The 3 Lessons I Learned by Leading Through Change

The pace of change in the past decade has just increased year over year. New companies and even industries are emerging. The way we do work has been completely overhauled. Add to that the addition of AI in the workplace! Change is constant. That means that as leaders, we’re being asked to work through change on our own as well as lead our teams (and those we influence) through it at that same pace. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t always done that well. Typically, I’m excited about change. I am eager to see what will be impacted and how by each new change that comes. That means that when I was leading through change, I was often expecting people to dive in with the same level of excitement that I had. It also meant that if I wasn’t excited about the change for whatever reason, being a great leader was incredibly difficult.

Now, following a change management structure like ADKAR certainly helped. Getting ADKAR training meant I understood where I was in the change process, as well as other people. I might be building my knowledge about how the change would help us improve, for example. My team, however, might still be just becoming aware of the need for change. This certainly was helpful. What you don’t get from a framework or model though is the experience of what it means to lead through change when the rubber actually hits the road. I had to learn my lessons the hard way. To hear about this failure straight from my mouth click here to check out the YouTube video. Read on to learn all the lessons as they’ve been applied by my clients.

Leading through change is necessary.

There are plenty of old school managers who would say leading through change is simply telling people what to do, and then measuring whether or not they did it. That’s pretty simple right? I’m all for simple solutions. So why am I suggesting you follow a framework like ADKAR and sharing the lessons I’ve learned from applying it? Because sometimes simple just doesn’t get results. What you end up with is a very expensive effort that people are spending time and resources avoiding rather than using.

Programs fail without change management.

There are more examples of failed projects after skipping change management than I care to admit. One classic example is when a company one of my clients worked for brought in a new customer relationship management (CRM) system. Let me set the scene for you.

This company had a large percentage of their customer base drop and move to a competitor. They hired a consultant who came in and did some analysis. His analysis showed that customer data wasn’t stored in one place and because of that it could take time for Sales and Support to find information on these customers when they called the company. By this he figured that customers were getting frustrated that employees couldn’t find their information quickly.

The consultant recommended a CRM that would house all of the data for them. When the company brought in the CRM company and learned about all of the features it could provide they were very excited. In their excitement they agreed to the system and had it set up in just a few short months. Then, they had the CRM company train their Sales and Support groups in using it. It follows that very simple formula right?

Leadership made a decision and told everyone to do it, but will they?

The training meeting was a disaster. My client shared with me that the Sales and Support teams were not open to the change. They didn’t understand why it was happening and didn’t think it would make anything faster. The CRM company tried to share all the features and benefits of the system, however, none of those features were actually beneficial to the teams they were training. Finally, the executive who was in the training just announced that this was happening, and people needed to get on board. To their credit, most of them tried. They started asking questions about how to use the system but because no one was brought in during set up, there weren’t great answers. After a couple weeks, people gave up trying to use the system. More than a year down the line, the system that top leadership was so excited about is sitting dormant on everyone’s desktops.

How does leading through change work?

I’m sure you have a similar example to the one above. Hopefully you’ll have one like this next one too. I worked with a group of leaders whose teams were shrinking. The company wasn’t laying people off or eliminating positions, they were just refusing to fill any openings. This meant teams who already felt like they had too much on their plate, had less people to do the job.

Being asked to do more with less isn’t a new concept. These teams weren’t unique in feeling overworked, that said, each change in workload was a blow to how well they could do their work. This can feel like an impossible situation for a leader. How do you support your team and lead toward the company vision? We discussed ADKAR and how, as leaders, we’re typically somewhat further ahead in the framework than our employees. Then I shared how I lead through change.

Consistent Communication Supports Change Understanding

Consistent opportunities to communicate is key to any successful change. Starting in times of smooth sailing with no transitions huddles, one-on-one, and team meetings are important. They provide people an opportunity to ask questions and provide you an opportunity to share details. Setting up a specific meeting to talk about something that is changing is often stressful and puts a lot of pressure with high emotions on that one communication. If you have consistent touch points that you’re able to drip questions and information out more slowly you’re more equipped to share sooner and your team has more opportunities to ask and develop questions.

In the staffing changes I encouraged the leaders to open the floor to their teams in positive ways looking for solutions on staffing. The company held firm on not backfilling positions. However, they did take the teams solutions to hire a temp for a specific project and to reprioritize non-critical work. To take that communication full circle, those leaders also kept those wins front of mind when members of the team got negative about hiring. Having set, planned, communication points allowed leaders and teammates to share freely and frequently.

Listen More than You Talk to Overcome Opposition to Change

Don’t ever use those communication points to talk at people. I know it can ben tempting, especially for a new leader, to think you’re supposed to talk the whole time. When you’re leading through change you need to listen to what people want out of the change. Pay attention to what they are concerned about. Spend time listening to what they think will and won’t work. This will give you more information about how to make the change impactful for them and help you dispel any concerns that don’t apply.

One of my leaders working through the staffing changes had a very hard time staying quiet and listening. Also, he believed people worrying about staff replacements meant they were lazy and didn’t want the extra work. At one point I had him leave himself on mute while the team talked in a Zoom call. As he listened, he found that people were primarily concerned that this was a slippery slope to losing their jobs. For him, leading meant affirming for them that there would be no staff reductions. If they wanted to stay and they wanted to put in the work, he would ensure they were all still there.

Practice How You’ll Play to Enact Change on a Larger Scale

The thing I see most often is that companies, and leaders, believe that they’ll start leading through change well when there is a change that warrants it. Don’t do that. Practice your skills now. Make mistakes, stay humble, and build trust in the small changes so your team is already with you when the big ones come along.

The client working for the company who added a CRM, started working with me because he wanted to learn how to coach up. He saw that his company stopped having leadership meetings. They did away with the quick weekly huddles. Instead, they started sharing long emails that recorded decisions they made in the last month or quarter. How different it all might have worked if they just continued their normal practice on the small things.

Change is inevitable, leading through change can be too

Change happens at an alarming rate. There are things happening daily that require some level of change management. Ask people what questions they have about them. Better yet, get to know your team well enough that you’re in tune to their concerns. Then ask them specific questions about that what fears you anticipate. If you know one member of the team is more prone to be concerned about getting more work, look for opportunities to speak to that. If you have a member of the team that is worried about structural, organizational changes, speak to that. You’re building trust and opening the lines of communication on a consistent basis that will set you up for success when those big changes happen. That my friend, is how you lead through change, even when the change will be something no one likes.