What is change leadership and how do you measure it in your business?
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
With the volume of change created by the pandemic there have been ample references to “change management” and “change leadership” in the last year. To understand if your business has a strong change leadership capacity, it’s important to start with knowing the difference between the two.
John Kotter summarizes it well in his Forbes article as follows:
“Change management, which is the term most everyone uses, refers to a set of basic tools or structures intended to keep any change effort under control. The goal is often to minimize the distractions and impacts of the change.
Change leadership, on the other hand, concerns the driving forces, visions and processes that fuel large-scale transformation.”
In organizations that use change management methodology, you will see both of these in action especially with large, wholesale change initiatives. You can’t have one without the other, change tools need change leadership for activation and execution.
As I explored in my article on change management earlier this year, you improve change success by leveraging change management tools and processes on compact changes (defined outcome). At a minimum it gives you a framework to map your tactics to and ensure you are planning with good data analysis and facts.
Without change leadership actively in place however, your well-planned initiative will likely struggle to gain and maintain momentum and buy-in.
To make matters worse, the recent Global Leadership Forecast 2021 completed by DDI shows a correlation between the inability to lead change to burnout and turnover statistics - burnout increases when ability to prepare and lead change decreases.
Edward Segal includes the ability to pivot as a potential cause of leader burnout in a recent Forbes article, (quoting Janice Litvin) “She said the most surprising finding of the survey to her “… is the fact that leaders do not feel they were able to pivot effectively in the face of the pandemic and that their teams were not prepared to take on future leadership positions.”
She noted, “...leaders are constantly faced with change especially in our high-paced always-on world of technology. Being prepared for change is one of the basic tenets of strong leadership.”
Knowing about change management is not enough. Knowing how to apply and measure it within an initiative is where the engine is. When you look at the core behaviors of change leadership, the fuel, the reason some organizations struggle to lead change effectively becomes clear.
Change Leader behaviors:
Get onboard with the change first before being the face of it to others.
Articulate a clear understanding of why a change needs to take place and how it ties to overall vision and strategies of the organization.
Communicate clearly about: what is driving the need to change; what will happen if the company doesn’t change; what isn’t changing.
Create opportunities to reinforce messaging along the way at existing meetings, in conversations and during business planning sessions.
Acknowledge impacts, risks and opportunities the change will create and encourages discussions around them.
Assign necessary resources needed to implement and support the change.
Open dialogue when resistance is apparent and works to listen, inform and support.
Acknowledge advancements towards the change goal with team(s).
Consistently and visibly support the change through the above actions before, during and after the change event occurs.
Depending on your level in an organization as a leader, you may not control the strategic vision and planning and are instead responsible to execute the initiative with your team. If this is the case, you will want to make sure that you are very strong at #1-5. How aligned you are with senior leaders is visibly apparent each time you communicate about the initiative.
If you are the senior leader(s) responsible for driving strategy and vision, it is critical that you align your leadership team to points #1-5.
Leaders themselves must first be onboard with the change before they begin talking to anyone about it.
Hesitation, lack of being able to articulate what is happening and why with confidence and conviction becomes fuel for doubt with employees and can risk leadership credibility and buy-in.
Where does your organization’s change leadership capability sit?
When I work with clients, assessing change leadership capability is a part of the strategic planning phase. It is critical to know where change tactics have the potential to stall due to lack of support. The following measurements can help you start to determine the level of change leadership capacity within your organization.
Using a scale of 1-10, rate the following:
Does your leader…
Understand their role in supporting change initiatives.
Position themselves to be visible support/influencer and show that they are personally involved in the change for the duration of the project.*
Show commitment by attending planning and communication meetings to maintain alignment to key messaging and milestones for duration of the initiative.
Commit to providing the resources needed to implement and support the initiative.
Understand how to identify and leverage change champions.
Consistently set and maintain clear priorities around the initiative and day to day work.
Measure progress and maintain urgency and momentum towards outcome.
Support efforts in managing resistance and has a resistance management plan in place.
Visibly acknowledge and celebrate progress and milestones.
Engage in reinforcement behaviors beyond the change event to ensure new habits stick.
* Prosci 2017 study showed the biggest mistake leaders make is failing to engage in change personally.
No organization will average to a score of a perfect ten on this list but making sure you are sitting comfortably in the 7-9 range should be your goal.
As Kotter predicts in his video within the article referenced above, change leadership will be one of the coveted leadership abilities in the coming decade. Change management methodologies will still be used but change leadership will be dominant in agile organizations to keep pace with our expanding rate of change. Considering the article was written in 2011, he was right on point.
It’s good to remember that while it’s important to successfully scale change to maintain your business advantage, statistics confirm that it’s equally important to the wellness and sustainability of your people.
To learn more about change leadership programs click here.
