The ONE Job of a Leader During Change and Uncertainty...

In leadership, we used to think of change as a discreet event, a new platform implementation, a new org structure, the acquisition of a practice or company. These days it seems that the pace of change is unrelenting! Even a period of uncertainty can demand that leaders move into a mode of leading change.

How can we help our teams (and ourselves) navigate through these changes in a way that balances wellbeing, inclusion, psychological safety, and compassion with the criteria for ensuring the success of a change initiative?

When we as leaders think of leading change, we envision our roles as a series of tasks; forwarding project communications, attending meetings, ensuring people sign up for training, designing new processes and procedures.

All those leader tasks are critical for success, but there is one thing a leader can do during times of change and uncertainty that is more crucial than any other.

The most important job of a leader during change is to reduce anxiety.

You may be asking, “but how can I help reduce people’s personal anxiety around change?”

Well, of course I have some ideas. Using some or all of these ideas will help you lead effectively during times of change.

Enable Two-Way Communication. We as leaders all know that communication is key during times of change and uncertainty. In fact, one can never communicate too much. However, we don’t always ensure that communication is a two-way process. As leaders, our job is to ensure that information is not only flowing downward, but also that we are acting as a conduit for information to flow up and across to those accountable for projects and initiatives. Two-way communication ensures that critical information about the impacts at the front line is being considered in the process of change. It also helps to ensure that the team members ultimately responsible for the successful outcome feel included in the process.

Be Empathetic to Individuals’ Concerns. Employees experience change and uncertainty in different ways. When new platforms, processes, and structures are imposed upon our teams, their roles or day to day work may be impacted. As a leader how can you open a safe space for team members to express how the change will impact them, and respond in a way that helps them feel heard and valued? Consider implementing the concepts of active listening; look and sound interested, adopt the speaker’s point of view, clarify the speaker’s thoughts and feelings.

Advocate for Your People. The role of a mid-level or senior leader can be challenging. We are responsible for translating and cascading the organization's strategy into achievable goals to ensure success. But the other part of our role is to translate back upward the roadblocks, challenges, and risks that can derail achieving our goals. In that process of reporting on the technical aspects of change, we should be sure to include the personal concerns and questions from our teams. The organization is focused on retaining and engaging the best and brightest of our employees. Advocating on their behalf is the only way to ensure that all perspectives are included in the change process.

Give Them the WIIFM. What’s a WIIFM you may be wondering—is it a new project term or change management model? No, not really. WIIFM means “What’s In It For Me?” Change always impacts individuals, teams, or the interactions between teams. Employees need to understand how the change will impact their day-to-day work, and potentially their role in general. It is important for employees to understand not only how the change will impact them, but also, how the new thing will hopefully make their work better or easier. It may even help to replace anxiety with, dare we say, excitement about the change process. It is always a good reminder to help them understand how change translates to improving the lives teams and customers, and contributes to the success of the company or department mission.

We are leaders because we have had success in our roles, have driven solutions, and successfully achieved our goals. But we are also leaders because we can inspire and engage our team members. When leading through change and uncertainty, our initial response may be to focus on the technical aspects of achieving success. We should never forget that behind that success is our people. Our role as leader during change is to focus on the people side of change and reduce anxiety. If we can take care of our people, our people will take care of the rest.