As a company leader, leading change in your organization can be complex and satisfying but more often than not it is also ambiguous, chaotic, and downright painful. Leaders often feel overwhelmed and confused.
There are millions of articles and content on how to lead change but they tend to forget the most important part…what the leaders themselves need to do to help them better navigate change for their own mental health.
It’s the oxygen mask on planes approach. If you don’t take care of yourself first, how can you take care of others.
You have to navigate constant change in your own life and position, but then you have to lead others through change as well. On top of that, it’s not just yourself and your team you have to worry about.
It seems like there is always an army of stakeholders who have made it their life’s mission to make change difficult. Many times, those stakeholders are not aligned and they want you to be able to figure out who and what to prioritize.
You feel constantly second guessed and fighting on too many fronts at one time. It can be demoralizing and debilitating. Sometimes you feel like you are being set up to fail before you even start.
But it doesn’t have to be that way! There are a few important steps you can take before you start any change initiative that can go a long way in keeping you from being committed to a rubber room! These five steps may seem like common sense, but they are not commonly done.
Having the Right Perspective from the Beginning
How you view change and how you teach your team to view change can make all the difference in the world.
Make peace with the idea that there will be many challenges and tough weeks from the get-go on any big change initiative. Lean into them instead of reacting with stress and surprise when they happen. This is a different work environment than years past. Change is constant and considered a big part of leading today.
Take the approach that you will control everything that you can control and will be ready to deal with things that you can’t. You won’t be surprised or overwhelmed by challenges and issues. Be flexible.
Embrace the variety, ambiguity and learning that comes with handling and leading change. If you are a reactive leader who likes very controlled work, with few changes, you best get your mind right. If your employees see you responding reactively and always stressed, they will as well and will lose respect for you. Be the calm in the storm.
Be Proactive and Not Reactive
I used a phrase once that seem to catch on with clients. When you are leading change, sometimes you must “slow down so you can speed up”. Meaning if you take the time to be strategic and proactive at the beginning, you will eventually move faster, with less stops, because you planned.
Being proactive requires you to slow down, take a strategic look at the change initiative and put the right pieces in place for you to have the best chance for success.
This can be very challenging because those of you that have worked in the corporate world know that change initiatives that have been needed forever, will suddenly come out of nowhere and the changes will need to be implemented yesterday.
Here are some key things to proactively think about before leading a change initiative (that aren’t taught in management school):
- Do I really have enough (of the right) resources (financial, human, technical)?
- Is our timetable realistic? Plan in buffer times. Under promise and over deliver.
- Do I really, truly have a supportive and engaged change sponsor that will actually provide true support?
- What are the real politics, bureaucracy, risks, and resistance / barriers we will face? These can be found both on the surface level as well as hidden.
Asking yourself these questions may seem a little pessimistic, but it is just the reality of working with human nature and honestly assessing where you are as a team and organization.
One of the biggest mistakes organizations make is not being honest and transparent about where they are starting from and if they have all the right pieces in place to have a real chance at success when implementing change.
Too many leaders focus only on “what” they want to accomplish with their change initiatives in order to keep their superiors happy. They don’t think about how they will go about it, so they and their teams have a real chance of being successful.
You must make this mind shift to ensure success for you and your team, not just the company.
Breaking the Change into Smaller Chunks (don’t boil the ocean)
Major changes can be very complex, ambiguous, and require a lot of resources. You should only look at the big picture to give you strategic direction and allow you to properly prepare for the magnitude of the change.
Don’t boil the ocean by taking on too many things and making you and your team feel overwhelmed. That’s debilitating and will ruin your team’s morale. Chunk the work into manageable pieces for you and your team so you can have a sense of satisfaction when you finish each chunk.
The age of over-multitasking is gone as well as making projects much more complicated than they need to be. When you start a change project, create a big picture roadmap of the change and break that down into smaller and smaller chunks that are more digestible.
If you can do this, then you will see progress, gain wins and build momentum. You must counter the challenges in leading change with seeing progress and gaining victories. It becomes less daunting, and you have a much better chance of maintaining your drive and energy all the way through the project.
Dividing and Conquering
Too many leaders like to play the hero and martyr’s role, taking on too many responsibilities because they think others can’t do it as well as them, and they like always be the savior.
They take on all the work and stress but then hold it against their team. That does not fly anymore in today’s work environment. Today’s employees need inclusion, engagement and buy-in.
Use that to your advantage. Delegate responsibility and accountability at the front of the project so you cover all bases, reduce your workload and make your whole team take ownership for the success of the change initiative.
One of the important roles of a leader is understanding the potential of each employee and where they fit into their organization. Change initiatives are great opportunities to give each member of your team a chance to take ownership of an important piece of the change project.
Make sure every person on your team takes initiative to proactively manage their work streams so they are taking a calm methodical approach, just like you are. You aren’t just giving them responsibilities, you are creating a culture of collaboration, teamwork and handling change with calm, confidence, and resilience.
Setting Realistic Expectations for Yourself, Your Team, and Your Stakeholders (that includes your superiors!)
Change initiatives almost always take more time and resources than many leaders initially imagine or can tolerate. There are a multitude of barriers, challenges, risks, and sources of resistance that slow down change implementations.
Stop kidding yourself (and your employees). Leaders must be honest with themselves throughout every step of the process. Changes will often take longer than expected and cost more than originally thought.
Properly plan for a longer timeline and higher cost to implement changes than your bosses will probably want…and then do everything in your power to sell a longer timeline before the project ever gets started. This is your buffer. Properly plan for a higher cost to implement changes as well. This doesn’t mean spend what you don’t have – this means put a higher amount in your budget plan and work to keep costs down.
Push back on unrealistic timelines as much as possible at the beginning, so you are not constantly fighting unfair timelines that weigh heavily on you and your team. Provide data, research and projections that support your case on giving the project enough time to succeed on the first attempt.
Coach your superiors and employees on the realities of implementing those changes from the very beginning, so everyone has realistic expectations of the road ahead.
Doing these five steps can go a long way in helping reduce unnecessary stress and anxiety when you are leading change. Don’t let others force you into being set up for failure. Do everything in your power to set yourself and your team up for success.
Take care of yourself and your team, so you can take care of your company!
