| Harnessing Leadership for Strategic Change by Arlene Scott, Ph.D.
Originally published in the March 2004 Issue of Link & Learn. 
If your organization is to succeed - in fact, if it's going to survive - you are going to have to make fundamental changes.
You know what has to be done. But how do you make sure that your executives understand those changes, are committed to them, and have the skills to manage the kind of organization you have to become? This is a common challenge.
You and your five or ten top people have spent months coming up with a terrific plan for moving the organization in a new direction. In all modesty, you've come up with something that borders on brilliant. The Board gave you a big thumbs up.
There's just one problem: the hundreds of executives and managers who actually run the place have little idea of what you are up to. Most of these executives - people you pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to oversee thousands of employees and millions of dollars in business - are sitting on the sidelines, grousing about the newest scheme of "senior management."
In short, they may or may not know why you did what you did. They may not know what you want them to do differently. And they don't know if they have the skill, experience or inclination to do it.
You've just learned the simple but painful lesson that every visionary leader of large-scale change stumbles upon sooner or later: you can't do it by yourself. Far-reaching change in big organizations is not a spectator sport.
It doesn't matter how smart or energetic or committed you are; you and your top five people can't do everything or be everywhere. It doesn't matter how glorious your vision or how eloquent your speeches; you can't order people to internalize ideas.
The only way to move change from PowerPoint to reality is to mobilize leadership across your organization - to help managers understand, share and commit to your change agenda. As you evaluate what it takes to win in the marketplace, ask yourself if your leaders know what it takes to succeed. They must:
- Understand the actions and behaviors required for success;
- Feel strong ownership for the changes that are required;
- Have the talent, skills, motivation, and capabilities to deliver the goods; and
- Show that they are on a path to get real results -- now, and in the future.
Leadership - you and your top two-to-three levels of management -- represents the key lever to transform your organization. You must adopt a creative approach that combines alignment and development strategies with powerful methodologies and insight, in order to create value and achieve profitable growth and sustained performance for your stakeholders.
Aligning Leadership
Alignment starts with your direct reports. Your first role is to build a committed and fully engaged executive team by articulating your vision and using them to help clarify strategy and set objectives. You'll need to be clear about the behaviors you expect, they must model the right conduct, confront differences constructively, and avoid spurious agreements that undermine credibility and trust. They should speak with one voice about enterprise direction, change imperatives, and leadership requirements. Not only do they need to understand what's required, but they also must be personally committed to making it happen.
Don't assume that once your team is aligned, the rest of the organization will automatically follow. Just like your top team, the extended leadership group must be given time to link the changes required to their experiences and respective roles in the organization. You will need to:
- Provide a compelling case for the change imperatives you have in mind;
- Give them opportunities to work through the implications for their own roles and management practices; and
- Engage them in thinking through how to enroll their managers and employees in creating the change.
Developing Leaders
The process of aligning senior leaders inevitably will reveal the need for new leadership skills and ways of operating. To help managers develop these capabilities, you should:
- Determine leadership requirements unique to your organization in the context of your vision and strategic imperatives;
- Assess gaps in capabilities at both individual and organizational levels;
- Create development strategies to close the identified gaps through a mix of individual and organizational approaches; and
- Prepare to judiciously transfer people, acquire new talent, and get rid of those who are not making the grade.
Examining your agenda in light of current beliefs, actions and practices will lead to critical insights about leadership alignment and development priorities. For example, when the strategy has been defined, but key leaders are not aligned, mobilizing the extended leadership team around a shared direction should be given top priority. Where leaders are aligned but lack the capabilities to carry out objectives, the focus must shift to developing leaders.
Critical Steps in Harnessing Leadership for Strategic Change
Your challenge as an executive is to ensure that your extended leadership team is aligned around a shared purpose and that they have the capabilities to deliver what is demanded of them to achieve your strategic agenda. Following are critical steps you should take to harness your leadership for strategic change:
- Assess Alignment
Assess your organization's degree of alignment, from your top team through successive levels of management
- Communicate
Help your executives build support for strategic changes through effective two-way communication
- Develop a Value-Creating Leadership Model
Assess leadership requirements and develop a value-creating leadership model and behaviors tailored to the needs of your enterprise.
- Create Alignment and Development
Plan and facilitate leadership alignment and development programs customized to the specific needs of your organization
- Mobilize Leaders
Design and lead small and large-group interventions aimed at mobilizing leadership across many levels of the organization
- Provide Assessment and Feedback
Deliver multi-source leadership assessments and feedback at individual and group levels
- Create Development Plans
Assist with development strategies -- including personal growth plans, "breakthrough coaching," and action learning
- Prepare for the Future and Align Your Systems
Assess and select top talent, develop executive succession plans, and align your human resource systems and processes
Based on past experience with clients, we have identified several pitfalls to leading strategic change with success. It is important that you keep the following key issues in mind:
- Building alignment requires an investment of your time to replicate the compelling reasons for initiating change for your executive team and senior leaders. There are no shortcuts to getting their buy-in. Change can be curtailed or undermined by your lack of attention to this issue.
- Strong vested interests in the "old" or status quo will have to be managed effectively. Transforming or changing your organization requires courage and the ability to manage widespread anxiety. Even your best leaders will be tempted to revert to the "devil we know."
- Capabilities that contributed to past successes of your organization will, in all probability, need to be modified. New skills will need to be developed or acquired by you and your leaders. Few companies have made major transformations without devoting serious time and resources to this issue.
- Change doesn't occur in the abstract. Use feedback and developmental planning to ensure that individuals understand what is required of them personally.
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Dr. Arlene Scott leads Linkage's Strategic Change Practice, working with CEOs and executive teams to optimize their individual and collective capacity to lead their organizations amidst rapidly change business environments. With more than twenty years experience, Dr. Scott collaborates with clients to ensure the successful integration of new business strategy, the design and execution of structure, culture, work processes, and human capital systems that promote organization growth and performance. Dr. Scott's work with senior executives involves assessment, development programs, coaching, and team development processes to shape the new mindsets, behaviors and leadership capabilities required to successfully lead their organizations through change. Her clients have included General Electric Company, PricewaterhouseCoopers, The Prudential, Blue Shield of California, Deutsche Bank, Campbell Soup Company and Sony Pictures Entertainment. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from New York University and is a member of National Training Laboratories and the American Psychological Association.
Contact: 415-435-0333; AScott@Linkage-Inc.com.
To speak with a Linkage representative or for more information on Linkage's Strategic Change Practice, please contact 781-402-5555; or e-mail: Info@Linkage-Inc.com
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