Change Management versus Change Leadership – The Critical Difference

In our “Change or Chance” posting (please click the link to The Sixsess Consultancy Insights Archive) we touched upon the tendency for organisations to think of change programs as requiring “change management”, and that “change leadership” seems to be omitted from organisational thinking.

Successful change programs need have both, but change leadership is absolutely critical to the sustainable outcome of any change initiative for the following reasons.

“Leadership” is not positional.  Having a “leadership” title or position does not, de facto, make that person a leader.

Real leaders exist throughout the organisation, regardless of position.  

One of the key responsibilities of organisation leadership is to unlock that (frequently hidden) potential.

Additionally, as we face an ever-accelerating pace of change, so the requirement to lead change (rather than manage it) become the imperative.

Leaders need to form the shared strategic vision.  

They need to have the confidence to create and sustain the sense of urgency for the change.  

Then need to be able to select key and trusted (by their peers) people to form the change’s Guiding Coalition.  

They need to authentically exhibit a distributive and transformative leadership style and be prepared to enlist a “volunteer army” to innovate the solution to make the strategic vision come alive, and they need to be able to remove barriers to change.

That means communicating regularly and effectively for buy-in and ensuring that systems and processes are evolved to support and sustain the change.

It’s understanding that a successful and sustainable change program is first and foremost about PEOPLE.

The organisation’s stakeholders (people, with names, faces and feelings) make the difference to power a successful and sustainable outcome.

Change Leadership is the beacon that provides the vision and clears the path to achieving it.

Please click on the first link below to watch an excellent video produced by Kotter International that explains the essential differences between Change Leadership and Change Management.

Thank you.