10 Tips for Leading Change

10 Tips for Leading Change

What do you as a leader need to do to successfully lead your team or organisation through a transition?

There are many different models of leading change, each with its appealing attributes.

But which ones will make the biggest difference to you and your team in your period of transition?

Below I will share with you my top 10 tips for leading change, from a Business Psychologist’s perspective.

1) Create a shared sense of purpose

When embarking on change, it’s important to clearly define the end goal with emphasis on why you are trying to achieve it.

Don’t fall into the trap of defining the result or outcome alone.

Clearly spell out why are you embarking on the change and the benefits it will bring. This is essential for building team support and motivating peers to continue working through the challenges that come with change.

With a clear purpose, leaders can increase buy-in and convince individuals that the changes they are proposing are worth implementing. For more information on Creating a compelling shared purpose, see Kotters 8-step change model.

2) Collaborate and engage

Your employees are a valuable source of knowledge and ideas about how to implement change.

If you want to bring people with you on the transformation journey, involve them from the start.

Consult with them on the vision for the future, ideas generation, planning and implementation.

Do this, and your employees will feel involved and engaged with the change. They’ll be motivated, inspired to take action and more likely to stick with things when the going gets tough.

3) Create certainty where you can

When we lack certainty and can’t predict what will happen next, we can often panic or feel anxious. As we grapple with the unknown, we become less resourceful and make bad decisions.

David Rock in his paper on neuroscience explains the physiological reasons this happens.

Leading change successfully requires you to create certainty where you can.

Do this through regular communication, sharing clear plans with milestones. Allocate roles and ensure accountabilities and responsibilities are clear.

This is even more important when you’re leading through uncertain times.

4) Identify advocates

It’s a good idea to engage the efforts of people who have shown early support for your ideas. They will motivate others and inspire further buy-in to your change efforts.

Spend time thinking about who your advocates are, those people will support your idea and sell it to others.

Choose those with strong networks, organisational influence or power, or those who are motivated to get the job done.

5) Communicate regularly

Remember humans like to be able to predict what’s going to happen and if you do not provide information to people, they will make it up themselves.

Communicate regularly to avoid the rumour mill and help to provide some certainty and clarity for individuals.

It is very hard to over communicate when you’re leading change.

Research suggests that for a message to be successfully communicated you have to deliver the message 7 times and through different mediums. 

Think through different ways of communicating so that you can connect with people and take them on the emotional journey that change, and transformation requires.

Hold town hall meetings, use email, Webinars, 1-1, team meetings, posters, intranet.

6) Treat everyone fairly

Change can have a different impact on individuals and the roles they are in.  However, people will need to know that the same rules apply to all.

If an individual perceives that they have been treated unfairly it will stir hostility and undermine confidence.

In organisations, the perception of unfairness creates an environment in which trust and collaboration cannot flourish.

Read more about fairness and its importance in workplace.

7) Make time to listen and support

The best leaders know how their employees are feeling during uncertainty by coaching and giving them the confidence to voice what is important to them.

Listen to your team’s concerns on the changes happening around them.

Ask questions.

Engage in the HOW they are going to achieve change.

Leading change is much easier when you coach and empower your team to act.

8) Role model new behaviours

If you want individuals in your organisation to change the way they behave, you yourself must role model the new behaviours you want to see in others.

Too many times leaders make demands of their employees to change the way they behave but they themselves make little attempt to change what they do.

Strong change leaders are authentic leaders who do what they say, consistently. 

Make sure your behaviour is congruent with your words, so people know where they stand with you and trust you.

9) Put in place clear plans

Keep a list of key priorities; it can be tough to keep sight of them in an environment of change.

Provide frameworks and structure and define key metrics for measuring success with clear timelines.

This will help to keep things on track but also provide clarity for your team. See Bridges model of change for more detail on providing a way forward through transition.

10) Remove barriers

Often people know what to do and how to do it, but there are organisational blockers that stop them from moving forward and adopting new ways of working.

These could include unhelpful processes, difficult people, or poor technology.

As a leader, the simplest thing you can do is remove the barriers as described in Kotter’s 8 step change model

By following the tips outlined above, you can foster a culture of support and enthusiasm from your team for the changes ahead.