Change: the fastest way to find out who we are

Change is almost entirely a team sport. And the higher the change challenge, the more it will either bring a team together like a pride of lions, or scatter it like a herd of hunted zebra. That’s because teams are built on trust, and when the going gets tough, the tough get judgmental. When we face a major change challenge, we are forced to question whether we really believe those around and above us will either help or hinder our collective ability to achieve it. But there is one person in particular that we judge, and it’s not our boss. It’s ourselves. And over a couple of decades of leading change, I’ve learned that our self-assessments are overwhelmingly under-estimated. I must have coached ten times as many people to build their self-confidence compared to those I’ve had to coax down off their misguided pedestals.

A lot of resistance to change happens because we don’t think we’re good enough to make it into the brave new world. And that’s a shame because it seems to me that most of the people who’ve made their mark in this world never rated themselves as all that special – they just had the courage to believe in themselves.

Any leader would surely be frustrated by the prospect of an employee who understands the proposed change (tick in the box for corporate comms), believes in the change (tick in the box for motivational leadership), and is capable of achieving the change (tick in the box for hiring the right person into the right job with the right training), but who resists the change just because they don’t share Bob the Builder’s outlook on life.

And yet, in a world that is changing at an accelerating rate, I’m regularly – and quite understandably – told by CEOs that ‘we don’t have time for anything other than the strategy. The people will have to just get on the bus or get off it’. It’s beautifully simple logic and a clear message that no doubt plays well in the boardroom. And yet it couldn’t be more wrong. Those who invest in unlocking their people’s change capability – at whatever stage of execution the strategy is at – are more likely to see the strategy reach its potential as a result of the people reaching theirs.

Change isn’t just about what we do, it’s about who we are. And more importantly, it’s about who we could be.