No matter who we are, where we are from or which positions we hold, time is the most expensive resource. Some may have more of it and some may have less, but what makes time expensive is that once it passes by, you cannot get it back.
Given the speed of change in our disruptive world, time is becoming a more and more sought-after resource for every company that wishes to stay relevant.
In this sense, people -- at all levels, be they leaders or staff -- are equally important resources for every organisation. As business leaders, you understand how important it is to recruit enough talent for your organisation. But optimising that talent is just as important.
What does people optimisation actually entail? When optimising anything, you make the best or most effective use of it. So optimising people refers to creating an environment that brings out their best potential and productivity.
Optimising people also involves elements such as the capability to attract and retain talent, the ability to inspire your people to achieve their goals, and even the understanding of the diversity of each person and team.
Ultimately, effective leaders and a great working culture create the right conditions to optimise people and drive better productivity, teamwork and even innovation. Therefore, developing effective leaders within the organisation is important. From developing engaged people to supporting groundbreaking innovation, leaders must be ready.
As leaders, you want to inspire your organisation and promote change for the better. You might have offered training courses, coaching and other kinds of learning to help inspire your people.
And at the end of the day, it all comes down to the most expensive resource of all -- time. How do we develop our leaders in order to effectively optimise people with speed and urgency in mind?
To get a programme going speedily, you must first empathise with the leaders in the organisation who will have to carry it out. Change is one of the biggest factors in business that stirs uncertainty. But change is necessary and implementing change at a rapid pace is becoming even more crucial.
The act of empathy itself sounds time-consuming. But when practised well, it will become an ongoing process. The reason empathy is important is because nothing can be achieved without fully understanding the other person and getting them on board with change.
The second way is to create a positive learning work environment within the organisation. It’s often said that when the staff are happy, that translates into happy customers. In the same way, leaders need to be happy in order to keep the organisation happy. This can be achieved when both leaders and the people under them have a sense of purpose and development, and this only happens when they are in a positive learning environment.
There are many approaches to creating a positive learning environment for your people. One involves having good “leadership language”. This means a foundation on which the leader and his or her people can understand one another.
As much as you would like to implement change at a faster rate, it is also important to understand that there are some things that just take time. There are always few elements that cannot be accelerated any more than they already are.
This brings us to the third way to implement change faster -- nurturing the right the mindset of leaders and their people. Any kind of behaviour or attitudes that are deeply rooted in who the person truly is can take time to change.
Changing the mindset of people is difficult, but creating an environment that nurtures a positive mindset can support this change faster. Approaches like workshops or learning sessions can ensure that majority of your leaders and people in the organisation are on the same page.
In sum, change is one of those things we cannot avoid, and time is something we also cannot ignore. The essence of effectively implementing change with speed in mind involves ensuring the right qualities and attitudes in our own leaders and the people in the organisation.
Arinya Talerngsri is Chief Capability Officer and Managing Director at SEAC (formerly APMGroup) Southeast Asia's leading executive, leadership and innovation capability development centre. She can be reached by email at arinya_t@seasiacenter.com or www.linkedin.com/in/arinya-talerngsri-53b81aa
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