ACCEPTANCE

(The A inTEAM)

In theory it sounds right and easy to accept every member of your team for who and what they are.

To accommodate their uniqueness and differentness into the group. To be enriched with the abilities and perspective that they are able to bring to the table.

In practice real acceptance it is not so easy. It requires a lot of maturity on different levels to really and truly accept a person in context of his/ her back ground, personality, baggage and mannerisms.

As human beings and more so as leaders, we have a tendency to reinforce who and what we are in others. We might even misjudge a particular fresh or new viewpoint as dissidence and alien to the team, just because it is different to ours.

The stronger and more real the acceptance of each member in a team by the rest of the team is, the more dynamic and versatile that team potentially becomes.  Acceptance empowers creativity and creates energy within teams.

Real acceptance involves the willingness:

-To (try to) understand and give recognition to a person in context 
  of where he/ she come from in terms of background, culture and  tradition.
-To welcome who a person is in character and personality type. (With all the 
  intricacies that goes with it).  
-To favourably receive his/ her different, or even “strange” way of 
  looking at things, as well as the peculiar mannerisms and ways of
  expression that he/she might have.

True acceptance is more than just being mindful of a person. It is the act of welcoming, receiving and endorsing someone, to the extent of really believing in him/her.

Acceptance is never just tolerating a person, but all of the above -as well as celebrating his/ her uniqueness and role in the team!

-How accepting are you of the members of your team?

ChAnGe.

What is your approach to change?

-Do you resist it at all cost and fervently defend the status quo?

Are you a reluctant changer? Will you accept change when you see that it is working and that most people are supporting it?  Do you adapt easily to change, or are you one of the about 2% innovators who create change in your community?

 

Interestingly research has found that the leaders of successful organizations are normally about equally, either innovators or resistors to change....

Most people change when they have to: Either because they suffered enough pain, or because they have gained enough information and understanding to see the benefits of a new approach.  

Even then some of us approach change in an evolutionary way, slowly transforming and creating something new from the old. Others choose to approach change in a revolutionary way: Putting something completely new and different in place quickly.

I don’t think any of the two is by definition right or wrong.  –Quite a few variables need to be taken into consideration to determine whether a fast-slow, or a slow-fast approach will be best in a particular situation.  -Do you want to take most people with you?  Do the people you are leading have enough trust in you to just follow you into something new? Can you afford to lose half of the group, clients, or followers?    –Of importance is that you spend some thought on it and know why you choose a specific approach.

We are living in an ever changing world. It is not something new.  Ever since the first seasons emerged the world experiences a process of continuous change.  The industrial and information revolutions brought great changes to how we live and work.  Some people tried to resist it, but still slowly and surely change did come ......

What makes our experience different, is the fact that we’re living in times of increasingly fast paced, discontinuous and even disruptive change!  The world and culture/s that we are living in are literally changing before our eyes!

The rapid changes in thought, culture, information technology, globalization, religious- and race plurality, to name a few, have a definite impact on the nature of leadership.  

If and when you do lead change in your company, community of family - remember this:

1.The greatest challenge is to first change yourself.

2.Take the trouble to get to know the history and background of the organization in which you want to create change. –That creates understanding, trust and context.

3. Create opportunities for people to discuss the proposed changes and to give their input, that helps them to take ownership of the process.

4. Create urgency.

5. Create a synergetic leading group of “change agents” to model and live the change.

6. Always lead change from the basis and in the context of mutual trust.

7. Communicate the why and the how of change continuously and thoroughly.

Change will always be part of life:

If you think you are (tired of and) finished with change:

You are finish!