Master These 7 Skills and You Will be Well-Prepared to Lead Change

Business?is moving?at a pace that is faster today than?at any point in history. Business of tomorrow?will?move?at an even faster pace. More than ever,?survival in the business environment is predicated by your willingness to adapt to change. Business Author Alan Deutschman describes it this way [1],

However, surviving in today's business world?is?very different from thriving in it.?If you want to thrive as a leader, you must be a?catalyst for change. In reality, this is easier said than done. On more than a few occasions, I have seen leaders, from functional group leaders to CEOs, fail?at leading change. Why??Because each individual in question lacked in at least one of the seven skill areas?noted below. Master these seven skills and you will be well on your way to thriving in today’s business environment. Master these seven skills and you will be well-prepared to lead change.?To bring this message to life, I share a real example I faced when I inherited a struggling business in need of change. Below, you will see how my team and I turned this business around through effective change leadership.??

Change agents are perceptive.?

The first step in leading change is to recognize when change is needed. How will you know change is needed? Typically, something will be wrong, missing or broken. For my business, what was clearly wrong was our market share was declining - drastically! What was missing throughout the entire organization was customer centricity. Many of our processes to serve our customers were broken. It was clear to me that change was required. However, recognizing a need for change is only the beginning. The hard part is implementing the change itself.?

Change agents are effective communicators.?

The next step in successfully leading change is to build support to change the current reality. This must be done by communicating effectively with three groups: your superior(s), seed advocates, and the masses. This step is critical. If you botch it, your change train will very quickly derail. With your superior(s), your communication should focus on why there is a need to change, the expected (positive) results post-change, and seeking their visible support for your change initiative. Seed advocates are those early adopters who will support and evangelize your change message to the masses. With this group, your communication should focus on giving them all of the background information and details that led you to conclude change was needed. With the masses, your primary objective is to convince them change is needed and then to create a sense of urgency among them to implement your desired change. In my example, there was no need to convince my boss; our numbers were in steep decline. He wanted change. I made my case to my seed advocates in an offsite meeting by asking and then debating four questions:

1. Are we happy with our current situation?
2. How did we get where we are?
3. Where do we want to be?
4. What needs to change for us to get there??

By the end of the day, I had 12 devoted departmental head advocates for change. My twelve advocates and I drove the required change through our organization primarily by communicating our case for change frequently and consistently to the various teams and layering in a theme of “we must change now or we will not have a business in a year" (i.e. change or die) to create a rallying sense of urgency.?

Change agents are knowledgeable.?

Change means doing things differently. In many cases, different also means new. You need to have a basic knowledge of the area(s) in need of change in order to form the vision, strategy, and actions to bring about the desired change; otherwise you will not be credible and the change movement will end before it ever gets started. To turn my business around, at its core, we needed discipline, execution, and increased personal accountability – three?areas I know very well.??

Change agents are trustworthy.??

People listen to and follow those they trust. If the masses do not trust you, they will not listen to you. If they will not listen to you, they will not follow your new direction. To build up a?groundswell of?support and successfully lead a change movement, you need be trustworthy.?People need to believe that you will do what you say and that what you say will lead them to a better place. In my case, I was fairly new to this organization and so I had no track record with this team. What I lacked in track record, I more than made up with knowledge, presence and vision. As things began to work and the business started turning around, my change efforts began to gain momentum and more and more people hopped on the change train I was leading.???

Change agents are proficient at questioning.?

Change is not easy. More often than not, leading change involves asking tough questions and challenging the?status quo. To be successful, it is best you ask the hard questions in a way that avoids putting others on the defensive.?One technique I have found useful?is to use the phraseology, “So that I am clear, please help me understand why WE?do (whatever the issue is) this way?” Phrasing questions in this manner does two things. First, it puts the burden of understanding on the questioner rather than the person being questioned. Second, it communicates a genuine interest in understanding the issue rather than placing blame for the issue. Another technique that I use is to ask, “Have WE considered doing (the problematic issue) in any other ways??Again, there is no focus on placing blame, but rather on getting to a solution. In both questions, using “we” instead of “you” indicates shared ownership of the problem. In the end, if your questions result in someone feeling the need to defend themself and/or their actions, you have lost them from your change movement.

Change agents are patient, but persistent.??

Change takes time; it will not happen overnight.?When leading a change effort, you must have enough patience to give others the opportunity to see what you see. Remember, you have had far more time to digest the?rationale?for change compared to the masses. They need time as well. However, give them too much time and your change effort will stall. This is where the persistence comes in. You must constantly ask for acceptance, support and remind the masses of the urgent need for change. In my business, my core seed advocates and I delivered the message for?change at every opportunity. We also met quarterly to assess our progress and course-correct any area(s) in need.

Change agents?are courageous.??

It takes courage to bring about change. But, courage does not end with the decision to?change. Every agent of change knows the quickest way to short-circuit a change movement is to allow naysayers to influence the masses.?Thus, if you are going to successfully lead change, you must also have the courage to change out the people who are (1) unwilling to change or (2) skeptical of the movement.?In my case, we made several personnel changes in the commercial and operations teams to get the right talent with the right attitudes in the right roles for the hard work that was ahead of us.?

By now, you may be wondering about the outcome for this business. Let me share what happened. With the support of my boss, my team, and our collective efforts to change just about every aspect of how this business was run, we managed to return this business to profitability – improving EBIT by €16 million versus losses of €14 million just two years earlier.?This is the impact of successful change leadership!

“Every leader must be a change agent or face extinction”, states?Glenn Llopis in his Forbes article?[2].?Whether you prefer Deutschman’s shock talk or Llopis’s kinder and gentler approach, the message is the same. If you intend to effectively lead in?today’s rapidly?changing business environment, you had better be an agent of change, or you will?be a victim of change and will ultimately face extinction. As a self-proclaimed change agent and thriving business leader, I assure you that if you master?these seven skills, you will not be a victim of change. You will not die. You will not go extinct. You will thrive in the face of professional adversity.??Best of luck to you.

References

1.?Deutschman, Alan. (2007). Change or Die: The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007. Print.

2. Llopis, Glenn. (2014, March 24). Every leader must be a change agent or face extinction. [Article]. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2014/03/24/every-leader-must-be-a-change-agent-or-face-extinction/

Thank you for reading my article. Master These 7 Skills and You Will be Well-Prepared to Lead Change is the 11th article Dr. Michael Edwards. If you enjoyed it, please subscribe to my Newsletter,?Leadership Explained,?to get notified when I publish a new article. Please 'share' this article with your network, click 'like', and/or leave a comment.?Click 'Follow' if you wish to follow me on LinkedIn. Have a look at my other Leadership Explained articles by clicking here.