success – Dutra Associates

There’s an Uptick in Retirements: Is Your Organization Ready?

March 3, 2022 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

The conventional wisdom has held that 10,000 baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) are expected to retire, on average, each day in the United States through 2030. This loss of expertise and knowledge was already having an adverse impact on many organizations. Now, the impact of COVID-19 has accelerated that trend. According to a Pew Research Center report, the pace of retirements amongst baby boomers in 2020 (3.2%) more than doubled the 2019 rate (1.5%).

On the one hand, this is excellent news for those getting ready to enter the next chapter of their lives and an opportunity for younger workers to step into new roles. On the other, how prepared is your organization for a more rapid brain drain?

Based on pre-pandemic research conducted by the authors of Critical Knowledge Transfer, one company reported that in the next anticipated wave of nearly 700 retirements, they would experience a loss of 27,000 years of experience. If that’s not enough to have you sit up and take notice, I’m not sure what will, especially as the trend ticks upward. That said, not every vacated position is created equal. Some will certainly be easier to fill than others. Perhaps the appropriate level of expertise and skill is readily available on the job market or you have done the work to ensure that someone within your organization is ready to take on the role. Unfortunately, this is the exception rather than the rule.

Taking a Proactive Stance – 5 Key Tips

Knowing the average age of your employee population is not enough. That still keeps the potential problem at hand difficult to define. Take a closer look at the specific roles held by long-term employees and seasoned managers who are within a few years of retirement age. Which positions require critical skills and experience that are not easy to find on the open market? Long term employees across and at all levels of the organization often hold critical, hands-on experience of how to get things done through their comprehensive knowledge of processes, company historical information, clients and customers. Without a proactive approach, your organization runs the risk of realizing, too late, that you have a critical skill shortage that is adversely impacting your business performance.
Consider implementing a mentoring program that effectively engages both older and younger workers in accelerating development and bridging the knowledge gap. Providing training for both mentors and mentees can help to ensure that a mutually beneficial mentoring relationship is created and both parties find the experience a valuable one.
Utilize knowledge capture methods to gather critical expertise and make it available across a wide range of people. There are many ways to store and manage institutional knowledge including online forums, podcasts, webinars, and videos, to name a few.
Pay attention to employee engagement. Younger members of the workforce have an average job stay of roughly four years. Ensure the right managers are in place who truly care about their employees’ success. Robin Reilly, a Senior Consultant at Gallup has written that such managers “seek to understand each person’s strengths and provide employees with every opportunity to use their strengths in their role. Great managers empower their employees, recognize and value their contributions, and actively seek their ideas and opinions.” Increasing employee engagement will assist in keeping younger workers from jumping ship.
Provide professional and leadership skill development to your employees to develop your associates and prepare those great managers. The on-going opportunity to build on strengths and expand one’s comfort zone through training and development programs advances the growth of your internal talent pool and demonstrates your commitment to their success.

It is a critical time to proactively address the seismic shift that is accelerating in terms of talent shortages in the workplace. These are just a few of the tips that can help you to mitigate your risk. Don’t wait another day to identify where your organization is most vulnerable and take the steps now to ensure a smoother transition.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business outcomes and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Losing Employees? – Try This Simple Leadership Approach to Engage and Retain Your Team

January 3, 2022 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

“The Great Resignation” is something that we are hearing and reading about on a regular basis. Now, more than ever, employees are leaving their roles at an amazing rate – in May of 2021 alone, 3.6 million Americans quit their jobs. According to Gallup, “48% of America’s working population is actively job searching or watching for opportunities”.

While the term ‘employee engagement’ can sound like just another buzzword, it’s anything but. For U.S. employers, the lack of employee engagement is estimated to result in $450 – 500 billion in lost productivity on an annual basis. For over 20 years, Gallup has been researching employee engagement and the percentage of engaged employees has barely budged in the United States during this timeframe. Based on 2021 research, Gallup has reported that 36% of U.S. workers are engaged, 49% are not engaged, and 15% are actively disengaged.

What is Employee Engagement?

What exactly is employee engagement? According to Gallup, an engaged employee is one who is “involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace”. Someone who is experiencing this type of engagement is most likely to be aligned with their team and organization’s goals and making key contributions to producing desired results. Organizations that do the best job of creating employee engagement achieve earnings-per-share growth greater than 4 times that of their competitors. Additionally, other business boosting results are enjoyed by those companies who exemplify employee engagement. These include higher customer engagement, increased productivity, lower attrition, and higher profitability.

A Simple Approach

There are a multitude of methods available for increasing employee engagement with varying ranges of complexity, time commitment and cost. Yet, the solution may be simpler than you think. When we talk about employee engagement, we often speak in generalities. It can sound as if there is a group called “employees” that we must direct something towards collectively. A one size fits all approach has less of an opportunity to positively drive your engagement levels than one simple opportunity that many leaders have, at every level, including the C-suite. This opportunity, the key to engaging employees, is to get specific about each person.

One Employee at a Time

Engaging employees happens one person at a time. The place to start is to get to know each person on your team uniquely. How much do you already know about each employee and what makes that person tick?

How many of these questions can you answer right now about each employee on your team?

What are their career aspirations?
What personal aspirations do they have?
What motivates them?
What are their most important values?
What key strengths do they bring to the team?
What type of behavioral style do they favor?
What professional development needs do they have?

Call to Action

As you begin the new year, if you can’t answer all of these questions for each employee, I invite you to make it a priority to schedule 1:1 meetings to discover those answers. Then, look for the opportunities to:

let them use their strengths each day,
take on assignments that build the skills for their future career path,
communicate with them in a way that matches their style.

Your employees want to work in jobs that allow them to do what they do best, to grow and develop professionally, and feel a sense of purpose in what they focus on each day. What drives engagement and motivation is unique to each individual. So, get started by getting to know your team. Look for ways to align what is important to each person with the work they are doing, and watch your results begin to shift.

If you would like support in increasing employee engagement in your organization, please contact me to have a conversation. We offer a simple yet powerful and practical methodology to support you in improving employee engagement.

Shifting Your Relationship with Stress

October 11, 2021 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Change is inevitable – after all, nothing really stays the same. But in today’s challenging times, it seems like we’re on “uncertainty” overload, never knowing what will happen from one moment to the next.

With uncertainty comes stress and confusion, and while most of us would be quick to say that we want less stress and more certainty in our lives, what we really want is less of a stress reaction to what life throws our way.

We can’t choose what happens to us – but we can choose our responses to the situations we encounter. Let’s take a look at five different responses that people have to stressful situations. As you read, you may want to think of a recent stressful event or news that you may have received, and see what your reaction to that event can teach you about how you habitually respond. You may have one type of response at work, and another at home, or you may react differently depending on who else is involved.

The first and all too common response to stressful events is to suffer and be a victim to it. People who respond this way don’t take action. Things happen TO them – and though they may complain and be generally miserable about it, they don’t take any steps to do anything. They allow life to control them, instead of the other way around. This way of responding is certainly not recommended, and eventually, it will take its toll on one’s physical and mental health.

The second type of response is to accept the situation. Someone with this response may say “so what,” or perhaps get some perspective on the situation by asking if it will matter in a year – or a week – or even in a day.

The third way to respond is to actually take steps to change the situation – taking action to bring it to resolution (or at least move toward resolution). This is a very powerful response, and one that many effective leaders employ.

The fourth way to respond is to avoid the situation. People responding this way make a decision not to get involved in a situation that they don’t see as concerning them, or upon which they can’t make an impact.

The fifth and final way that people generally respond to stress is to alter the experience of the situation. When we look at a situation differently, the experience itself changes. Changing perceptions is probably the most challenging of the responses, because we tend to be stuck in our own interpretations and assumptions about what’s happening, but it is also perhaps the most powerful of all.

It’s your world, and you can create it as you wish. Remember, what one person sees as stressful, another person barely notices, or sees as exciting and full of opportunity. How are you going to choose today?

Your Network: A Future Focused View

August 23, 2021 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

When you consider your network, you likely look at those people you already know and consider ways in which to nurture and grow these relationships. Frankly, doing so is an important part of building and maintaining a vital network. However, where you can go wrong is in limiting your approach to only those people you already know and neglecting to consider important connections, you may need to develop, that align with your career vision.

To take a more powerful view of your network, look out to where you’d like to be in your career in the next three to five years and work backwards from there.

Here are a few practical steps to guide you:

Give yourself time to consider your ideal career, three to five years from now.
If you achieve your vision, who will be the people you know and who know you? Be bold here. Consider the leaders in your field as well as in your community.
Now, working backwards, write the story of how you developed a relationship with these people. What projects did you work on? Which professional associations were you a part of? Who were the people that made pivotal introductions for you? What did you do to ramp up your professional development? What leadership roles did you take on?
In what ways do you want to show up differently to attract the people and opportunities that will make your story a reality?
What is the most impactful step you could take now to start expanding your network in a powerful way that aligns with your desired future?

Consider this a twist on the traditional view of networking. Rather than starting from where you are, step into the future, and work your way backwards.

This approach can feel a bit intimidating as it may call upon you to step up your game and reinvent how you show up.

Yet, if you want to reach your career aspirations, then you must be the type of professional that you’d like to attract into your network of relationships. The steps outlined above encourage you to assess how you show up now as a leader and how you need to show up to attract the professional network that will support you in reaching your dreams. And, in the process, you will have the opportunity to help others do the same.

Adapted with permission by Center for Executive Coaching.

Choosing Your Path to Career Fulfillment

August 2, 2021 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Award winning American poet, Mary Oliver, once wrote, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” I love this line from her poem, “The Summer Day”, as it invites introspection and calls us to live our lives on purpose. If we apply this to our work lives, this can be a daunting question and one that leaves us overwhelmed with selecting the “right” career. As children, we begin to demonstrate areas of strength as we grow. Well-intentioned parents, teachers, friends and others may encourage us to become a nurse or teacher if we excel at helping others, an engineer or accountant if we have strong math skills, or an artist or musician if we display a creative streak. You can see the pattern and may have experienced it yourself. Yet, this linear path can sometimes lead us astray. Simply because we are good at something doesn’t necessarily mean that it will bring us the career fulfillment we desire. There is something deeper we must explore to be fully engaged in our work.

Employee Engagement Survey Data

The 2020 Gallup Study indicated that, while employee engagement has risen slightly, to 36% in the U.S., we still have 64% of the workforce in a state of disengagement. 51% of those studied are not engaged, which means that they don’t have much of a connection to the work that they are doing and are likely to do the bare minimum in their roles. 13% of those studied are actively disengaged which means that they resent their jobs and have a tendency to complain to those around them and impact the morale of co-workers. Do you find yourself among the 64% who are disengaged? While there are multiple factors that impact employee engagement, there is something that you can do to begin to shift the tide and help you get on track.

A Key Question

A key question to ask that will guide you toward your career fulfillment is “Why?”

What is the “why” behind everything you do – your purpose?

I truly believe that each of us has a purpose in life. Finding that purpose allows us to stay aligned, doing what we love while accomplishing things that are meaningful to us. Your level of happiness will always tell you when you are aligned with your purpose and when you’re not.

To help you get started, here is a resource that will help you to explore your passion and purpose. Click here to read Jack Canfield’s 10 Life Purpose Tips. As a Canfield Certified Trainer in the Success Principles, I have seen the positive impact on clients when they are able to tap into their purpose and express it in the world, both through their work and in their lives in general.

Next Steps

If you are feeling less than fulfilled by your work, I invite you to follow the 10 tips and take responsibility for creating a career that you love. You might find creative ways to express your purpose in your current role or you may find that your purpose exploration starts you down an entirely new path. Whatever your path forward, remember that it’s up to you to take the first step. No one cares more about your career than you. As Mary Oliver wrote, “You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.”

Why the Best Leaders Develop Mindfulness

June 29, 2021 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

What have Google, Samsung, Aetna, SAP, and P&G all got in common? All of these world-class organizations recognize that one of the fastest growing segments of our working population is burnt out leaders. They responded to this by implementing mindfulness leadership programs to help their leaders not only excel in work, but in their personal lives as well.

Decades of solid research show a direct connection between mindfulness and emotional intelligence in leaders and the bottom-line results they achieve. Being good at ‘what you do’ is no longer enough…you must also be resilient enough to effectively manage your emotions, reactions, and decisions in challenging business situations – and to help the people you manage, or work with, to do the same.

Great leaders are always searching for ways to take their leadership practices to the next level. Mindfulness has been the source of much focus over the last number of years and organizations worldwide are now realizing that sometimes there is more to a successful leader than meets the eye.

Developing emotional intelligence and mindfulness can truly transform the impact and ability of a leader. Following the Genos Leadership Model:

When you develop self-awareness, you become an Aware Leader. Aware leaders understand the impact that their behaviors have on others. They are consistent in what they say and do, and they demonstrate awareness of their mood and emotions.
Developing awareness of others allows you to become a more Empathetic Leader. Empathetic leaders make team members feel appreciated and adjust their style so that it fits well with others. They acknowledge the views of others and balance achieving results with others’ needs.
Working on authenticity creates more Genuine Leaders. Genuine leaders honor commitments and promises, they are open and honest about mistakes, and they facilitate robust and open debate.
Leaders high in emotional reasoning make Expansive decisions as a leader. Expansive leaders consult others in decision making, they make ethical decisions taking the bigger picture into account.
Leaders that work to develop self-management are Resilient Leaders. Resilient Leaders manage their emotions well in difficult situations. They strive to improve their own performance, and they learn from their mistakes.
Effective leaders that inspire performance become Empowering Leaders. Empowering leaders provide constructive feedback, maintain a positive work environment, and facilitate team member development and career advancement.

Do you or the leaders in your organization need to develop the above behaviors? They can do so by participating in the Genos Mindful Leader Program facilitated
by Dutra Associates, LLC, a Genos Certified Practitioner.

If you’re interested in hosting a Mindful Leader Program in your organization, please contact Sherry Dutra at Sherry@DutraAssociates.com or call 603.595.1588.

Article in collaboration with Genos International Europe.

3 Keys to Maximizing Business Value

May 4, 2021 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

How ready is your company to be sold? If yours is like most, there is probably much to be done. A primary reason for the lack of readiness is that the business is often too dependent on the owner. Consequently, millions of business owners will never maximize the value they have worked so hard to create over years and years of effort.

To prepare your business to be sold for top value, consider these three keys:

Develop the right mindset. Your success largely depends on what goes on between your ears. Many business owners stumble into a trap of keeping their businesses dependent on them. Have you ever said or thought, “I can’t trust anyone to do the job the way that I would”; “It’s got to be perfect”; “This is my baby and I can’t give up control”? Business owners who realize the most value for their businesses have a different way of looking at things. They empower others to take on more responsibility and trust their decision-making. They give up full control. They refrain from micromanaging. They recruit people who are smarter than they are and provide the time and resources to prepare and develop them for senior roles.
Create the infrastructure to recruit, retain and develop leaders who can seamlessly keep the company growing on their own. A company that establishes a strong infrastructure sets the stage for success by making it possible to develop a talent pool of leaders who are capable of successfully running the company without you. Key elements of this infrastructure include:
- clear roles and responsibilities,
- performance metrics for accountability,
- a clear organizational chart,
- a recruiting process that brings in top talent,
- a talent development process,
- a culture that engages and retains talent,
- clear career paths for key roles,
- systems and processes that allow for efficient company operation,
- a performance management system that is fair and stretches people to grow and
- the encouragement of behaviors that create cohesive, team performance.
Implement an ongoing succession planning process that continues to develop and grow new leaders. Once you have the previous pieces in place, the final puzzle piece is an ongoing succession planning process. In some businesses, succession planning is only visited when a need arises, such as the retirement of an executive. Instead, succession planning must be a regular process to identify high potential performers, develop them, and continue to challenge them with the learning, assignments and opportunities that will prepare them to move up.

Companies that have done the hard work to have these three keys in place are in a position to keep growing. Consequently, the business owner is now freed from the weeds of day-to-day operations and can focus on strategy and setting standards of excellence. Also, when leaders within the business are empowered, it offers the owner a better integration between their work and personal life. Finally, the company is made more valuable with these elements in place. This sets the stage for the owner to gain a substantial return on their investment of time and effort over the years and to leave behind a thriving company for their team.

Adapted with permission by Center for Executive Coaching

Emotional Intelligence (EQ): Skills to Create a Thriving Culture

June 2, 2020 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Think of the best manager you ever had during your career. What is it or was it about this person that made him or her so great? When I reflect back on the person who comes to mind for me, what stands out was my manager’s ability to stay calm in difficult situations, to be supportive and encouraging – a person who saw the best in me, even when I couldn’t. This manager listened to my ideas, and those of others on the team, and always made us comfortable to speak up, even if we had differing views. Additionally, this manager never hesitated to share information so that we all had the opportunity to learn and grow. No matter the situation, this manager had the capability to determine what was needed and address that need accordingly. Decades later, I still feel the positive impact of working for, what I learned later, was an emotionally intelligent leader.

EQ / IQ / Style

Much has been written about emotional intelligence over the years and many models of EQ exist. One of those models, brought to us by John Wiley and Sons, defines emotional intelligence as:

EQ: “the ability to read the emotional and interpersonal needs of a situation and respond appropriately…even if it’s difficult”.¹

Some organizations have embraced the concept of EQ and have actively helped their leaders to develop these skills. Such forward-thinking companies are finding that they are much better prepared to adapt and pivot quickly. Cultures are created where employees are engaged and motivated which significantly improves retention and positively impacts the bottom line. Unfortunately, for many organizations, developing leaders’ skills in this area has not been a high priority. Consequently, many leaders find themselves far outside their comfort zones when dealing with interpersonal issues in the workplace.

Data consistently shows the link between EQ and leadership effectiveness.² A leader’s ability to demonstrate the behaviors and mindsets of emotional intelligence is as important, if not more so, as their:

IQ: the skills, knowledge, and capability a leader possesses and the ability to apply that to problem-solve or meet goals, and
Behavioral style: how leaders approach their work and relationships.

A Solution

When it comes to leading yourself and others through the challenges being faced as we move through the pandemic, emotional intelligence skills are more critical than ever to cultivate. As leaders strive to rebuild businesses, show empathy to employees dealing with a myriad of stressors both inside and outside of work, manage their own cadre of emotions, make decisions during great ambiguity, and so on, there is a need to understand our emotional intelligence mindsets, leverage our strengths, and take action to improve the areas requiring more effort. Doing so will improve our ability to read situations and respond in a constructive way.

The good news is that there is now a program, Everything DiSC® Agile EQ™, that helps organizations and people adapt to whatever the future may hold, so that when it arrives, they are ready to meet the challenge. The power in the program lies in the combination of practical application and personalized learning. Each participant learns their likely EQ strengths based on their DiSC® behavioral style. Then, they receive specific feedback around their EQ opportunities with actionable recommendations to learn methods to stretch outside their comfort zone as circumstances may require.

Tips to Start Building EQ

Here are a few key tips³ to begin enhancing emotional intelligence. Some of these may be easier for you than others. With practice, those that are more of a stretch will take less effort.

Take a breath to help you stay calm in high pressure moments.
Separate emotions from the facts to see situations more clearly.
Confront issues that may impact important standards and goals.
Assert your conviction about your opinions and ideas.
Take concrete steps to transform your ideas into reality.
Put aside time and energy to create and maintain relationships with others.
Listen for what is not being said in interactions and use inquiry to draw out and understand the other person’s perspective.
Stay open to other’s ideas and be willing to compromise or even set aside your own preferences for the good of the team or a colleague.

Take Action

Dutra Associates, LLC is now offering Everything DiSC® Agile EQ. If you want to develop the leaders and teams who will be nimble and agile in facing challenges, both now and in the future, please contact me to discuss your organization’s needs. Both the assessment and subsequent training to deepen the learning can be conducted virtually to support remote workers. We also can support you and your team with virtual individual and group coaching to help support the development and application of emotionally intelligent mindsets.

¹ Agility Unlocked | Revealing the Connection Between Agility and Emotional Intelligence, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2020

² John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 2020 Agile Organization Survey Results; The Impact of Emotionally Intelligent Leadership on Talent Retention, Discretionary Effort and Employment Brand, Benjamin R. Palmer and Gilles Gignac, Vol. 44 NO. 1 2012, pp 9-18 © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0019-7858 | INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING

³ Agility Unlocked | Revealing the Connection Between Agility and Emotional Intelligence, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2020

Adaptability: A Key Management Skill for Challenging Times

May 5, 2020 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

As I write this, parts of the United States are beginning to allow some businesses to slowly re-open. Over time, more and more people will be going back to work. If you are a middle manager, you might be inclined to attempt a ‘business as usual’ approach as your team returns. Yet, there is nothing usual about the path forward. Most of us are experiencing the greatest ambiguity, volatility and complexity that we have been faced with in our entire personal and professional lives. There is no roadmap to follow, no prescription to cure the impact that COVID-19 has had on every aspect of our lives. A key management skill that is especially critical to your success right now is your level of adaptability. How able are you to adapt or adjust to new conditions?

As a middle manager, you are on the front lines with your team. It is your role to execute on the strategies that senior leaders set forth. And, it is equally your role to be there for your team and create an environment where people can be open about their concerns. You will be walking a tightrope as you strive to balance between empathetically helping your team cope with the stress they are feeling and ramping up productivity. There is no way to know what is coming next. Will stay at home orders start up again in the fall? Will there be furloughs or layoffs ahead? When will business rise to pre-COVID levels? No one has the answers.

So, rather than focus on what is out of your control, help your team to get focused on what they can control or influence. Draw on the key strengths of your team, provide them with the latitude and support to do their work, and keep yourself in a positive frame of mind as a model to your team. Developing your capacity for adaptability can support you in these challenging times to be the manager that you would like to be. Here are a few tips to consider:

Learn: You do not need to have all the answers. Being curious, asking questions, and involving others in finding the way forward will generate innovative solutions and commitment to your evolving business.
Be mindful of the conversation in your head: What are you telling yourself? Self-doubt will paralyze you and prevent you from taking what might be some necessary bold moves.
Step outside your comfort zone: Everyone is in new territory. Expand your horizons and try new approaches. Leaning too heavily on what is already known to you will slow your progress. Experimenting with new possibilities is what is called for now.
Take small steps forward: In the current environment, the best strategy is one in which you use what you know right now to determine just your very next step. When you take that step, check for the result and let that determine the next small step. Small steps in unknown territory allow for easy course correction.
Show yourself some compassion: Not every step will have the intended result. Let that be okay. Rather than spending any time on beating yourself up, instead look at what you might learn that will inform your next move.

No matter the situation, your ability to lead is tied directly to how you choose to behave. Your ability to choose your behavior versus react to circumstances is improved through self-care. Ensure that you ask for the support you need from your own manager and lean on your colleagues so that you are grounded, calm and empathetic. Practice the skill of adaptability and you will be primed to lead your team through this crisis.

Navigating the Emotional Roller Coaster of Change Transitions

April 16, 2020 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar…
“I – I hardly know, Sir, just at present,” Alice replied rather shyly, “at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then.”

Lewis Carroll
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland¹

What have you felt since COVID-19 impacted nearly every corner of our world and every aspect of our lives? Have there been days when you’ve felt a bit like Alice – changing multiple times throughout the day? I know I have.

Over the last couple of months, we have experienced change unlike any other we’ve been exposed to in our lifetime. To successfully navigate through this time as a leader, you must take a step back to recognize and acknowledge the full impact of the changes raining down upon us. Then, choose how you wish to respond and manage the impact on you as well as on your team. In other words, logic and action alone aren’t enough to save the day. We must pay attention to the emotional roller coaster that accompanies all change, particularly the drastic changes we are currently facing.

Bridges’ Transition Model

Many researchers have explored and written about change and its’ effect on people. What they have all discovered are patterns in how we react and respond to change that are quite consistent across the human experience. The model that I have used most extensively with leaders is William Bridges’ 3 Stage Transition Model consisting of Endings – Neutral Zone – New Beginnings.

Change vs Transition

Before we look at each of the stages, let’s make a distinction between change and transition. What tends to create the challenge for us isn’t the change itself but the process of adjusting to it and moving from the old reality to the new. You see, change is external, situational, and often out of our control. In this case, the COVID-19 pandemic is the external change. The internal emotional and psychological process we go through to come to terms with the change is the transition. Consequently, we must turn our attention to the transition process. It is within this process that we will find what we can control – our response.

Endings

In Bridge’s model the first phase is Endings. This phase begins with the external event and our realization that the change is really happening. So, think back to when you first learned about COVID-19. Then, consider what occurred when it first hit your country. Then, your local area. Then, perhaps you or someone you know. At what point did you realize that we truly had a pandemic on our hands? When did you find yourself moving from the known to the unknown? This is when your Endings phase began. You likely experienced any number of emotions including denial, anger, fear, anxiety, grief, frustration or depression. Cycling between these emotions is common as well (e.g. anger one moment, fear the next). You may still be experiencing them.

Keep in mind that your colleagues and team members were and are experiencing their own emotions. What can you do to support those around you during this stage and help them to let go of the way things were?

Acknowledge and validate the emotions that others are experiencing
Articulate what is actually coming to an end. Determine what might be lost as a result of the change and what might stay the same
Communicate, communicate, communicate

Neutral Zone

The Neutral Zone represents the phase of transition where we have started to let go of the old way of being but haven’t yet found our footing in a new reality. Typical emotions that arise during this phase include uncertainty, confusion, overwhelm or frustration. While there is a lack of a solid foundation in this phase, we do begin to experiment with new possibilities. Using our COVID-19 example again, you might find yourself feeling a bit numb, overtired, struggling to get used to working from home, or overwhelmed by suddenly becoming your children’s teacher. Yet, you’re also beginning to realize that what you are feeling is natural – that you are not alone. As you move through this phase, you gain perspective and more effectively cope with uncertainty which allows you to begin to see possibilities for taking positive action.

Everyone moves through this phase at a different pace. Don’t try to rush it. As a leader, you can support others by:

Continuing to listen and communicate
Trying new things
Encouraging the progress that people are making
Giving yourself and others time to process

Beginnings

The final stage of the model is New Beginnings. This phase is marked by acceptance of the change and a renewed sense of energy that propels action. When we have successfully moved into the New Beginning, we have embraced the new reality and started to experience solid ground again. In our example, our teams will have adjusted to a new way of working, established a new structure to their day, and found a new rhythm. Creative ways of contributing to the team begin to emerge along with new ways of doing business. During this phase, emotions shift in a more positive direction. You might be feeling excitement, optimism, and a greater sense of motivation.

What can you do to support people in this stage?

Set an intention for how you choose to move forward
Encourage others to continue taking small steps each day
Stay focused on solutions versus problems
Proactively offer and ask for support from others

Conclusion

Viewing transition in terms of William Bridges’ three stages helps you understand that the needs, challenges and opportunities presented by change can be managed as a progression of responses. Your ability to understand this and apply it to yourself as well as to help your team transition during change will go a long way to making any type of change you deal with less daunting.

Where are you in the process of change? Where is your team? What might you do today to accept where you and others are in the process and to navigate your way successfully through the massive change we are experiencing?

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. New York: Signet Books, 1960, 47.

Reference:
Bridges, William. Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes, 2^nd Edition. Boston, MA: Da Capo Press, 2004.