The Leaders Will to Change

There are plenty of reasons transformation efforts fail. John Kotter all the way back to 1995 in an article for HBR gives us 8 solid reasons to consider, and all of them are still relevant today. But one of them stands out, and to me is not given enough consideration early in any transformation effort.

Kotter says, "Worst of all are bosses who refuse to change and who make demands that are inconsistent with the overall effort." There is nothing more destructive than when a senior leader, especially the boss of bosses, is given the freedom to resist any and all transformation efforts. Their ability to undermine is never addressed. It could be as simple as subtly diverting attention away from the end state by suggesting the end state is not all that important.

These kinds of leaders often lack the skill and the will to see the vision for change and then lead their teams through it. The result is confusion, division, lack of morale and an overall resistance to change across all your teams even if in the beginning most of your team members saw the value in making the change. The initiatives fail and your problems persist.

What can you do up front to ensure this doesn't happen to you?