According to a recent Gartner survey, 74% of employees were willing to support organizational change in 2016; today, only 38% say the same. Many attempts to drive effective change management are not welcome or successful.
But, why? One factor that is paramount for every successful or unsuccessful change implementation is having strong change leadership.
For example, Apple’s iPhone, Microsoft’s Office Suite, and Tesla’s electric vehicles have transformed society and user experience in digital innovation. But they have something else in common, too; they were all developed under the guidance of transformational change leaders.
In this blog, we explore the concept of change leadership, its models, and how to become a successful change leader.
What Is Change Leadership?
Change leadership is a proactive, people-centric approach to organizational change. It visualizes change initiatives as an opportunity for organizational growth and improvement rather than a finite project. It requires being visionary, agile, and responsive to changing business requirements and understanding how to overcome common barriers to change.
Change leaders are not the same as change managers or practitioners. While change managers administer change to achieve short-term goals, change leaders command, influence, and advocate for long-term transformation initiatives. If employees are the drivers of change initiatives, change leaders empower them to provide input. Leaders of change engage with the initiative rather than impose change.
For example, General Electric transformed its electrical motors business from 0% to 25% ROI by leveraging market intelligence to enhance employee performance through business innovation. Change leaders at GE Motors employed techniques such as competitor product analysis and customer visits to transform its business.
Change Leadership vs. Change Management
Change management is associated with small-scale changes and is a set of tools and measures to keep a change effort under control and to provide solutions to any organizational resistance to a change. The goal is to minimize the change initiative’s disruption, make it cost-effective, and reduce the chances of change failure. On the other hand, change leadership is related to the vision and driving force behind large-scale transformational changes, ensuring the implementation process is quicker, more innovative, and more efficient.
3 C’s of Change Leaders
Effective change leaders embody specific qualities. These “3 C’s” guide organizations through transitions and support successful outcomes.
1. Communicate
Change leaders must be good communicators. They clearly articulate the vision for change, explaining not just what needs to happen but why it’s necessary. Then, they address concerns and inspire action. Effective change communication builds trust, reduces uncertainty, and helps maintain the momentum of change.
2. Collaborate
Successful change doesn’t happen alone. Change leaders can bring people together. They create a collaborative environment where all perspectives have value. These professionals tap into collective wisdom. That creates a shared sense of ownership in the change process.
3. Commit
Change leaders show a true commitment to the transformation process. This appears in their actions, decisions, and resource allocation. Their dedication sends a powerful message about the importance of change initiatives.
10 Tips to Be a Successful Change Leader
While different change leaders may opt for unique leadership approaches & techniques to drive their company to a unified vision, here are eight tips to become successful change leaders:
1. Have a clear vision
A successful change leader is an inspiring visionary. Successful leaders anticipate employee concerns well and address them throughout their vision to support the change. This clarity in vision will help employees overcome fears and keep them engaged throughout the process.
Leaders should also be prepared to adapt their vision as circumstances change. They need to have flexibility while staying true to core objectives. Their ability to progress toward the vision when obstacles come up can make all the difference.
2. Create an action-oriented plan
Create a well-detailed strategic plan to kickstart the change initiative and achieve critical milestones. A well-drafted plan helps employees connect with the vision and understand their roles and responsibilities in making the initiative successful. The plan should include clear, measurable KPIs to track progress.
To help you get started with your next change initiative, download our change management plan template pack below:
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3. Be proactive in creating relationships across your organization
Since change leadership demands a people-centric approach, a change leader must build a strong foundation by creating relationships with internal and external stakeholders. These relationships reduce friction and ensure a smoother change transition. Leaders should also identify “change champions” within the organization. These people can help promote your initiatives.
4. Explore technology trends
Harnessing the strength of technology, such as digital adoption platforms, can make your change leadership more effective. Whatfix’s DAP helps your employees navigate change by providing contextual in-app guidance and on-demand support. It offers intuitive UX features such as pop-ups and beacons, ensuring that small changes don’t go unnoticed.
For example, Sophos uses Whatfix to drive effective change management on its Salesforce instance, attaining the following benefits:
- Reduced support tickets by 12000
- Increased user satisfaction score to 9/10
- Improved employee productivity, saving over 1,070 hours
- Increased Salesforce ROI of 342%
5. Communicate effectively and transparently
Regular, honest conversations about the change will allow employees to share their questions and opinions. This will drive understanding and make them feel like they’re part of the commitment to change. Research has found that this step can increase change success by 32%.
Effective change communication must address questions such as ‘the need for change’, ‘the benefits of change’, and ‘what’s in it for me’. It must also be bidirectional and encourage employees to voice their concerns.
Leaders should also use multiple communication channels, ensuring their message reaches all segments of the organization. For example, an internal newsletter about changes could be followed by more frequent updates in less formal channels.
6. Identify and confront barriers
Change imposition is often met with pushback. Change leaders must conduct baseline assessments and ensure employees see the change as an opportunity instead of a threat. It’s equally important to provide consistent support and onboarding training.
Keep in mind that every change initiative has roadblocks too. Leaders should also create safe spaces for employees to express their concerns. That way, they can address them proactively and find ways to improve.
7. Collaborate with team members across the organization
Change leaders must lead the change by setting an example. They should create a collaborative culture in the organization so people can step up in emergencies. They should also collect regular feedback to improve the leadership approach and change techniques for future initiatives. Cross-functional teams break down silos during the change process.
8. Hold employees accountable
According to a CEO survey, 18% of the leaders cited “holding people accountable” as their biggest weakness. Since people drive change initiatives, it is essential to hold your employees accountable. Fostering a culture of accountability improves employee performance, empowers team members with a sense of ownership, and drives organizational growth.
However, accountability should be balanced with support. Leaders should provide the necessary resources to help employees meet their responsibilities. This empowers everyone on the team to contribute to change efforts.
9. Celebrate small wins
Recognizing and celebrating incremental progress can boost morale. Identify and share early successes. You want to demonstrate the positive impact of the change. This may keep employees more interested and engaged.
10. Prioritize well-being
Change can be stressful. Successful change leaders prioritize the mental health and well-being of their team members. This includes providing resources for stress management and encouraging work-life balance.
3 Change Leadership Models
Change leadership is associated with continuous improvement of business processes, often achieved by deploying one of the following prominent change management models.
1. The ADKAR Model
ADKAR is a result-oriented change leadership and management model created by Jeffrey Hiatt, the founder of Prosci. This approach works through employee education on the value of the change and how it will impact their day-to-day. It also supports and reinforces them throughout the process, allowing them to understand and embrace the value of change.
The five stages of the ADKAR model are as follows:
- Awareness
- Desire
- Knowledge
- Ability
- Reinforcement
This method limits workforce resistance by implementing incremental changes, incorporating employee feedback, and conveying the benefits of the change project.
2. Kotter’s 8-Step Model
Kotter’s 8-step change model works at the organizational level and is best suited for leading large enterprise groups. This change model includes eight steps to manage change, which are as follows:
- Create a sense of urgency
- Build the change team
- Form a strategic vision
- Communicate the vision
- Remove barriers to change
- Focus on short-term wins
- Maintain momentum
- Institute change
A drawback of this model is that it doesn’t include employee feedback, which can catalyze change resistance and slow project implementation timelines.
For example, the cloud data services organization NetApp achieved a 44% increase in revenue, a 55% increase in sales, and a $14 billion growth in market capitalization by leveraging Kotter’s change method to manage and lead a recent change project.
3. The Bacharach Approach
The Bacharach Approach is another leadership approach that organizations can consider. This method views leaders as agents of change. It empowers them with effective corporate and mental tools to drive change naturally rather than through forceful, dictatorial leadership.
How Can a Change Leader Make a Difference
Most organizations have a dedicated change management team to combat employee resistance, yet the failure rate of change projects still needs to be higher.
What do change leaders do differently to set organizations up for success?
- Linchpin Linkages: Change leaders connect top management’s aspirations and strategic intent with market insights, allowing them to convert them into responsive workforce actions.
- Holistic Impact: Change leaders aim to create a holistic impact on their reports, peers, and superiors instead of following the conventional top-down approach. They often influence people to get on board and use several motivational tools to achieve this result. For example, Netflix takes a result-oriented approach instead of micromanagement. It motivates its employees with perks such as unlimited PTO, flexible work schedules, and more as rewards.
- Multiple Approaches: Change leaders aren’t afraid to use various approaches or a combination of leadership models to solve problems. If their methods cannot adapt to the situation, change leaders delegate others to help lead the current vision to lead the team to the finish line.
Essential Skills of Change Leaders
Effective change management leaders have specific traits and skills. These are some of the most important ones that power a successful career.
- Adaptability: Adjust strategies based on new information
- Strategic thinking: Develop plans to achieve business goals goals.
- Empathy: Understand stakeholder concerns to build trust
- Communication: Articulate ideas clearly to create buy-in across different audiences.
- Problem-solving: Identify issues and create solutions to maintain change momentum.
- Vision-casting: Create a compelling future state that motivates others.
- Decision-making: Make effective choices in ambiguous situations.
- Emotional intelligence: Manage personal and team emotions during change.
- Resilience: Maintain focus when facing resistance.
- Influence: Persuade others to embrace change.
- Coaching: Develop team skills to navigate change.
- Cultural awareness: Navigate organizational culture for effective change.
- Conflict resolution: Address disputes arising during change processes.
- Risk management: Identify potential issues and do your best to avoid pitfalls.
- Stakeholder management: Engage often and manage expectations.
Change Clicks With Whatfix
Accelerate change management by enabling your employees with contextual in-app guidance and constant real-time support via Whatfix digital adoption platform (DAP).
Whatfix provides application owners and IT teams with a comprehensive no-code platform to enable users, improve onboarding, and drive adoption. This will help you achieve business outcomes and create frictionless digital experiences.
With Whatfix:
- Enable end-users to have contextual, role-based in-app onboarding and training with Whatfix in-app guidance and experiences like Tours, Flows, and Task Lists.
- Provide on-demand self-help support for end-users with Whatfix Self Help and identify common troubleshooting issues with Guidance Analytics.
- Build sandbox environments for simulated hands-on training with Whatfix Mirror.
- Collect feedback with Whatfix Surveys.
- Analyze end-user behavior to identify areas of digital friction and map optimal workflows with Whatfix Analytics.
With Whatfix, you can understand how your employees use and under-adopt your technology. This makes it easier to adjust software onboarding, training, support, and overall end-user adoption strategies—all to provide a seamless experience for every end-user that enables them with the right context and support to utilize new technologies and systems fully.
Schedule a demo with our experts to discover how Whatfix can be your partner in driving successful change.
