Key
competencies: change and innovation
In this second feature in a series of personal development articles Ros Pepper, Organisational development manager at the University of Lincoln, offers insight into another key area of workplace competencies, and provides some thoughts towards developing these further
D
emonstrating positive personal attributes and behaviours can really make the difference between satisfactory and excellent performance; and in a management and leadership respect those are qualities which are vital to role model for the rest of your team.
So, how would you rate yourself? And, equally important, how would members of your team or other colleagues/managers/ contacts see you?
If you think of some of our common expressions and idioms of change – such as, ‘a change is as good as a rest’, ‘let’s shake things up’, ‘raising the bar’, ‘get a fresh perspective’, ‘nothing stands still for ever’ – it is perhaps not surprising that people though accepting that change happens, may be nervous or anxious about what this means for them (both personally and professionally) and therefore how they react to or handle change. When you consider the changes we have seen in the payroll profession through legislation and technology over the past few years the ability to adapt our processes, practices and behaviours has been ever important. As an example
...POSITIVE PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES AND BEHAVIOURS CAN REALLY MAKE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SATISFACTORY AND EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE
12 PayrollProfessional
auto-enrolment has seen payroll have the ability not only to ensure compliance but also to have flexibility to determine how the change is adapted and how it is communicated.
How open to change are you? It is always useful to take some time for personal reflection, and perhaps think back over the last three to six months in particular. Use any recent documents – whether notes from one-to-one meetings with your manager, project plans, continuing professional development activity or appraisal documents – to review your day-to-day challenges, projects, work with colleagues around your business etc. Identify recent areas of activity, whether a change initiative, a different way of completing a process or a new activity you were asked or told to implement. Think about what that change meant for you and carry out a self-assessment. You can use a sliding scale from 0–10; where 10 rates as ‘Yes - openly and with full engagement’ and 0 is ‘No - not at all’. For each question indicate the score you think best reflects how you react and feel in relation to those identified activities in the tables on the opposite page.
A useful tool Well, take a few minutes to look at the circles/scores you have given yourself. Whereabouts on the scale are they in general? Does a pattern emerge, and if so, can you see in which areas these are? Has that given you any surprises? Ask yourself these questions: “What could I start doing if I want to move a rating to a higher score? What would I need to do to move this rating significantly? How would that make me feel? What factors/fears prevent this from happening?
Pause for thought “The rate of change is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up even more in the next few decades.” – John P. Kotter
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower” – Steve Jobs
“If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies” – Author unknown
What support could I get to make any changes in my thinking or behaviours?” This can also be a useful tool when having a development conversation with your mentor or manager. Where do they see you on this scale and why? What would help you achieve movement in certain aspects? How would this enable you to perform better? What do you need from them to help you achieve this? It could also be a useful exercise to repeat. However, this time think about current and future work and projects that will require a level of change or innovation. And, then of course, there is technology! How do you rate if you ask yourself the same questions again in relation to welcoming new technology?
Top tips What can I do to further enhance my skills in this area?
Building a culture of change and innovation can demonstrate advanced personal skills. Top tips to consider for further personal development could be to explore: l challenging your organisation to make innovative changes l developing problem solving/innovation skills in others
professionaldevelopment
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56