Leaders are told to consider the impact of a change on the team they are leading; but what about them? What about the impact of change on the leader him or herself? As a leader how you ever considered the impact of a change on you?
In consulting with leaders around change, I always ask them about how they perceive the change? How do they feel about the change? How do they think the change will impact them?
For leaders to be able to champion change, they have to embrace it themselves. We can’t assume that just because a leader is implementing a change that they agree with, or have embraced, that change. They may need to come to terms with that change themselves.
People connect with change with their emotions – through stories that are shared; through understanding and “seeing” the vision for the future. Leaders who have to come to terms with the change, and how it impacts them, can share those stories with those they are leading to help them come to terms with the change for themselves.
When we hear how others perceive a change, about the impact of the change on that individual, and how they thought through that change to understand about it and how to come to terms with it, we do a better job coming to terms with the change ourselves.
It is perfectly acceptable as a leader to acknowledge that we didn’t like a change we had to implement, that is just being human! Leaders who are willing to share their own story about the change and how they thought about it and came to see if from a positive opportunity perspective do a better job of helping their teams adopt to the change. So – leaders – think about a past change you had to implement that you were not completely behind at first but then came to terms with it from the perspective of the value to the company as well as to yourself as an employee of the company. How could you frame that story to help your team?
