Balancing Strategy and People-Centered Leadership during Change

I was talking with a leader in preparation for an engagement with his team to help them navigate the year’s change initiatives and refine their overall strategy when he said, “I want my team to take ownership of vetting out solutions that will help us achieve our change initiatives without stopping at roadblocks or waiting for leadership to take the lead and just following.”

When I asked what might be preventing the team from doing this, there was some good realization about a lack of defined roles, expectations, and responsibilities. This was something we worked on as a group, and it did help with the challenge the leader called out.

When people had clarity on their expectations and authority, they were able to be empowered in that knowledge, which gave them the confidence to solve some of the challenges they ran into while implementing the change initiatives, without waiting for leadership to lead the charge. The work we did here was very strategic in nature (clarifying roles and responsibilities).

But as the team worked together, a few unexpected things came up that also contributed to the challenge this leader called out. They were much less about making strategic moves and a lot more about recognizing how they operated together as humans.

Here’s what they were, so you can be aware of them, too! 

1. When roadblocks were presented, leadership was often the first to jump into the conversation to start solving them. This prevented other team members, or even the one “owning” the problem, from thinking through a solution on their own. Regardless of the intent, the unspoken message here was “We don’t trust you to figure this out on your own.” 

2. Failure was not encouraged. You might be thinking, “What?! Failure encouraged???” Yes! That’s what I said. Failure, in the process of learning (or solving a problem) is going to happen. When there are unspoken cultural norms that failure is something to be avoided at all costs, people are not going to take risks, innovate, or explore new possibilities. One of the hardest things as a leader is to let your people experience failure…but when you support them through it (without rescuing!), it’s what leads to empowered and capable team members.

3. The team rarely came together to do check-ins on where they were on change initiatives and what problems they were facing, even though a lot of the roadblocks they ran into impacted people cross-organizationally. When the team started sharing informatino regularly, not only did they have the responsibility (which led to empowerment) to share where they were at and ask for support while moving through their roadblocks, it also created a collaborative environment where information was shared, which led not only to quicker solutions to problems but to trust among the team members (which leads to more collaboration and information sharing in future). 

The question that can be helpful to ask to identify how you can empower your people to lead change confidently is not always, “What can we do to empower people?” but “What are we doing now that’s disempowering our people?”

And, overall, there is a need for both strategic focus and a people focus when it comes to navigating change. People need pathways, tools, and resources, but they also need connection with one another to work through challenges related to change together, because the challenges often involve other people and how they are (or are not) currently working together. Staying in the loop with one another and intentionally developing trusting relationships creates the foundation to effectively lead change.

Want to ensure you're balancing your people centered approach with your strategic approach during change? Schedule a FREE discovery call here and we'll walk through your team's situation to see if there are adjustments we can support you with.

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