Transition Leadership: Managing Change In Your Organization

In today’s deregulating and increasingly competitive business environment, organizational change is becoming inevitable. Today’s successful organizations are experiencing transitions in the areas of technology, process reengineering, mergers, and organizational restructuring in order to remain competitive. However, although these areas impact employees at all levels of the company, senior management often overlooks this fact. Therefore, it is imperative that company management understands the impact of organizational change on employees and manages these effects accordingly. By doing so, organizational leaders minimize the negative impact change has on productivity and performance.

This paper will focus on the activity of successfully leading employees through significant changes brought about by new technologies and process changes and will focus on three areas of transition leadership. First, the discussion conveys the impact that change has on an organization’s employees. Second, an overview and discussion of transition leadership and its role in managing organizational change is given. Finally, ways to effectively manage employees through these reactions to change is presented. By understanding the elements of organizational change and its impact on employees as well as the appropriate ways of managing people through these revolutions, organizational leaders will be better prepared to address the challenges that are inherent in major business transitions.

The Impact of Change on People
Frequently, information technology professionals overlook the impacts of technology changes on people. Almost any change to technology will have an impact on business processes, which will directly impact the day-to-day jobs of individual employees. As a result, changes to technology require attention to the impacts that they have on both process and people. The practice of Organizational Change Management (OCM) focuses on ensuring that the people side of change is addressed appropriately.

OCM is the process of aligning the organization’s people and culture with changes in business strategy, organizational structure, technology, and business processes. OCM is important because, at the most rudimentary level, all change involves some degree of loss whether it is loss of stability, loss of expertise, loss of relationships, or loss of understanding. People often try to avoid the experience of loss by resisting change. Resistance can come in different forms and be expressed with different emotions such as anger, frustration, fear, etc. Due to the tendency for change to elicit an emotional response, any large-scale change initiative will likely remove the employees’ focus from the business to transition-related issues. This shift in focus will likely disrupt the productivity of the business.

Many technology implementation/business process redesign efforts fail because they overlook the impacts that change will have on the people in the organization. An organization that ignores the importance of OCM could experience the following risks: increased resistance to new technology, decreased quality and customer service, high turnover and absenteeism, difficulty recruiting and retaining high performers, and damaged internal and external brand equity.

On the other hand, an organization that implements a technology/business process transformation with integrated OCM will experience the following benefits: realization of the business transformation objectives, higher return on technology investments, retention of high performers, maintained and improved productivity, improved employee satisfaction and morale, and increased discretionary effort.

Transition Leadership
Given the impact that change has on employees, it is clear that managers must learn to proactively manage employees through the many changes that are inherent in most organizations. In geospatial environments, managers and other key stakeholders often focus on technological and process changes that will make their businesses competitive in the 21st century. These issues are important, but the changes ultimately will not be implemented successfully without the cooperation of employees. Only through effective transition leadership are employees able to effectively cope with and accept the changes they are presented with.

Ten Characteristics of Effective Transition Leaders
The role of transition leader is an often overlooked but important aspect of management. There are several characteristics that make up a good transition leader. Here we identify the main characteristics that are needed in a successful transition leader. In general, there are 10 characteristics of effective transition leaders:

Gains support from and confidence of others. Change is not accepted and work cannot be done without the buy-in of key stakeholders. For this reason, it is imperative that transition leaders gain the support and confidence of other key employees in the organization.
Listens and collaborates effectively. No matter how good a manager is, people will not follow without a sense of ownership in the organization. One of the key ways to secure this ownership and trust in employees is through listening and collaboration.
Takes accountability. As with any effective manager, successful transition leaders take accountability for their own work as well as that of the entire organization that he or she manages.
Provides constructive feedback to others. Transition leaders also provide constructive feedback to employees and colleagues. This type of feedback enables employees to be more effective in adapting to and accepting change.
Builds relationships with customers, peers, and project team members. Effective transition leaders are also successful in building relationships with customers, peers, and project members. This alliance building enables leaders to effectively delegate and gain the buy-in from key resources, which further enables change within the organization.
Inspires and motivates. In order to manage change effectively in the organization, transition leaders need to have inspired employees and stakeholders.
Communicates openly, early, and often. Since change is such a complex and fearsome idea for most people, it is important for transition leaders to open the flow of communication. This holds true on a day-to-day basis as well (and especially) during times of change.
Provides clear direction. In order for the organization to get to where it needs to be, employees and stakeholders have to understand where they are and where the organization is going. With this in mind, transition leaders need to clearly communicate the organization’s vision and goals to stakeholders and clarify individual roles and responsibilities within that context.
Models the way for the team. Successful transition leaders do more than just delegate work and build relationships. They also lead by example in order to build credibility and trust.
Creates opportunities for small wins. The change involved in large scale and complex IT implementations often appears insurmountable to employees. Therefore, it is important to frequently reward and recognize team members to help boost morale and to keep change initiatives from failing due to a burned-out staff.

These 10 characteristics of a good transition leader ensure that change is implemented successfully and that major obstacles and resistances to change are minimized.