Your main goal as a leader is to do what is right for your organization to meet business objectives and survive in today’s competitive landscape.
To do so it is important that you are able to lead change effectively in order to create and maintain a healthy and profitable organization. It is not easy, because we all know that change is the most common issue that organizations are facing today. But if leaders fear change, organizations will stay stagnant and sometimes will face a painful death.
First of all you, as a leader, need to evaluate if change is necessary in your organization.
You can start by gaining a profound understanding of the current state. Look inside the business and try to get a sense of where your teams are today. Check if employees and key stakeholders are happy with the current status and health of the business.
Then, look outside and evaluate risks, trends and competition.
Once you have the full-picture you can determine whether change is necessary and to what extent.
If you think that change is needed, here are five steps to successfully lead change.
1. Establish a sense of urgency
Share what you’ve learned from your assessment with key stakeholders and employees in order to establish a sense of urgency.
Be clear about what’s working well and what won’t change.
At the same time highlight the areas that in your opinion need change and improvements. Share your doubts and concerns with key stakeholders. Also, identify and discuss potential crises and main opportunities.
During this step, it is important for leaders to create dissatisfaction with an inefficient status quo. They must help others develop a sense of excitement about the improvements they need to make.
2. Build a leading group
Effectively leading change requires a community of people, so build a leading group that is aligned on mission and values and committed to the future of the organization.
This is not just another committee, but it is a diverse group with enough influence to lead the change in your organization. It is crucial to work together as a team.
Use this group to assess your ideas by considering the pros and cons. You need to understand if you are all on the same page and most importantly what concerns them and what resonates with them. Remember to adjust your plan as you collect new input, and involve them in helping shape the change.
3. Create and communicate your vision
Create and communicate your vision to help direct the change in your organization.
Vision attracts people and drives action. To lead change you need to have a compelling vision for the future.
Show employees where you are today, where you want to go, and the path you need to take to get there.
Be aware that having a vision for change is not sufficient; the vision must also be clearly communicated. In fact, without effective communication, a vision is simply a dream.
At the beginning, you need to continuously repeat your plan. In fact, during times of change, it is crucial to increase the frequency of your communication in order to allow people to absorb your message. Use every channel in your organization to communicate the new vision to all employees.
Remember to be clear and precise about how this change will affect people’s roles and responsibilities and also what you want them to deliver in the coming years.
4. Generate short-term wins
Wise leaders generate short-term wins to leverage momentum.
Use quick successes to increase trust and overcome doubts and critics.
It is important to leverage successes to change policies, systems and procedures that don’t fit the vision.
Develop and empower employees who can implement the vision.
Recognize all people who are involved in the improvements. Talk about who is doing the hard work. These people will influence others to do the same.
And remember to underline the connection between the new behaviors and the success of change in the organization.
5. Have patience
It is important that leaders have patience and do not change their mind.
In fact, as this is a long-term endeavor you need to be consistent if you want to deliver the new strategy.
Remember that, if you change your mind, introducing another strategy or simply changing the way you communicate the importance of the existing strategy, you can create confusion and raise conflicts within the organization.
In fact, in case you decide to introduce a new strategy because for example the market has changed or the customers preferences have changed, you need to be aware that the previous strategy won’t be delivered and you need to start over to introduce the new one.
So, these are five steps to successfully lead change.
As a recap, we can say that change is never easy. Without urgency, a group of committed people, and a compelling direction, change initiatives are destined to fail.
