5 Roles of Leaders Who Accelerate Business Performance

What do you know about change?

How do you know if you’re successful at leading change?

In your culture, what is the level of commitment to change and performance improvement?

Because of the rapidly changing pace of the business world, leading change has become as integral to a leader’s success as managing the balance sheet or implementing a new customer service program. Yet research indicates that less than 30% of change efforts succeed. Why?

Here is what we’ve found. Most leaders lack a complete picture of how change happens. Too many continue to tinker with tactics and short-term fixes while hoping for transformation and long-term improvement. Many leaders ask others to engage and change without really understanding how to do that themselves. All too often leaders are rewarded for doing their “day job,” so they haphazardly lead change “on the side.” This results in change feeling fragmented, complicated, or theoretical by those on the front line.

The current approach to change is incomplete. Great leaders of change positively impact business performance by fundamentally working differently from most leaders in three ways.

First, great leaders change how they think and talk about change. They engage in conversations about results, performance, and leadership effectiveness.

Second, great leaders change their approach to change by engaging both individuals and the organization. Lasting change requires a change to both the thoughts and beliefs and the structure and systems inside-out and outside-in change.

Third, great change leaders elevate what they do and the roles they play. Five roles are critical to lead and sustain change: Focus, Align, Engage, Lead, and Sustain. To accelerate change, we must accelerate leadership!

When leaders change their approach to change, even the most die-hard defenders of the status quo will become part of the new order of things.