Be an effective change maker

By Tania Ngima

Whether you are employed by an organisation or striking out on your own, there is a time when you have to play the role of a change maker. Most people do not like change neither are they happy with having to adapt to a new way of working.

Given that change is a difficult terrain to navigate and you will likely encounter a significant amount of resistance, what are the must-have skills you need in your tool kit?

Cultivate a network

There are times you will feel frustrated because things are not going your way, or because resistance just seems like a never-ending status quo.

While high achievers may seem like they got to where they are all on their own, a lot of them agree that networks are the key to success. It is important to cultivate an inner circle of people who care about your personal and professional growth, these are the people who can offer you support and give you that extra push.

If you do not already have an inner circle, you can make a concerted effort to do this.

Get people who can tell you the truth in a constructive way, share or understand your values and can push you to be and do better.

Deep listening 

A good habit of change makers is the ability to listen deeply. Most times, what we confuse for listening is actually not. We only listen as far as we are interested and as much as is polite before we jump in with what we think are our brilliant suggestions, ideas or counter ideas.

Practise listening without forming any judgments, or trying to influence the conversation in any direction.

This gives you a better chance of gaining a deeper understanding into the problems you are trying to solve and, especially if there are issues under the surface, which are being hinted at than being disclosed outright.

Another habit is actively seeking synergies. Whether working on a new development and changing an existing one, there are bound to be differences of opinion.

If you understand where both opinions are coming from by listening without judgement, you are likely to come up with an alternative that works for both teams.

Synergies means the whole is more productive than the sum of the parts, but cohesion has to be done in an intelligent way to achieve this.

TIPS

• Philosophers say that excellence is something we repeatedly do, not something that just happens to us.

• Creating good habits requires being able to do the same thing over and over again until you get it perfectly right.

• When caught in the most difficult process of change, battling with resistance, always visualise how your finished result looks like and share this with your team.