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Impactful change leaders understand not only the holistic process of change but also the simple process of change, disruption, adaptation, and confirmation. They know the tools and the steps to help guide them in executing that change. 

Great change leaders think systematically. They’re fluent in the interwoven nature of change. For example, the reliance on, and the potential impact to, a long-term strategy: the new business opportunities that are presented, the operational impacts, the cost impacts and implications, and the efficiencies that could be gained from a change. 

The best change leaders are those who recognize that there’s an absolute, inextricable, undeniable criticality of engaging their people and their teams in bringing about change. No process, no strategy, no business model, no ROI, no calculations will matter if there’s an absence of engagement on the team.

When faced with challenging situations effective change leaders have the ability to:

1. Respond in a timely manner to a market force or operational inefficiency. 

2. Understand that change is a necessary process, and that it will happen again.

3. Learn from the challenges in front of their organization and learn from the change process they undertake.

4. Challenge the status quo and ask strategic unbiased questions with a focus on improvement and solutions.

5. See how change can and will impact their organization at an enterprise level.

6. Explore new processes and tools to support and scale change and improvement.

7. Communicate clearly and effectively to their team so that team members know the “why” behind the change and understand how their role fits into both the process and the outcome.

Large-scale change takes place across all industries with some of it intentional, and some of it unexpected. Regardless of the forcing mechanism, effective change leaders find ways to engage teams at a more human level, and in doing so choose engagement over exclusion and as a result prioritize organizational health and success.  

As professionals in change management, we bring a people-centered approach to our work. We partner with clients to ensure employees and stakeholders understand, support, and adopt the desired change and it starts with a very critical element: listening.  We view our clients’ change as if it was our change, and their people, as if they were our people, with a foundation of respect.