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The Impact of Leadership on Business Success. 04:43 pm ET Updated Dec 06. There are a lot of things that amount to the success of an organization, and leadership without a doubt is one of the main reasons for this success. A leader needs to be trusted and be known to live their life with honestly and integrity. A good leader. Leadership skills can play a large role in career development. Technical skills may only take you so far. To help you move forward in your career, you'll probably need soft skills, such as the.
How to Restructure an Organization
If you’ve ever been part of restructuring of an organization, you know that the very mention of it can induce a sense of worry. Restructuring a company is tough and takes a great deal of careful planning. Moreover, business renewal is never easy nor is it fun because big decisions need to be made that affect the firm, its employees, and their families. But as we’ve mentioned here at MRH, businesses need to remain nimble and adaptable to the ever-changing environment. So unfortunately, when there are external forces and headwinds that impact the organization, we have no choice but to realign, restructure and reorganize to maintain competitiveness.
Restructuring is a Form of Change Management
It goes without saying that reorganizing a well-established company is likely to be difficult, emotional and complex. After all, restructuring is a classic example of change management. It involves lengthy, often emotionally charged, discussions on what’s working, what is not working, and what needs to work better. Additionally, restructuring a business demands thorough cross-examination from a variety of perspectives and stakeholders. Plus, there are constraints and existing commitments that limit what you can do. Employees will be impacted, some of whom may no longer have a job following the restructure. And ideally, any changes that are made should have minimal impact on customers.
However, reorganization is about more than just the end result and implementing new, fresh and shiny business processes. How the business actually goes about making the changes is just as important as the changes themselves.
Because restructuring is an infrequent occurrence, many managers are not experienced in the process of business renewal. Consequently, many managers are simply not prepared when they embark on a restructuring campaign.
5 Tips for Implementing a Corporate Restructure
Identifying what the changes are is only part of the process. Often times, the bigger challenge for managers and executives is actually the detailed planning aspects of the changes as well as communicating a new vision and reasons why change is needed in the first place. Managers must remember that changing an organization is like riding a roller coaster – the people in front can see what’s coming. However, the people in the back will typically experience more sudden change with little warning because they have limited visibility to what is coming.
If you are planning to restructure your company or make organizational changes in the near future, here are five things to consider before you begin:
1. Communication
Communication is easily the most important piece of restructuring and organizational change. Change is difficult and can leave the organization uneasy. For many employees, ambiguity leads to fear and uncertainty. When it’s time to announce the changes, take great care in talking to your staff and answer questions. Make yourself available to answer concerns. Moreover, throughout the process, make regular announcements to the entire organization that identify key decisions and notable progress.
According to an MRH survey, 50% of people say that effective communication is the most important aspect of being a good boss.
Even if there is little to report, communication to this effect is also beneficial. Silence results in concern. Remember that it is equally as important to communicate why the changes are needed as it is to explain what the changes are. Explain the needs, explain the goals. Being open and clear will help you achieve buy-in and support for what you’re trying to do. Gaining employee support will help build a positive momentum towards the future state.
2. When Restructuring, Plan Ahead
Implementation of change requires careful planning ahead of time. Before introducing anything to the organization, look at each change you plan to make, and evaluate the impacts to your business. Here are 7 questions you should ask yourself make.
7 Questions On Restructuring You Must Ask Before Doing Anything:
Unfortunately, many business leaders get trapped in thinking just about the benefits the renewal will bring, but forget to conduct thorough impact assessments of core processes, and do not map out timelines for implementation. Failing to do these fundamental things may reduce some of the efficiency improvements offered by the new structure.
“How the business actually goes about making the changes is just as important as the changes themselves.”
Establishing contingency plans is also wise, as unforeseen challenges will likely emerge. Do your homework before you make the decision to restructure public knowledge. How smoothly you implement the changes will impact how quickly and efficiently it goes. Announcing changes before figuring it out is bad practice, and is likely lead to problems down the line.
3. Meet in the Middle
When you are simply realigning teams and people to make your business more effective, don’t forget to talk to your employees. The higher up you are in the organization the less in touch you are with the working level. It’s a fact that many upper level managers choose to ignore.
Talk to your people to see what input they may have on the situation. Seek out a small focus group of key talent or knowledge holders to battle-test your ideas. Gain feedback. Actively seek your employees’ suggestions in terms of gaps. And listen to them. Often times, your vision combined with their ideas will lead to the best solution. The employees will live in the new structure every day and will easily be able to identify challenges you may have overlooked.
4. Structure for Success
Keep in mind a virtue in the world of organizational management: your structure must bring you success. If you’re struggling with technology growth, separate a team to focus only on technology. If your customers feel neglected, create a team dedicated to taking care of customers. There are many ways to create an organizational structure, and all have the merits. Examples include product based teams, process based teams, regionally based teams and functional teams. The key is to find the sources of pain and weakness and center your efforts around addressing them.
5. Follow Up
Once you make the formal announcement that a restructure is coming, you’re not likely to get a great deal of feedback in the public setting. Remedy: talk to your employees on an individual basis after you announce the changes. Again, seek out a focus group. At the individual level, understand what parts made sense to them and those that didn’t.
5 Questions to Ask Employees After a Restructure is Announced:
You’ll probably find a couple of trends or areas where your communication was not clear. Following up will help you address concerns and gain support. Further, major restructuring is likely to take time, so communicate regularly through out the process of change. Doing so keeps people working hard and reduces distracting rumors.
Take Away Points on Business Renewal
Restructuring a company or organization will always have its challenges. There is no perfect play book – every change is different just like each company is unique. However, by closely planning out your implementation strategy and communicating effectively to your organization, you can pave the way to the future far more effectively. Remember that while a few managers and executives at the top may have a vision for what the future structure may look like, it’s the people within the organization who are the real change agents. Let your employees be part of building the future you seek.
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The productivity of a work group seems to depend on how the group members see their own goals in relation to the goals of the organization. – Ken BlanchardWhen was the last time you took a hard look at the effectiveness of your organizational structure? While most organizations have one, do the people in your organization know it or understand it? The time may be ripe for you to take a fresh look at yours and consider these six ways to enhance it.Empower your leadersRegardless of what your present organizational structure looks like its functionality should empower its leaders. Successful leaders thrive in an organizational structure that fosters creativity, unleashes potential, and doesn’t stifle progress.
This happens when less emphasis is placed on hierarchical structure and more emphasis is placed on empowering the right people in the right places. Empowerment elevates the performance of leaders and encourages behavior that earns the respect of followers. This respect allows leaders to build partnerships within the organization that encourage open, two-way communication and foster a sense of loyalty.Give ownershipOwnership occurs within your organizational structure when there is buy-in from the bottom up and system wide. If ownership is not shared then the structure is self-serving and not empowering. People want ownership and sense of belonging to a great cause. Without ownership that can’t happen. Ownership holds everyone on the team accountable for their decisions and actions.
In order for employees to take successful ownership of their work they must clearly understand expectations. They must also have milestones where progress is evaluated. Ensure that employees are serving in the right roles, give ownership, and celebrate their victories.Expand bordersOrganizational structures don’t define you, you define them.
As such, your organizational structure should not be a document of containment but a blueprint of open boundaries to grow and succeed. It should not box people in but should free them to do what they do best. As your organization grows so should your structure but in a way that facilities your growth and not in ways that impede it. Provide employees with the opportunity to be more flexible about how, when, where, and with whom the work gets done. Employees want to be involved in designing and managing their work tasks. Offer employees choices and the ability to personalize work. Allow employees to share ideas and be involved in the implementation of these ideas.
As you expand your borders, provide opportunities for employee growth and focus your energies on the results that really matter.Think lateralEmployees need to have a level of control over their work tasks. A top-down organizational structure hinders the ability of decision-making at the lowest level possible. Decision making on the front-lines allows issues to be identified and addressed quickly.
In a lateral structure, employees understand where they fit and how they impact the success of the organization. A flat organizational structure allows employees at all levels of the organization to be empowered and given autonomy over their work. This less rigid structure allows for flexibility and promotes a feeling of equality and inclusiveness. When lateral thinking is put into action it allows for swifter response times that can translate into happier customers, gratified clients, and a healthy bottom line. Lateral thinking is empowering, efficient, and very effective.Build trustThe support needed to successfully achieve organizational goals is gained by developing relationships based on trust and commitment. The organizational structure can enhance or impede factors such as open communication, management follow-through, accountability, consistency, and concern for employee interests all of which foster a sense of trust.
Therefore, building trust is a deliberate action, not something left to chance. It happens as relationships are given priority, it grows in an atmosphere of community, and it pays huge dividends when everyone is engaged.
Without trust you have nothing. With it your potential is unlimited.Find common groundEmployees prefer to work with others they see as similar to themselves. When the organizational structure provides an inclusive environment with common goals a sense of community is developed. Finding common ground helps in the successful pursuit of these shared goals. The organization must foster a shared purpose so that employees understand why the organization exists and why they do what they do.
Finding common ground is a fundamental condition of your success. You need to define, share it, but most of all; your team needs to own it. Common ground is your path forward.Does your organizational structure support the goals you trying to reach? The continued success of your organization is dependent on your ability to continually evaluate and enhance your organizational structure. You can enhance your effectiveness by taking these steps to ensure that your organization is ready to succeed in the 21st century.© 2014 Doug Dickerson and Elizabeth StincelliElizabeth Stincelli is passionate about recognizing and inspiring the leader in each of us. She is the CEO of Stincelli Advisors where she focuses on helping organizations engage employees and improve organizational structure. Elizabeth holds a Doctor of Management degree with an emphasis on organizational leadership.
Learn more about Elizabeth by visiting her websites, www.stincelliadvisors.com.
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