Editor's view, Inside Track, October 2011
Leadership of change
When clients talk to us about leadership capability, we always ask: “What is leadership for, in this business? What is the ambition they must collectively lead?”
In today’s climate, the answer is often this: Leadership must realise the benefits of the change we are driving through the organisation.
The hard truth is that most strategies and change programmes fail to deliver their planned business benefits because of the way they’re led. Only with active and aligned leadership across the organisation can you secure the business benefits you have planned. But leadership of change is right at the heart of the tough stuff. Getting the best from people after a restructure. Driving through new ways of working that overturn entrenched practice. Rapid integration of cultures after a merger or acquisitions. These common scenarios present multiple challenges that can derail all but the most committed, focused and unified leadership teams.
As a result, the planned benefits of the change often drift away as the change plays out its typical dynamics of resistance, uncertainty, anxiety and divergent agendas. Leaders can find themselves no more than coping – managing the change instead of leading it from the front with a clear and sustained vision of success.
What’s the answer? In my experience, you can’t overdo thorough preparation as a united leadership group. Get everyone in the same room and thrash it out in detail, however over the top it may seem at the time. Is everyone absolutely clear what the change aims to achieve? Can everyone explain to any member of the organisation why it’s worth the pain for them? Is everyone using the same language? Even a small difference of words and tone between individual leaders can set a trap for the unwary and be the difference between consistent leadership and mixed messages that undermine your aims. A day spent rehearsing exactly how you’re going to align to achieve the planned benefits of the change will more than repay the investment of leadership time and effort.
