Why Should I Trust You As My Leader?

It happens all the time.  We “require” the employees of our organization to blindly trust in the changes we implement, although we haven’t fully explained the transformation and the reasons behind it.  Quite often the change and the reasons behind it might seem quite obvious to those who have the inside information and are part of the management inner circle.  To employees outside of the circle, however, the change causes impact, discomfort and anxiety. As executives of our organization, should we expect compliance and blind trust, or is the responsibility on our shoulders to communicate and lead?

Change usually involves one or more of the four major components of the business ecosystem:

• Strategy
• Structure
• People
• Process

Changes to any one of these areas impact the people that make up the organization and must be considered and planned for in terms of fostering acceptance within the workforce and quickly returning the operations to high productivity.

There are four key factors that determine the success or failure of the management of change:

• Communication
• Use of power centers to create organizational support
• Use and leverage human behavior and staff motivations
• Planning

Addressing the Success Factors:

Step 1: Create a Sense of Urgency

Clearly and concisely define the problem statement as the foundation and input into creating the change management vision.

In order to convince employees that change is necessary, the organization’s leadership must develop a sense of urgency around the need for a shift. It becomes the “cause”.  The sense of urgency must be real, as change management is never to be about deception.

Step 2: Build a Change Management Team

Develop a leadership team that will help carry out the vision for the change. In each organization, strong change leaders exist. These agents of change control power centers within the organization and possess the capacity to generate and use power or influence in the change process.

Step 3: Create a Vision for the Change

Develop a map for the transformation — inclusive of a clear vision that spells out your ultimate goal for the future of the organization. With the desired key outcomes of the change program in mind, the vision statement for change should be crafted.

Step 4: Communicate the Vision

To shape behavior around the mission, the statement must influence day-to-day behavior, leadership, and problem solving. Inevitably, competing communications within an organization can easily crowd out the goal and vision. To help keep the message at the forefront, frequently and powerfully communicate the vision. Talk about it often—using it daily to guide decisions.

Step 5: Remove Obstacles

Put in a plan to identify barriers, and if necessary, hire and assign change leaders (“change agents”) who can continuously deliver on your mission. Provide recognition and incentives for those who are helping to implement the change, and help those who are struggling to adapt. If necessary, take action to remove the barriers preventing the process.

Step 6: Generate Wins

Break change down into chucnks and motivate employees to reach milestones along the way. The iterative model shown here is an ideal example of how to break the change process into manageable steps that allow progress to be shown sooner.

Step 7: Produce More Change

Don’t fall into the trap of taking off the pressure and losing sight of your vision. Remember that real change is a long process that takes continual effort and motivation. To that end, continuously look for improvements, strive to set new goals, and keep ideas fresh by bringing in innovative ideas and leaders.

Step 8: Make it Stick

Remember that lasting change is a continuous process; to make change and a new vision part of an organization’s core, the leadership team must keep the vision at-hand. New employees need to be trained and shaped around the vision in order for it to become institutionalized.

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