Emerging leaders sometimes struggle to embrace change. Just when they feel like they’ve established a routine and some semblance of authority, an organizational change or problem arises that rocks the boat.

But you don’t have to fumble through changes as a leader without a framework. There are best practices when it comes to change management, and they fall under three categories: preparation, implementation, and analysis.

Preparation

The first question to ask yourself when preparing for change as a leader is whether the change is adaptive or transformational. According to Harvard Business School Online, adaptive changes are small and gradual while transformational changes are large and sometimes sudden.

Adaptive changes typically arise in response to a problem, but don’t require largescale cultural or organizational change. Adaptive changes may be driven by team members in a grassroots effort to improve the workplace incrementally over time, or they can come from leadership. An example would be shifting the time your team has an all-staff meeting in response to workflow issues.

Transformational change, in contrast, is typically a top-down decision that will have major effects on the entire team or organization. This refers to company-wide policy changes like remote work requirements, scope changes related to products and locations, or culture changes as a result of organizational restructuring or mergers.

Once you know whether the change is adaptive or transformational, you can begin preparing your team. In general, transformational changes will be more difficult to navigate. Host listening sessions with your team to get a sense of how the change is perceived. Communicate openly about the rationale for the change, and be honest if the decision is not up for debate. Withholding information or implying something is not final when it actually is will build ill will in the long run.

Implementation

When a change rolls out or goes live, the implementation phase begins. As a leader during this stage, your main job is to shepherd your team through any unforeseen issues that arise.

Trust is crucial to team success, so look at a change as your opportunity to demonstrate your trustworthiness through transparency, reliability, and flexibility. If your team is staying late for a few days, stay late with them to cheer them on. If they have concerns, be their advocate to your own leadership and elevate their questions.

The main thing to remember about the implementation phase is: it’s temporary. Remind your team of this fact if they start to seem overwhelmed or discouraged. It may also help morale to gather team input for a future review session during which the change will be analyzed and evaluated by leaders.

Analysis

Whether you’re implementing an adaptive change for your own team or spearheading a company-wide transformational change, feedback and analysis should always be part of the change management process.

Schedule an analysis session from the earliest stages of planning a change. If it’s something simple like moving a meeting time, this could be as easy as scheduling a survey to go out two weeks after the change to gather team feedback. If it’s a bigger or more nebulous change, organize meetings among leaders during which team feedback will be reviewed in depth.

One important thing to note is that even if everything didn’t go perfectly (pro tip: it never will), that doesn’t mean the change was wrong or unnecessary. As a leader, it is your job to assess all the relevant data and then move forward with the decision that is best overall for the team, company, and shareholders, even in the face of some resistance.

An analysis session, therefore, doesn’t necessarily mean you will go back on your decisions. But it should include team feedback and a willingness to tweak or pivot where necessary for the good of the team. The knowledge that this type of session exists will do a lot for team member buy-in to a change.

Don’t go it alone

If change management still seems overwhelming, consider getting some help from your peers and an expert coach. Here at Teamalytics, we’ve distilled three decades of experience working with top-tier leaders into an eight-session, asynchronous online program that is designed to educate emerging leaders at any level.

Session topics include effective communication, role clarity, and yes, change management. Not only will you go more in depth on best practices, you will also get to practice real world scenarios in a cohort of your peers with the assistance of a coach.



Stop going it alone as a leader today. Sign up for Team Leader Foundations instead.