Adapting to or Changing Your Work Environment: Strategies for Leaders

Episode Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Daring to Succeed podcast.

My name is Julianna Yau Yorgan and I’m a workplace strategist who teaches leaders how to show their value and increase their impact through compassionate strategy.

Today, I want to talk about something a lot of leaders struggle with, choosing between adapting to their environment and changing it. This is something so many leaders face and I came across it many, many times during my six years in leadership.

When I think back to when I was a director, it was really interesting because I moved into the position joining a group of people who were already kind of established and had their way of working.

And it was a little bit frustrating for me because they weren’t very organized and I’m a very naturally organized person. And they also were really focused on just what they needed to deliver as individuals.

So even though we had regular monthly meetings as a directorate group, every time we got together it seemed like people were only there to accomplish their own thing which I guess some people might think is kind of normal but in my mind if the group of us are getting together it was with the purpose of discussing either shared challenges or things that the entire department or company needed to accomplish, or whatever else that would actually make use of the group time, because obviously our time was so valuable.

And what I noticed after a little bit is there was nobody really leading the group. They kind of turned to me, not necessarily as a leader, but to help them get organized, kind of playing off of my project management background.

And that wasn’t really something for me. I didn’t want to be just known as the note taker or the project manager, especially having moved into a new level of leadership.

So what I ended up doing was trying to figure out how can I leverage their desire for someone to organize the group with my desire to really turn that group into something that was more strategic, that served all of our purposes, but also was a good use of my own time. So what I ended up doing was starting to kind of help the group form and find a way to work together, re-establish the purpose of the gathering.

And once I figured out how to do that and established that baseline, I then turned it back to the group and said, okay, well, I’ve created the foundation of this. Now it’s just maintenance. we’re now going to take turns maintaining. And in that circumstance it was easy for me to change the environment that I stepped into because they wanted the change and there was very little resistance to it. They were looking for someone to help organize.

But partway through my role as a director, there was a reorg in the company and I got moved into a different group of directors who had things very established in the way that they were working. Again, I didn’t really find it naturally conducive to what I thought was a productive way of working.

And it was really difficult because I really had to assess the situation to figure out, is it worth me trying to change how things worked? And being as stubborn as I am, I naturally felt that it was better for me to try and change things for the better. So I tested the waters here and there just to see, okay, I know everything’s established with this group, but perhaps there’s still opportunity for change.

And every single time that I tried that, I came across resistance and, quite frankly, some rather condescending comments about the fact that I didn’t understand how they worked. So I really had to make that decision of, am I still going to push forward to try and change the environment, or is there a way for me to adapt to this environment which was suboptimal for me? but was less energy than me trying to completely change the minds of all these very opinionated directors.

And, of course, it’s not just me. I’ve worked with others in the same situation. I’m thinking of a time when a manager, again, was in this type of reorg situation where she moved from reporting to someone who is very organized, having peers who are very organized, to moving into a group where they met on a regular basis, but All they did when they met was talk about the issues, so the same issues would come up every single time they met, every month, and the same conversation would happen, and it would always conclude with something needs to be done, but concrete actions would never arise from all the conversation, even though they would almost always be on the cusp of it.

They never made that final step into something that would actually change the situation for their teams.

So this manager I worked with was really frustrated again. She just found it really difficult to be in those conversations time and time again. She was losing her mind because it was the same thing. And what we decided was that for her, there was an opportunity to change and mold that group, even though, unlike me, they weren’t in a situation where they were seeking it.

There were others in the group who wanted to see change, who wanted some sort of concrete situation to come of all these conversations and perhaps just having different conversations maybe.

So I worked with her to figure out how she could, again, just take small steps to see if the group was open to the change, if they were willing to accept change and her brand of leadership to kind of mold that group together. and she did find a way.

She found a way to make sure that they had some concrete actions. She found a way to really elevate her voice so that she was heard and so that they would take notice and she could become this leader amongst a group of leaders even though they weren’t seeking it and finally kind of push past that wall of of talking into a place of action so that her time spent in those meetings were of value for her.

And this is just such a challenging thing for a lot of leaders because I find some leaders will face that situation and either, like me, try to change it, find that they can’t, and then just lose all hope. Where I didn’t necessarily lose all hope but I found a way to adapt and others who see the situation, can see the opportunity for change, but just don’t quite know where to take that first step and how to find that entry point to see if they can change things, if the group is going to be willing to accept that change coming especially from them.

And inside my Leaders Among Leaders community, I show people exactly how to be strategic about these battles and which to fight, which to let go without sabotaging your career or just completely losing your mind. Or even worse, losing that spark that got you into leadership in the first place.

And even if you’re at the point where you’re not quite sure if you can get that magic back, there is a path forward to a better place in your leadership if you’re willing to take action and reclaim your career. And the way I’ve structured it is it’s a weekly membership, there’s no contracts, so it’s really easy to get started and once you get what you need out of it, you are free to go.

So if you want to find out more, just message me on LinkedIn or Instagram with the phrase, I want to be a leader amongst leaders, and I’ll share all the details with you. Okay, that’s it for this week, and I will see you soon.