3 things that make you a powerful change leader

By Crista Henggeler, May 19th, 2016

 

Now, more than ever, I am convinced that the most successful leaders of the future are the ones who manage change best.

 

As we all know, organisations and hence leaders today deal with influences of many kinds: reorganisations caused by
commercial pressure, new demands from younger working generations, digitalisation and globalisation to just name a few.
To deal with all these influences, it is key for successful leaders to remain confident and effective during change.

 

In this article, I'd like to approach this desired change adaptability by discussing the three most important change areas
in my view: Why change should be your priority, what it does with you, and what change demands from you.

 

Does change deserve such an important space in your agenda?

We're all tired of change processes. But is there a way we can escape the ongoing change processes everywhere?
The mega trends of the future say our world will even change more drastically in the coming ten years - mainly due to the technological advancements and what's going to be possible with these (e.g., mobility, artificial intelligence, connectivity).
These breakthroughs will massively change the world we live in and hence how we work. While I am a strong believer in
the positive side of what technology can do and how it can enhance the human experience, I am also aware that the leadership skills of the future will be more challenging. Summarising the ever so present changes of our time with the VUCA model,
we know that our world is more dynamic today including these four forces:

 

Volatility: The rapid changes of the context we operate in

Uncertainty: The hypothetical nature of our work that comes with these changes

Complexity: The interdependencies between our decisions

Ambiguity: The information we have is often ambivalent

Therefore, I believe change per se deserves such a salient space in your agenda.

 

What does change do with you?

 You surely experienced change and the difficulties that come with it. In the context of a change programme in a company,
you probably experienced the lack of information, the asymmetry of knowledge, the inconsistence of communication, the change fatigue and hence resistance of people. If you are in charge to lead during times of change, you will be confronted with much insecurity, be it your own or others' insecurity. As we know from psychodynamic research, this insecurity makes people become more extreme in using their individual preferences. Meaning, the talkative colleague becomes even more talkative, the silent
person becomes more silent. The top-performer becomes even more ahead of things, and you might lose some people in
your team.
So change makes everything you feel and do more extreme. Which also impacts collaboration: Gaps between people become bigger. But you can consciously manage different preferences of people. And you can become even stronger to decide under ambiguity. You can work more consciously with information asymmetry.

So there are plenty of things you can do to become a natural when it comes to change. Start today!

 

What are the abilities will be asked of you?

If you are convinced that managing change will become more important in the future and that you benefit of consciously working with its effects, then you might be interested in what change related skills are going to be important in the future. Staying with
the previously introduced VUCA model, we can assume the following abilities are going to be important going forward:

 

Volatility calls for reliability: Walk the talk and act on your decisions

Uncertainty calls for trustworthiness: Keep your people engaged, listen to them, be a trusted partner in crime

Complexity calls for clarity: Simplify information, be direct and transparent, share what you can

Ambiguity calls for direction: Be clear on overarching goal, give specific tasks

On a 10-point scale how skilful are you when if comes to these four abilities?

In any case, these skills can be trained or strengthened and help you to remain clear and focused during change.

 

Based on the permanence of change, its effect and required abilities, I wholeheartedly believe that change needs to become
an even more salient imperative on every leader's agenda and that we can train ourselves to handle change with ease.

 

So how about you? Is 'managing change' a priority for you? How well are you and your organisation equipped to actively shape
the change? And to create new opportunities with it? If you're interested to know more how we can support you a personal,
team or organisational level, we look forward to hearing from you.