{"id":4770,"date":"2015-07-09T20:04:32","date_gmt":"2015-07-10T01:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=4770"},"modified":"2015-07-10T06:00:31","modified_gmt":"2015-07-10T11:00:31","slug":"how-leaders-know-when-to-cashin-change-chips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2015\/07\/09\/how-leaders-know-when-to-cashin-change-chips\/","title":{"rendered":"How Leaders Know When To Cash-in \u201cChange Chips\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated from November 4, 2011 post<\/em><\/h1>\n
\n

Do you know how many change chips you’re carrying in your pocket?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This week I found myself trying to figure out why I was having a difficult time introducing some necessary changes to a team. And then it hit me; I might have already cashed in my change chips on an earlier initiative.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And it brought to mind an earlier post when I described how I learned the key leadership principle of always knowing how many change chips you’re carrying around with you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"cashing<\/p>\n

\n

Leaders know that they possess a certain number of \u201cchange chips\u201d. These chips are made up of credibility, respect, authority, good will and other essential intangible ingredients.<\/p>\n

Leaders carry these chips around in their pocket knowing that at the moment when they must introduce change they will have to cash-in some of these chips.<\/p>\n

But if you cash these chips in at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons it can make introducing real, meaningful change that much more difficult.<\/p>\n

I learned this lesson in a painful way during my first weeks on the job in a new leadership role.<\/p>\n

I led a staff of about 35 people, and soon after I was hired I saw that the office configuration was not optimal. Almost before I had settled into my chair I was moving staff around the facility from one office to another. Because I was the new sheriff in town, the staff dutifully followed my edict. And within a couple of weeks most staff were in new offices which, to me, was a marginal improvement over the previous set up.<\/p>\n

But I had cashed in several credibility chips with only a marginal \u201cwin\u201d for the organization. I had introduced irritation, confusion and distraction, and the only upside was a slight increase in the ergonomics of the office.<\/p>\n

In hindsight I wish I had saved those chips for later on when I needed to call for significant change that could generate meaningful, positive results.<\/p>\n

What might this mean for you?<\/p>\n

Take a few minutes to actually make a list of the potential changes you\u2019re contemplating. Perhaps it looks something like this\u2026<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Changing the day of the weekly staff meeting,<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • Dropping a well-established, but tired, program,<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • Introducing new ways for expense reports to be submitted,<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • Launching a new product or service.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    For each item on your own list, carefully consider the change chips required to be cashed in.<\/p>\n

    To make lasting, significant change, you may find that you need to keep a few more chips in your pocket.<\/p>\n

    How have you learned when to cash in your leadership change chips?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Updated from November 4, 2011 post Do you know how many change chips you’re carrying in your pocket? This week I found myself trying to figure out why I was having a difficult time introducing some necessary changes to a team. And then it hit me; I might have already cashed in my change chips…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,734,738,478,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action","category-change-2","category-effectiveness-2","category-featured","category-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4770"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4773,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4770\/revisions\/4773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}