Leading Transformative Change for Future-Ready Businesses

Why is courage the most important part of strategic change?

Because in business and in life, so many things can be improved.

Taking responsible leadership for transformative change means, ultimately, choosing to focus on one priority at a time.

It sounds easy, but in practice this can be difficult. Why? Because focusing on one change requires putting all other priorities into the "to-do" box and telling important team members that you may be able to take action on their needs, but not now. Because continuing to do the same thing is always easier, for everyone. And because making change is always risky and will always feel threatening to people whose careers may have always depended on doing things the same way.

It takes courage to fight through these barriers and make positive change.

Here is how you can choose your focus area in starting your transformation:

First, look honestly at your current capabilities and compare them to where you need to be. This will allow you to identify capability gaps. Find every problem area.

Secondly, cluster the identified problems into a few categories - that can be operational failures, structural problems, client perceptions. Just use whatever labels make sense to you. You should end up with no more than four.

Thirdly, once you've identified those few basic categorical problems, ask yourself which is most important for driving the company's new vision and strategic goals. Also ask whether there is any keystone capability gap, a problem whose resolution would cause other problems to automatically improve. This will allow you to carry out the next step successfully.

Fourthly, you will need to choose one and only one category in which immediate improvement is the top priority, then one problem within that category. That will be your focus for the first phase of change management.

Driving and implementing that focus will take courage. But if you've done your homework, as described above, you'll be ready to lead your team to greater heights.