Want to change? ‘Look to your people’
People power can drive business transformation – but only if managers let it.
When organisations change, they inevitably look at their people. Do they have the right ones in the right jobs? Are the people there now the people needed for the future?
Inevitably, companies look outside to reinvigorate themselves and bring in new and better skills. But beware, panellists in our roundtable series warn, many of the people you need might already be in place.
One of the reasons many organisations lack new, creative thinking might be because current executives haven’t welcomed it.
NZ Post general manager markets and business development Blair Woodbury says bringing in new ideas and new people is vital, but so too is wrapping support around them so they can operate in the face of resistance.
“People are critical to it and it starts with the ideas and where you are capturing those ideas. Then how do you actually find the idea that is future-looking or future-proof and let go of some of the decisions we’ve made in the past?”
The key to developing a transformation response is listening to “non-traditional people”, BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope agrees.
They help businesses innovate and think differently.
Les Mills International chief executive Phillip Mills agrees it is important to listen to a diverse range of voices, but especially those of the younger generation.
“For us in our industry Gen-X was very similar to the Boomers, but the Millennials are different. They don’t want to do what their mum did.
“I’ve really had to learn to listen to my kids. You don’t want to a lot of the time because they are telling you you’re an idiot.
And you have to be open to being told you’re an idiot. You are, you’re stuck in the old ways of thinking."
Malcolm Rands, chief executive of Ecostore, says to really benefit from new people, leaders have to suppress their autocratic tendencies.
“I think the other thing you have to do is give up being a control freak because your business is full of these amazing people and you’ve got to bring them on board, you’ve got to trust them.
“All your resources are probably inside your organisation already, just often they don’t feel they can actually say it, the mechanisms aren’t there. So look to your people.”
“Trust” is a concept some oldschool leaders find hard to embrace. But Rands says there is no longer a choice.
“You just have to do it. You catch yourself, thinking I’m being unreasonable here.”
Woodbury says leadership is more about talking and listening. “It’s not about dictating and ruling.”