Change management skills: Leading your team through transformation

If there is one thing that’s constant about the evolutionary nature of life, it is change. Which is, no matter what happens or does not happen in life, you can be sure that life with change.

People will change. Circumstances will change. Governments will change. Fortunes will change. Several elements associated with the planet too will change over time: Climate, ecology, geology, natural habitats and, of course, the seasons keep changing.

The world of business too goes through change continuously. Technology changes. Markets change. Workforces retire and new generations of workers keep streaming through.

So, invariably, business leaders must constantly lead their organizations and teams through change. This means that change management skills are key to success in a leadership role in any industry.

Here is an overview of some of those key traits and skills that a business leader must possess – and champion:

1. Stay alert, agile and prepared: In September 1998, Spencer Johnson published a business fable called Who Moved My Cheese. The book made a strong case for business leaders to be prepared for change by staying alert and agile and by knowing that change is inevitable. Basically, you either change or you die. This state of preparedness calls for continuously tracking the trends in the market and in industry. This means talking to a lot of people, reading a lot, and discussing analyses with experts. When you are prepared for change, you respond quickly and that gives your team a first-mover advantage.
2. Be prepared to change personally: In just the last 25 years, the internet and social media have changed human life substantially. Irreversibly. How we communicate, how we buy, how we sell, how we pay, how we advertise, how we consume, how we network – everything, absolutely everything, has changed. Business leaders who could not see this change coming early on and who took time adapting to the new internet era, struggled. Ultimately, only those business leaders who have changed personally could lead their businesses well during the pandemic for instance. Those who had not embraced the internet and a digital way of doing business struggled. Several of these businesses perished too. So, a key change management skill that a business leader must possess is the willingness to change personally.
3. Plan well to deal with crisis: At times, change does not come with any warning. It just arrives. And before you know it, you and your business are in the throes of change. And if that demand for change has come by way of a crisis, you are scrambling to adapt and firefight at the same time. Planning well and having enough resources beforehand is very important. Resources here means people, funds, and infrastructure. You simply cannot afford a downtime with your business. And this can be avoided only if you are well planned. Being planned and ready for any situation is therefore another of those key change management skills.
4. Train your people to be change-ready: It is not enough that the business leader alone is focused, prepared and agile. Every member on the team must be ready to deal with change. This readiness can come only through rigorous training. Good business leaders will plan for at least two workshops a year to review and refresh change management skills with their teams.
5. Strategic focus: Being prepared for change gives any business a competitive advantage. Therefore, having and practicing change management skills is sound strategy. At least one board meeting a year must be devoted to discussing the organization’s change management strategy and reviewing the level of preparedness of the team to embrace change.
6. Transforming culture: Over time every organization and team falls into a predictable way of working. This is because people get used to what is expected of them, what they are doing at work and how they relate and work with each other. But when an organization is going through change, owing to a new market reality, this way of working needs to change too. Which is, the organization’s culture needs to change quickly. This can be achieved only by the business leader leading the transformation initiative across the organization. The need for change must be driven top-down. There is no other way to do this.
7. Lead by example, walk the talk: Excellent leadership communication and behavior are the topmost change management skills required during times of change. The leader and all members of the leadership team must reach out to every employee and must share information continuously on why the company is changing, how to change and where is the company headed. They must back this communication by leading from the front. Which is, if the company needs to cut costs, they must demonstrate by their own examples how they are doing this. Or if the product or service quality must improve, they must again showcase how they are working on this themselves.
8. Recognize and reward each win: When an organization is transforming, there’s no such thing called a big win. Every win, every step forward on the journey, is big. And so, each step must be recognized, applauded and, if required, rewarded. This is what will build momentum in the company for the right kind of behavior to be practiced. A company can change quickly only when all members on the team display the behaviors and actions that are expected from them.

Conclusion

There is no one single handbook available for change management. Every organization has its own unique standard operating procedures. And its own unique culture. So, business leaders must choose to develop an original way of leading change in their specific organizations. This calls for listing a set of key change management skills, based on the framework listed above, and ensuring that everyone on the team understands why they must change and how they can change.