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Leading Change Effectively

With central and local government spending cuts starting to bite, many public and private organisations are experiencing further pressure to improve productivity and reduce costs as ever tougher demands are being placed on them.

These pressures will cause organisations to fundamentally rethink how they operate and as a consequence their leaders, managers and staff will need to think and act very differently from before.

However, no matter how clear the imperative for change might be, for it to be successful leaders must ensure that there are a number of prerequisites in place.

? Leaders need to provide a clear vision for change and everyone must be able to understand what it means for them personally. Personal change may be minor in terms of a few tweaks to individual roles and responsibilities but it may be major if the role an individual currently performs doesn’t exist after the change.
? Leaders must continually demonstrate their commitment to the change by regularly ‘walking the talk’.
? Managers and staff need to understand what is expected of them and are clear about what they need to deliver, for example changes to working practice, increased productivity etc.
? The way that managers and staff are measured and managed has to be in line and congruent with the planned changes.
? Leaders must involve their managers and staff as much as possible with the planned changes so that they can help shape the outcomes within their areas of responsibility.
? Leaders must ensure that there are regular two way communications, individuals are listened to and their expectations are managed effectively.
? Managers must have the skills, capability and confidence to manage the reaction to the change both in themselves and their team.
? Leaders must encourage everyone to behave in line with the changes and take consequential actions with anyone who does not.
? Leaders have to ensure that their staff have the personal capacity to implement the changes as well as doing their ‘day job’.

To address these issues, it is vital that the organisation’s leaders identify and plan the key interventions that are needed to ensure the implementation of the planned change is successful.

A key aspect of this that is often overlooked is the ability of leaders and managers to lead change and staff to absorb it. Leaders, managers and staff therefore need to be given the appropriate leadership development and training to enable them to develop their confidence, skills and behaviour and adapt to their new roles. In this way leaders, managers and staff will be given the right tools to make the necessary changes and ensure that the changes required by the organisation are successfully delivered and maintained.