Are You a Champion of Change?

Back in 2016, a friend of mine, Roy Osing, wrote an article entitled: “10 Things Smart Business People Do”.

In it, he suggests that smart business people, or leaders, makes themselves champions of change. Roy suggested that this “gives them currency in the organization and the ability to garner resources to get things done.”

Every organization and every project experiences change on a regular basis. The way we handle and manage that change distinguishes the great leaders, the smart business people and the great organizations.

Our ‘champions of change’ know the key steps to managing through these potentially difficult times:

1.      Look after your people. There is nothing more critical than looking after everyone who could be affected by change. Workloads, emotions, stresses and issues of competency are just some of the areas that, if overlooked, can damage even the best organizations and its people.

2.      Stick to the plan. Often, change is brought on by external forces that we have no control over. This kind of change is the most difficult to deal with. When these things happen, we need to continue to look straight ahead and manage to the plan. Great leaders and smart business people will get really tough in these circumstances and not allow outside influences to take control of the plan.

3.      Communicate more than ever. Whether the change is brought on externally or internally and intentionally, it is critical to create a communications plan that will keep the right people in the loop, at the right time, in the right format. Communicating to everyone throughout the change is so important.

Good leaders and good business people stand out for different reasons. Those that stand out in times of change, our ‘champions of change’, will always hold a special position among his or her team.