Team Rules: Managing Change in the Digital Era. Оксана Набок

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      Apart from external marketing targeting clients, there's also an internal aspect focused on the team – internal communications. The mission, goals, and values integrated into the processes make up the framework of the organization. The organizational culture, along with its various elements, sets the tone for both offline and online environments within the organization, and this is further reinforced by the support of its leaders.

      When I work with teams to formulate or revise their missions and values, every single time we start by posing two fundamental questions “Why are we doing this?” and “How will the organization benefit from it?”

      Any mission, without a deep understanding of its semantic meaning, remains nothing more than an attractive slogan. Team members truly feel the power of words when they believe in the sincerity and value of the mission's objectives.

      Projects created solely to “fill a website” lack genuine benefits. However, when a shared discourse permeates the corporate environment, it is reflected in the processes and all types of interaction among team members and with clients.

4. Emotional Intellect

      Today, it is difficult for a leader to be effective without strong emotional intelligence, which implies empathy (being sensitive to other people's feelings), awareness, and emotional control (both for oneself and in managing others' emotions).

      Loud emotional disputes, toxic relationships, the inability to give constructive feedback and withdraw from conflictual situations, as well as sub-optimal processes and lengthy meetings with many participants sap the strength of a team. An environment filled with negativity diverts employees' focus from their tasks, effectively disarming them. By contrast, fostering constructive communication, attention, and sensitivity to the interests of various parties involved, combined with clear tasks, their value to the employee, and a healthy working atmosphere give rise to loyalty, motivation and boost productivity.

      Positive emotions uplift your mood and influence your perspective on situations: problems are perceived as fresh challenges for which optimal solutions must be found. In other words, the focus of employees shifts from assigning blame to seeking resolutions. Why waste valuable time on anything else?

      Emotional intelligence can manage moods for the benefit of all stakeholders, which is especially important in the era of ecosystems. This is not about manipulation, or being someone else's caretaker, but rather, it is about fostering healthy relationships and taking into account the repercussions of decisions on various stakeholders, all while avoiding extremes.

      When working with managers with different styles, I see a direct connection between the thought patterns of leaders and the corporate culture.

      The more they are open to new perspectives, eager to understand the state of affairs, and listen to their team members, the more the environment is receptive to innovation, the clearer the processes, the better the results, and the more effective the interactions.

      Such leaders manage relationships primarily “with themselves,” engage in comprehensive self-development, adopt a broader perspective, view situations as observers, and are not afraid to employ self-irony when trying new approaches. This ensures enduring relationships within the team.

      One gains significant insights by simply observing and analyzing the staff turnover within an organization.

5. Lifelong Learning and Coaching Elements in Team Relationships

      The principle of “one degree for life,” which worked perfectly in the 20th century, is no longer relevant. In order to adapt to the ever-evolving challenges presented by the external environment, you need to continuously learn throughout your life. This ideology is known as lifelong learning[4].

      It is essential to develop not only hard skills, which are the skills required to perform professional tasks, such as language proficiency for a linguist or coding for an IT specialist, but also flexible, universal skills, often referred to as soft skills, such as the capacity to work in a team, plan and set goals, adapt to new conditions, as well as the so-called meta-skills, such as creativity, authenticity, and self-awareness.

      This is a continuous process characterized by each employee delving into their own self, seeking personal purpose, breaking down the barriers that restrict beliefs, and strengthening the collective potential of the entire team. Henceforth, every new challenge becomes an opportunity to tap into a resource.

      Let us add the following to the above:

      • abandoning the “I know everything” mindset: the willingness to learn from the experience and knowledge of any employee, regardless of their status;

      • rejecting established patterns in favor of perceiving with open eyes, where unconventional approaches are not automatically deemed incorrect;

      • willingness to admit mistakes and work together to rectify them.

      This is how attentive and versatile leaders emerge and qualify as mentors.

6. Change Management and innovation implementation

      An effective leader is an entrepreneur who evaluates each task in terms of the future outcome. Moreover, it is important for him or her to not only think proactively but also to perceive changes as a permanent growth factor.

      The team will actively engage if the leader maintains a culture of innovation that aligns with the core principles of the organization and the people within it if the leader is open to experiments and improvements and actively facilitates their implementation. The key concepts here are speed and productivity. The leader must always keep abreast and assist in the swift implementation of changes in processes and operating models. To achieve this, the leader should receive dynamic updates to understand the overall situation and make well-informed decisions in the moment. This involves having readily available dynamic metrics (key performance indicators or KPIs) that accurately reflect current circumstances, as well as scenario testing methods. We will discuss these in later chapters.

      The main point to bear in mind is that when we make changes to processes, there is an additional burden on the team in terms of applying and mastering new technologies. It is important to undergo transformation while simultaneously increasing overall productivity.

      The leader's responsibility is to help the team in streamlining their efforts, building a meaningful path, choosing priority areas and introducing digital tools that will give the organization the greatest immediate impact.

7. Digital skills & the ability to work with data

      In addition to an open-minded approach, innovation also requires new digital competencies (project management through a CRM[5], proficiency in handling clouds and understanding intelligent systems, and so on). This is where the ability to seamlessly integrate the organization’s ecosystem into a digital environment and flexibly manage processes using high-precision algorithms become paramount. It involves optimizing time-consuming operations and strategic planning. Tools aid in the creation of digital twins, testing scenarios, prioritization, and real-time management based on reliable analytics.

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