It’s commonly known that to be a leader, you must have followers. It sounds simple enough, but many would-be leaders miss the deeper principle: to be a leader you must have influence over your followers.
It’s easy to get someone to follow you. Roles and hierarchies within organizations make leadership transactional — “Joe, this is your boss Anita. Follow her.” But it’s up to you to make leadership relational. Your relationship with your followers is the sweet spot where true leadership happens.
This is especially true when leading through change. And when is a leader not managing some type of change?
Leading through change isn’t easy. I know this from having lead a number of troubled organizations in my career. Most recently, I joined Edgewater Systems. The organization was in a state of complete chaos — on the brink of bankruptcy, revoked operating license, low employee morale — and about to close its doors.
To turn Edgewater Systems around, I would have to make many changes. Some changes would be welcomed, while others would be met with heavy resistance. My biggest dilemma was, how can I get people to accept the discomfort of change and follow me into an unknown future?
Here’s what I discovered worked best:
Realize that it’s not about you. At the most basic level of human interaction, people want to be seen, heard and understood. Many leaders overlook this and leap straight into goals and action plans. Slow down. Spend time getting to know your people — Who are they? Where do they fit into the organization? What are their dreams, hopes, and fears? What contributions do they want to make?
Create a sense of urgency. Most people don’t enjoy the disruption of change. Your goal is to shift them from wanting things to be better to being willing to make it better. You do this by creating a sense of urgency and communicating why change must occur. Speak to their needs and desires. Show them the direct consequences of ignoring change — make it urgent.
Make a Plan..and a Plan B. Effective leaders don’t enter into change saying, “We’ll just wing it.” The nature of change is that it continues to change! In any situation there are too many variables to predict, many of which are outside of your immediate control. Cast a vision for your people, put a plan in motion and navigate the hills and valleys of change along the way.
I’ve said it before, leading through change isn’t easy. I’ve had varying degrees of success in my leadership career, and it hasn’t been perfect. Even after many years of experience, I continue to learn and grow as a leader. Your success or failure as a leader relies on your ability to apply your best-laid plans in what the Chinese saying describes as “interesting times.” And times are always interesting — never simple, never easy — don’t you agree?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Under the sub-title “Realize that’s it’s not about you” you made a statement, getting to know your employees, let me ask you a question, are you personally getting to know your people or are you listening to someone elses opinion about a person?
As a CEO I don’t personally have the opportunity to spend time with each of my 280 employees on a regular basis. However, I do attend department level meetings and give employees an opportunity to ask questions and voice concerns as often as I can. Of course I do have an opportunity to spend more time with management level employees and I do try to find out what motivates them, etc. In turn, their job is to do the same with those who report to them. We are a team and we try to promote this within our organization at all times.