Leading Change From Within

Change is at the core of human essence. The simplest definition of change is to make different. Human essence isn’t so simple to define. Aristotle referred to it as to ti esti, “the what it is.” So by definition, change makes different what is.

And it does so continually.

We’re all changing, continually, from the moment of birth. The organizations in which we work also change and do so continually. But there’s no established discipline within our organizations specifically chartered to lead change. Apparently, no one is in charge of making sure the products of change return the value we seek. Throughout this work, I’ll reveal why middle managers are in the best position to fill this organizational void.

I believe it’s cliché to claim change is now, all of a sudden, constant. For the past fifty years, social scientists have predicted change to be a new problem of unforeseen magnitude. But the global economy is driving relentless change. Recent history proves organizations must adapt and predict change, or they will perish. Organizations that don’t move beyond their legacy change management principles are essentially planning not to have a plan.

This environment of continual change is the realm of the change agent leader.

If you’re a middle manager, you’re probably in a positon to be a change agent leader. To be effective, you need to be engaged and have the right tools and support structure. Organizations that purposely choose their change agent leaders and then support change with the full weight of the organization have a competitive advantage over those peers not so prepared.

Helping the change agent succeed is the purpose of this book.

The word change is overused and now aligns with a near-infinite number of concepts. A movement exists within practitioner communities to empower new words, such as adaptation, transition, transformation, renewal, and organizational readiness. Some of us may have even become oblivious from overuse of the word. It appears more than fifteen hundred times just within this writing. I won’t be proposing a new word—we already have enough to discuss. Yet I did want to recognize this background activity to amplify the growing importance change has in our lives.

This importance can be personal. Change often creates significant emotional events. For many of us, these feelings driven from change are far too frequently negative.

This correlation with emotions and feelings results in behaviorists classifying change as an affective event. It shouldn’t surprise that any attempt to lead change must then also consider these associated emotional impacts.

The speed of change and the challenges it presents are salient issues that we now continually deal with in our daily routines. Yet we still struggle with the concept more than possibly any other facet of management and leadership. Many experts claim the number one task of leaders is now simply to manage change. But managing change is anything but simple.

Leading change is even more difficult.

Maximizing value in this environment requires leadership—and not yesterday’s authoritarian style of leadership, but leadership at a higher level that connects with both the heart and the mind.