If you want to lead change successfully, you need to start with yourself

Personal development and leading change go hand in hand. Although it may seem obvious that to be a good leader you need to develop yourself, many get trapped in ‘busy’ mode and fail to make time for development. When big changes are afoot (and these days this seems to be the status quo in many large complex organisations) senior leaders often find that, although they’d like to lead their team through change successfully, they get too bogged down in the day to day ‘busy-ness’ to do this well. This is a catch 22 scenario which doesn’t do anyone any favours, as the ‘busy-ness’ perpetuates without ever finding more efficient ways to manage things. This cycle needs to be broken, and this needs to start at the top.

How can you break the cycle of “busy-ness”? Photo Robert Bye Unsplash

The analogy that springs to my mind is an aircraft emergency. The safety drill always tells you to put on your own oxygen mask before helping others. This is the same principle, leaders have to look after their own development and plan ahead with purpose and resilience before they can successfully lead their team through change.

Persuading leaders to step off the hamster wheel and see how to manage change effectively can prove difficult though. We live in a VUCA world - Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous - yet as humans we have evolved to resist change and hold on to the comfort blanket of the status quo in order to survive. These survival instincts that have served us well for millions of years are unfortunately quite at odds with the modern dynamic business environment, becoming a driver of great stress for many.

What are you stressors around change? Photo Luis Vilasmil Unsplash

How can leaders help break the cycle?

The most important first step is to consciously recognise the importance of making time for selful personal development. This is not selfish, and leaders should not feel guilty for doing this - quite the opposite - the long-term benefits will cascade throughout the whole team.

Spending some time working out your own feelings about organisational change can help you identify how your own strengths come into play. Effective change management requires a combination of people focused and task-oriented planning. Most people will favour one or the other. Do you know which one you lean towards? Which makes you feel energised? Understanding this will help you understand what drives your behaviour, making you better equipped to plan and manage change for yourself and your team.

If you try to lead change with your weaker hand, this leads to a feeling of incongruence, where you are not aligned to your own values and beliefs. It’s important to lead a team with your head, heart and gut in alignment. If you are not able to find a way to do this, it may be that the organisational change itself is at odds with your own belief system. If this is the case, it may be time to consider whether or not you are in the right job?

Think about the end game, where you are now, and how you will take steps to get there. Historically, planning significant organisational changes has focussed too much on tasks - spreadsheets, KPIs, shareholders - and not enough on people. The people element is essential to effecting change successfully though, as if people are not bought into and energised by plans it will take longer to implement change. It boils down to trust. Trust is the essential glue to bring your team together on the journey with you and be open minded and willing to try new ways of working together.

Behaviour breeds behaviour, and if you work at your own development and become a resilient leader, you are much more likely to build the resilient team you need to manage change successfully. Collective resilience is the key to managing change successfully in the VUCA world.