100 Ways to Motivate Others

9. Accelerate Change

Every organization must be prepared to abandon everything it does to survive in the future.

—Peter Drucker

My role as a leader is always to keep my people cheered up, optimistic, and ready to play full-out in the face of change. That’s my job. Most managers do not do this. They see their role as babysitters, problem-solvers, and firefighters. And so they produce babies, problems, and fires all around them.

It’s important to know the psychological reaction to change in your employees and how it follows a predictable cycle.

Your employees pass through these four stages in the cycle, and you can learn how to manage this process:

The Change Cycle

1. Objection: “This can’t be good.”

2. Reduced consciousness: “I really don’t want ...