HUMAN RESOURCES Transition to Business By Paul Falcone
Fostering Independence and Autonomy at Work Independence, agility, and change management skills are likely the most cherished worker competencies in today’s workplace. The need is clear: we’re experiencing evolutionary change at revolutionary speed and being able to adapt to shifting demands and pivot in light of your organization’s changing needs is more critical than ever. How do you build those skills and abilities for the teams you lead and for yourself? First, understand that inertia is real, and it often shows itself in the form of fierce resistance to change. That’s just the way many of us are wired: we naturally get comfortable with the way we do things, especially if they’re repetitive in nature. But in the business world today, agility and flexibility are the coin of the realm. So, if you or a member of your team recognizes that you’re resisting change at every turn, consider changing your perspective just a bit, both for your organization’s sake and for the benefit of your own career and professional development. Second, goal setting can help. Goals may be set annually and measured at the time of the annual performance review. But in reality, things change too
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quickly to simply set annual benchmarks for yourself or for your team. Quarterly one-on-one touch-base meetings with your boss or staff members are a more practical way to carve out some quiet time to truly listen to where the other person is coming from. Ask questions of your staff members like, what can I do from a mentoring and coaching standpoint to help you excel in your career? How are you progressing toward your professional development goals, and do we need to pivot in light of supply delays, changed priorities, or upcoming deadlines? What would you change about our way of operating or communicating that you feel would provide the biggest bang for our buck? Would you be willing to take the lead in making that change happen? Third, you can use delegation as a skill to both lighten your workload and develop your team’s leadership and performance muscle, but delegation has to be done right. Don’t delegate the repetitive work that’s necessary but lacks value; instead, delegate what you’re good at and that’s meaningful. Provide “stretch” assignments to those under your care to help them build career muscle in new areas. For example, if you’re great at public speaking,
