Your approach to change leadership speaks volumes about you.

Ask yourself this question: As a leader, do you feel equipped to manage change for yourself and then lead change within your team and/or organisation?  

According to Garner’s HR 2024 trend report, 82% of HR leaders surveyed shared that their managers aren’t equipped to lead change. 82%.. 

Given the impact that poor change management has on employee engagement, wellbeing and productivity; this is one area that leaders and organisations will need to continue to focus on in 2024 as we continue to see change rolled out across organisations due to internal and external pressures. 

How a leader manages change has a direct impact on retention of employees, how much the employees trust the leaders and/or organisation and their willingness to integrate the change into their day to day. 

Over the course of my career, I have experienced situations where change has been communicated clearly and effectively, in a roundabout way but they got there in the end and where it just didn’t land well at all. 

I’ve also spent a lot of time communicating change when I worked in my role as Head of People at a fast paced tech start up. There was so much change on an individual, team, country and global level at any given time that we would be continuously communicating change through the organisation. 

Change is inevitable in business and in life. Learning how to manage it for yourself and others will empower you to navigate uncertainties or tricky situations with resilience and adaptability. 

In my experience the most effective way to lead through change is to ensure that you take a step back and look at it from a people perspective. Majority of the time the change you are leading your team or organisation through affects people. Your employees, your customers or even your suppliers. 

I approach communication and leadership in change by considering how I would feel and respond if I were the one receiving the information, emphasising empathy and understanding the recipient's perspective. 

I would start by asking myself: 

• What would I be feeling when I heard it for the first time?

• What would I be concerned about?

• What would I need to know to make me feel more comfortable? 

• What would I be able to do about the proposed change? Is it within or outside of my control? 

• What additional resources or information would be beneficial for me to refer to?

When you put yourself in the position of the person being impacted by the change it allows you to work through the potential impacts, questions or concerns that may arise so that you can reverse engineer a plan to ensure that you are prepared and can fully support those affected by the change.  

It might appear simplistic, but many leaders dealing with the challenge of communicating difficult organisational changes often fail to pause and consider it from this viewpoint. Instead, they approach it with a focus on necessity or the desire to swiftly conclude the process.

There are many frameworks that exist to aid in communicating and leading through change. I believe the fundamental starting point should be to empathise by placing yourself in the other person's position.

What are your thoughts?

I work one on one with emerging leaders, executives and business owners providing coaching to support them in navigating change and transformations with ease. 

If this sounds like something you need support with, let’s jump on a complimentary discovery call to see how I can assist.