Leading through change - the role of leadership in times of change

Previously published in CEO Today magazine

By Barbara Watkinson

What’s the difference between organisations that successfully navigate major change events and those that don’t?

Why do some companies implement much needed strategic change initiatives, and in the process lose staff engagement, key talent and customers? 

Research suggests that only a third of change initiatives deliver the promised results. Why?

The answer is simple and provable: it’s down to the leadership skills of the organisation’s managers.  The leaders’ abilities to take staff with them; hearts, minds and performance, into the brave new organisation of the future.

Zenger and Folkman in their 2002 research proved a direct link between employee performance and the competencies of the leader. This research confirmed what most of us knew instinctively; that in business, and in sport, there is an implicit connection between the skills of the leader, and the performance of the team. So, when the national or local football team sacks the manager for the non-performance of the players, we understand the link.

In our dealing with employees, it’s obvious that staff know the link between leadership and performance. They say that a good leader lifts the game of the team to perform at their best, and that they would ‘walk over hot coals’ for a great leader; and that a poor leaders get the results they deserve. Employees also see the parallels with sport, and know that it’s not co-incidence or luck that English national hero Clive Wooodward produced a world-class rugby team – it was his skills as a leader. In business the same logic follows, it isn’t fate that good leaders are surrounded by great people, and that weak leaders have under performing teams.

So, if leaders affect performance in good times, that affect is magnified in turbulent times, and as Peter Druker pointed out – these are turbulent times.  In 2007/8 we saw more major organisational changes in our clients than almost any of the previous 5 years.  Our customers went through mergers, acquisitions, restructures, de-mergers, market place shifts, outsourcing, shared service provision and public/private partnerships.  In fact, if it could change, it did!  Leaders at all levels, who can lead successfully during change and turbulence, are more prized and needed by businesses than ever. And, if one thing is true about organisational change in this decade it is that the pace is still on the upward curve and if we are to compete, we can’t afford to do slow evolutionary change. Change is now more the norm than the exception so leaders need to be able to cope with this reality and provide leadership when it is needed most.

Leading through change is a challenge because we have to continue to hit targets, within an environment of uncertainty and with employees who would rather not change. We have to deliver a better future for stakeholders, whilst at the same time achieving more stuff with less people. So, continue to have motivated and high performing staff whilst doing the equivalent of jumping a chasm without a safety net. 

If it is difficult for the leaders, it is equally challenging for employees. Employees can feel like change is the worst of times; chaotic, ambiguous, uncertain, unfamiliar and emotional. Mergers, acquisitions, downsizing, relocation or step-change are times when staff can go into an emotional nosedive, and so need the very best leadership if they stand the remotest chance of giving the organisation the performance it needs and expects. 

Leading change itself has two clear processes:

a) change event management and

b) managing the emotional roller coaster of those affected by the change.

Change event management requires a leader to have good project management skills to work back from the deadline plan the required logistics – Gantt charts and critical path planning. An essential skill in the leaders tool bag, and there are many effective methodologies that managers can learn and practice. However, even if this skill is done to Olympic gold medal standard, it doesn’t guarantee a productive motivated and performing workforce. 

It’s the second process, managing the employees emotional roller coaster, that gives a chance of maintaining high performance from staff; it’s also this one that tests the metal of the leader sorting out the average from the outstanding.  Luckily, it is also a skill set that leaders can get better at, through training, coaching and with practice any leader can approach outstanding.

At the heart of managing staff emotions during change is, no surprise here, communication-through-action, otherwise known as role modelling. In my experience of working with organisations this year that have gone through major change it became obvious that their leaders, when facing their biggest turbulence of this decade, fell into two distinct types. 

Firstly there was a bunch of leaders who were so personally concerned by the organisations changes that their ‘communication through action’ led to lower levels of motivation and productivity. They focused on their own career and future to the extent that they were hardly around for their teams during the change, and left their people to fend for themselves, whilst they marketed themselves internally, dealt with their own personal insecurity, and then either rejoiced at their new role in the changed organisation or wallowed in the unfairness of their lot.  Needless to say their people used words like ‘vacuum’, ‘limbo’, ‘rudderless’ ‘disconnected’ and ‘leaderless’ to describe their situation.

The other group of leaders knew that at this time more than any other their people needed leaders who were role models (communication through action). They kept their own emotional turmoil private, but were still able to empathise and share that they had ‘been there’ when it was appropriate.  They made time to help staff come to terms with the changes by getting extra connected.  They held more one-to-ones than usual; more team meetings to update on changes, and to take the ‘temperature’ of staff emotions.  They kept the communication channels open even when there was nothing new to tell.  They continued to make teams and individuals feel capable by reminding them of their strengths and successes.  And, they instilled their own confidence in people to the extent that staff believed in themselves and rose to the challenges of the change. Their staff continued to stay motivated and to hit targets.

The great news for organisations is that leaders can learn to do this stuff, it not like ‘long legs’ something we might be born with. And our businesses need now more than ever to focus on giving leaders the skills to manage and coach their teams to perform at the centre of the vortex without always being able to see the end in sight.  Visions are great when we can predict the future, but when you are managing through limbo-land you need a leaders with the emotional intelligence to be able to be a ‘sea of calm’ for their people, and be the role model that they need and long for.