Championing Change
Many of us consider ourselves champions of change, without realizing that playing that role effectively in an organization requires a specific set of skills and attributes. Fortunately, all managers can display the three most important qualities—optimism, resilience and walking the talk.
Optimism: As a leader in a change environment, remember that all eyes are on you. Be conscious of your words and body language. Keep the conversation in your work group focused on key actions towards reaching goals. Acknowledge tough circumstances, but have a plan for moving forward and constantly talk about that plan. Recognize positive contributions from your team and celebrate successes.
Last year, Leading Edge Associates, partnering with Bigby Havis & Associates, created a competency model for leading in a disrupted industry—newspapers. Media people, especially journalists, have a reputation for being skeptical and sometimes cynical. So we were surprised when, in interview after interview, newspaper people said: We need leaders who can give us hope. We need leaders with a love and passion for the business. We need leaders who can lift the gloom and doom that is pervasive in many media companies.
We shouldn't have been surprised. If times are tough, and leaders don't display confidence, why should anyone else be confident?
Resilience: If you are a leader in a rapidly changing business environment, it's inevitable: You will make mistakes. You will get knocked down. Things will go wrong from time to time.
What is important is your ability to get back on your feet and to keep moving ahead. When you show the ability to take a hard knock, it helps your people keep things in perspective and increases their own toughness.
Constantly remind yourself—and others—of the core mission or goals. This will help you keep smaller or unrelated setbacks in perspective, and focus your repair efforts on things that truly matter. Admit your mistakes in a forthright manner. Develop a process for examining setbacks and turning them into learning opportunities.
Walk the Talk: Many managers talk a good game, but when it comes time to take actions to support change, they fall short. They might fail to budget the funds necessary to fully support a change initiative, or refuse to loan people to an organizational change effort.
In researching our competency model, we learned that a key behavior of championing change is the willingness to devote resources to it. Change in organizations requires a big push; it people don't see leaders and managers backing words with resources, they never will change their own behavior sufficiently to help the organization succeed.
My phrase for all of this is "leaning forward." Change generally meets resistance in an organization, much like a stiff wind that may occasionally push people back or knock them down. Good leaders constantly lean forward into that wind; progress may seem slow, occasionally they get knocked down, but they get up and continue to make progress toward their goal.
Larry Olmstead is president and executive consultant of Leading Edge Associates.