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Confused about change management in your organization, you are not alone.
Transformational change is challenging to achieve, but some companies have successfully implemented change throughout the length and breadth of their organization. So, this begs the question; what's the secret behind a successful transformational change, and why do some companies identify leadership as the catalyst for creating the environment conducive to change.
Jack Welch, Anne Mulcahy, Al Dunlap, Steve Jobs, Satya Nadella, and many, many more leaders all successfully delivered change in their organization. Some can argue that their approach was different, but one cannot question their success leading the change in their organization.
What's their secret?
The Purpose of Change was explicitly clear.
In the late 1990s, The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) Change their Culture to Remain Relevant in their industry. Management ensured that the purpose of the change was communicated to everyone in the organization around the world and as a result, this got the staff ready for the change and set the tone for the new strategic direction.
Adopting a long term vision and leading by example
The vision is a critical success factor for managing change and companies that commit to the process are more likely to experience greater acceptance than those who implement short term or damage control practices. To create that great place to work, the CEO and senior management must show a strong commitment to active communication and a commitment to the company's vision and values. They must lead the change by example and ensure that the vision and values of the company are lived and experienced throughout the entire organization.
Communicating the Change
A communication plan must be developed to ensure that the change is successful since, without a effective communication strategy and a genuine effort to make communication an integral aspect of the change, the whole change process will fail. Communication is that ital link to ensure that an organizational change process is successful.
Understanding the Organisational Culture
It is important to note that any leader trying to change the culture of the organization wholesale will run into difficulty. It will be more feasible to get groups of people to change their way of work and teach others how to enact such behaviors. Anything otherwise can prove to be very unproductive and even destructive to the entire change process.The leadership team must be cognizance of the people's issues since this can be an active enabler or an insurmountable obstacle to implementing the change in many organizations.
Focusing solely on the hard factors and neglecting the so called "softer issues" can render the whole change process useless. As the leader, you must be patient, and you must listen to your people; this is very important because the people executing the change will be the ones who may encounter problems and as a result, they are the best people to provide feedback about the change.
"Listening is an essential skills every leader must have"
Change is always difficult for many people; no one likes change, but it's up to you as the leader to inspire your people about the change, lead by example, and most importantly communicate, communicate, communicate to ensure that the purpose, vision, and values of the change are embedded in the organization DNA.
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About Gifford Thomas
I am the founder of Leadership First and one of the leading voices on inspirational leadership. At Leadership First, we are motivating, inspiring, mentoring and coaching over 123,000 leaders every day to believe in the impossible and helping all leaders create an environment where their people are inspired and motivated to become the very best version of themselves.
I am a member of Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, a Council member with GLG, an advisor with visaQ Inc out of Japan and one of the leading writers on Quora for Leadership Development. Leadership is all about people; it's about inspiring people to believe in themselves, to believe that anything is possible and to believe in something much greater than their own self-preservation; when we have that type of influence as leaders great things happen.
You can download a copy of my book The Inspirational Leader and Inspire Your Team To Believe In The Impossible by clicking on the word inspirational below: