Why Change Leadership?
The literature is clear; for organizations to prosper—'out-thinking, out-pacing, out-flanking the competition, leaders who can drive that change need to be in place. David Nadler, in his book Discontinuous Change, aptly lays out the case as to why Change Leadership is not one of the skills...it is the central skill for the future and will not go away.

Overall we have dismal results of change efforts, documenting numerous... 'failures to deliver the desired results.' It is our strong belief that not having change leaders at various levels in the organization are at the epicenter of those failures. Change cannot be just extolled from the top. Thus, change is not an event, but an on-going process and a state of mind throughout the organization.

Most of our clients desire to build leadership from within. To have talent that can 'step in and step up' requires building and developing a pipeline of skilled, prepared leaders. Over the long haul, depending on buying talent is just too expensive and it is well known that too many brought in from outside fail.

Traditional approaches come up short: If we expect leaders to drive change we need to define what we want them to be able to do know and do. Surprisingly, organizations do not do this well. The 'what and how' many times are flawed:

• Job descriptions: As most everyone knows these descriptions are woefully lacking and too general;
• Success profiles or competency models: Generally accepted, an advancement and helpful; however flawed in many respects;
  • A lack of agreement on what 'success' looks like-too much emphasis is placed on what was versus what needs to be; akin to driving an automobile while looking in the rearview mirror;
  • 'One size fits all' fallacy-in other words the underlying assumption is that what is required for front line management is the same as a VP of a major area; one size does not fit all;
• Role of coaching is missed-providing direction to the new manager in concert with a structure for coaching could tie many things together-we believe it is a mistake to miss that opportunity.

Individuals need to be clear as they make transitions into a new position; roughly 20% are going to 'get it'; the majority of individuals—80% need help to understand what is required and to ramp up their performance.

Our bias is that change leadership is essential for success, but you have to spell out what that means.

Building on work at General Electric in the 1970's (Critical Career Crossroads); Drotter, Charan and Noel (2001) made leadership transitions the key element for an organization to develop a pipeline of skilled and prepared leaders. This very helpful book provided the structure that we have extended and enhanced.

This is where Chicago Change Partners comes in. We will work to support you in taking your strategy and build a framework and tools for leaders and their managers to be able to consistently drive change. We work in a partnership with you to create Transition Coaching Guides.

We partner with you to make your strategy come alive...from senior management deliberations to being the driver behind the organizations success; embedded when leaders accept it as 'this is the way we do things around here.'

Here is how we can support you:
1st: We assist in defining the transition points and expectations at various levels. The following is an example from a fairly large organization, where you have six transition points. Smaller organizations might have three. The same principles apply-to define expectations and a structure for coaching.



2nd: Construction of Coaching Guides for each transition: The Coaching Guides provide a framework for performance improvement and development for the individual and for the immediate manager:

• In the 'From' area...performance improvement message-'here are the behaviors you will need to demonstrate if you want to go higher.'
• In the 'To' area the focus is...performance development message-'in this new position,—the here and now... let's work together to assure you make a superior contribution, operating at this higher level.'

3rd: Anchoring and alignment with existing developmental options: Most organizations have 'something' going on in 'development'; some of it targeted and excellent, some long-standing curricula seems to have lives of their own, or it is last year's 'hot program'. Legacy solutions miss their mark as organizations change and new opportunities emerge. These solutions may convey history and tradition but may no longer be aligned with the strategic direction of the company. Some hit the mark, some miss. The bottom line is: development programs and interventions should be tracked back to a business need and skills required. More than a few CEO's have said..."I just do not think this area is focused and we are getting the return we need." We can assist to align those resources.

Benefits for such an approach:

For the organization:

• Helps to frame succession planning, leadership development and selection process discussions;
• HR is better equipped and informed as to where people fall short; thus resources can be directed to focus on the biggest opportunity or need;
• Improves the ability to move people through leadership passages at the right speed;
• Provides a system for identifying when someone is ready to move to the next leadership level; An objective evaluation rather than tied to performance in the previous position;
• Provides an approach to improve selections made; many times-performance is used as a proxy for potential; developing transition coaching guides assists in raising the objectivity bar; and,
• Efficiency; little or no time is wasted on jobs that duplicate other experience.

For the individual manager: Provides a coaching framework/structure:

• Career discussion...'to move up, here is what needs to be learned/demonstrated'
• Remedial...'let's work on this issue-it is important for you to improve here'; or
• Ramping up performance...'here is what is important in this job to be successful'.

For the individual: They can clearly see the gap between their current performance and the desired performance, where they might have skipped a step and have a skill deficiency.

Call us if you would like additional information: If you would like to know about this approach, we would be pleased to talk with you about how it could be applied in your organization. Just click here to Contact Us and we will be back to you within two days.