_edited.png)
As I sat down to write about change leadership, I recalled the times I’ve heard from employees about organizational changes and their feelings about them.
They have a lot of feelings.
What strikes me, though, is how often leaders feel like those same changes are going great! How can we explain this gap between what employees are experiencing and what leaders think? It all has to do with how leaders view their role in change leadership!
What is Change Leadership?
First, let’s start with a common understanding of what change leadership is. For the purposes of this blog, it is:
“...the ability to inspire and influence others to take action during times of uncertainty, growth, or disruption. It involves having the skills and strategies to improve an organization's agility and adaptability, allowing it to become more innovative and better able to withstand change.”
This definition highlights that change leadership involves both skills and strategies—things we as leaders can grow and develop. Additionally, it reinforces the ability of leaders to inspire, influence action, and improve results. All things we know leaders can do! So, how does it go so wrong?
Let’s start at the beginning. For example, let’s use the fictitious ACME Products. ACME is beginning to experience softening in their industry, which is affecting sales. As an executive team, their ELT recognizes the need to act and decides to implement some changes in strategy that will be felt (and require changes) throughout the organization. A situation many of us have been in! Successful business leaders closely monitor changes in industry, economy, customer behavior, etc., so they are aware of the risk and what needs to be done. That puts them in a position to understand what those impacts will mean and ultimately to make decisions, select strategies, and set the direction. Leaders are deciding what changes need to happen in the organization.
Conversely, the further you get from those decision-making levels, the less information is likely to exist. When it does go “down the chain,” it is likely to be watered down and/or delayed from the events that inspired the change. By the time decisions are made and the organization is ready to move, leaders have been working with the change for weeks or months, while the information is unknown to the rest of the organization. The communication gets packaged up, distilled down, and delivered—possibly one time as a big announcement of the change, with or without fanfare. And many times, it is received... well, not well.
What Are Some of the Key Elements of Successful Change Leadership?
Leaders’ Role as Advocate
According to Prosci, a benchmarking and research change organization, there are three roles of a “Change Competent Executive.” The third role they highlight is that of “the Advocate.” I start here because of the research—while it’s common and good practice to lean into our mid and frontline leadership teams when delivering messaging about change (leaders lead, right?), their study shows overwhelmingly that employees prefer to hear “the big picture” messages directly from senior executives. This includes hearing about the reason for change and the vision of the organization for the future. From their supervisor, they want to hear about the personal impact the change will have on them. In other words, there is a difference in who, how, and what should be communicated in the organization. It’s critical for your organization to have a plan that includes multiple layers and frequent repetition.
Leaders’ Role in Transformation
Beyond just communication strategy, other research* highlights the importance of making transformation meaningful to employees, role modeling the desired behavior, holding the team accountable, and relentlessly pursuing impact.
The idea of making transformation meaningful dovetails nicely with the communication concepts from above—the role of the executive leader is to help the organization understand the why behind the change. Leaders must create a clear reason behind the change, why it needs to happen, and why employees should be on board. This isn’t a new concept, but what employees consistently express is that the change is not clearly understood and the personal impact is unknown. This sows worry, discontent, and uncertainty—for one’s mission and possibly even one’s job.
Leaders’ Role in Consistency
The concepts of role modeling and holding others accountable are also critical to change. What good is it to say “we are going to become a digital organization” yet continue to hold on to manual reports and processes? Employees are looking for consistency—if the executive team has shared a burning platform for "why change,” but don’t act in a way that is congruent, employees will have difficulty committing to the new direction. Let’s look at a few examples:
The business is facing tough times and needs to cut costs. They conduct layoffs of the frontline but bring in 2 new VPs.
The business needs to be innovative and drive new products for the market, but leaders don’t find ways to cultivate those ideas from the frontline, and supervisors may even shut them down.
The business has a renewed focus on serving the customer, but only highlights financials in their all-hands meetings and doesn’t tie the customer perspective to problem-solving processes.
Part of a leader’s responsibility in change is to evaluate how work gets done and how it needs to evolve to support the change. Employees notice when this doesn’t happen. But what about the times we need to make decisions for the business that may seem inconsistent? We must still lead our businesses—but in times of change, it becomes even more critical to over-communicate the why. Explain decisions that are being made and how they support the big picture. If you can’t figure out how to make that connection... maybe you need to evaluate whether it’s the right choice.
Leaders’ Role in Listening
Finally, one of the greatest and most significant tools a leader has at their disposal is the ability to listen. Great leaders aren’t afraid to get out “in the field” (physically or virtually) and talk with people. Listening is one of the best ways to get a pulse of how change is being perceived, what misconceptions exist, where the organization’s behavior is aligned or incongruent, and engage in real dialogue with people who will have the biggest impact on the implementation. Employees are frequently the first to see where things may go wrong, assumptions have gone unchecked, or there are issues of which leaders are unaware. You have a great resource right there that will help you succeed if you let them.
So, What Can You Do?
Want to make a change? Here’s a quick list of things that can help you be a better change leader:
Make sure you can express the key messages of a change clearly, including what the change is, why the change is needed, and what the future state looks like.
Enable your management team to answer questions about how the changes affect employees. Be honest.
Be the role model. Question processes/decisions/actions that are inconsistent with the change. Respectfully challenge the status quo and hold other leaders to the same standard.
Communicate, communicate, communicate. Then, when you are done, communicate some more. Talk about your key messages over and over and at all levels. Tie decisions back to your change. Ask for support in the organization to make the change happen.
Listen. “Get out there” and talk to employees. Encourage questions. Ask for disagreement. Find out where things aren’t clear. And expect the same from your leadership team.
Note: “Getting out there” may not be a physical location any longer. If your team is virtual, it is even more important that you plan for communication. Find ways to collect questions and feedback and create open lines of communication virtually.
This approach aligns with Phoebe Insights' Listen initiative, which emphasizes the importance of creating a culture where every voice is heard, fostering transparency and trust across all levels of your organization.
Strong change leadership skills are required in the 21st century. Change is a constant, and it’s going to happen faster and require more resilience than ever. Developing the skills to lead your organization through it will impact your success, both from a people and a financial perspective.
Ready to lead your organization through change? Camden Delta is here to help. Contact us today to start developing the change leadership skills your team needs for success.
Sources:
Creasey, T. (2022, September 13). 3 roles of a change competent executive. Prosci. https://www.prosci.com/blog/3-roles-of-a-change-competent-executive
*Dewar, C., & Keller, S. P. (2007, February 1). The CEO’s role in leading transformation. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-ceos-role-in-leading-transformation
Commenti