How leaders can be more skillful in change initiatives
Leading meaningful change in organizations is hard and countless articles have been written on helpful ways to navigate it – yet it can still be a mystery to making change stick. Leading change is not a mystery and there are known ways to lead successfully through it to a new future. Change is often presented as a problem, a new threat of a competitor, a need to move on from the status quo. Our survival instincts that have made us successful to this point for over 200,000 years, alerting us to react to problems and bring solutions. This reactive mode brings us necessary short-term results that also have a tendency to return to normal once the threat is removed thus eliminating our desire to continue through the difficult path of creating sustainability on the other side of change. This is where effective leaders can recognize that successful change initiatives require a different approach – one that involves a change in mindset.
Sustainable change is about making a series of creative choices and choice is always preceded by awareness of what we want paired with a passion to achieve it. This is the mindset of an effective leader and it’s an invisible, deceptive aspect of change that is often left out of the plan.
Start with purpose – create a vision around the compelling opportunity – an emotionally positive experience that unleashes energy for action. Rational and analytical business cases for change are the table stakes whereas engaging in higher levels of emotion connecting others with hope of a better future and sense of belonging make extraordinary outcomes possible.
Generate passion – communicate your exciting vision in ways that are easy for the organization or your team to imagine the new future. Product managers are often skilled in this area, creating vision types, videos, mockups or other tactile ways to imagine a better way.
Empower action – leaders must connect at all levels of the organization. Practicing, recognizing, acknowledging and celebrating courageous actions that are in line with the wanted change. Leverage the energy of the early adopters to bring everyone along and unleash the commitment of the whole organization.
The three roles of a leader in change:
Change efforts give us the opportunity to practice all of our leadership roles – to manage, lead and coach. I recall a break through moment in my career when I realized I could be all of those at the same time. Our team was in a leadership workshop where the focus was on combining the best of all three roles. It was no longer a manage vs lead vs coach…we need them all.
Manage
There are times when we need to direct traffic, plan, analyze, budget and more. Using our manage skills are helpful in the short term to gain stability, direction and problem solve. We use manage skills when we are creating new processes, providing feedback, and making decisive decisions. This mode may seem efficient however without combining it with the other roles leaders become frustrated, lose energy, and burn out.
Lead
Leading is about gaining alignment to a vision, new direction or strategy. It’s all about the future and is where leaders skillfully build relationships, communicate and act with integrity. This is helpful for gaining commitment, building trust and long-term success. This is essential to help people believe in a better future that they haven’t yet imagined.
Coach
Adding a coach approach leverages the capabilities and creativity of the whole team. Coaching brings out the best in people by helping them find clarity, build new capabilities, and expand their critical thinking to solve harder problems. Coaching is a foundational skillset for successful leaders where active listening, powerful inquiry questions and challenging current thinking are needed including navigating through the ambiguity and volatility of change.
Leaders being equipped with managing, leading and coaching skills is foundational if you are embarking on an important change initiative where lasting results are critical. While it still takes tremendous focus, skill development and energy, this is the key to unlocking the mystery to building self-generating and empowered teams that solve hard problems.