One of the other keys to leading change at Delta was for Barry to get buy-in.
“You just have to get it started and show them that it’s going to work and everything is going to be fine,” she says. “Then once the change starts happening and it isn’t too disruptive or they get used to the disruption, then it feeds upon itself.”
She says it’s also important to listen to the naysayers.
“You’ve got to hear both sides of the argument,” she says. “As much as you want everyone to follow you and do everything that you feel is right, you need the voices of reason to say, ‘But have you considered?’”
She says she wouldn’t be properly doing her job if she didn’t at least hear the opponents out in the process.
“As much as you don’t want to listen to it and you don’t want to hear it and you don’t have time for it, you’ve got to do it because you’re probably being negligent if you don’t listen to the other side,” Barry says. “Putting the blinders on never served anyone too well. You can be lucky and make it through a few situations, but there are those situations where if you didn’t listen to them, you might be blindly going into something and regret not paying attention to the voices that you’re hearing — the naysayers that are out there.”
Most of the time, people will come around, and if they don’t, then that’s OK too. Barry recognizes that some people will choose to leave because they don’t like the new company, and that’s OK too, because she knows that where the company is going is the best place to be.
She says, “If you truly believe that these are changes that are needed, then you just have to stick with it.”
How to reach: Delta Systems Inc., (330) 626-2811 or www.deltasystemsinc.com
