10 Characteristics of St. Patrick's Servant Leadership

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Lost in the midst of parades, green beer, and Irish music, there is a story of a remarkable leader. That millions of people still celebrate a holiday honoring St. Patrick, 1500 years after his death, attests to his success as a leader.

The keys to St. Patrick’s leadership, from which we can learn for our own leadership development today, most closely relate to Servant Leadership. The Spears Center for Servant Leadership identifies 10 characteristics to Servant Leadership, and St. Patrick’s approach, work, and impact fit perfectly into each of these characteristics.

1.     Listening – The time he took to listen, talk, and answer questions was a recurring theme.

2.     Empathy – Based the trials of his own life, St. Patrick's empathy was displayed when he encountered the trials of others. This was especially clear in his Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus.

3.     Healing – At the end of his letter, he offers the opportunity for them to repent, even after what they had done, he offers the chance for healing.

4.     Awareness – St. Patrick was clearly aware of his own weaknesses and the culture of the Celtic Irish.

5.     Persuasion – His ability to convert strong leaders, Chieftains and Kings.

6.     Conceptualization – The use of the shamrock to articulate the Trinity.

7.     Foresight – The strategy he employed in charting his mission throughout Ireland, carefully choosing each step.

8.     Stewardship – St. Patrick saw the future of Ireland and the care of its people as the core of his mission.

9.     Commitment to the growth of people – He trained clergy and so sustained and consolidated each location before moving on to the next.

10.  Building community – The sites he used as churches were at or near the seats of Chieftains and Kings, many were founded as monastic settlements and became population centers at a time when few existed.

Regardless of a person’s beliefs, there’s no denying Saint Patrick’s enormous influence as a leader. He is an example of leadership that can influence us in our daily work lives.

Managing Change Management Through Project Management in 2022

Project management is planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. Every company goes through change at some point, whether it's a minor change or a large-scale transformation. When change happens, your business must have a solid project management plan in place to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

Project managers are essential in helping organizations manage change effectively. To successfully manage change in project management, one must understand the change process and how to apply project management methods and tools.

Change management is the process of planning, implementing, and monitoring changes to a project or business. Change can be positive or negative, planned or unplanned. To ensure that change is managed effectively, many businesses turn to project management. By 2022, change management will be more important than ever as businesses face constant change and disruption. In this blog, you will read about how to manage change management through project management in 2022.

Steps to Manage Change Management Through Project Management

Here are the major steps to manage change management through project management:

1. Determine the objective of the change

When it comes to change management, most organizations struggle with two key issues: not having a defined process and not being able to determine the objective of the change. These are both essential aspects of any successful change management initiative. The most important step is determining the objective of the change. Identifying the objective of the change will help you manage the change more effectively through project management.

There are many factors that need to be considered when making a change, and if you don't have a clear objective in mind, it's difficult to achieve success. Regardless of what causes it, change always brings uncertainty and risk. In order to reduce the risk and ensure success, businesses often turn to project management professionals for help. Project management is all about planning and managing change so that it is successful.

2. Establish a plan and strategy to meet that goal

The success of any change management initiative is reliant upon having a clear and concise plan in place. In order to successfully manage change management through project management, it is important to first establish a plan and strategy. This will help ensure that all team members agree and work towards the same goal. Without a clear objective, it can be difficult to keep everyone focused and motivated.

When it comes to change management, one of the most important steps is creating and implementing a plan. This plan should be tailored to your organization and its goals. Without a solid plan in place, it will be difficult to manage change effectively.

3. Create a project management team to implement the change

The key to successfully implementing change within an organization is good project management. In order to manage change management through project management, you need to create a project management team. This team will be responsible for spearheading the change and ensuring that it is successful.

The team must be capable of implementing the changes that are needed in order to achieve the desired results. Without a project management team in place, it's difficult to ensure that all aspects of change management are addressed. The project management team should be composed of individuals with the essential project management skills and knowledge to get the job done. It is important to choose the right people for this team, as they will make sure that everyone understands and follows the recent changes.

4. Facilitate smooth relationships between groups

By facilitating smooth relationships between groups, project managers can help ensure that changes are made in a controlled and efficient manner. Project management is organizing and managing resources to bring about a desired outcome. This includes ensuring that all stakeholders are working together towards a common goal, and that changes are made in a controlled and efficient manner. In order to effectively manage change, it is important to first establish smooth relationships between all groups involved. Only then can you implement project management strategies that will help ensure a successful outcome.

5. Establishing a method to monitor progress

To effectively manage change, one must establish a method by which they can monitor the progress of the change. This is where project management comes into play. By establishing and utilizing sound project management practices, it becomes much easier to track changes as they occur and ensure that all stakeholders remain up to date on the progress of the change.

Establishing a method by which change progress can be monitored will allow you to track the success of your project and make necessary adjustments as needed. Without such a system in place, it would be difficult to effectively manage change. By setting clear goals and objectives at the outset of any project, you will better track progress and make necessary improvements along the way.

To Conclude

The key to successfully managing a project is to understand the significance of change management. Change can occur for many reasons–from changes in customer needs or requirements to staffing changes or alterations in the business environment. If not managed properly, change can have a negative impact on your project’s schedule, budget, and overall success.

Changes can come from anywhere - the client, the team, the technology - and it's up to the project manager to ensure that these changes are identified and managed in a timely and effective manner. By using project management techniques, you can minimize disruptions and ensure that your projects are completed on time and within budget.

About the Author:

Jacqueline Johnson T is a Primavera trainer at Time Training Center Abu Dhabi,who has 5 years experience in handling projects. She provides tips and methodologies to conquer challenges in projects using Primavera. She is passionate in exploring different projects and their managerial methods as well as finding ways of incorporating the P6 software for the achievement of milestones in the most efficient manner.

Lean Quote: Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"It’s not the events of our lives that shape us, but our beliefs as to what those events mean.."   —  Anthony Robbins

Limiting beliefs keep us in our comfort zone. They can greatly limit development and achievement in our goals, both personally and professionally. It is these thoughts, whether conscious or unconscious, that we regard as absolute truths. However, these negative thoughts, which hinder our journey towards life goals, can be overcome and replaced with more optimistic messages. By changing your thinking, you can change everything too.

 

The following steps can help you overcome limiting beliefs in the workplace and in your personal life.

 

1. Understand that limiting beliefs keep you from achieving your full potential. It may take time, but you need to firmly believe in yourself, what's holding you back and your ability to change.

 

2. Acknowledge that your beliefs are not facts. As previously stated, they may feel true, but all they are is a point of view — an often mistaken point of view.

 

3. Be aware. Notice when your internal voice is expressing a limiting belief. This isn’t always obvious, so your job is to constantly be on the lookout.

 

4. Replace a limiting belief with an empowering belief. Add an empowering belief that says you can change your limiting beliefs. And after you’ve noted a limiting belief, change it.

 

5. Remember what you're capable of. For example, if you catch yourself thinking that anxiety makes it impossible to build true friendships, remind yourself of your ability to improve your communication skills and continually improve your relationships.

 

6. Visualize an alternative outcome. Think about what would happen if you did not have some particular limiting belief. Make your visualization as real as possible. Imagine yourself becoming the person you could be without this limiting belief. Like what you see? You can do that!

 

7. Look for new opportunities to act. Seek out challenges where you can practice your new enabling beliefs.

 

The goal of these steps is to get your brain to notice your limiting beliefs and to see the other side of the beliefs. As you go through the process, writing everything on paper will help you better formulate your thoughts so you can pinpoint specific limiting beliefs and develop questions and answers to reverse them. Often, just knowing your limiting beliefs and acknowledging the possibilities that exist within them is enough to change your thought process. Other times, you need to refer to your written answers often to keep your new beliefs on track.

 

The bottom line is that when you rid yourself of limiting beliefs, anything you want in life becomes possible. So take the time to complete these steps today. By doing so, you’ll be able to attain all your personal and professional goals.

Lean Tips Edition #184 (#2971-#2985)

For my Facebook fans you already know about this great feature. But for those of you that are not connected to A Lean Journey on Facebook or Twitter I post daily a feature I call Lean Tips.  It is meant to be advice, things I learned from experience, and some knowledge tidbits about Lean to help you along your journey.  Another great reason to like A Lean Journey on Facebook.

Click this link for A Lean Journey's Facebook Page Notes Feed.

Here is the next addition of tips from the Facebook page:

Lean Tip #2971 – Ask For Innovation

Almost everything we do can be done better, faster, and smarter. Even the most routine tasks are open to innovation. A best practice to hone your listening skills is to ask for ideas. Managers often worry when they ask for ideas, they’ll get silly or impractical answers. But even these are an opportunity to help workers stretch their critical thinking skills.

When a employee makes a suggestion that won’t work, rather than dismissing it out of hand, talk them through the process. In addition to actively listening, you’re helping them develop problem-solving skills that might lead to practical innovations in the future.

Lean Tip #2972 - Listening Speeds Up Work

When you and your employees listen to each other regarding how to best accomplish tasks, the work proceeds at a faster rate. Taking this step helps help improve clarity and maintain focus during the task at hand. To help her staff understand the important of good listening, you could provide examples in which active listening either helped or hindered a project.

Lean Tip #2973 – Listening Causes Less “Do-Overs”

Good listeners learn from what is being said so they are able to use the information at work without making mistakes. When someone does not listen well, however, comprehension is reduced and the production process is likely to slow. According to studies, employers should first illustrate the relevance of what they are going to say to the employee before it is said to increase his motivation.

For example, explain first that he will be expected to use a new machine that day following your verbal instructions. This heads-up will help guarantee his undivided attention while you speak.

Lean Tip #2974 – Listening Helps You Better Understand Reality

Listening gives you knowledge and insights into the day-to-day reality of your employees. It is the best way to understand their needs. It’s essential to create an atmosphere of trust and encourage your coworkers to speak openly about their daily challenges. You might be surprised at how different their reality is from your perception of it.

Lean Tip #2975 – Listening Builds Trust

When higher management does not hear the employees’ views and ideas, it fuels employees’ resentment and lowers productivity. Proper feedback and actively considering the employees’ views and ideas are vital for a healthy workplace and performance. Having said that, it is also important to assure that the internal communication is solid, only then they can develop a culture of mutual trust and understanding. It is always a two-way process.

Lean Tip #2976 – Show Gratitude, Not Judgement

When people share their idea or opinions, avoid making snap judgements and/or criticizing what they say. It takes courage to be able to express oneself, and no one should be persecuted for doing so. No matter how much you may disagree with what they say, thank them for sharing their thoughts.

Lean Tip #2977 – Try to See Things From Different Perspectives

This is about focusing on making sure that you understand the other person’s perspective and looking at things from a unique point of view. When you are open-minded about something, you will understand other people’s opinions and beliefs better. In fact, this skill can really help you better handle relationships with others.

Lean Tip #2978 – Be Willing to be Wrong Occasionally

Being open-minded means that you must be willing to accept that you may have been wrong or that someone else’s point of view is different from yours. By being open-minded, you can be in a better position to understand why and how you were wrong about something.

Lean Tip #2979 – Ask Lots of Questions

Don’t just assume you know what the other person meant, why the situation happened or what must be done in a certain case. You might gain superior understanding and make better decisions if you avoid speculation but inquire others and accept different perspectives — just make sure you don’t intrude by asking too much and being too eager.

Lean Tip #2980 – Practice Your Listening Skills

Make sure to let your colleagues or employees know that you are there to hear them out and actually care about what they have to say. Don’t rebuke suggestions from the start, instead offer other options and explain why, despite their opinions, things will take another course. But if they offer valid insight, take it and apply it to the situation at hand. Everyone must feel comfortable at work and empowered to speak their own minds.

Lean Tip #2981 – Link Financial Resources With Strategy

Align finances with the plan. Few other missteps create more setbacks than failing to match spending to strategic priorities. This linkage should be done immediately and sustained through every budget cycle going forward during implementation.

Without the tools to make your strategic initiatives a success, your strategic objectives will stall—and so will your overall plan. Work to structure your budget around the key components of your strategy, creating direct linkages between how your resources are allocated and how those efforts support your goals. As your strategy unfolds, be flexible; changing strategic initiatives may require shifting emphasis on the people, processes, and systems that support them.

Lean Tip #2982 – Set a Deadline You Can’t Miss

Deadlines spur action—it’s just that simple. Add a sense of urgency to your strategy by attaching reasonable target due dates to every initiative you implement. Stick to them as much as possible to avoid the sense that they are flexible. Reviewing your strategy regularly will help keep you on track to these bigger deadlines.

Lean Tip #2983 – Make Decisions as a Team & Share Lessons

Have open, honest, candid, and direct conversations that are tough on the issues and respectful of the people. Decisions made in the room must be publicly supported outside the room. No pocket vetoes, and if decisions need to be reconsidered, they must be brought back to the team.

Rapidly share lessons that are uncovered in success or failure—support and encourage telling the truth about execution without being executed.

Where possible, be transparent about what you’re trying to achieve. Transparency generates buy-in, and you need an entire organization bought-in to generate positive change. Not every decision can be democratic, but taking the time to explain the rationale behind the strategy shows respect for your employees. It’s also crucial for getting them to engage with the plan, and do their best to carry it out.

Lean Tip #2984 – Make Sure Your Goals are Actionable and Measurable

Make sure your strategy contains actionable, measurable items to determine progress. Many organizations set objectives by following the SMART framework. SMART is an acronym for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.

·        Specific means narrowing your efforts to focus on exactly what you need to get done, and how it will link back to the organization’s overall strategy.

·        Measurable means defining the metrics you’ll use to determine if the goal has been met. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are often used as measures, and are tracked regularly.

·        Attainable means making sure your goals are feasible considering your organization’s capabilities and resources. We recommend looking at your historical data to determine if your goal is in the realm of possibility.

·        Relevant means making sure your goals align with your organization’s mission and vision.

·        Timely refers to creating a realistic, time-bound goal that defines achievements and target dates for completion. 

Lean Tip #2985 – Constantly Monitor if the Plan is Working 

Reporting on strategy progress isn’t something you do once or twice a year; checking in so infrequently makes it difficult to react if your plan isn’t working for any reason. To make your strategic plan stick, leadership teams should meet monthly or quarterly to look at the latest data, and discuss adjustments or course-corrections if necessary. Such strategy meetings keep your strategic objectives at the center of the management process, and ensure you fully execute on projects.

 

Be a Soothsaying Leader

Image Source: Pixabay

Let’s face it: The world of business has changed. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically accelerated trends that were already emerging before the outbreak. From increasing globalization to the surge in hybrid and remote work environments, leaders find themselves in vastly altered circumstances than those which characterized the modern workplace only a decade ago.

Indeed, while change may be inevitable in the contemporary business world, that does not mean it has to be disruptive. Under the right leadership, change can be a catalyst for growth, evolution, and innovation. And that’s why, now more than ever, it helps to be a soothsaying leader.

What is a Soothsaying Leader?

You may not yet have heard of “soothsaying” leadership, but odds are that in these volatile times you’ve encountered the need for exactly the kind of foresight that such a leadership style requires. A soothsaying leader doesn’t seek to avoid or mitigate the impacts of change, whether within the organization or in the marketplace.

Rather, such a leader prioritizes change, particularly the effort to identify and prepare for internal and external trends before they can become disruptive or damaging to the organization. Thus, the soothsayer leader fosters a proactive rather than reactive corporate culture, privileging agility and responsiveness over the status quo.

In closely monitoring emerging trends, these future-oriented leaders aren’t just protecting their companies from being caught flatfooted in periods of significant change, but they’re also staking an important leadership position within their industry. And there’s perhaps no better way than this to keep the organization healthy and its competitive positioning strong.

Mind the Data

If you want to be an effective soothsayer for your business, then the first thing you’re going to need to do is to focus on the data. To detect and understand relevant changes in the market, the industry, or your company, you must know how to collect, analyze, and translate salient data into actionable business strategies.

For example, data analytics can alert you to significant shifts in consumer demand. This can enable you to begin modifying both your product portfolio and your brand strategy to align with and even to lead and direct this evolving trend. For example, today’s consumers are far more socially conscious than in decades past, and organizations that were able to establish themselves effectively as leaders in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) or the green/sustainability movements early on now have a definitive advantage in the marketplace.

The Role of Inclusivity

In addition to harnessing the power of data analytics to support a forward-thinking leadership model, one of the most important things you can do to be a soothsayer for your team is to emphasize workplace inclusivity.

Groupthink, after all, is a persistent threat in any team environment, but that risk increases as diversity decreases. If you want to be a future-focused, agile, and proactive leader, then you need to build an inclusive and diverse team that provides an array of perspectives and experiences.

Consider, for example, the issue of gender identity and its implications for marketing. It is only in recent years that the concept of gender fluidity and non-binary persons has arrived at the front of social discourse and consciousness, perpetuating the marginalization that too many in the LGBTQ+ community have traditionally felt. Today, however, binary gender can no longer be considered an unquestionable given, whether in marketing, business, or leadership

Soothsaying leaders, in other words, will understand and act upon the implications of these important social, cultural, and marketplace innovations. Future-oriented business leaders in the fashion industry, for instance, may lead product design and creative marketing teams in innovating and promoting gender-fluid apparel for a rapidly changing market.

Teambuilding as a Soothsayer

Any experienced leader knows that there’s a profound distinction between work groups and cohesive teams. Leaders also know, though, that bridging this gap, transforming groups into teams, is no mean feat.

Soothsaying leaders, however, have a unique advantage in achieving this pivotal goal because their forward-thinking attributes can be leveraged to unite individual group members in a shared vision of success. This is an outstanding way to ensure that a disparate group gels into a highly-functioning team than by ensuring that your employees are all pulling in the same direction, all striving toward a shared target of what tomorrow will, should, and must look like.

The Takeaway

The world of business today is one marked by uncertainty, one deploy inflected with the unexpected. But that does not mean that change has to be either disruptive or damaging. Indeed, soothsaying leaders can transform inevitable market and workplace evolutions into opportunities for innovation and improvement. All that is required is the cultivation of a future-oriented leadership style that privileges both data and diversity. In this way, the soothsaying leader leverages the power of numbers and the perspectives of their people to help define what tomorrow will look like. Armed with such knowledge, the forward-focused leader builds a business strategy that is proactive, agile, and innovative, all key ingredients for long-term success.

About the Author: Luke Smith is a writer and researcher turned blogger. Since finishing college he is trying his hand at being a freelance writer. He enjoys writing on a variety of topics but technology and business topics are his favorite. When he isn't writing you can find him traveling, hiking, or gaming.

Lean Quote: A Mistake that Makes You Humble is Better

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Perhaps a sin that humbles you is better than a good deed that makes you arrogant."   —  Sheikh Hamza Yusuf

Perhaps a better way to think of this quote is: 

“A mistake that makes you humble is better than an achievement that makes you arrogant.” 

Learning from errors and mistakes seems to be the mantra of our time. Lean Thinking has turned the ability to experiment and quickly learn from mistakes into a core competence for the early 21st Century. Studies also show that people who learn from errors are more creative, more resilient and show higher performance in volatile work environments. 

But learning from errors is easier said than done. So many people become defensive when something goes wrong and avoid talking about it. The fear is too great to look stupid or to be blamed for making the mistake. As a result, we rather analyze successes than failures, which hinders the learning from mistakes. 

People who effectively learn from mistakes share one common characteristic: humility. Humility is a willingness to view oneself accurately, a displayed appreciation of others’ strengths and contributions, and teachability. 

Humble people are willing to see themselves accurately and appreciate feedback. Errors and mistakes provide feedback on one’s own actions. So humble people see value in errors and the information that they provide for their own learning. This gives them an edge over others. 

Yokoten, Learning From Others’ Experience

Knowledge is the single biggest asset of any organization. Successful organizations have realized and maintained knowledge sharing as a key part of their business. The very reason an employee is hired is because of their knowledge and expertise in a given field and how they can use that knowledge in taking the company to the next level. 

There are many benefits for a knowledge sharing organization: 

• Best practices developed in one part of the organization are accepted in another part 
• New information is not lost or overlooked because people can translate it to knowledge and pass it on 
• Knowledge is about knowing both the why and the how, and when you have both you can continuously improve current standards, faster than competitors  
• Accelerates the process of moving to the next target, continuously improving business processes  
• Stimulates innovation 

While knowledge plays a crucial role in an organization’s success, not many efforts are put in sharing, managing, and preserving it. At Toyota a key aspect of helping knowledge sharing permeate their business is “Yokoten.” 

Yokoten is a Japanese term that can be roughly translated as "across everywhere." In the Japanese lean system, it is used to mean "best practice sharing." Yokoten, the term Toyota adopted to capture the idea of horizontal transfer of information and knowledge across an organization. Yokoten is more peer-to-peer, with the expectation that people go see for themselves and learn how another area improved or solved a problem.  

Inside of organizations, there is so much untapped knowledge. To combat this, over the past two decades, companies have invested millions of dollars in knowledge management systems. The objective has been to capture the company’s knowledge. Yokoten is a form of knowledge management. It encompasses the methods of documenting and distributing knowledge about what works and what doesn't. As a knowledge management device, Yokoten makes knowledge organizational, not individual. Yokoten is a two-way street, requiring proactive effort from both those acquiring and developing the knowledge and those who could benefit from greater understanding of the requirements for success. 

If others are doing well, people tend to be interested in what they are doing and how they're doing it, so that they, too, can be successful. Sharing best practices is a key part attributing to the success of any organization. Similar to the old saying, "Learn from other's mistakes," it's important to learn from individual experiences, but it's much easier and more effective to learn from the experiences, mistakes and successes of others. 

Much of best practice knowledge is tacit - held in people's heads and not always easy to document. Therefore, most best practice programs combine two key elements: explicit knowledge such as a best practices database (connecting people with information), and methods for sharing tacit knowledge such as communities of practice (connecting people with people). Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. These two approaches are complementary. A database can provide enough information for a potential user of the best practice to find it and decide if it is worth pursuing further. However, the best way of sharing best practices is 'on the job' and so communities and personal contact with others who have used the best practice is key. 

Yokoten is an essential part of long-term success in a lean culture but can also have a big impact on short-term results. Yokoten is a success multiplier. Senior leaders must actively go see, recognize good work and require others to go see. Management must organize presentations of successful kaizen projects and invite colleagues to attend and learn. Team and department leaders must actively engage members in studying kaizen examples, motivating them to start kaizen on their own. Project leaders and continuous improvement professionals must put Yokoten on their checklists and follow up rigorously. 

Regardless of your path on the Lean journey, focusing on the accumulation and transfer of knowledge and learnings as embodied in the concept of Yokoten can have a tremendous impact on the overall results and success of the Lean programs.