Hold your own during change

Change is difficult; especially when it’s coming at you full speed and you feel you have no control over it. You cannot afford to be a ‘passenger’ during change. Here are ways to respond right from the start.

Check how the change affects you: Even though change in an organisation tends to affect a lot of people, your priority is to understand the change and find out how it will affect you whether directly (such as your role changing) or indirectly through impact on your team.

Have a vision of what you’d like: When you understand how you are likely to be affected by the change, investigate your options, opportunities and what it will cost you. Reflect on these and keep close to the process so that you know how things are unfolding and what decisions you need to be making.

Accept what you can’t change: Focus on what is possible and have a positive attitude. This can challenging, especially if change is not going to be beneficial, but you must find a way to do so because if the change happens, you don’t want to lose out by getting stuck on what you can’t influence.

Never see yourself as a victim: Sometimes, it can feel very much like that. Allow yourself to deal with the difficult emotions you may be feeling, be it frustration or anger (don’t throw any objects please) but make sure you are working out a forward direction amidst the change.

Ground yourself with support: The change process can be complicated whether it affects you directly or not. It helps to create a support network to help you adjust. It might help to get someone to look at the situation from a detached position and to help you adapt your perspective.

Engage openly and honestly: Don’t sit on the fence. Engaging can take many forms from playing an active role in the change process or simply sharing your honest opinion about what’s going on and staying open to how the change unfolds.

Now take action: What one thing can you do to handle change better?