Change Management Leadership Behaviors That Matter

Leading transformation isn't for the faint of heart. After guiding organizations through change, I've discovered these universal principles apply — Regardless of industry, size, or challenge. These 10 Commandments of Transformation are your guide: 1. Start With Why Without compelling purpose, transformation dies. Your team needs more than "what" - they need "why." Make it meaningful, make it matter. 2. Lead By Example You can't expect what you don't inspect. Transformation begins with your own behavior. Be the change before demanding it. 3. Communicate Relentlessly When you're sick of saying it, they're just starting to hear it. Use every channel, every meeting, every chance. Consistency creates clarity. 4. Honor Resistance as Feedback Resistance isn't obstruction - it's information. Listen before dismissing. Understand concerns to address them effectively. 5. Focus On Vital Few Trying to change everything ensures changing nothing. Choose your battles strategically. Concentrate energy where it matters most. 6. Celebrate Progress Small wins fuel big changes. Recognition drives continuation. Make progress visible to maintain momentum. 7. Build Coalitions No leader transforms alone. Champions multiply your impact. Cultivate allies at every level. 8. Balance Structure and Flexibility Plan thoroughly but adapt quickly. Rigid plans break under pressure. Agility enables success. 9. Measure What Matters Select metrics that drive behavior. What gets measured gets improved. Make success visible and trackable. 10. Sustain The Change Transformation isn't an event. Reinforcement prevents regression. Build systems that maintain momentum. Which commandment resonates most with your transformation journey?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had several conversations with talent and learning leaders to better understand their priorities and perspective on the future. A recurring theme has been the work of those leading enterprise-wide transformation. These aren’t small, isolated projects, but bold efforts to fundamentally reshape how their organizations operate. Whether it’s rethinking company culture, driving skills-based initiatives, expanding career mobility, adopting AI, managing large-scale transformation, or implementing new leadership frameworks. These leaders are operating at the intersection of business strategy, people development, and organizational change. A question I often hear is: “What separates the most successful efforts from the rest?” After these conversations and dozens of guests on The Edge of Work, a few powerful patterns have emerged. Here are four that consistently show up: 🔶 Systems Thinking: They don’t approach these initiatives as standalone projects. Instead, they embed them into the full talent system, connecting culture, skills, mobility, leadership, and strategy into one cohesive ecosystem. Silos are broken. Work aligns to enterprise goals. 🔶 Coalition Building: While they’re accountable for outcomes, they don’t go it alone. These leaders act less like the “sage on the stage” and more like the “guide on the side,” bringing others along, building ownership across functions, and fostering collective success. 🔶 Change as a Practice: Change isn’t a task list; it’s a muscle. These leaders treat change management as an ongoing practice, embedding it into daily work, meeting people where they are (not just what the spreadsheet says) and continually reinforcing new behaviors to sustain momentum. 🔶 Business First Orientation: They lead as business strategists first. While deeply skilled in talent, they speak first in the native language of their business stakeholders, (then their own) connect initiatives to enterprise outcomes, and position people strategies as drivers of organizational performance. These are just a few of the themes I’ve observed. If you're leading enterprise-wide talent, skills, career, or AI initiatives, what resonates? What would you add? I’d love to hear your perspective. #talent #futureofwork #leadership

"If you have to force change, you've already failed." This became painfully clear when I learned why the majority of organizational transformations collapse… Last week, in a workshop with Tamsen Webster, MA, MBA, I learned a term that fundamentally altered how I view organizational psychology: Reactance. I now call it "The Corporate Immune System" - and it's quietly destroying your change initiatives. Here's the counterintuitive truth most leaders miss: The harder you push for change, the stronger the organizational antibodies become against it. Consider this paradox: When you mandate transformation, you simultaneously create its greatest obstacle. When you force evolution, you guarantee devolution. When you demand innovation, you breed stagnation. HARD TRUTH: Your brain has a freedom detector. And when it senses a threat, it doesn't just resist - it architects elaborate systems of opposition. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲: 1. The Autonomy Principle "Don't push the boulder. Build the slope." * Every forced change creates an equal and opposite resistance * The energy you spend overcoming resistance could have been spent creating momentum * Psychological safety isn't a buzzword - it's the foundation of transformation 𝟮. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗼𝘅 "𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝘁" * Speed of implementation ≠ Speed of integration * Involvement beats compliance by a factor of 4 * The time you "waste" in collaboration is recovered tenfold in execution 𝟯. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 "𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲" * Trust is the hidden multiplier in all transformation equations * Authority can mandate behavior but never belief * The best change strategies make resistance harder than adoption Here's what the research shows: * 70% of change programs fail to meet their objectives (McKinsey) * Projects with excellent change management are 6x more likely to succeed (Prosci) * Organizations with effective change management practices report 143% higher ROI compared to those with minimal change management (Prosci) Intellectual humility moment: I had to unlearn a decade of "best practices" to understand this fundamental truth - the most effective change feels chosen, not imposed. What conventional wisdom about change leadership do you need to unlearn? #OrganizationalPsychology #ChangeManagement #LeadershipScience Tamsen Webster - Your reactance framework revolutionized my approach to change.

Leaders with high emotional intelligence know this: 🚫 You can’t push people through change. ✅ You meet them, then walk with them. Here’s how they make it happen: 1. Start with the heart. Ask how people feel before you tell them what to do. 2. Tune into silence. What’s not being said often matters most. 3. Don’t rush buy-in. Create space for people to catch up emotionally. 4. Model vulnerability. Share your own discomfort—it builds trust. 5. Celebrate small wins. It boosts emotional momentum and hope. 6. Check in personally. A quick 1:1 can do more than an all-hands update. 7. Stay steady. Your calm presence is more contagious than your urgency. 8. Repeat the “why.” People don’t remember what you said. They remember how it made them feel. 9. Listen without fixing. Not every emotion needs a solution, sometimes it just needs space. 10. Be human first. People follow people, not policies. Change isn’t just logical. It’s deeply emotional. And EQ is the leadership skill that bridges the gap between strategy and adoption. So, change management without EQ? That’s just a plan, with no heart behind it.

Want to know what a leader really believes about change? Look at their communication plan. After leading organizational changes ...systems, updated processes, training rollouts, I've noticed something: The way leaders communicate during change reveals what they actually believe about people. A one-and-done announcement? ↳You believe change happens through information transfer. Monthly updates with no feedback loops? ↳You see change as something done to people, not with them. Skipping the "why" and jumping to the "how"? ↳You assume people will trust your judgment without context. No room for questions or concerns? ↳You view resistance as defiance rather than valuable data. The most successful leaders flip this script. They design communication plans that assume people are smart, capable, and eager to contribute. That's why I've become such a fan of the ADKAR model. It doesn't treat communication as an afterthought. It makes it the central mechanism that drives every stage: --Creating Awareness --Building Desire --Developing Knowledge --Reinforcing Ability --Sustaining Results When leaders use ADKAR as their communication backbone, they don't just inform people about change. They invite them into it. Communication doesn't just support change. It is the change strategy. The leaders who get this right build cultures where change becomes a capability and differentiator. What's one assumption about people that shows up in your change communication?