Leading Through Change to Accelerate Business Performance  

7 Min. Read

It’s a curious paradox of the modern corporate world that while the volume and rate of change are increasing all the time, organizations are rarely seeing the full benefits. While ever more resources are thrown at change, many programs are taking longer, costing more, and failing to meet their full objectives (or in some cases, any of them). Change needs to change, and fast. 

This article will look at how change management is currently performed in organizations, the failings associated with this, and outline why we believe our different approach – Leading Through Change – is the only alternative to deliver successful transformation. 

How is change management performed in organizations?

Usually, medium-large businesses regularly go through changes and have resourced accordingly. For example, they will likely have change management teams that follow a structured process and will work closely with key stakeholders to enable them to better understand the logistics and people impacted by change.

Why could a change management process fail in an organization? 

There are a few challenges faced by implementing a change management process within a business. For example:

1. Inefficiency. Imagine if each time a new template came out in Microsoft Excel, everyone in your organization needed to re-learn how to use Excel. This is what is happening when change is managed on a project-by-project basis and in isolation (as is often the case). That is incredibly inefficient. 

2. Not enough empowerment. Employees wait for those in charge of the change to come and listen to them. This means people are being handheld and over-supported, rather than empowered.  

3. Lack of ownership and accountability. People don’t take personal ownership and accountability for their response to change. They see change as something that is done ‘to’ them, and they react to it, rather than being curious, and proactively coming to the table to learn more. When people wait to be invited and listen with their arms crossed, it puts your organization on the defensive from the start. 

The direct result of this is that, unsurprisingly, 70% of transformations are still failing.  Given that managing change will always be essential, and there is only ever going to be more of it, we must get faster and better at handling it.

What is the Leading Through Change program? 

The central idea of our Leading Through Change program is that ‘changeability’ – how you respond to change – is a critical, lifelong leadership power skill that can be taught, practised, and mastered to drive successful transformation. 

To do this, the Leading Through Change program has three main parts: 

1. Building Capability to Lead Change. Aimed at leadership teams, this is about understanding the difference between change (process) and transition (mindset), developing resilience to inspire your team, and role-modeling the behaviors needed for transformation. 

2. Change Resilience for Individual Contributors. Designed to empower team members, looking at managing the emotional toll of change, becoming more open-minded and adaptable, and using disruption as an opportunity for growth.

3. Coaching Leaders Through Change. Personalized coaching sessions powered by Taylor Assessment insights to identify behavioral strengths and areas for growth, align leadership behaviors with change goals, and map organization-wide behaviors that need to be dialled up for your transformation. 

What makes the Leading Through Change program different from others? 

Traditional approaches to implementing a change usually involve creating a change management process and helping people through change. However, change starts before the process does. It has always been, and aways will be, about people. With the Leading Through Change program, we are focused on developing the mindset, beliefs, and behaviors associated with successfully navigating and accelerating change, regardless of the specifics of the change. 

That means: 

• Recognizing your personal triggers and responses to change (in general) and taking ownership of them, so you can lead yourself and others. 

• Understanding the full spectrum of behavioral responses to change. In much thinking and literature about change, there is an assumption that the more positive you are about change, the better you are at it. That’s not correct. While it might help give you traction, you need to balance it with an awareness and appreciation of the risks, so you can mitigate these successfully. 

• To do this, we use the Taylor Assessment, our unique proprietary tool for helping you measure the cultural contribution of your people and potential hires. Within this, we have identified a series of behaviors that comprise change mastery, and we map individual behavioral preferences with those desired by your organization’s transformation. This enables us to highlight strengths to flex and blind spots to be aware of. For example, you may naturally be innovative, which is great for change on one hand, but on the other, you need to work on being more risk-conscious to support yourself and others through your organization’s change. 

While this type of personality profiling has been going on for years in relation to other leadership skills, it has not been done in relation to change.

What are the key business benefits of Leading Through Change?

We believe there are many benefits to developing your individual and organizational ‘change muscle’, and they include: 

1. Significantly improved chances of transformation success. Understanding and developing the behaviors, mindsets, and beliefs needed to lead yourself and your organization through change – irrespective of its nature – enhances your capacity to achieve transformation objectives.  

2. Accelerated change. With your people more proactive and focused on the behaviors they need to deploy or develop for your change, your transitions will become smoother and more efficient, saving time and money. 

3. Increased ownership and accountability. In traditional approaches to change management, there is a heavy focus on stakeholder engagement. But no matter how much you do of that, you’re still having to take people on the journey. With our approach, people take ownership and accountability for proactively understanding their responses to change and thinking through their options. As a result, you are starting every change from a better position, with people prepared and ‘change ready’.  

4. Tailored to your organization and your transformation. By aligning individual behavior preferences with those desired by your organization, we illuminate blind spots, close capability gaps, and ensure everyone has an action plan that delivers to your specific transformation needs.

5. A more measured approach to change. Lurching from one change to the next can often cause organizational whiplash. With the balanced Leading Through Change approach, your organization will become more measured, with less time spent on ill-thought through programs, and a reduction in vocal derailing. 

6. Improved mental health of your people. People often have a knee-jerk reaction to change, regardless of whether it is positive or negative. These jolts, particularly if they are persistent, can cause heightened anxiety and impact mental health. But if your people can learn to recognize their own triggers and responses to change, and how to manage them, they are going to be more confident in dealing with it.

How Can Leaders Help Their Employees Adapt To Change?

All culture change is led, and maintained, from the top. While the Leading Through Change program is not specifically targeted at leaders, their role is vital. If you’re a leader, you need to: 

• Recognize the triggers in yourself. How do you personally respond to change, and what can you do to develop your change muscle? 

• Understand the triggers in your team. Get to know your team member’s triggers, so you can pre-empt individual and collective responses to change.

• Empower your team. Helping each team member be aware and take responsibility for their responses to change will give you a head start on its implementation. 

The Leading Through Change program is about being able to lead yourself and others through change. As a leader, you’re a role model, so it’s vital you understand your personal responses to change, shift your mindset and behaviors, and help others do the same to lead any transformation more effectively.  

When would you start the Leading Through Change program? 

We see several intervention points that indicate that it is a good time to begin our Leading Through Change program: 

1. Ahead of an upcoming transformation. To better prepare your organization for any impending change. 

2. Part of leadership training. Change ability is a critical leadership skill, now more than ever, so it should be taught alongside other technical skills needed for the job – people management etc.

3. Induction. When people join your organization, they receive an incredible amount of new information and thus experience the most change they likely ever will at your company. Empowering them to understand, recognize, and work with their responses to change will set them – and your organization – up for success. 

What can you do to sustain your change muscle? 

Like any muscle, once you’ve built it, you need to maintain it, otherwise it wastes away. To sustain your organizational change muscle, you must:

• Keep the power skill of changeability a key part of continuous personal development – for everyone.

• Be aware of emerging challenges to your business, and what that means for changes you may need to go through. 

• Stay relevant and up to date. Change management is also open to changes, so be prepared to adapt with it.
   

Change management is a process. Change is not. It is driven by people, and as such, successfully navigating it is a lifelong leadership power skill. And while nobody is born with expertise in leading and managing change, the good news is that, like any skill, it can be developed. The key is that organizations must be intentional about cultivating this changeability in your people. Given the amount and pace of change in today’s world, which is only going one way, those that do so will be at a significant strategic advantage.  

We can now support you in more ways than simply culture transformation – we partner in business transformation, leadership acceleration, assessment & succession planning, executive and leadership coaching, and talent acquisition. 
 
Get in touch to learn more and get started!