Donna Highfill
  • Home
  • About
    • About Donna
    • What People Are Saying
    • My Other Blogs
      • Dame Nation Blog
      • Huffington Post
  • Services
    • Power Up BUSINESS
    • Coaching
  • Books and Tools
  • Blog
    • Fave Products
  • Contact Me

This Change Leader Made 3 Key Mistakes

AndrewUncategorizedNo commentsSeptember 26, 2012

Our new leader from the big city stood to address us for the first time. His first words were:

Thank you for coming to this meeting. My name is Harry, and I have a genius IQ.

I’m from Chicago and have lived with a two-hour commute to work each morning. This company and this team have a lot to learn from me.

We waited for the punchline, but there was none delivered.

Harry was being brought in at great expense to the company to help lead a major change initiative, but he wasn’t quite what we expected.

Yes, he had a high IQ. Yes, he was from Chicago. Yes, he lasted three months.

What went wrong? Too many things to count, but here are the three gaffs that cost him his job.

The Three Gaffs

  1. He wore his insecurity on a sleeve of pomposity and ridiculous bravado. As soon as he told us how smart he was we knew, in our gut, that this was a terrified human being. In that moment, we decided not to trust him as our change leader. He lost us at hello.
  2. He tried to short-cut respect by demeaning us. Rather than showing us the kind of leader he could be, he decided to elevate his importance by telling us that we were small-town losers. I supposed he hoped to scare us into submission. Using a verbal whip might drive short-term change, but it will neither be sustained nor effective.
  3. He believed that clothes DO make the man. He actually passed around his expensive watch so that we could see how much money he made to impress us.  If a leader has yet to prove themselves, expensive clothes become a costume worn uncomfortably by the clown at the front of the room.

–Great leaders know that people must be respected before any change effort is

effectively implemented. —  

The company could have kept him for three years and he would have never succeeded because of how he began the relationship with our team.

If you’re leading change, start with respect for those on your team. And realize that there are people behind every successful change in corporate America. If you don’t enroll them, your change will be on paper only.

 

Tags: behavior change, Change, change leadership, change management, Change Stories, donna highfill, featured, highfill performance group, leadership, motivation

Related Articles

Why Gossip is a Bad News Boomerang

September 9, 2011Andrew

When Stories Go Bad

April 8, 2011Andrew

Want to Change? Connect!

June 24, 2011Andrew

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Learn How to Tell a Better Story and Achieve Success!

Sign up below to receive 48 FREE Energizing Messages.

Connect with Me

Email
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest

Recent Posts

  • A Cab Driver Who Appeared as if from Nowhere
  • Here’s Some Honesty For You
  • Laughter is My Hero
  • A New Year in Old Clothes
  • Why I Will Face the Fall

CHECK OUT MY BOOK

highfillcover

As a leader, do you implement change only to watch the projects, processes and initiatives stall because you can’t get the people driving them to change? In my new book Real People, Real Change: Stories of a Change Warrior in the Business World I share real stories to illustrate how leaders can move people to action.

Archives

Where Donna Will Be Speaking Next

  • April 22, 2015 - SunTrust Women's Networking Group
  • April 23, 2015 - SunTrust Women's Networking Group
  • May 12, 2015 - LPGA Championship, Kingsmill, Williamsburg VA
  • May 21, 2015 - Education Association of Fundraising Professionals, Eerie, PA

Certified_hi-res

mbti_certified
huffbadge

Learn How to Tell a Better Story and Achieve Success!

Sign up below to receive 48 FREE Energizing Messages.

Recent Posts

  • A Cab Driver Who Appeared as if from Nowhere August 9, 2017
  • Here’s Some Honesty For You March 16, 2017
  • Laughter is My Hero January 10, 2017

Contact Me

804-370-6665
[email protected]
  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Copyright
  • About Donna
  • Contact Me
Copyright Donna Highfill 2014