In a Manager Tools podcast, Mark Horstman once warned, “never introduce a change to how you manage your directs without first introducing that change.”
By that, he meant formally announcing and advertising the change that you intend to make before you make it.
Here are two good reasons why that’s important:
1️⃣ Unexpected change generates fear. If you suddenly start sending weekly emails with charts and metrics, or showing up at people’s desks to chat and ask about their families, or inviting certain people to specific meetings, or asking people if you can give them feedback, you’ll raise questions in their minds. In your silence, the answers they come up probably won’t reflect your positive intentions.
By announcing before hand what change you intend to make and why, you prepare them for your new behavior, and you can influence how they interpret their experience of it.
2️⃣ Silence lessens the impact. Even if it’s a more subtle change that people have asked for, such as sharing more positive feedback, smiling more, interrupting less, or being on time to meetings, your positive change goes farther when you announce ahead of time that you’re trying to change.
In his classic book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, Marshall Goldsmith wrote, “It’s a lot harder to change people’s perception of your behavior than it is to change your behavior.” He said, “I calculate that you have to get 100% better in order to get 10% credit for it from our coworkers.” Their confirmation bias will tend to overlook your positive changes or see them as flukes or exceptions, while the slightest hint of your old habits will be amplified in their memories.
Regardless of why you’re changing your leadership behavior, take the time to introduce that change first, and you’ll see a much greater result from your efforts.
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