Becoming a Believer in Change Leadership
Leadership models are nothing new.
The formality of thinking through how leaders interact with people has been around for decades. I have certainly heard from many colleagues, co-workers, and teammates about their effectiveness. But to be honest, I wasn’t always a believer. To me, it just seemed foundationally obvious – clearly articulating your vision, collaborating with your team, and adapting to change. Isn’t that something all successful people innately do? Do we really need a model for this? It turns out, there is a case for change models. After all, studies have shown that 70% of change initiatives fail. When they fail it’s a significant waste of time and money, not to mention it leads to lower employee engagement and increased employee turnover.
I now believe that the correct leadership model can have a profound impact on your organization. There is a time and a place for Change Leadership Models. There is a reason why they work and why they are referenced time and time again in the business world. What’s important is finding the right model and the right time and place to leverage it. A high-involvement approach that uses dialogue between change leaders and employees can increase change success by 34% to 58%, decrease implementation time by 33%, and increase employee engagement by 38%
The journey from skeptic to acceptance.
I was recently coaching a junior analyst to lead a strategic initiative for one of our customers. We were both challenged with up-leveling her influence. She needed to get buy-in from a team she didn’t have direct authority over. If she failed to engage them, the team would not get value out of the project and it would ultimately fail. We tried several approaches without making progress. I knew I needed to help her better communicate the vision behind her project, so the team understood not just what she was talking about, but also how they could get what they wanted from the project and ultimately everyone would be successful. I finally found the right approach in the Blanchard Change Leadership Model and, it worked. It worked because it demonstrated the following.
Expand the leader’s perspective. Effective leaders think bigger. There is always a tactical list of actions that need to get done. You CAN skip straight to the action items, but when a leader clearly articulates how the tactical steps will deliver value to the organization, work is done more efficiently, and change is more effective because it delivers higher engagement.
Share the vision. Leaders that inspire others take a long-term approach. They share the vision with the team and explain how the project creates value for them.
Create motivation. Future leaders want to continuously take on larger roles and run more successful projects. They want to feel empowered to step up to the challenge.
After experiencing the effectiveness of the model in this scenario, I have been thinking about common business scenarios that we are often involved in where Blanchard’s change leadership model could be beneficial. A few of those situations are as follows:
1. Newly formed service departments.
For example, an analytics team in an organization that was skeptical of analysis. The team would need effective tools for building relationships beyond their department to gain the knowledge needed to refine their studies appropriately.
2. Teams without authority
Teams such as IT that typically do not have a large amount of authority but need to get buy-in from a larger group for a successful project. These teams are often too focused on the task at hand and need assistance in conveying the value and benefits of the work to a broader audience.
3. R&D teams
Particularly in a legacy department, R&D teams need to clearly communicate the “why” they need to make a change or “why” they need to develop a new product.
Ultimately, I’m thankful to have broadened my perspective and added another tool to my toolbox. One of our guiding principles at Excelerate is to leave every place better then you found it. We aim to drive lasting impact with our clients. Together, we all become better, smart, and learn from each other.
Written by:
ASHLEY ALLEN
Ashley has spent her career in consumer and market intelligence, she uses this knowledge and skill to help businesses apply advanced analytical modeling to develop targeted solutions to solve business problems, and likely wrote this blog over a dirty martini.