Dr. Roger Dean Duncan On Change

Change is inevitable. Change is good.  Help your employees and team learn to embrace change.

Here are some solid insights from Dr. Rodger Dean Duncan's (Liberty, Missouri) book, Change-friendly Leadership -- How to Transform Good Intentions into  Great Performance:

• The kind of behavior change that results in lasting (sustainable) change must accommodate people's feelings--feelings that involve trust, confidence, passion, and all those other intangible but very real things that make us human.
• It's often the stress that people resist, not the change itself.
• Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches, letting us stretch and grow and reach new heights (Pauline R. Kezer).
• A transformational leader focuses primarily on initiating and "managing" change.  He/she influences people to improve, to stretch, and to redefine what's possible.
• It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change (Charles Darwin).
• Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.

How To Prepare For The Next Recession

Even though the business environment is improving for some companies, don't close the book on the recent recession until you've set a game plan for how you will lead your business between now and the next recession. And, for how you will lead during the next recession.

Write down the lessons you learned over the past couple years and determine how you'll apply each going forward.

You can also take note of the suggestions from savvy business leaders that offer this advice:

•  You have to build trust with your colleagues before a crisis comes or no one will follow you when it does.
•  There is no substitute for preparation. Access your company's strengths and weaknesses at all times.
•  Conduct an annual risk review that encompasses both financial and non-financial risks.
•  When removing employees from your business, be courageous, quick and fair.
•  Pay attention to those who leave and those who stay. And, for those who stay, remove work so the employees left behind don't feel punished for staying.
•  Talk more about values more than rules.
•  Reward not only the performance, but also how that performance is achieved.