Episode 58: Dealing with Change

Welcome to another edition of “Around with Randall,” your weekly podcast making your non-profit more effective for your community, and here is your host, the CEO and Founder of Hallett Philanthropy, Randall Hallett.

I’m always so appreciative when you join me here on “Around with Randall.” Today's conversation is about the job market, and we've talked a little bit about salaries and we've talked about employment. Today, I want to talk about the idea of change and this thought process precipitated by two things. Number one, there were a number of stories here recently about the hiring practices of non-profit organizations in the industry in general and that there's a lot of job opportunities right now and that we're not quite back to the employment levels of pre-pandemic but that it's moving in that direction quickly. The second is, I have a number of clients who have open jobs or they are bringing in someone new, and I’m part of that onboarding and training. 

There seems to be a lot of movement in the industry and this brings us to this idea of change. I actually had a gift officer talk with me here recently about this idea and that they were concerned about it, and we certainly walked through some of the issues and challenges. But what I found interesting is what I was thinking about long after the call. How do people work with change? And in some ways change comes in this context, in kind of two fashions. Number one, there's change in your office but you're still employed at the same place, or two, you go to a new organization and you're the change. Either way, change occurs and change sometimes is scary. It's challenging, and I wanted to talk about that, and I want to talk about -  as we always try to - the tactical. What are some things you can do to battle this change? The emotional, certainly, the the apprehension that goes with it. So let's start with why change is so such an issue. The big overall, overreaching thought, and this actually is something I talk about as a consultant, is is that change is uncomfortable because the status quo is comfortable. Really we don't seek or consider change unless there's a really good outcome or reason to do so.

Change is hard because we like what we know, we like the steadiness of it. I am at the top of this list. I’m a ritualistic - all doing the same thing all the time - type person. When you change that routine, I don't do as well but I think the one thing I’ve learned about myself, and I think certainly about kind of our world in general, is the pandemic has caused us all to be more aware of change and maybe to be more accepting of it because there's so much we don't have control of. Control brings us comfort. Change is about loss of control. 

We also know that too much change at any one time can be a real emotional hurdle for people. Most people - there's the old adage that my mom always taught me - you don't want to change anything major at once. Well, in the job world, if you go take another job that may mean you are changing jobs but you may also be changing communities, cities, cultures, you might be losing connectivity to friends and building new relationships. There are some people that are much more amenable to that. There are others that that's so scary that they just won't do it.

Change can also…one change can lead to other changes. It's this idea of the unknown. I always, uh, talk about with individuals who are thinking about a job or or going to into a new job, the old book which most people don't remember but, Irma Bombeck was a commentator, female commentator, well before there were female commentators, not a lot of commentators, but she wrote a book called “The Grass Isn't Always Greener on the Other Side of the Septic Tank”. I read it as a kid, which will tell you a lot about what i used to read. I use that terminology because sometimes change for change sake doesn't actually bring great benefit. It's that unknown. We think that it's going to be better over there or that this new leader who's coming in to run our office or be my boss or my supervisor or my manager is better than what I have, and so there's a set of values that go with this. And that unknown can cause a lot of consternation. It's even more disappointing when we think we know when we turn out to be wrong.

The other thing is is that change is very broad and vague. When you're in routine you know exactly where… I think about me in the morning, where I’m driving, what stop lights are where I’m going, how long it's going to take when you go into a new environment or have a new environment thrust upon you, or new metrics, or outcomes, or relationships, they're very vague. You don't know the outcome of those things and that kind of leads us to sometimes abandoning change too quickly. Many times I’ve had people who have either gone into a new job and or had a new boss who have not given it the time that it takes to create a such a set of interpersonal relationships, parameters around those relationships, parameters and and understanding of expectations and outcomes. They're not giving it enough time and they kind of jettison quickly, like I don't want to deal with this, which causes more apprehension through change. Change is hard. It's really, really hard personally. Professionally it causes us a great deal of potential sadness or of just fear. There are things that you can do if you are moving into a new job, maybe even considering it, or you have a new boss coming in or a new major partner coming in the office. There are some things that you can do. This is the tactical piece, and I hope you'll write a few of them down. That will allow you to deal with change in this time of the great resignation. 

Number one is understand your fear and see it as an ally. Fear causes us to adjust, to do things. It's the fight or flight thought process. When fear is deep enough, our natural inclination is to get away from it. We should look at fear as an opportunity to evaluate what we're doing. I’m not saying run away from a situation, run away from the job, run away from someone, but evaluate it is it healthy, is it good, is it productive, is it make me happy. You can use moments of fear as a sense of evaluation and maybe you're unhappy in your current job or you have someone coming in, that uncertainty might be an opportunity to figure out, “how do I communicate? How do I want them communicate? How do I start a relationship? How do I engender trust in that relationship?”

Number two is know yourself. I talk about this a lot as a gift officer, as a leader. This is an under-discussed issue. It's really hard to affect others if you don't know who you are, and in a previous podcast we talked about all the kind of testing that you can do to know, you know, your decision-making process or your emotional state. That's part of it. But I would also tell you that by knowing yourself, by being honest with who you are, it actually reduces stress because you know how to deal with you. You may not be able to have the answers of how to deal with the strain or trials and tribulation of a new job or that you want a new job. You're trying to figure that out. But if you know who you are you can at least reduce the stress somewhat, which allows for clearer thinking, better decision making. So number one, understand fear and make it your ally. Number two, understand yourself, who you are. 

Number three is take small steps. I’ve got too many examples in my 25-plus-year career where people that I have a great deal of respect for have taken a job and realized, “oh my gosh, I shouldn't have left,” or “this was the wrong one to take,” or they get a new boss and they jettison too quickly, or they stayed too long. The best decisions when we're talking about bigger change are done in small steps. So one step is, how do you communicate your concerns? Another step might be how do you increase your value? Are there holes in your resume, your skill sets, that you might be able to develop as you think about what change might mean? Who are the people that you trust? Do you analyze that? Change requires small steps if you want it to be painless or less painful.

The fourth is, remember that change is constant. I recently had a gift officer who started in a new job. I was doing some onboarding in terms of their work and major gift efforts and they said you know I didn't like my previous boss. I’m so happy that I came here. My new boss is going to be the leader seat chief development officer is going to be great. Within a week the chief development officer took a new job. Change is constant, and that sometimes we have to be willing to change to the change and that also, if maybe things didn't go as well as one had hoped. I’ve changed jobs, failure or maybe not, reaching every piece of the opportunity the highest levels of achievement, so I won't call it quite failure, but struggle can be a positive. You learn about who you are. So remember that things, when you get somewhere or you go somewhere, can change. You got to be open to that. And number two, whatever you can bring from your previous experiences, even if it wasn't the outcome anybody wanted or you wanted, might make you more valuable in the future, make you more successful. In fact there's the old adage that, you know, some of our greatest biggest companies, those founders, those entrepreneurs, those forward-thinking strategic see the future-type people, failed probably one or two times before they ever made the success work.

The fifth thing I’d like to mention is you need social support. I have so many people, I feel very blessed that people trust me, that I have the opportunity to help, give them some guidance. Sometimes it's guidance like a practical thought. Sometimes it's just listening and saying, you know you're a really good person, you're doing all the right things. I don't see anything of a character flaw, or you're misjudging a situation, or you're behaving incorrectly. I’m so appreciative when people trust me, and you need to figure out who you trust, who can be your social support. Who do you trust that you can talk with and say they'll give you an honest opinion? Does this sound right? Am I doing okay? And also, who are those people, and for me it's really simple, it's my wife when there's too much emotion, too much disappointment, too much change. I’m sitting next to her in our bedrooms, in the chairs, laying in bed, at the dinner table, she's my emotional support first and foremost, and I have others that I’ve been very blessed along the way to to consider people I trust as well. Who can you trust that can help you maybe see the forest through the trees a little bit? 

And lastly, if nothing else, just go ahead and change and do it but don't forget if you're thinking about leaving a job, or if you're thinking about going into a new job, your responsibilities first and foremost to yourself finish what you're doing at the highest possible level because that's the kind of person you are. There's nothing worse than going into a new job and you, from minute one, know the other person just quit doing whatever it is they were supposed to be doing and you're left cleaning up a mess, or someone leaves in your office and you try to go in and you know, try to triage the situation and possibly even pick up some of the pieces and you realize oh my gosh it's a disaster. Remember, at the end of the day, integrity and character is important and you need to look yourself in the mirror and you need to do your job every day, show up with a smile on your face, even thinking about another opportunity or even if you know I’m out the door or if you have someone new coming in, well I’m just going to wait till they get here. No. Do what is right and you'll be able to be okay with you, and frankly, there's nothing more important than that. Change is hard and I love it because I am hired to create change in process, and in productivity, and people, programmatically, whatever that may entail, I force change. But I also understand it can be real a challenge for people, and hopefully some of the tactics that we talked about, the idea of understanding and being okay with that fear, use it as an ally to know yourself, to take small steps, build out a series of steps that can be successful. And change - remember that things change. It's going to be constantly, if you go into an organization that organization is going to change, the environment's going to change -  that you need to enlist people that you can, that will be supportive, who can be your emotional check when you need it, or just emotional support overall. And lastly, when it's time to do it, make the change, but finish what you're doing first. Do it well. Leave wherever you were or where you're going, leave it better for someone else. In the great resignation time that we're in, change is tough and we'll have to make it work for everybody.

I hope that you enjoy these podcasts. And if you want to reach out to me, your host, Randall, please email me at podcast hallett philanthropy and there are blogs up at hallettphilanthropy.com - two, three a week on a various litany of subjects that I read about, things that I think about. Hopefully they might be helpful to you. And lastly, as I do each and every week, I want you to know that what you're doing is important for non-profit work. It's support for your community so if you feel as if you didn't get all of the positive energy, I’m hoping you hear these things and you're like I’m doing good work, because you are. You are affecting your community with the with the nonprofit that you're working with or you're volunteering at that they have a mission of helping people and that's the definition of philanthropy, love of mankind. Remember my favorite saying, some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, then there are those who wondered what happened. You're someone who's making something happen for someone or something that's wondering what happened, and that is a great professional life. We'll see you right here back on “Around with Randall,” in our next edition. Can't thank you enough for your time and don't forget make it a great day.