feed their mind with new thoughts or experience or new learning, then only old mentality disappears, and new mindset or thought process settle in. That is merely enhancing the mind to accommodate a new way of looking at things.

If you understand this process, as an elder, your job is to continuously educate or communicate with your fellow team members till they enhance their mind. You need to give a new exposure in the form of training or further learning. That way only, you can change other’s mindset towards business.

The point is that educating or communicating or exposing for new learning is your responsibility. Are you owning responsibility and spending your time, energy towards developing your team is the point of self-introspection!

Wednesday 20 September 2017

How to work with non likeminded people?

We enjoy what we do only when the colleagues, partners, teammates are in almost same wavelength, that is a similar thought process, acceptance, understandings about the intentions etc .However in reality, we may work with the people who may not be similar thought level. Practically you may not have an immediate solution to move away from them, the only option left out is to cope with them.

How to deal with those people?

Accept their qualities as such. The moment you accept them, you mentally prepare yourself to work with them

As you think more about them, you are developing negativity about others and reinforce your non-acceptance.

Think & distant yourself  beyond them as  life provides a lot of opportunities to enjoy and  then you  realize how small they are in your life

Least, you relate with nature.Nothing lasts forever like cyclic of day and night.Everything will change 

The point is you can not change all the things as you like, but you need to adapt to reality as ultimately you need to do a lot in a short span and your peace of mind is important!

Monday 31 July 2017

Imposing change on self



There was a saint believed to have tremendous power to solve all kinds of life problems. One day, a middle aged man approached the saint to solve his personal problem. He narrated the saint with the list of complaints against his wife.It was quite apparent that his every effort to reform or change his wife’s behavior had proved a failure. He requested saint to help him.

Patiently listening to the man, the saint said, “I can assure you excellent married life, provided you become a better husband”.

Confused with the reply, the man curiously asked him, “What should I do for that”.

The saint replied “First give up all your efforts to change her as a better wife”

Moral of the story:

Not only in family relationship, in all relationships, no one will change their basic attitude and behavior easily for others, unless there is compelling need is felt.Hence, accept the people as such as it requires a major mindset change within us. That is relatively easier than any effort to change others.In a relationship, any form of imposing change only results in frustration and hurt in long run.



Wednesday 27 July 2016

Influence the change where we can

“Change the changeable, accept the unchangeable and remove yourself from the unacceptable”- Denis Wiatley

          Most of us are aware of that change eventually brings growth. However, when we think about change, naturally we expect others to change. The frustration of defeat effort, strain in a relationship starts from the moment when we expect and attempt to make changes where we do not have much influence.

        For example, as a business owner, we expect change in external environment like policy reforms, tax concessions, consistent order flow from customer, periodic price revision etc. Do we have real influence on those areas? Instead, we have more influence on the internal environment wherein we can organize ourselves with lean cost structure, flexible system to cope with uncertainties, dynamic team with single-minded focus etc. Channelizing our effort where we have more influence will bring competitive advantage rather than spending energy where we do not have much influence.

       Recently I read  about an Indian CEO ‘s  case study on how he  consistently made a profit  for more than 8 years .During the recession period also, while his competitions were reacting with a price cut to manage the adverse environment, he delivered  healthy profitability. Clearly, his thought process was on “influencing the change where he had control” and his proactive approach   on cost, line up of new products, development of winning team culture in the organization made his organization to manage the tough times.


      Similarly, on individual front, when we attempt to bring change in others like colleagues, spouse, children, and relatives etc., most of the time, we end up with disappointment or frustration. Instead, change our mindset on acceptance, being flexible etc., which is always in our influence of change!