5 ways to make change successful as a leader

If you're like most people, change is hard, and if you lead a team, you know this all too well.  

Here are 5 ways to think differently about change and make it stick with your team.

1) Involve team members early, and ensure boundaries are placed around their input

We've all heard the adage about team involvement; involve everyone early and often.  However, I see more leaders getting into sticky situations with this advice, and I've been there too.  Leaders should ask for input, but also be clear about the expectations they have, and the expectations the team members can have.  How will their advice be incorporated?  If they make a suggestion, does that mean it will definitely be implemented?  What are they commenting on- every aspect of the plan, or only certain parts?

2) Check for alignment and agreement

When we commit to doing something as a team or individual, even if the words might be, "yes, I'll do that," there are major variations in how much we agree with doing the task, and how strong our commitment is to completing the task.  If we are not aligned with the priority level of the task, the reason for the task, the timeline or how it is going to happen, we're unlikely to get the job done.  As a leader, it is important to determine the level of agreement and alignment your team has to taking a task on.  This can be measured simply by asking "Are you aligned with this?" (Or "how aligned are you with this?") Alignment can be a measure from 1-5 or a yes or no.  if you hear wishy washy language like, "I'll try," or, "if I have time," this should be an opportunity for discussion on the level of alignment the person feels.

3) Be realistic with timelines

Almost all projects and changes are underestimated in the time it will take for them to complete.  I recommend adding in a buffer time to your intended timeline of at least 15% to be more realistic.  If you and your team are high performers with high standards, I'd increase that to 30%, because the tendency to overestimate is much higher.

4) Are you a prophet in your own land?  Not likely, so get help when you need it

As a leader, I have learned that sometimes it is a real benefit to call in an external expert to help share a concept, lead a change, or provide support.  Sometimes I have even called in people when I had the same skillsets.  This is because it is often a lot easier for us to hear from an outside person than from someone we deal with every day and have seen at their best and worst.  An outside consultant can often help say the same things you would, but in a different way, which can be more palatable, can invite different discussions and conversations, and disrupt previous patterns.

5) Lay out a project plan, timeline, and budget, including when to call it quits

Have you ever considered success and failure measures?  Or when you'd consider the change "complete"?  Or what the overall budget is, and what happens if there's an over-run? Often, we forget to include these items in a project plan or change management plan.  However, these are crucial ways change fails to happen.  

Failing to set a project budget and what happens with overages--> confusion and change stalling out mid-way

Success and failure measures not being set--> late adopters are likely to call the project a failure, and may try to stop the change for moving ahead based on their definition of success or failure.  

Not setting an end point --> means that if you work with science based individuals or perfectionist types, they will tend to say the project wasn't really complete.  This also makes it really hard to celebrate a win if you don't know when the work is done!

If you're working to make change happen on your team or within your organization, please get in touch to see how we can help.  We support leaders and organizations all over the world, and love helping to create change that grows trust among team members.