Change leadership: “C”ing is believing
While change in any organization is natural, effectively leading people through change is not. In fact, it is a very difficult task. Studies show that nearly 70 percent of all change efforts fail, largely because most people view change as threatening, so they are resistant to it.
Effective leaders have learned the secrets of successful change leadership. They have adopted this “must C” list that will move people past “resistance”, and actually get them “on board” with the change process.
Casting Vision: In order to get people “on board” with change, they must first understand where it is they are expected to go. Effective leaders are able to bring colleagues to the core of an organization’s purpose and vision through dialog and reminders that they can’t be all things to all people, but they can accomplish the vision they set out to achieve. This is a central difference between a manager and a senior leader. As a change leader, you must cast a strong vision of where you are headed and why it is you are going there. This is akin to a captain at the helm of a boat, constantly reminding the oarsman where they are going. The problem most leaders have is they undercast the vision; and instead focus on the problem. If this gets repeated daily, your vision is lost and you are setting yourself and your company up for failure.
Communication: You need to communicate clearly, consistently and continually to everyone affected by the change. But it is not just the skill of communicating to employees that is important. It is the wisdom to create a communicative environment. You must create an environment that encourages a fearless desire for all employees to be truthful in identifying issues that are barriers to the successful implementation of the vision. Colleagues must also feel free to make suggestions and bring forward solutions without fear of “stepping on someone’s turf.” Finally, you must create an environment where “under the table” issues are willingly brought into the open, discussed and corrected. You need to develop both formal channels (meetings, newsletters, electronic communications) and informal channels (seeking out thoughtful leaders, being available and accessible, and 1:1 conversations over and over again) of communications as a means to create the communicative environment.
Conflict Management: Regardless of how well thought-out your vision is, and how well you’ve communicated about the change to the people around you, conflict will still emerge. However, this doesn’t have to be a negative. Conflict can be an opportunity to heighten trust. But in order for this to occur, you must manage it –and the people presenting it – respectfully. You must remain under emotional control at all times. You will hear many things during this time of change. Some information will be true, some will be assumptions, some will be misunderstandings and some will be created. Your goal should always be to seek win–win results while maintaining the vision of the organization. By asking more questions than making statements, you will acknowledge the feelings of others without contributing to any true or false impressions. By asking strategic questions, you will help others assess their feelings and gain new insights about the change process.
Change Leadership: Initiating change creates discomfort. As a leader, you must understand this and that the following predictable process will occur as a result: Every action causes an equal and opposite reaction. You cannot take this personally. Instead, you must identify your thoughtful leaders – those people who have influence over others regardless of their position or job title – to foster the change, wherever they have influence, whether it’s in the mail room, lunch room or the board room.
The keys to increasing the speed of change in your organization is engaging these thoughtful leaders to help spread the enthusiasm, listening deeply to their feedback on how to fine tune the change plan, and being transparent as a leader. Once you do this and focus your energy on giving time, affirmation and attention to the thoughtful leaders, your bandwagoneers will be motivated to get “on board” in the change process!
I am learning to not give my leaders more credit than they deserve. When your leader is micro-managed…decisions are made by committee so everyone’s thing is in the sling…It would be great to have your leader make a decision without committee approval and see what happens…It was done before she got burned and now she is gun shy. She needs to give it another go.