The relationship between leaders and those that advise them is sacred—supporting leadership is essential. At Navalent, we treat that relationship with the greatest esteem. Fewer circumstances are more challenging in a leader’s life than initiating dramatic organization change in the face of staunch resistance.
During a complex change initiative, the phrase “lonely at the top” can take on a whole new meaning. At this juncture, clients need more than our advice as consultants—we also need to support leadership.
As clients interact with their teams and units of their companies, they frequently face individuals who disagree with the direction they are proposing or the methods they advocate for accomplishing certain results.
While it is the client’s primary responsibility to win over those who disagree, we as consultants can and should help to educate people about what our clients are trying to accomplish.
When we find ourselves with people who “don’t get it,” we can act as an advocate for our clients by helping to explain the reasons for change, the thinking behind the approach, or the logic of decisions that were made. Many resistors simply want to understand why things are being done as they are before they commit to action.
Our clients can’t talk to every individual or group personally. Memos to the entire workforce and large-group communication sessions only go so far in answering specific questions that individuals pose. When we help enlist the support of key individuals or groups, we’re helping to drive change in the organization by playing the advocate role.
Nothing is more frustrating for a consultant than to have a client back away from key decisions or initiatives owing to a sudden lack of confidence.
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Given the stress of the change process, it is likely that our clients will become caught in gusts of self-doubt along the way. The questions for you, the consultant, are:
- Can you see the self-doubt coming? and
- What should you do about it?
Organization change must be approached as a marathon, not as a sprint. It will test a leader’s endurance and perseverance as well-grooved patterns of comfort and familiarity are dismantled and it begins to feel like all hell has broken loose.
The seasoned consultant will build into their support of leadership an allowance for such storms and establish herself as an ally and an advocate. The natural impulses to ease the pain and return to feelings of normalcy will intensify as the turbulence of change tests a leader’s tenacity and commitment.
At the same time, the organization needs to see tangible effects of a trusted advisor’s input in the form of changed behavior. That way, when the time for the consultant to provide leadership support and decisions in the organization come, there won’t be concerns that the consultant is merely colluding with the leader.
There are four components of offering leaders the support they need when turbulence hits.
Help Leaders Acknowledge and Explore Their Apprehension
There is good reason to worry if a leader never feels uneasy during a major change process. The challenge is helping leaders to acknowledge their uneasiness and to recognize the potential pitfalls it might lead to should they buckle under when the change process gets tough.
Most leaders face their worst feelings of apprehension the moment they begin to see the faces of those around them wince at the thought of significant change.
In the beginning, there is always great excitement about a new initiative, the heat of protracted, often radical change brings an onslaught of protests followed by comments that distance the speaker from the change process and its consequences. That’s when leaders can get a tad weak in the knees.
These are the moments when a trusted confidant’s advocacy can make a significant difference. In order to step into the role of advocate and provide leadership support, you need to be able to have the sort of conversation with a client in a tight spot that will enable him to choose the best course and give him the strength to stick to it.
Supporting Leadership: Provide Genuine Encouragement at Crossroads
Many people fall prey to the naïve assumption that leaders at the top of organizations in positions of great influence have unwavering confidence and tenacity. Nothing could be further from the truth.
As one of our colleagues told us, “It’s clear that sometimes clients are apprehensive about acting in unfamiliar territory or when they don’t know what to do. The courage to act doesn’t come from being ‘in control’ so much as in feeling confident and ready for whatever happens.”
When thinking of your supporting leadership style, building the sense of confidence and readiness senior leaders need can take many forms. Depending on the personality of the leader, and the context in which he or she is attempting significant change, it is important to choose an approach that best matches the needs of the client.
Otherwise, you risk genuine encouragement being interpreted as saccharine, condescending, gratuitous, or presumptuous.
Supportive Leadership Style: Help Leaders Stay the Course When it Counts
The third aspect of advocacy is to work with the leader to get the change embedded as deeply as possible into the organization. This becomes especially important in places where there is inherent resistance to, even rebellion toward, change—especially in outlying locations.
Many leaders, on the heels of initiating major change, will prematurely declare victory and minimize the need to pursue the rest of the change agenda. Then, when they are blindsided by some significant event that signals that the change is faltering, the leader embarks on an appeal campaign that usually only undermines his credibility.
In despair, the leader may reverse course and find some face-saving way to raise the white flag, usually under the guise of “responding to more immediate strategic needs” or “re-evaluating priorities given current business conditions.” The sad consequence of such failures is that the organization is now further disabled from future change.
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The proactive consultant will support leadership anticipating those places where change is likely to struggle for survival and develop a plan to head off any significant threats of sabotage.
Together, client and consultant work to find ways to leverage their respective roles as leader and change expert to build the organization’s commitment to, understanding of, and ownership of the change.
Help Clients Recognize When They Have Done Well
Amazing as it may seem, clients often don’t recognize their own strengths in leading change. When thinking of a supporting leadership style, being an advocate involves helping them understand when their actions are having the intended impact.
When a client makes a key decision, gives an impassioned speech, deftly handles a difficult situation with a subordinate, chooses to involve others appropriately, or calls attention to the need for metrics to assess progress, it’s important to let him know he has done something right.
Behavior that is positively reinforced is more likely to be repeated. Calling attention to things that clients do right encourages them to demonstrate behaviors that produce change in the future. What’s more, positive feedback restores self-confidence during times of doubt.
Clients are more likely to “stay the course” if they are being complimented for the difficult steps they have taken. We are not talking about insincere flattery or other obvious ploys to engender closeness. We are talking about complimenting clients when they really deserve it. Never underestimate your clients’ need to know that you are on their side.
If you have earned enough of their trust to give them the bad news, you must also work hard to bolster their spirits when their determination begins to waver.
Supporting your clients and being an advocate on their behalf is important because it expands the energy clients have for change and the degree of risk they are willing to tackle. Leaders usually have very few true advocates; they have subordinates, who are sometimes supportive and sometimes skeptical. They also have peers, who are willing to lend a hand when asked.
A few very fortunate leaders have mentors, who guide them through difficult decisions and come to their aid without being asked to do so. But most leaders are lonely at the top.
Support leadership. Helping leaders navigate the rough spots of change, guiding them to pick and choose their battles wisely, and advocating their decisions to key stakeholders whose support is essential, can go a long way toward making the otherwise lonely-at-the-top job of leading radical change meaningful and effective for leaders and their organizations.