Leading Through Change

Change is a necessary part of any organization.

When you hear the word change, what comes to your mind? Change can be stressful, daunting, and challenging. However, managing change can be one of the strategies that will help your organization to achieve its goals and move forward. Leading people through change is important to help ease worries, encourage communication and address uncertainty.?

There is high demand for great leaders who can lead through change. Organizations are looking for leaders who can lead by example and create a roadmap for growth, resilience and adaptability during change. Leaders must rise with solutions and action plans and not excuses. They are the driving force for dealing with change and uncertainty. This era demands leaders and employees to drive productivity, cultivate flexible workplace cultures, build vibrant teams and enhance excellence to keep the organization going in the face of adversity.?

Four shifts that leaders must undergo to embrace change and ride on the winds of change to lead better.?

There are shifts that organizational leaders must undergo to stay relevant in the ever-changing economy today. These psychological shifts will enable leaders to adapt to change and drive growth wherever it is needed in their organization. In this introduction, I will focus on the four shifts that leaders must undergo to embrace change and ride on the winds of change to lead better.?

First shift: Leaders must help individual employees within their organizations to accept, own and embrace the fact that they also leaders. Empower and help your teams to lead the change, and allow them to take initiative. Give them the space to exercise their skills, resilience and experience to embrace the change. Allow them to own key strategic decisions and actions that will bring to culture change and organizational resilience during adversity. As a leader, provide support and direction where the need arises but allow the teams to lead the next key strategic actions that will drive teamwork, accountability, resource mobilization and ultimately the general growth of the organization. Consider assembling a change management team of the people you trust and who are familiar with adapting to change to help you support your general staff. Start recruiting from within, build the faith in your teams. Spread positivity and display a hopeful view of change. Help your team stay focused despite the distractions that come with changes in the organization.?

Second shift: ?Leaders must create opportunities for retooling; Learning, unlearning and relearning for their opportunities. Don’t just assume that everyone will find ways to develop themselves and adapt to the changes, but lead by example and pave a path for your teams. Adapting to change must be an intentional pursuit spearheaded by leaders to build team morale and ease the stress. There is a higher demand to help your teams to retool and relearn time and again.

Put in place learning and adaptation structures that can enable your teams to embrace new demands in your organization. Tailored training and development are the new normal demands in order to stay relevant and steps further from your competitors. Provide timely, relevant training and mentoring support to your teams to lighten the burden of new hefty demands that come with change. Employees can better process change when they understand why it is happening. Take time to explain the reason for change taking place and discuss the employee’s roles in that transition. Present change as a welcome opportunity for growth rather than a painful necessity.?

Third shift: Leaders must lead by example to develop and augment the new workplace culture which can act as a shock absorber for the ongoing changes within the organization. Culture should not be fixed. ?Culture changes and evolves with team to accommodate change. Change forces your culture to evolve with time. Instead of denying it, decide to ride on the winds of change to provide necessary support for your teams. Be open and flexible in your approach to introduce new systems, resources, processes and routines that can help your teams to embrace new ways of doing things – new culture! Create an environment that allows your teams to be culture change ambassadors. Solicit ideas from all team members regarding culture change and what BETTER FOR ALL can look like.?

Fourth shift: Leaders must keep their eyes on the bigger picture while dealing with daily strategic goals. In this VOCU era, it is easy for leaders to lose sight of the bigger picture while dealing with small daily demands. Be mindful to keep your eyes on the bigger picture and constantly remind your teams the vision of the organization so that they remain aligned while making changes. Show them your WHY so they understand the need for changes that are made. Decide what is most important for your teams to focus on. Offer resources to help your team manage their emotions and possible anxiety.

Let us work with your teams on Leadership Development Coaching, Executive Coaching, Building Resilient Teams and more. Contact Prime Coaching for these services today.

Check Employee Africa for more content.

Email: [email protected]

Cell: +26774776196