Handling change is tough for people individually; leading a team of individuals–all with their own aversions to change– can compound the challenge. So…
What are the key steps to effectively lead a team through change?
- Know where you want to go
- Create a strategy
- Communicate clearly with the team
- Delegate and then empower
- Manage expectations
- Invest in your team
- Manage emotions
- Evaluate and recalibrate
- Hold team accountable
- Celebrate successes
To get a better understanding of how these steps all work together, let’s dive into each of them in more detail.
(1) Begin by knowing where you want to go
Dr. Stephen R Covey’s book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” details how important understanding where you want to end up actually is in developing a strategy. After Dr. Covey’s first habit, “being proactive,” is “starting with the end in mind.”
He explains how futile it is to spend effort and energy on things that are beyond control, but that it’s just as important to spend that effort and energy getting you and your team where you want to land. The Franklin Covey Corporation, which acquired the Covey Leadership Center, explains the importance of this step like this:
” If your ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step you take gets you to the wrong place faster. “
FranklinCovey
So envisioning where you want to end up enable you to reverse engineer the action steps needed to get there.
(2) Create a strategy
After envisioning the end goal, it’s time to establish the milestones needed to get there. When determining those steps, note possible areas of resistance. Look at team members’ strengths and, if there a call for a division of duties, plan who you would like to take leadership for various steps.
(3) Communicate
Communicate the need for change and ensure that you communicate the reasons for excitement around it. Maybe include a brainstorming session with the team to help with some of the planning.
It’s important to develop buy-in from team members. The more you can communicate reasons and steps, the more team members can envision the end goal with you, feeling more comfortable about what to expect.
(4) Delegate responsibility
Once you’ve determined who should take the lead on various tasks, delegate responsibility. Effective leaders communicate the need for certain jobs to get done, but establish and get buy-in that the effort will be collective in nature. Then empower team members to make the necessary decisions to get the tasks accomplished.
(5) Manage team (and your) expectations
Someone once told me that one of the biggest disappointments people experience is expectations that go unmet. While this may or may not be the case, it can certainly be understandable, especially when a team is undergoing change. (Think about a time when you anticipated something and the results didn’t match your expectations. You probably created a vision of what they might look like or how the situation would play out. Were you disappointed because what actually took place didn’t mirror your vision of how it would look?)
People are more comfortable when they can envision the possible results… and then the results actually look like what they envisioned. If you’ve communicated the need, and explained the end goal in ways that the team members can imagine, they’re likely to be more comfortable as changes occur.
Yet, through the process, expectations will often change. It’s important to do temperature checks with your team to understand what those expectations are in order to ensure they’re parallel to the goal. If they are not, you’re then able to realign expectations so that they are.
(6) Invest in your team
Throughout the change process, show your team you care. Small acts of kindness and/or intentional moments of fun can often help.
Show them that they’re valued by investing in their development through this process: providing additional training (like instructional courses or resource materials), or other resources such as referring them to the company’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) where they can get additional tools may be helpful.
(7) Manage emotions
…of your team members AND yourself.
Dr. Carol Kinsey Gorman, a speaker on the effects of change in organizations for over two decades, explains the flux in emotions scientifically. She says that job duties that become habitual require less mental demand, and therefore, are understandably more comfortable. She goes on to say that:
“Change jerks us out of this comfort zone by stimulating the prefrontal cortex, a section of the brain responsible for insight and impulse control. Additional changes in the brain take place and the result is all those negative feelings of anxiety, fear, depression, sadness, fatigue or anger that change leaders observe in their teams (and often in themselves).”
Carol Kinsey Gorman, Ph.D
Your own emotions, as the team’s leader, are also important to mention. Just because you are the one rolling out the vision and strategy throughout the change process, doesn’t mean that you won’t experience your own angst, sadness, anger, or other negative emotions.
What is key to remember is that it’s part of the human condition that we operate, at least in part, based on emotions. And these emotions help create the environment. (We’ve all experienced times when the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife, or the office mood was light and joyful.) With this in mind, effective leaders through change keep negative emotions in check, knowing that their own display of emotions are infectious.
(8) Evaluate and recalibrate
Captains of a boat continually check coordinates. Pilots do the same. They begin with knowing where they are, and where they intend to go. Throughout their journeys, they continually check to see if they are on course. If they’ve veered too far off course, they make adjustments.
It’s not enough to set the ship or plane up for getting to their desired location. They have to continually evaluate how they are doing.
Leaders through a change process do this as well, but must stay aware of and be ready to work with group dynamics that are affected when adjustments are needed.
(9) Hold teammates accountable
If you’ve set the stage with the team that the process of reaching the goal will be collective, then it stands to reason that team members would expect for those on the team to be held accountable for satisfactorily completing their portion.
When an individual is under performing, an effective leader would determine the cause for the gaps between the actual and expected results and put in place the necessary corrective measures.
(10) Celebrate successes
Have fun with the wins. Lighten the spirits and recognize those accomplishments the team’s made. Recognize the successes of individual contributors and also as the collective that comprises the team.
People love to celebrate, and they love to be recognized.
In summary, change can be exciting. It can also be scary. It can have both psychological and physiological effects on an individual and team. And, of course, we know yet another thing that’s true. Change is a constant. This is true in life and true in business. Knowing this, the best leaders plan for it. They start with Covey’s first habit of success, and their proactive.
Some examples of when change management is necessary?
There may be internal or external triggers. Here are some examples of each.
Internal:
- Moving to a new organizational structure, maybe due to merger or acquisition
- New business processes and/or technological changes
- Employee relocations
- Changes in business awards/contract awards/projects the company has been commissioned to complete
- Sudden changes in customer demand or employee base in place to provide for customers
External:
- Increased competition
- Industry trends, including seasonal upticks or downturns
- Market-wide economic changes
Additional Question:
Have you heard of Lewin’s Change Model?
Kurt Lewin was a German-born social psychologist who lived from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s. He developed a theory about change that is still often referred to today.
Lewin’s Change Model is based on the premise that human behavior should be viewed as being part of a continuum, with an individual’s perception of themselves, as well as their perception of their surroundings being major factors.
In this model, he states that there are 3 stages to change: unfreezing, change and then a re-freezing.
Unfreezing is where the leaders of change look at the reason for the change, and all of the potential limiting factors to creating change, including human dynamics. It includes communicating why there’s a need for change and all of the possible positive results which can occur once the change takes place. It involves the preparation for the change that’s coming.
Change is the stage where the old process is eliminated and replaced with the new. It involves the implementation, training, and support and a great deal of communication through all of it.
Re-freezing is solidifying the new process. It involves the constant feedback loops to ensure any tweaks needed take place, reiterating the motives for the change and the positive reinforcements of the new behaviors.
Here’s a graphic which demonstrates the model:
Why do we bring up Lewin’s Change Model here?
Because it’s an easy way to visualize the steps needed to not only create change, but do it in a way that works for your employees and a way that can last… until the next time change is needed. And we all know that the winners are those companies with the ability to adapt to ever-changing business needs, reinvent, and sometimes re-brand.