Omnipresent change reveals the true leader.

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September 28, 2014 by Greg Wisniewski

Already 500 years BC Heraclitus – Greek philosopher, said:

“The only thing that is constant is change”.

He became known, amongst others, for his doctrines that things are constantly changing (universal flux).

Well, it looks like not so much has changed since then as nowadays this statement is valid more than ever.

Twenty four centuries later Charles Darwin stated:

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change”.

Although Darvin’s theory of evolution has biological background, who can reject the social impact of his words nowadays? As the change is inevitable we need to find the way of dealing with it.

Nowadays competitive advantage evaporates extremely quickly – a year or even less is not an exception anymore, therefore we cannot spend months on developing long term strategy, but rather start many initiatives trying to use, find and build new competitive advantages at once. Stability is no longer the norm thus only companies understanding that, can avoid the danger.

Going through major transformation using the change process which worked in the past is leading to a failure. The strategies are not usually a subject to be reconsidered, while nowadays the company, that isn’t constantly rethinking its direction – adjusting to changing contexts- and then quickly making operational changes is putting itself at risk.

You MANAGE change. You LEAD people!!!

To manage change on organizational level you must be able to lead change/transition at an individual level. Change management is only effective when you combine the processes and tools for organizational change management with the processes and tools for individual change management. This is neither a one person job, nor one team job as a change management plan includes senior leaders, front-line supervisors, middle managers, HR and Operations specialists and employees. Change management is architected by change management professionals but executed by many players from top level executives to front-line supervisors.

Change should be considered on each level: organizational and individual but at the end the question stays the same – Can I get people to behave in a certain (new) way?

At the end of the day, what makes true leaders is their capacity to impact other people to change their behaviour in order to achieve expected results.

 

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