emotional intelligence and teams in change management

January 28, 2024|Accountants, Kim's Blog, Lawyers, Management Skills, Strategy|

Last week I was excited to lead an MBL session on “Tackling Change Management – A Workshop for Professional Firms”. Having facilitated this session many times in the past in face-to-face workshops, it was exhilarating to experience the change in running it on-line for the first time. We welcomed delegates from legal, accountancy and financial services firms. Their roles included: team leaders, partners, functional experts and compliance professionals. Leadership, emotional intelligence and teams in change management.

Leadership and change

The role of leadership and leaders in change management provoked much energetic discussion.

Leading change

We considered how to lead change. Particularly the role of leaders driving and embedding successful change. The challenges of leadership within a partnership model were explored. And how leadership teams can help or hinder change programmes. Delegates particularly enjoyed exploring the difference between management and leadership models and responsibilities.

Balance task and people

A common theme of many models was the need for leaders to balance task (achieve the desired outcome) against people and relationships (attending to individuals and teams). Leaders need to have a connection with and the trust of their people. They must engage their people and listen to their concerns. To win hearts as well as minds.

Develop organisational culture

This inevitably led to a discussion about the link between leadership and organisational culture. And how the prevailing culture may help or hinder the achievement of change.

Nurture a change management movement – From “Let it go” (kimtasso.com)

Move away from a “Command and Control” style of leadership

We explored the extent to which organisations maintained outdated “command and control” leadership model or had moved to a more collaborative style. This transition is explored further in Book review: The Management Shift by Vlatka Hlupic (kimtasso.com)

Create a change vision

Leaders need a compelling vision of the desired change. And then to manage the change process while focusing on the desired outcome. This can be particularly difficult to achieve when it was an imposed change – such as with the implementation of new processes to comply with new legislation.

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new” Socrates

Emotional intelligence and change

Emotions during change

Convincing people of the rational need for change – making the business case – is relatively easy. Winning their hearts – and emotional commitment – is tougher.

We considered the emotional journey of employees when embarking on a change journey change process – Emotions when reacting to change (kimtasso.com)

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) for leaders

We explored the importance of emotional intelligence (EQ) for leaders. Research on leadership and emotional intelligence (EQ) (kimtasso.com). A key part of successful change management is engaging with employees Change management and Employee engagement (kimtasso.com).

And this requires more than excellent internal communications Book review: Influential Internal Communication by Jenni Field (kimtasso.com). And we talked about the need for leaders to listen with their eyes as well as their ears (using non-verbal communications skills Non-Verbal Communication (NVC) – the basics (Video) (kimtasso.com)).

This also requires leaders to listen carefully to any concerns about the change programme. And to adjust the plan to reflect employees’ concerns and views. To develop empathy with those going through change programmes, we attempted an exercise using a personal change planning model.

Different emotional reactions to the same situation

Throughout the day do did emotional status checks. This helps us develop our emotional self-awareness. And helps us reflect on how different people react differently to the same situation. During the day, reported emotions included: acceptance, anticipation, apprehension, calm, curious, excited, inspired, interested, intrigued and optimistic

Changing individuals and teams

We explored a range of practical techniques to help individuals and teams change including:

Provide clarity about what will happen, why and when
Involve employees in the analysis and decision-making process (we talked here about the importance of workshops
Explain the benefits and answer “What’s in it for me? (WIIFM)
Acknowledge individual differences and preferences
Reduce uncertainty and address fears
Separate from previous bad experiences
Promote “In Group” interactions
Harness the influencing power of champions and sponsors
Manage team dynamics – perhaps using personality and team assessment tools
Leverage social proof and peer pressure Influence – Cialdini’s six principles of the psychology of persuasion (kimtasso.com)

Role of organisational culture

Organisational culture will provide an important backdrop which will help or hinder change leadership and management. Key topics discussed here included:

Transparency and trust
Employee engagement Change management and Employee engagement (kimtasso.com)
Psychological safety How to facilitate groups – 2 (Herding cats in professional services) (kimtasso.com)
Reward structures – especially those relating to team goals

Other ideas are explored here: Book review: Neuroscience for organizational change by Hilary Scarlett (kimtasso.com)

Change process and models

We assessed a number of different change models and processes – from simple to complex. All models offered some insight into the change process. The delegate view was that there was “no one right way” and that firms needed to adapt the processes for their organisation and situation.

We explored the importance of confidence amongst leaders. Coaching was regarded as a particularly important skill set for leaders and change managers. There are many resources on coaching:

Soft skills: Introduction to coaching – Three frameworks (kimtasso.com)

Book review: Coaching skills: A handbook by Jenny Rogers (kimtasso.com)

Coaching models – book review of Stephen Gibson’s book (kimtasso.com)

Helping people change: Coaching with compassion (kimtasso.com)

Coaching and consulting skills for M&BD workshop (November 2021) (kimtasso.com)

Coaching skills – the power of questions (kimtasso.com)

Delegate views and poll results

Delegate aims for the session

Keeping up with the challenges of constant changes in the market, staffing, technology
Support for the continuous management of organic growth
Assist in managing a major project to implement a new case management system – tackling IT and compliance issues and user resistance
Help for an unofficial project manager to manage strategic change following a leadership restructure
Guide our change in organisational culture as we implement new legislation in consumer protection
Manage a large team as we implement significant process changes
Support the customer services and finance teams as we implement new processes
Just taken over leadership of a team and need help in achieving buy-in, managing resistance and developing new skills on several projects
Head of department and need to implement policy changes quickly
Managing expectations and buy-in of senior leadership team when implementing numerous projects
How to implement new processes across several areas with a focus on how we manage people, commercial interests and outcomes
How to embed new processes into daily routines seamlessly
Aligning the technical and data infrastructure to new methods of working
Dealing with the merger of three teams

Which is the biggest challenge in your change project?

0% Values and beliefs
29% Thinking (rational and cognitive)
14% Feelings (emotions)
0% Behaviours
43% Data, systems and processes
14% Senior leadership support

Which emotion dominates employees during change?

0% Sadness
0% Joy
14% Fear
0% Disgust
0% Anger
71% Anxiety
14% Other

Which topic is of most interest?

Why is change so difficult?
Leading change and leadership (57%)
Supporting individual change
Supporting organisational change (14%)
Change management tools and skills (14%)

Which do you think has been the main reason holding back change at your firm?

0% Leadership
0% Strategy and plans
17% Implementation process
33% Poor communication/Lack of engagement
0% HR systems (rewards etc)
33% Lack of time
17% Something else

Which leadership style dominates at your firm?

Autocratic
Analytic (17%)
Opinion seeking (17%)
Democratic (17%)
Visionary
Transformational (33%)
Adaptive (17%)
Connective

Which level do you think applies to your firm? Book review: The Management Shift by Vlatka Hlupic (kimtasso.com)

Apathetic
Stagnating
Orderly 43%
Collaborative 57%
Unbounded

How is your emotional intelligence? An introduction to emotional intelligence (EQ) and empathy (Video) (kimtasso.com)

Very high
High 33%
Average 50%
Low
Very low
I have no idea 17%

Which model is most similar to your view of human behaviour?

Behavioural 60%
Psychodynamic
Humanistic
Cognitive
Other 40%

Which of the following phases is most difficult to manage? change process – Emotions when reacting to change (kimtasso.com)

Shock
Denial 20%
Anger
Depression 80%
Acceptance
Experimentation

Do you think your firm is psychologically safe? How to facilitate groups – 2 (Herding cats in professional services) (kimtasso.com)

Yes 17%
No
In parts 83%

Do you think you are mostly:

Red (competitive) 33%
Blue (cautious) 17%
Green (sociable)
Yellow (carting) 50%

Have you received training in coaching? Soft skills: Introduction to coaching – Three frameworks (kimtasso.com) and Book review: Coaching skills: A handbook by Jenny Rogers (kimtasso.com)

Yes
No
Sort of 100%

MBL has some coaching skills courses – and I also provide coaching and consulting skills workshops for clients inhouse

Be Your Own Coach – How to Get ‘Un-Stuck’ Manager as Coach? A Toolkit for Business Live at Your Desk

Coaching Skills for Managers – An Introduction

Coaching & Mentoring for HR Professionals

Do you think your firm is more (Nancy Kline – Time to Think How to facilitate groups – 2 (Herding cats in professional services) (kimtasso.com))

A thinking environment 67%
Male conditioned
Unsure 33%

Do you think your conflict handling style is mostly: Nine ideas for better conflict management (kimtasso.com)

Competing
Collaborating 17%
Compromising 50%
Avoiding 17%
Accommodating 17%

Do you have a project management methodology at your firm? Delegation and project management – Kim Tasso

Yes – Formally 29%
Yes – Informally 57%
No
I don’t know 14%

Which are articulated at your firm (tick all that apply)

Vision 14%
Values 71%
Strategy 57%
Business plan 57%
Change plan 14%
Change process 29%

How equipped do you feel to design and manage your change programme or project?

Fully equipped
Well equipped 86%
OK 14%
Not well equipped
Really ill-equipped
Other

Have you used internal workshops to discuss change in the past?

Yes – regularly 14%
Yes – on occasion 86%
No

Delegates’ takeaways from individual change section

Communicate the vision and goals to achieve buy in
Individual differences – dogs, cats and bears dog, cat and bear personalities – Better business relationships (kimtasso.com)
Colour personality analysis
Force Field model
Coaching tools
Adapt own behaviour to better respond to others
Feedback – 5 positives to 1 negative
Emotional Intelligence
Allow time for your teams to process the change and embrace the chaos
Don’t always try to make it right – some chaos is inevitable
Change leader vs Change manager
Psychological assessment tools
You need different leadership styles to see change through to completion
Management vs leadership differences
Behavioural models
Remember your team is made of people with different goals and feelings

Delegate views on most useful tools/ideas and actions at the end of workshop

Colour analysis – how it applies to yourself and others
Adapting your own behaviour to better respond to others
Psychological safety
Use of workshops
Avoid labelling
Reframing your perspective to change your approach
Reframe those who appear “difficult” or resistant to change
Review the resources and look at what I can apply to the current project
Change management tools to review and compare against what we have in place to see what else I should include in our change management process
Check out the links to get more in depth information
Diversity supports better decision-making
Dogs, Cats and Bears for personalities
Schedule some time to go through and ensure I revisit the resource pack to fully digest all of the information
Change management framework – use with other frameworks to create a customised plan
Look into the emotional intelligence (EQ) test

Thank you for the fabulous feedback!

Very informative Really enjoyed it

I thought the course was excellent and Kim a very good speaker

So much information, but because we get a downloadable pack means I can go back through it once I have absorbed what we have gone through today. Very happy with today

I thought it was a really interesting and detailed session and I really appreciated the tips and tools that have been provided

All the information contained in the course was extremely relevant and the effort in putting this together was really appreciated

Appreciated the regular breaks with there being a lot of information and a long day. Really well delivered. Nice to have the course notes beforehand also. Thanks

And thank you from me to all of the delegates for their participation and enthusiasm and to our excellent MBL technical host Claire Hamer.