Managers and supervisors: importance and role
The first two tutorials in the job roles
series focused on the role of the
change management
specialist and a high-level overview of the
five roles in
change management. The next tutorials will look specifically
at the two critical employee-facing roles in times of
change:
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Executives and senior leaders
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Managers and supervisors
These two roles are critical because employees
look to and listen to the person at the top of the
organization and their direct supervisor.
While the last tutorial looked at
senior
leaders, this tutorial focuses on the importance and role of
managers and supervisors in times of change. It
includes new research on the importance of managers and
supervisors in times of change. The tutorial also examines
the five roles managers and supervisors play in times of
change, and how well 2009 study participants ranked their
performance. Finally, the tutorial looks at the
percentage of participants who provided
formal training in
change management to managers and supervisors and an
overview of Prosci's 1-day program for this critical group.
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Prosci's Change Management Guide
for Managers is a self-paced toolkit with a full set
of tools to help managers become great leaders of
change.
Read more about the
Change
Management Guide for Managers. |
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The importance of managers and supervisors in times of change
In times of change, managers and supervisors can be both the
greatest
ally and the greatest obstacle
for change teams. They are the closest to the employees who must
adopt the new processes and behaviors associated with a project or
initiative. In many cases, the work of managers and supervisors will
also be impacted by a project. Getting managers and supervisors on-board
and taking the lead in supporting employee change is crucial.
In the 2009 benchmarking study, participants rated how important they
felt manager and supervisor involvement was to the success of their
project. The graph below shows the respondents data. Nearly half of
participants ranked manager and supervisor involvement as “extremely
important”, with another one-third citing “very important”.
Managers and supervisors are so crucial because of the relationship
they have with the employees in the organization. The importance of
managers and supervisors in times of change is undeniable - but what
does this group really need to be doing to drive successful change?
The role of managers and supervisors
Participants in the 2007 benchmarking study identified five roles
that managers and supervisors must play in times of change:
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Communicator - Communicate with direct reports about
the change
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Advocate - Demonstrate support for the change
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Coach -
Coach employees through the change process
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Liaison - Engage with and provide
support to the project team
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Resistance manager
- Identify and manage resistance
Role #1: Communicator - Employees want to hear change messages about
how their work and their team will be affected by a change from the
person they report to. An employee's supervisor is a key conduit of
information about the organization, the work that is done and changes to
that work resulting from projects and initiatives. Answers to questions
like, What does this mean to me? What's in it for me? Why should I
get on board? and Why are we doing this? are best delivered
by an employee's immediate supervisor. The change management team needs
to provide talking points and pertinent information, but those messages
should ultimately be delivered to employees by their supervisor.
Role #2: Advocate - Employees look to their supervisors not only for
direct communication messages about a change, but also to evaluate their
level of support for the change effort. If a manager only passively
supports or even resists a change, then you can expect the same from
that person's direct reports. Managers and supervisors need to
demonstrate their support in active and observable ways. The key here is
this: managers and supervisors must first be on-board before they can
support their employees. A change management team should create targeted
and customized tactics for engaging and managing the change first with
managers and supervisors, and only then charge this important group with
leading change with their direct reports.
Role #3: Coach - The role of coach involves supporting
employees through the process of change they experience when projects
and initiatives impact their day-to-day work. Prosci's ADKAR®
model describes this individual change process as five building blocks
of successful change: Awareness of
the need for change, Desire to
participate and support the change, Knowledge
on how to change, Ability
to implement required skills and behaviors and
Reinforcement to sustain the change
(read more about ADKAR in the
Essence of ADKAR
tutorial or in
Excerpts from
the ADKAR book). Because of their relationship, managers and
supervisors can coach individual employees through this change process
and help them address the barrier points that are inhibiting successful
change.
Role #4: Liaison - This role involves interacting with the project
team. As the liaison, managers and supervisors provide information from
the team to their direct reports. But perhaps more importantly, they
provide information about the project from their employees back up to
the project team. Managers are in the best position to provide design
input, usability results and employee feedback on particular aspects of
the solution back to the project team.
Role #5: Resistance manager - No one is closer to a resistant employee
than his or her supervisor. In terms of managing resistance, managers
and supervisors are in the best place to identify what resistance looks
like, where it is coming from and the source of that resistance. They
are also the best suited - when provided with the training and tools to
do so - to actively manage that resistance when it occurs. They can use
the ADKAR model to hone in on which element of the change process is
driving resistance and address it accordingly.
Role fulfillment benchmarking findings
Participants in the 2009 study ranked their managers and supervisors
in terms of how well they were fulfilling the five roles listed above.
For each role, participants ranked managers and supervisors on a scale
from "completely ineffective" to "extremely effective". The graph below
show the percentage of participants ranking their managers and
supervisors as "ineffective" or "completely ineffective". From the data,
it is easy to see that managers are struggling the most
with fulfilling
the coach and the resistance manager roles.
The roles of "Coach" and "Resistance manager" represent the biggest
departure for many managers from the role they have historically played
in the organization. The other three roles are more aligned with what a
manager has done in the past, but effectively coaching employees through
a change and identifying and managing resistance to change require a new
set of skills. Many times, great managers have difficulty when tasked
with becoming great managers of change because they have not been
adequately prepared to do so.
Training for managers and supervisors
Participants in the 2009 benchmarking study indicated whether or not
they provided formal change management training to managers and
supervisors. In the 2007 study only 39% of participants trained this
crucial group, and in the 2009 study this number increased only slightly
to 40% (see the graph below).
The finding above should set off a warning for many change managers
and business leaders. While managers and supervisors are identified as a
critical success factor in times of change, they are not being
adequately prepared to fulfill the roles identified in the research. Ask
yourself these questions:
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Have we told managers and supervisors what we expect
from them in times of change?
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Do they fully understand the specific actions and
behaviors we need from them to support a change effort?
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Have we provided them with the skills and tools to
be successful at leading their direct reports through change?
If you answer "no", then you have work to do to better engage this
important cog in the change management system.
Prosci’s Change Management Certification for
Managers and Supervisors
Prosci’s Change Management Certification for
Managers and Supervisors is designed for managers
and supervisors who are supporting their employees
through change - in many cases, through multiple
changes. The program is based on over a decade of
research on how to effectively manage the people
side of change. The certification program immerses
coaches in their role in the change management
process, requiring them to use real-life data and
real-life changes they are working on at that
moment.
In the program, participants will:
- Identify all the changes underway that
impact their group and better understand why
these changes are being made
- Have an opportunity to review these changes
and raise any concerns or issues that they might
have
- Learn how to use the ADKAR® Model to coach
individual employees through change
- Develop their own skills and competencies
for leading change with their employees
The program follows the change management process
for managers shown below which begins with a focus
on preparing yourself for change before moving on to
the creation of specific activities for leading your
direct reports through change:
Prosci's Change Management
Process for Managers and Supervisors
Materials: Participants receive a primer on
leading change, a copy of the Employee's Survival
Guide, a copy of the ADKAR book and a set of ADKAR
worksheets.
Agenda for the manager program:
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Course topic:
Understanding the process for
leading change
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Break-out: Group discussion of the changes
underway in the organization
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Course topic:
Uncovering the concepts of change
management
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Break-out: Organization and change readiness
assessments
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Course topic:
A look at the best practices data
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Break-out: Research findings analysis and group
presentations
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Course topic:
The ADKAR Model
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Break-out: Personal ADKAR worksheet
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Course topic:
Roles for leading change
(communicator, advocate, coach, liaison, and
resistance manager)
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Break-out: Discussion of the communications
packet from the project team(s)
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Break-out: Individual analysis of employee
data; development of group and individual coaching
plans for managing change
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Course topic:
Resistance management
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Break-out: Understanding resistance
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Course topic:
10-steps for managing resistance
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Break-out: Next steps and action plans
Call an account manager at +1-970-203-9332 or
email a Prosci analyst to learn more about
Prosci's manager program or to schedule your session
today.
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