Leaders need to not only be effective people and business leaders, but effective change leaders as well. Strong leadership is also about understanding how employees and impacted groups survive and thrive in organisations. Senior leaders who get this right are more successful at driving improved business outcomes. To be an effective change sponsor and leader of change requires a concentrated effort. Alongside traditional ways of capability development stand out leaders are working harder and in creative ways to build change capability.
The single most valuable lesson to remember is that resistance to change makes sense from the perspective of the individuals who are impacted. The ability to view change from that perspective is key to good change leadership. Spending time with employees ‘on the shop floor’ helps build understanding and empathy. Leaders who spend time with employees encourages authentic relationships, facilitates strong communication and builds trust – essential in times of change and uncertainty. Leaders who do not spend time ‘on the shop floor’ miss vital information from their teams and miss opportunities to provide information and support when they need most need it. Resulting in frustration as to why people are not adopting the changes or why there is resistance.
Senior leaders are important advocates and sponsors who to develop empathy by spending time on the frontline to truly understand the needs of their employees. In 2020 sophisticated and systematic ways are available to gather that data and assess the resistance spots and to what degree. Today we have the technology to identify and highlight change activity across the enterprise so Leaders can see the amount and intensity of change that is happening at any one time. These tools give us valuable insights and enable us to coordinate our change effort to manage change saturation. We acknowledge that change is constant, however, building change capability and using the tools available will help us manage it more effectively.
As we move rapidly into 2020, leaders are being challenged to sharpen their Change Leadership skills and capabilities so they can play a significant part in guiding their organisation and people into the future.
About the authors
Allegra Consulting
Our team is comprised of experts from many areas within the broader change and transformation spaces who love sharing their knowledge.
