Development Solutions Consultancy

At any point in our lives, we can be certain that there are always problems to deal with and obstacles to overcome. Studies have shown that human beings are driven by two emotions; pain and pleasure. This means that we are driven by our need to avoid pain or our desire to gain pleasure.

For instance when things get difficult and tough, most people will not take the initiative to deal with them and find solutions because it makes them uncomfortable. In other words it’s much more pleasurable and comfortable for them to avoid challenges, than to take action towards solving them. It’s easy to point the finger and blame our boss, the government, our circumstances or even our work environment to justify the current position in our lives.

The bottom line is that most people are ready and able to become more successful but many are not willing to become more successful. In other words most people are reluctant to do what’s hard and necessary. Life is not made up of those who have and those who don’t have, but rather it’s made up of those who will take action and those who will not take action.

Therefore, taking personal responsibility for success is all about being willing to take the right actions on a consistent basis despite how uncomfortable the circumstances and those actions may be. While this is generally true, it is particularly important for people in employment. People are in employment because they want to lead a descent life; they want success in their life. To succeed they must be willing to make the right decisions, take the right actions and do so on a consistent basis despite an ever changing work environment. We know that change is always present and happening. If we are not vigilant enough change is sometimes not easy to notice as it sometimes seems to creep in stealthily. Seen in this context employees in general are as important both in identifying change and proactively contributing to change management in a way that supports managers. Seen in this way change management in an organization is a two-way traffic.

Employees can play a great role in change management if they are conscious of what is in it for them. The assumption that employees always resist change is fallacious. Anybody would resist change if the fundamental principle of self-vested interests is not met. It ought to be remembered that each employee on their own accord chose to join a particular organization with their own individual expectations. The challenge is both for individuals to maintain their focus on personal expectations and personal success utilizing opportunities arising within organizations and for managers to manage performance in a way consistent with fostering individual employee expectations and career development. In this way employees are likely to be motivated to take a proactive stance about change because of their awareness about what the direct bearing change may have on their personal success prospects.

In their book on How to Implement Change in Your Company, John Spencer and Adrian Pruss say, “We have identified that change is more successful with highly motivated individuals”. It seems to me that the challenge is how to maintain employee motivation in what they do bearing in mind that they were in the first place motivated to join the organization. People fear change because it threatens their security, ideas, beliefs and habits. Well, it is possible to eliminate that fear if employees view change within vested interests of developing new skills or gaining better understanding so that they are able to work and compete better in the job market as a whole. Such a proactive approach to change management would integrate an employee motivated evolutionary change process rather than taking an often disastrous revolutionary approach.

At Development Solutions Consultancy one of our preoccupations is to improve organizational performance through making employees realize that it is in their best interest to improve individual performance. It stems from aligning their personal vision with that of the organization and discerning objectives for joining the organization. Through this approach employees recognize that employment is a “business” on which their own prosperity and success depends. Their success in this business depends to a large extent on their ability to leverage individual performance and taking responsibility in dealing with occupational change.

If employees want to prosper, grow or increase their personal value and marketability within and without an organization, it is in their own interests not only to be good performers but also to continually strive to improve their knowledge and skills, scan and adjust to changes which happen in their respective occupations. The rather self-interest of improving individual performance simultaneously improves organizational performance. Importantly, change management should also be seen fundamentally being scanned and responded to at the individual employee level. Organizational management must obviously respond to this.

Our module on “Enhancing Personal Success through Employment” further explores this topic and it reveals the benefits of taking personal responsibility and more initiative in the workplace.