Improve Your Leadership Skills and Manage Change More Effectively

The importance of having a good change manager should never be under-estimated by organisations. They are required to ensure full implementation and acceptance of projects, that ultimately help with the achievement of organisational goals and objectives. If an organisation can embrace and embed change then it can see a marked improvement in employee productivity and the ability to motivate and retain good people as a step to reaching it’s goals.

Attributes of a good change manager

The foremost quality, even ahead of experience, is that a change manager should have exceptional leadership qualities.

A change manager must be a good leader in order to successfully implement complex organisational change. They must be willing and able to stand apart from the crowd and be the best in their field. It takes a combination of personal attributes, talent, practice and hard work to make a professional change manager.

A good leader is often defined as someone who is optimistic, is inspired enough to manage change and empower his or her team. There are different kinds of leaders in management roles, however, their style depends upon the kind of team they are leading. A team, group or department’s performance will often be defined by the way the leader behaves.

Therefore, the performance of an organisation can depend entirely upon the leadership skills and style in place. During times of significant change, an organisation usually opts for an organisational change management expert who is passionate and ambitious, while concerned about individuals and aiming to help them achieve their full potential.

How to improve and manage change as a leader

Style of leadership

The first thing that is important for a leader is to analyse their style of leadership. What are the strengths that define his or her skills? What are the weaknesses that might hamper their style and prevent them from reaching the desired goals and objectives?

A very quick and simple way to assess this is to take different leadership style quizzes. Such quizzes reveal the most important characteristics. If there are some weaknesses in a character, the leader could look for ways to improve on these. Once a change manager has assessed their leadership style, then they could look for ways to improve their style and abilities to become a better leader. One way to do this might be to undertake a relevant masterclass, workshop or facilitations skills training course.

Creativity

Another important aspect of good leadership is creativity. Many leaders ask those working for them to complete tasks “by the book”. They might not, of course, be innately creative individuals; however, encouraging creativity is a very important aspect of good leadership.

An effective leader should empower others to bring new ideas to the table. The purpose of encouraging creativity is to push people out of their comfort zone in order to achieve greater success – both on a personal level and also for the organisation.

Listening skills

Listening skills are another important aspect of good leadership. Effective communication is essential within a change management environment in order to be able to communicate the aims of the change, encourage and motivate people to embrace the change then embed it in the organisational culture. However, a good leader has to believe in two-way, open, candid communication so must listen as well as speak. This is often the hardest part of good communication.

On-going process

The last thing that a change manager can do to improve their leadership skills is to recognise that improving their capabilities is an on-going process.  Make it a habit to regularly retake a leadership self assessment test to see how you’re doing.  Simply never stop learning…