Change Management: a key leadership success factor!

The greatest myth for a leader is to think, “I have arrived”. Organizational landscapes are always changing, bringing along with them new problems and new possibilities.  Therefore leaders can’t afford to stop growing in their ability to manage change.  Change management is one of the key competencies for leadership success for it navigates people through the maze of changes that arise in any organization’s journey.  Sometimes these changes occur intentionally through strategic initiatives and other times they occur as a by-product from the constant shifts that occur in our world.

When it comes to intentional change through strategic initiatives, one fatal mistake regularly made by leaders is to elevate content over context.  Every change initiative involves new strategic information (content) and this is usually the key focus.  However, if the attitudes, values, beliefs and behaviours of employees are not considered adequately enough throughout the implementation of a strategy, it is destined to either fail or be wrought with unnecessary conflict and obstruction.  Hence leaders need to constantly grow in their capacity to develop systems and processes for change, along with tactically aligning people to a vision, informing, involving and communicating clearly with others throughout the process.

In regard to change brought about simply as a by-product of existing in the global environment, leaders need to have their change radar switched on at all times.  Leaders must cultivate a conscious awareness of events and circumstances around them that will impact upon themselves and the people within their organization.  There needs to be time taken to contemplate potential shifts from stimuli to their organization.  Effective leaders need to regularly analyze their organizations for circumstances that could negatively impact upon their staff and prepare them to navigate positively through to success.

I have found that oft-times leaders do not distinguish between ‘change’ and ‘transition’.  Change refers to the alteration of circumstances around us from our external environment, whereas transition is the internal experience that people undergo as a result of external change.  The key here is to realize that change can be implemented quite rapidly, but people can vary significantly in their capacity to catch up with the changes.  This is where leaders need to be aware of factors such as: spectrum of early to late adopters, values alignment, role impact, change credibility, work demand, previous change disappointments, personal/social impact, career path, loss of perceived benefits and constant open communication.

In conclusion, to be a successful change-agent one needs to keep cultivating a number of competencies.  Leaders need to keep alert to the constant shifts occurring around them and preparing others to navigate the terrain.  They must increase their capacity to plan change initiatives, along with contingencies more effectively.  Leaders need to appropriately involve others according to their levels of influence, in discussions, decisions and the necessary information required for successful implementation.  Effective leaders cast a clear motivating and engaging vision worthy of investment for others to engage their energies.  Quality change-agents acknowledge the positive contribution of past approaches and reveal how they are no longer appropriate in achieving optimum outcomes.  And finally, Effective leaders create a positive environment, listening, coaching, supporting, modelling and discussing with individuals their journey through the change/s.

David Allan – Certified Executive Coach (MBus) www.executivesuccesscoaching.com

P.S. why not complete an online assessment on your change management effectiveness and receive a PDF giving you strategies for improvement?

Importance of Casting Vision

The need for leaders to cast a clear vision is generally accepted as one of the success factors behind effective leadership.  However the development of this skill still remains a mystery to many leaders.  How does one develop the capacity to cast a clear effective vision?  It is obvious that some knowledge is required, some of which I am about to share with you, but there is more than knowledge required to pull this off with precision.  Leaders must learn both the science (processes) and the art (dealing with people) of casting vision.

A vision needs to be value-based, where people are willing to invest their energies because they believe in the outcome – it gives greater meaning to those involved.  This is true whether it be a personal or organizational vision.  So whatever the endeavor, the visionary must have (for self) and create (for others) buy-in to a worthy outcome.  Organizationally, this cannot be achieved without trusting relationships built through significant discussion and communication.  When those implementing the vision are invited to participate in the creation of options and action-planning, ownership to the vision is increased and commitment levels produce more effective results.  Gone are the days when a leader can just use top down command and control mechanisms to thrust a vision upon others because they are paid to be there.

It is crucial to understand that if you are casting a vision then you are also unmistakably a change-agent.  You therefore need to call on all the expertise required to manage change.  Thus the leader must cast the vision for the organization often and in varying ways.  This enables others to continually capture the vision. This is one of the reasons why organisations use mottos, wall plaques, stationery, one-to-one discussions, memos, meeting agendas, and various other mediums to constantly get the singular message out to all staff.  As a change agent, the leader also needs to consider how to best manage the early adopters, the never adopters and all else in between.  Hence you have to be careful to honour the past, reveal the current status quo’s lack of effectiveness and paint a successful picture of the future.

In order for a vision to be actualized it also must be viable.  For example, organisationally, if the vision is competing with other existing companies, then strategic planning is a key component.  Hence, to enter an existing market the strategic planning process would look strongly at whether it could gain market share and survive/thrive.  Or if the vision involves diversifying from existing products and services into a complementary area, then the capabilities of the company could be examined to see if it has capacity to expand and implement the vision.  Using a tool like Porter’s five forces can be good for this.  It can also aid in investigating an innovative start-up business vision, where you can examine things like how easy it is for others to duplicate the new product or service, etc…  An investigation like this may lead to the realization that the vision is too risky and likely to fail.

Finally, it is underestimated how important it is for the leader/s to have absorbed the vision into their own psyche.  Unless the leader is passionate about the vision it will not be believed and pursued to its potential.  Thus, with a passionate leader, a viable vision that is value-based, and has a strong buy-in, the final step is to create an action plan.  You can chunk the vision down into specific goals creating projects with distinct start and completion times.  Using project management processes, the right people are delegated to the roles and responsibilities to oversee and empower teams to achieve the vision.  This involves ongoing communication, rewards and review.  It involves managing people, processes, timelines and results.  In conclusion, it is so critical for optimum results that leaders constantly aid their team/staff to relate all the goals, projects and action steps back to the bigger vision so that no one gets lost or left behind.

www.ExecutiveSuccessCoaching.com