The Personalities of Change Management

Having managed through a number of change initiatives in my career, I want to share some wisdom I have gained in terms of the types of personalities that you will see and how to handle them during a change effort. Especially for those of you who are managing through a bunch of change yourselves.

There are several personalities that you will encounter during a change effort. Some of these you need to nurture and others you need to manage around. Learning to identify them and properly manage through the effort can be a critical component to the success of your efforts.

Let's start with the positive group. There will be many people who are on your side when managing through the change. These advocates are critical in bringing others on board to staying with the change effort and helping through the Valley of Despair and getting through to the other side.

Executive/Investor Sponsor: Depending on your change effort, you will need support from either someone on the board or on the Executive team within your company. This is someone who is open minded and understands the business well. Sees the problem and can help guide the solution. You need to keep this person informed of both the challenges and the wins in your change effort. Coordinate closely with this advocate prior to meetings so that they can be the voice of reason on the decision committee when times get rough. Without that, it may be likely that this group pulls the plug on your initiative when you are in the roughest part of the change effort.

Key Employee Leader: This may be the person who identified the problem in the first place. Typically it is a middle manager with key influence with the rest of the employee base. Keep this person close and make sure that they are involved with the changes. They will keep the team focused on the outcome during the change initiative and help support the ongoing resolutions of the problems that will arise.

Employee Advocates: these are your foot soldiers. Those on the ground leading the change. They are the ones who will help you solution through problems and help those employees on the fence understand the nuances of the change. Celebrate them often and make their successes very public. They will be the ones who help make your change permanent.

Employee Helpers: This is generally a team of people that are on the side of the change. They may not be directly involved, but will help you organize the recognition of your team. They may be heavily involved in administration such as HR or your office manager. But they have influence over people's perception of the culture and will help you ensure the effort stays on track.

The team above is what helps you move the change forward. They are your advocates and teammates in making the change happen and help influence their peers to the other side of the effort. There are many, however, who will be sitting on the sidelines or actively be looking for a reason to shut you down. You need to manage through this group as well.

Leadership/Investor Team: There will be many personalities here. Some will like to debate the problems, some will want to tell you what to do, still others will simply just nod along and go with the majority on the team. You need to keep this team informed of the progress of the change. Highlighting the successes as much as possible and keep reminding this group of the WHY of your efforts and the final solution to the problem. Pay particular attention when you are deep in the valley of despair because this is the most likely time that they will pull the plug on your efforts. Make sure to use your Sponsor to help manage this group.

The Skeptic: This is the employee that you need to watch out for most. They are the most resistant to the change and will be looking for the times when you falter to highlight why the effort should stop. You need to constantly manage this group, keep them to the side of the efforts and not let them derail your project. This is where you need to get a little rough and potentially highlight the times when they were simply wrong about your project. Make sure that they do not have undue influence to derail your efforts.

In the end, the key to change is managing the positive team to help you bring the whole team on board with the change. Lasting change is not a top down effort, but more something that will spread through your employees like wildfire. While, as a leader, your job is to continually remind the team of why you are changing and where you are heading, let your team carry the torch for influencing their peers to create the lasting change your organization needs.

As always, if you are struggling with a change effort today, reach out and we can talk it through.