Don’t ignore resisters
When Sheptor was still COO and developing a vision, he recalled the reaction people had to President John F. Kennedy’s announcement that the United States would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. The scientific community divided itself into early adopters, resisters and a bunch of people in the middle who were hopeful.
Kennedy took advice with regard to the early adopters and established a place for them to work collaboratively, and he took the resisters and gave them a place to work together to define all of the reasons why it wouldn’t be possible. Learning what those obstacles would be, that information was fed to the early adopters to develop solutions for those obstacles before t
hey even materialized.
Sheptor followed the same strategy. Instead of marking resisters early on and simply categorizing them as useless naysayers, he listened to their feedback and used it to better the vision.
“Listening to the resisters — those that were more committed to the status quo than to consider the possibility of change was useful to hear all the reasons it couldn’t change,” he says. “But the quality time was spent more with those who were early adopters and those that clearly wanted to be part of something new.”
If there are resisters on your executive team who are productive workers but not rolling with the changes, you should try to find another role for them in the organization.
Sheptor had a vice president who oversaw a large part of the organization but now reports directly to Sheptor. That person has a very strategic assignment but no longer supervises people anymore.
Start with candor if you want to move someone to another role within the organization.
“You can’t try to be deceptive in any kind of move of that nature,” he says. “After making my observations and doing some coaching and doing some feedback, it became clear the individual was not going to change fast enough or radically enough to be successful in their role in the new organization.”
After explaining where you think the person will fit and why he or she will fit there, you could have a handshake agreement where you will have to help that person be successful in his or her new job or that individual could leave the organization.
Sheptor did have to let executive team members go, but he says it is never easy to do so.
“There is a cost to every organization for every individual that leaves,” he says. “You have to make a decision that (the) cost is outweighed by the gain of having a different individual.
“There is a risk associated with making that decision that the person you hire may not do the job any better than the person that you let go. So, there is a risk and there is a potential gain. There is a loss of all the training, the relationships that individual has and the contributions that they are currently making. You lose all that when they leave. So it’s not something you take (lightly).”
Sheptor says you should know within three to six months whether someone is going to change.
“As an organization is moving through change, individuals that embrace the status quo over or above the opportunity of a new status quo, are an obstacle and an impediment to achieving your vision,” he says.
If you are certain an executive team member is not going to change, make the moves sooner rather than later.
“In the initiation of the visioning — the transition of the company from one state to another, if it’s clear to you in that three-month horizon that there are individuals that are in the executive group that are not part of the team, you have to deal with that quickly,” he says. “Because that one person influences potentially 50, 100, 200 others.”
Once you assemble a team around you that buys in to your changes, you will be able to delegate and move the company forward.
Sheptor and his team are doing that every day but are also not forgetting what happened in the past.
“I can tell you this has been the most challenging year of my life, both as a leader and as an individual and human being,” he says. “There have been tremendous challenges to keep the company stable and continue to prepare it for moving forward and, at the same time, being ethical and humane with regard to how we work with the families that have been so tragically impacted by this event. I would be understating to say that there has been more to do than hours to do it.”
How to reach: Imperial Sugar Co., (281) 491-9181 or www.imperialsugar.com
