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Speaker 1: News today that Stillantis, the big sort of American European

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Speaker 1: company will no longer be selling the Fat five hundred

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Speaker 1: in South Africa. And they've been selling Fiats here for

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Speaker 1: years and years and years. And you could probably almost

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Speaker 1: I could probably tell your generation by what your Fiat

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Speaker 1: model was, What was popular when you were young. For me,

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Speaker 1: for my generation was the Uno, right was the cheapest

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Speaker 1: car in South Africa at the time. They used to

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Speaker 1: have competitions. I mean, when I was lucky enough to

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Speaker 1: be at university, how many people could you fit into

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Speaker 1: an Uno? I think someone got twenty people in once.

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Speaker 1: The car wasn't driving, at least I don't think it was.

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Speaker 1: I do think I got about eleven people into a

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Speaker 1: Foxsvolgen Golf once and that did drive. But that's a

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Speaker 1: different story. But your memories of the Fiat brand in

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Speaker 1: South Africa, there'll be some people for whom the Fat

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Speaker 1: five hundred is the one that they remember. There'll be

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Speaker 1: others who have very different memories. But a Feat what

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Speaker 1: is the Feat model that you will remember? Seven seven

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Speaker 1: oh two one seven o two. Looking for your memories tonight?

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Speaker 2: The money show business unusual if.

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Speaker 1: You're any kind of leader and if you have a

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Speaker 1: little bit of a track record in this or you

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Speaker 1: might be about to start this kind of project. You

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Speaker 1: can imagine the situation where you're asked to take over

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Speaker 1: a team and you can see this team has has problems,

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Speaker 1: It hasn't been treated properly, people are not performing. You

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Speaker 1: have a company maybe that really needs real change, and

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Speaker 1: you almost don't know where to start, but you do

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Speaker 1: know that you don't want to break the people involved.

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Speaker 1: And just think about the first meeting. Everyone's looking at you.

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Speaker 1: You going to fire me, she going to fire me?

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Speaker 1: What's going to happen? How am I going to tell

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Speaker 1: my partner all of those things? Anyevan Biek is a

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Speaker 1: talent and culture strategist And yeah, good evening. I mean

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Speaker 1: these are difficult moments. You know, everyone's looking at you.

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Speaker 1: You've got to get your tone right, You've got to

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Speaker 1: get what you're going to do right. Where do you start?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I loove Stephens, thank you for the end. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: where do we start? I think the first thing is

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Speaker 2: to realize that your job is not to rescue I

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Speaker 2: rather one the leader to think about a reset. And

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Speaker 2: when we think about a reset, it's resetting systems. Re

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Speaker 2: engaging the team and definitely rediscovering or reconnecting them to

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Speaker 2: the purpose of the team or the organization. And you

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Speaker 2: were spot on to say, it's all about the tone

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Speaker 2: that human centered focused with a team, and it's not

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Speaker 2: only about focusing on the results. It's actually more how

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Speaker 2: do you lead the team differently and set them up

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Speaker 2: for success.

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Speaker 1: A lot of people can be quite scared of a

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Speaker 1: new leader. They might not be honest with them. They

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Speaker 1: think that a lot of changes coming. They worried particularly

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Speaker 1: for their jobs, for their roles, for their status. How

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Speaker 1: do you manage that specifically?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So when we look at any human going through

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Speaker 2: change and now in this example introducing a new leader,

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Speaker 2: I think what the leaders need to be aware of

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Speaker 2: is that there's something that we call a transcision curve,

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Speaker 2: and the transcision curve is almost expect a drop in morole,

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Speaker 2: expect a drop in trust. So you need to be

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Speaker 2: very mindful that when you go through change, when you communicate,

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Speaker 2: there's never a thing like over communicating, So be very

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Speaker 2: mindful with your first interaction with a team to really

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Speaker 2: make sure that you focus on each individual almost try

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Speaker 2: to get a sense of who they are. But when

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Speaker 2: just back to their communication message. Be very clear, to

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Speaker 2: be very detailed when you deliver messages in the first time,

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Speaker 2: and then later on it might be more one on

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Speaker 2: one and later when they in a different stage or phase.

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Speaker 2: Then you can be excited and selling all the positives.

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Speaker 2: What I'm trying to illustrate years when the leader is

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Speaker 2: positive about the future and the aim and the goals

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Speaker 2: for the team, the team might not be there yet,

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Speaker 2: and you need to be mindful of where are they

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Speaker 2: in that transision curve and meet them where they are.

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Speaker 2: So I think that's just the first point that I

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Speaker 2: would like to illustrate, and then from there onwards, I

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Speaker 2: think it's critical for you to focus on the strength

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Speaker 2: of the team, especially if it's been a team that

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Speaker 2: has been inconsistent in the past. Perhaps you find that

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Speaker 2: the energy in the team is quite low. I want

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Speaker 2: the leaders to consider or how can they design an

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Speaker 2: early win. What is that quick win that we can

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Speaker 2: almost set up so that people can experience that small step,

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Speaker 2: the small progress, and that's when we will start to

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Speaker 2: see the shift.

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Speaker 1: It must be tempting if you're the leader in that

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Speaker 1: position to sort of say in the first meeting, no

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Speaker 1: one's going to lose their job. Now, when you do that,

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Speaker 1: I think I think a couple of things happened. The

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Speaker 1: one is you don't know that as the leader, and

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Speaker 1: the second is no one believes you. Is that an

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Speaker 1: unwise thing.

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Speaker 2: To do, absolutely, and I'm so glad that you bring

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Speaker 2: that up. And especially when we're going through change, never

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Speaker 2: promise something that you can't guarantee. I mean, I have

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Speaker 2: been in that role working with leaders, and I remember

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Speaker 2: so clearly one of them said, don't worry, no one

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Speaker 2: will lose their positions, and then six months later it

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Speaker 2: was a totally different playing field. So I always say

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Speaker 2: for leaders, don't be mindful of telling the truth, and

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Speaker 2: even the truth even if the truth is I'm not sure.

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Speaker 2: I don't know, let's figure that out, but I think

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Speaker 2: it's in that moment a lot better to be vulnerable

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Speaker 2: and even admit that you don't have all the answers

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Speaker 2: than making promises that you can't keep. If we both

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Speaker 2: trust relationships, that is key.

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Speaker 1: So I know, from what I can see, what people

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Speaker 1: really want is a little bit of progress, and I've

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Speaker 1: thought your point about a quick one was so important

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Speaker 1: to that. But they also need to have progress in

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Speaker 1: going somewhere? How important is that direction? And often I

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Speaker 1: think often if you go into a team that's not working,

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Speaker 1: it's because they don't know. People don't feel a sense

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Speaker 1: of which direction. I think you know, the spring Bucks

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Speaker 1: before Russy or Bafana before Hugo Bruce or just Kaiser Chiefs. Anytime,

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Speaker 1: people don't really know where they actually need to go. Now,

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Speaker 1: how can you give a sense of direction? And I mean,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure at some point because this is a conversation

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Speaker 1: about business and you're going to say you need to

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Speaker 1: have clear goals and that Jose, how important they are?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely so. I think if we look at the

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Speaker 2: definition of success, success is the progression of predetermined worthwhile

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Speaker 2: or personal goals. Now, if we take this to a team,

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Speaker 2: I think it's important to involve the team in that

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Speaker 2: what does the future look like? But even as state

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Speaker 2: before you get to what does the future look like,

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Speaker 2: it's important, as you've mentioned, to highlight what's the end

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Speaker 2: goal and make that a compelling picture. I mean, if

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Speaker 2: we have a look at one of the basic needs

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Speaker 2: of humans is we want to make a meaningful contribution.

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Speaker 2: We want to feel as if we make a difference

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Speaker 2: and when you paint that compelling picture and they start

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Speaker 2: to see where they fit in, how they can contribute,

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Speaker 2: what might they be able to add to the team,

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Speaker 2: or perhaps make suggestions or innovative ideas. That's where the

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Speaker 2: magical starts to happen. But it really starts by painting

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Speaker 2: that picture, and then we break it down into small

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Speaker 2: measurable ones. And I think that is the important part

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Speaker 2: because once you have that goal and you have something

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Speaker 2: to measure, that's how we can show progress. And if

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Speaker 2: you can make that visible and if you can highlight

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Speaker 2: the small winds consistently, we're setting ourselves up for success.

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Speaker 1: I suppose when you come into a team like that,

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Speaker 1: people know it's not working. I mean they know that,

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Speaker 1: and they probably know why their bosses changed, why you've

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Speaker 1: been brought in. Can you be upfront about that?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, I believe that in any environment, and even

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Speaker 2: so in the corporate world as well, it's to be transparent,

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Speaker 2: don't beat around the bush. But what you mentioned, Stephen

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Speaker 2: is so important because when you enter into that space,

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Speaker 2: I think one of the important things that you need

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Speaker 2: to be intentional about is to create a environment where

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Speaker 2: people feel safe to speak up because as you said,

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Speaker 2: they have been working in the team, they might know

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Speaker 2: what's not working or where can we change a process

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Speaker 2: or system, and that is what we want to hear.

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Speaker 2: So if you can create the environment where people feel

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Speaker 2: safe enough to speak up, then a nice exercise to

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Speaker 2: do is that simple let's stop, start and continue. What

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Speaker 2: should we start doing, what should we stop doing, what's

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Speaker 2: holding us back? And then what do we need to

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Speaker 2: continue doing? Perhaps some of the practices that has been working.

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Speaker 2: But it really boils down to do you have the

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Speaker 2: ability to build psychological safety? And when we think of

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Speaker 2: psychological safety, there's two elements to it. On the one side,

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Speaker 2: it's creating mutual purpose, so once again that compelling picture

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Speaker 2: about the future. And the second one is mutual respect.

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Speaker 2: And I think, especially working with a team that has

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Speaker 2: missed deadlines, that they've been inconsistent in their performance, I

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Speaker 2: think giving them respect even just for you know, the

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Speaker 2: resilience that they've shown, or just giving them respect because

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Speaker 2: they are another human being, that's so important. But creating

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Speaker 2: psychological safety you will see as a leader, it will

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Speaker 2: support you into swapping the or swapping the team around.

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Speaker 1: Annie fan Biek, thank you so much, really appreciate that

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Speaker 1: such an interesting conversation talented and culture specialists tonight