Leading in a changing environment

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His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai last year announced the government's vision and Dubai Strategic Plan 2015, highlighting how Dubai will become the city of the future.

The plan, launched under the title ‘Dubai...Where The Future Begins', sets out a strategic approach that focuses on developing the emirate's most dynamic economic sectors...

Against this backdrop business is booming attracting prominent international organisations at the same time as enhancing the growth of regional companies and the expansion of small firms. Leaders know that evolution in business is a prerequisite for growth, that opportunities for expansion and growth inevitably bring major change.

But in today's economy, with faster communication and knowledge acquisition, we often have limited time to manage the complexity of changes that are occurring around us.

The challenge of managing change is highlighted in a ‘McKinsey Global Survey 2007'(1) with feedback from 1,300 executives, who acknowledged the ‘intensifying battle for talent' and concern about a shifting centre of economic activity - were key issues when managing growth at different stages and change across the organisation.

Closer to home, input from DBM Arabian Gulf's 2008 Regional HR Survey demonstrates that for over half of the 121 organisations providing feedback, managing resistance to change and dealing with all facets of change itself were major concerns.

This article will focus on the leader's role in a changing environment, sharing DBM's experience and discussion with senior decision-makers on how they maximize the opportunities in leading a rapidly expanding company".

Preparing Team Members

There is a consensus that preparing team members for changing new roles is a priority but one that can easily be overlooked. Even an experienced senior manager can struggle to find his/her feet' when they move into a challenging ‘stretch' role with research showing that 40-50% of new hires fail within the first year (2).

There are costly implications for the organisation; we know this will impact the performance of direct reports, peers and superiors which means an average of 12-13 people.

For the HR Director of an international company where 50% of employees had less than two years service, actively supporting individuals moving into new roles became a priority. A practical solution was encouraging new managers to compile a ‘transition plan', which took into account the needs of their key stakeholders.

The partners of newly joined expatriate managers are offered support when they first move to Dubai with a ‘partner career coaching' programme. For the HR Director this reinforces the time and investment in the recruitment and selection process during a time when retention of new talent is key.

Overcoming Resistance

We are creatures of habit and disruption or rapid change can quickly take away the feeling of ‘being in control', placing us firmly outside of our comfort zone. In this situation ‘resistance to change' can be a normal reaction to the process. A person's view of the alteration determines whether resistance occurs.

To prepare for this, try to put yourself in the other person's shoes - will they see the change ahead as a challenge or exciting opportunity?

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