Practice 5: Lead Your Team Through Change

Great leaders must lead change, even when it originates from the corporate office, outside consultants, customer demands, economic turmoil, or competitors. And as a leader, most of the change they face will be someone else’s idea.

Plenty of leaders can succeed during good times, but the true mettle of a leader emerges during times of uncertainty. When change comes their way (and it will), it is arguably one of the strongest tests of their leadership capability. Those leaders who show patience, stamina, emotional stability, resilience, and confidence are the most valuable to an organization and their team.

To effectively lead through change, leaders need to shift their mindset from ‘I control and contain change for my team’ to ‘I champion change with my team.’

The Change Model applies logic and predictability to what can otherwise seem like a chaotic process. It’s a tool for diagnosing responses to ongoing change—for the team and the leader—and helping everyone navigate the roughest parts to achieve acceptance, ownership, and new levels of innovation.

Change is a sloppy process, but it can be better adopted with awareness of these four zones, especially if leaders can help make them short and shallow. Leaders can also use the model to diagnose where each team member is on the emotional curve at a given time. No two people respond to change in the same way or at the same rate. But when leaders can say, “Shawn is in Zone 3, but Megan is still stuck in Zone 2,” they can address issues on an individual basis.

Great leaders help their team members reach Zone 4 as quickly and smoothly as possible. Preparing for change in Zone 1 and managing emotions in Zones 2 and 3 will help ensure that their team’s change curve is short and shallow.

One caveat: change management is the subject of intense study and organizational-development dissertation. We’ve intentionally created a simple, clear, and actionable model that will help leaders navigate the emotional aspect of change.