Reason 3: Leaders don't lead

Reason 3: Leaders don’t lead

REFRAME: If it is not worth leading, it is not worth changing.

Effectively, change is the execution of the strategy, and it is well known that execution is where most strategies fail. For this reason, the term change management is potentially misleading, since it implies that change is something mechanistic, and that with the right systems and processes, the desired shifts in behaviour will just happen.

Management is primarily about maintaining the status quo; creating the right systems and disciplines to deliver a consistent and predictable outcome. In any successful change, good management disciplines will certainly play a role in embedding the change over the long term. However, real change is not about management; it is about challenging the status quo, getting people to stop doing things a certain way and start doing things differently.

True organisational change therefore requires leadership. It takes leadership to recognise that every change should be aligned with the strategy, and to make critical strategic choices about the behaviours that needs to stop or be done differently. Strategic conversations notoriously generate lists of things to do; however, effective execution requires the capacity and ability to say ‘NO’ to those things that will not add value or will potentially add less value.

Saying ‘no’ takes courage and effort! It means acknowledging previously bad decisions, upsetting some stakeholders and making deliberate choices where some options are dropped and excluded. It is here where leadership is needed. It is the one part of change that cannot be outsourced to project teams, a change management stream, middle management or external parties.

It is in the definitive ‘no’ that accountability and ownership are defined. Accountability and ownership are significant predictors of successful change. Also, saying ‘no’ very quickly reveals how important the option is in relation to other priorities. Too often, changes are allowed to drift along in a state of unrealistic optimism, in the assumption that change can be implemented without clear priorities and focused energy. Leaders need to take ownership of the process and be accountable. They need to challenge the status quo, demand focus and accountability from staff, and ensure that the changed behaviour is sustained over the long term. ?

The above strategic execution view of change highlights the leadership capacity required to continuously adapt plans to match a dynamic environment, make decisions, follow through on the decision, hold people to account, have many difficult conversations, mediate and resolve conflict, and inspire people to carry on in often difficult and challenging circumstances. This is what leadership is!

Key reframing question: ‘Who is leading this change? If it is not being led, is the change important; should we not stop it?’