The trouble is, leaders often don’t do what is needed to implement change, even if they agree it should happen. You may think, If only they would (fill in the blank), you would be able to make some real progress.

This lack of proper leadership support is the top challenge for most change agents.  It frequently stays that way because change agents get stuck by the following traps.

1.  “It’s not my place.”

Allison was a supervisor who had been given a special assignment to implement the recommendations that resulted from an employee survey.  The biggest roadblock to improvement, she decided, was her boss’s boss, the very person who had commissioned the survey.  Allison’s boss agreed but would not do anything about it.  “What can I do?” Allison asked, “It’s not my place to address the issues with my boss’s boss.”

The organizational hierarchy can seem like an insurmountable hurdle over which to affect change.  When the person whose support you need is outside of one degree of authority, it can seem like political suicide to attempt to do something about it.  From this position of helplessness, it is easy to get stuck hoping he will figure it out on his own.

2.  “That’s just the way they are.”

Dan was a senior manager who worked directly for the CEO.  Dan’s key initiative to improve the company was to develop and solidify accountability to procedures.  The CEO, while supporting the initiative verbally, did not want to abide by procedures himself.  It was the CEO who had embodied the previously lackadaisical culture.  “I can’t do anything about it.  That’s just the way he is,” Dan lamented.

We often assume that the behaviors of others reflect an inner character trait.  This assumption is so common that psychologists call it the fundamental attribution error.  When you consider that someone will not support you because it is part of his DNA, of course you would automatically chalk it up as a lost cause.  You get trapped knowing it is impossible to change someone else.

3.  “He just doesn’t like me.”

John was a project manager who needed key data from the manager of another department.  However, John’s phone calls and e-mails requesting the information were repeatedly ignored.  John asked his boss to request the same information, and it was immediately handed over.  “Maybe she just doesn’t like me,” was John’s reasoning.

This trap is the mirror image of the fundamental attribution error.  Instead of thinking the lack of support is caused by her character, you think the lack of support is your own fault.  Whenever you interpret her behavior as a personal slight – she doesn’t respect you, she doesn’t like you, she doesn’t trust you – it traps you with self-doubt.  Insecurity is a lousy place from which to exert influence as a change agent.

Allison, Dan and John are composites of real change agents who were stuck.  But none of their traps were inherently real.  The traps were assumptions they made about the leaders and the organization.

The first step in getting out of a trap is to recognize that you may be in one.   Separate the facts from your assumptions about them.  From there, you can select a new point of view and step out of the trap, so you can find new ways to get the support you need to implement change.

You can get the support you need to make a difference!

Join me for The Proper Care and Feeding of Leaders webinar series on May 20 & 27.  I’ll be sharing practical ways to get unstuck from these common traps.

The Proper Care and Feeding of Leaders

So They Help You Implement Change

Dates: Thursday, May 20 & 27, 2010

Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern

Cost: $149 (The first 5 tickets are only $99!)

Maximum attendees: 20

The trouble is, leaders often don’t do what is needed to implement change, even if they agree it should happen.  This lack of proper leadership support is the top challenge for most change agents.

Introducing a 2-part online course that will help you get the leadership support you need for successful change:

The Proper Care and Feeding of Leaders

So They Help You Implement Change

Dates:  Thursday, May 20 & 27, 2010

Time:  11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern

Cost:  $149  ($99 for the first 5 people who register!)

Maximum attendees:  20

Course Description

During this 2-part online training session, you will learn:

• Whose support you really need, and who you ignore at your own risk
• What leaders need from you most as a change agent
• How to tell which of five levels of support you have, and which you need
• Six reasons why leaders don’t do what you need them to do, even if they want change to happen
• What you can personally do to gain the support you need to successfully implement change

All attendees will receive:

• Two 90-minute interactive webinar sessions
• Access to the webinar video recordings
• Influence Factors: A checklist of 99 strategies to help people change
• Two article reprints:  “Tips for Getting Your Project Approved” and “How to Deal With a Clueless Boss”

• BONUS:  You will receive the Beyond Buy-in Workbook, a $34.95 value, when you register to attend.

Who Should Attend

Mid- to senior-level managers and individual contributors who are responsible for implementing change in their organizations won’t want to miss this series.  Specifically, this webinar series will help people who need to influence change without having direct authority over people going through the change.  Examples of roles that typically require the support of leadership to get things done include (but are not limited to): IT, engineering, human resources, strategic planning, internal communications, process improvement, and project management.

Without real leadership support, your change initiative will have diminished impact.  Register today to learn practical ways to help leaders help you implement change.

Tickets are regularly priced at $149.  The first 5 people who register will pay only $99!

1.  Change Knowledge

Change agents are the people in their organizations who understand how change works – or at least how it is supposed to work.  Your own change knowledge helps you know what to expect and understand what is really happening.  When the initiative is stuck in a rut, your knowledge helps you generate ideas for what to do next.

2.  Clarity

A lot is said about the importance of a clear vision.  In addition to making sure leadership has a vision and that it is clear, change agents also assess current reality and identify the barriers that stand in the way of achieving the vision.

3.  Your Role

When used correctly, your role as change agent can be a powerful tool.  As trusted advisor, you help leaders fill in the gaps to ensure that change happens.  It is necessary to strike a balance of ownership of the initiative and to manage relationships.

4.  Power

People who have power are able to take action, make decisions that affect other people, model behavior and open minds.  Since change agents don’t have direct authority, they need to build up indirect authority to influence others.

5.  Leadership Support

Also, since you don’t have direct authority as a change agent, you need to gain a partner who does have it.  When you have leadership support, you need to make sure it manifests as behaviors and activities that drive the change forward.  If you don’t have support, you will eventually need to get it.

6.  Conversations

The one-on-one conversations you have as a change agent will help get beyond fear and develop mutual understanding.  Conversations are a means of providing feedback and preserving relationships.  The most important conversations are the ones you don’t really want to have.

7.  Meetings

Most meetings are seen as drudgery, or necessary evils; however, when effective they can be a key means of moving a change initiative forward.  Whether you are meeting with a project team, a leadership team, or a work group or a steering committee, your job as the change agent is to make sure people are collaborating for results.

8.  Accountability

Without having direct authority, you will most likely not hold people accountable yourself.  As a change agent, your responsibility is to make sure a system of accountability is in place.

9.  Incentives

Although incentives can be tricky because they frequently have unintended consequences, effective change agents find ways to motivate desired behaviors or results.  The best motivation techniques are not external rewards but psychology-based nudges in the right direction.

10.  Communication

Some say the first law of change is communicate, communicate, communicate.  To be more specific, the key activity for change agents is to get the appropriate message to the right person and to have them do something about it.

Whether you are executing strategy, implementing technology, designing process improvements, or transforming culture, your role as change agent is fraught with challenges.  Use these ten tools to help navigate them successfully.

For a more in-depth look at the 10 Essential Tools, check out:

• The 10 Essential Tools webinar
• The INflux Change Agent Network

While people who are in leadership positions are not the same as the people who are change agents, change agents themselves must demonstrate leadership qualities to be effective.  In that sense, change agents are leaders.

Because trust is essential for change agents, the same standards of integrity and credibility apply.

To gain buy-in, change agents consistently communicate the vision and purpose of the initiative.

Change agents frequently gain their own tribe of followers who also believe in the vision and want to be involved.

Savvy change agents may even be leading the leaders!

The tagline for Enclaria is “Equipping individuals to lead organizational change.”  I frequently add “from the middle” in conversations, because my focus is building up the capability of change agents to influence their organizations.  To that end, I believe it is important to distinguish between the leadership position in a change initiative, and the leadership characteristics that change agents must have to increase their power and influence.

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• Traits and skills of effective change agents

Leaders have power and authority within their organizations primarily due to their position.  They are able to hold people accountable for changing their behaviors and activities.  The organization watches and listens to leaders to see what is true and what is expected.

Change agents, on the other hand, need to enlist leaders to help them make change happen.  As a change agent, you do not have the same authority to get things done as leaders.  Instead you rely on your ability to influence the organization indirectly.  Leaders look to change agents to do the legwork.

This difference does not mean that a senior manager or executive cannot be the change agent for an initiative.  The change agent role is not defined by position, but by the relationships to the leader of the change initiative and to those going through the change.  You can be a leader within your own department and still be a change agent for a broader initiative (think IT, Strategic Planning, Lean Six Sigma, Communications, Organization Development, etc.).

With which role do you identify the most?

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post:  Change agents are leaders.

Myth #1:  The goal is change.

Perhaps we are victims of language.  Organizational change practitioners commonly talk as though the end goal is change itself.  It is common to say “implement change” as if the change itself is the goal.  It’s not!  Change is the process of bringing about the desired future state.

One of the first to study organization development, Kurt Lewin described the change process as Unfreeze > Change > Freeze.  It is commonly misinterpreted that the thing you are freezing is the change itself.  That is, you permanently affix the initiative you are implementing.  In fact, it means that the state you freeze is the true desired future that continues as “normal” after the initiative ends.

To see this myth in action, ask yourself this:  How does what you really want to happen differ from how you are accomplishing it?

Myth #2:  Change must start at the top.

No one will deny the importance of leadership driving and reinforcing the change process throughout the organization.

But does change need to start with leadership?  The answer is a definite “no.”  There are numerous examples of large-scale organizational changes that started as either grass-roots efforts or small trials without much leadership involvement.  Plus, ideas for change initiatives frequently come from people lower on the org chart who are more directly affected by the problems and challenges of the organization.

When we believe that change only starts at the top, any lack of leadership commitment can make us feel like our efforts are fruitless.  The truth is that change can start with you.  Your job is to help the leaders to drive and reinforce the change process.

Myth #3:  People behave rationally.

You knew this was a myth already, didn’t you?  And yet as change agents we frequently assume that we can predict what the reaction will be to our initiative based on what we think a rational human being would do.

We believe that if we provide a monetary incentive to accomplish something, it will motivate people to do it.  We assume that if we list all the benefits of the initiative, people will get on board.  We think that if we put a group in a room together with a goal they will work as a team to get it done.

The good news is that although people do not always behave rationally, their irrational behavior is actually fairly predictable.  When you think through the impact of your initiative, consider whether your plan is based on the assumption that people will behave the way you want them to behave or that people will behave as they will actually behave.

If you feel like your change initiative is getting stuck, challenge these myths and look at change from a new perspective.

Follow these five rules to increase the productivity of your leadership team meetings, and thus make progress on your change initiative.

1. Know the goal. What do you need the leadership team to do by the end of their limited time together? What are the key decisions that need to be made, and what issues should be discussed? Design the meeting with the required steps and final outcome in mind.

2. Prepare in advance. At a bare minimum, create and distribute the agenda and any review materials beforehand. To be most effective, meet with individual team members before the meeting to prepare them for what is expected of them. Leave only the key items that need to be done together for the meeting agenda. Everything else should be done in advance to the extent possible.

3. Build, don’t create. If your initiative requires that the leadership team develop something new (like a strategy, scorecard, new product, etc.), do not start with a blank sheet of paper at the meeting. To quote Jeff Lebow of Alignment at Work, LLC, “It’s easier to criticize than to create.” Although it can be tempting to have the team create something from scratch as a means to build buy-in to the final product, the process can be frustrating, takes longer, and is unnecessary. Build a draft from the input you receive during the pre-meetings, and point out where the group agreed and disagreed as a starting point for a more meaningful conversation.

4. Separate the important from the urgent. If the team starts discussing the latest fire, the meeting will be derailed. Unfortunately, as a team that probably meets infrequently, they might use your meeting as an opportunity to catch up on the latest news and updates. As much as possible, keep the focus on the important topic at hand. Use a “parking lot,” a separate flip-chart where extraneous topics can be captured and discussed at a later time.

5. Integrate fun. Stodgy boardrooms need a jolt of energy to break its inhabitants out of their normal habits. Sometimes the air is thick with politics when leaders get in the same room. Play and humor are great equalizers. Use creativity toys, games and role-playing to break the tension, kick leaders out of their comfort zones and get your point across. When you take charge as a facilitator, you’ll be surprised what people will do if you tell them to, regardless of their title.

One way to increase support for your change initiative is to not make key leaders dread getting together to talk about it. When you follow these rules, meetings will start to be meaningful and productive, and even enjoyable.

Having pre-meetings is far different from having post-meetings.  Post-meetings happen because not everything that needed to be said came out during the actual meeting, due to fear, mainly.  Pre-meetings are held to make sure that what needs to happen in the actual meeting actually happens.

What do I mean by the actual meeting (herein referred to as the Meeting)?  The Meeting is where people with crazy schedules (usually in leadership positions) somehow find a way to meet all at the same time.  The topic for the Meeting, in whole or in part, is your change initiative.

To make the best use of the team’s time during the Meeting, only do the things in the Meeting that need to be done together as a team. Focus the team on the task at hand, whether it is a discussion about solutions or whether a decision must be made. Everything else should be done beforehand in pre-meetings with individuals or small groups.

Some of the things you can take care of in pre-meetings are:

• Training
• Seeking opinions, to see how each person is leaning
• Answering questions, since some will not ask in front of the rest of the team
• Target key people to speak up during the meeting
• Persuade people who need persuading

Notice that I’m not talking about a pre-meeting e-mail.  This is a real sit-down (or phone call if necessary) meeting where you are preparing individuals for the Meeting (and also helping you prepare for the Meeting).  If the Meeting and its desired outcome are really important to the success of your change initiative, an e-mail is not going to cut it.

Having pre-meetings may seem like overkill, or even like playing politics.  But, if you’ve ever been in a leadership team meeting that has careened out of control or that has become stuck on an irrelevant or minute point, most likely there was not enough preparation of the attendees beforehand.

Take the time to have pre-Meeting meetings so you can focus the Meeting on achieving the desired outcome for your initiative.

As change agents, we frequently Dance in the Moment (a term I learned a few years ago in the CTI coaching program).  While we work toward an envisioned future, we can only handle what is right in front of us, which is constantly shifting based on the reactions to the strategies we’re using to try to influence change.

If you think of the process of change as a dance, you realize it’s a partnership between two entities.  Even if you haven’t taken ballroom dancing classes (or watched Dancing With the Stars), you probably know that each person in the duo has a specific role:  leader and follower.

A few of the moves that the leader does to show the follower where to go are overt gestures that can be observed from the audience.  However, most of the time the follower just seems like she knows what to do next, even if the dance is not choreographed.  For the most part, the dance is a series of subtle nudges by the leader:  a tug of the hand, a slight pressure at the waist that indicate the steps and the direction to go next.

The follower, for her part, responds to the nudges with what she interprets as appropriate movements, and adds her own flair to the dance.  Sometimes the corresponding movements are what the leader intended, and sometimes they aren’t. Depending on the leader’s ability to react quickly, the result can be a seamless transition, or it could be a disastrous fall.  Either way, it is the role of the leader to make the follower look good.

It’s important to note that the dance doesn’t work at all without a third element:  the music.  The nudges by the leader mean nothing to the follower if there is no context, no framework that they share. The music tells the dancers if they are doing the Waltz or the Mambo.  They won’t get very far without stepping on toes if they are performing one of each.  The music also keeps them in step, moving together at the same time.

The analogies of the dance’s leader and follower to the subject of organizational change are obvious.  But the music might be a lot of things.  What do you think?

What role does music play in the dance of change?

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• Make your organization road-ready

Everyone makes mistakes – we often say that ‘to err is human, to forgive divine.’ And despite occasional assertions to the contrary, our leaders are in fact human. So our leaders have made mistakes, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

The consequences of our leaders’ mistakes are usually greater than the mistakes of those led; through their decisions and actions, leaders cause many others to do things. This is the definition of leadership. In meritocracies, individuals rise to leadership roles because they are viewed as capable and skillful, and are therefore expected to make good decisions for the organizations they lead. But we also say that ‘mistakes will happen.’

About a week ago, U.S. President Barack Obama made a comment at a press conference (about the racially-charged arrest of a noted college professor) that exploded into a firestorm of popular and media criticism. In an unscheduled press appearance a few days later, he somewhat clumsily acknowledged his error, and has since arranged to sit down for a beer with the professor and police officer involved. His admission was kind of a refreshing moment. In his remarks, Obama said that he hoped the episode would become a ‘teachable moment,’ presumably on the topic of race at the center of the incident. Perhaps it can be a teachable moment here, as well.

We properly hold our leaders to a higher standard when it comes to their errors; we want errors to happen infrequently, we want leaders to be motivated to avoid errors, we want errors to be quickly rectified. We want confidence that our leaders’ directions will lead to good outcomes for ourselves. Leaders with too many errors don’t always get to keep their jobs, especially when financial performance and stock price reflect the consequences of those errors.

Leaders face a dilemma when they err – to avoid the appearance of fallibility so as to sustain a perception of error-free performance, or to acknowledge their error and risk losing the support and trust of those they lead. All too often, leaders find it more attractive to try to be seen as error-free.

Many of the organizations I’ve worked with have become dysfunctional over time because of this approach to error. Their leaders are willing (sometimes even relieved) to unburden themselves of their misdeeds behind closed doors, but are simply unable to do so in a public setting. The members of these organizations are aware of the mistakes, but fear retribution from raising any public discussion of the errors. Thus, leaders and the led enable each other to sustain a fictional parallel universe in which everything is (and will continue to be) hunky-dory. It is unsurprising when these leaders finally do go away, and only a short time before a new parallel universe is constructed around the next regime.

But other organizations have a healthier culture in which errors are expected and handled as part of normal routine. Leaders freely admit their mistakes and are open to criticism. Willingness to quickly identify problems and to focus on corrective action rather than blame means that the impact of errors is lessened. Contrary to intuition, employees trust and are loyal to their fallible leaders more than those who attempt to appear infallible.

Strategy is about setting a direction for an uncertain future. Errors will be made. Hypotheses will be more quickly proven or disproven when leaders expect to be wrong, and course corrections can easily be made. But how often have you heard your leader say, “I made a mistake, and I was wrong. Let’s move on.” ? Have there been teachable moments in your organization? Please share your comments below.

Guest Blog Author: Robert Gold

Robert S. Gold brings over three decades of professional experience to his role as founder and thought leader of Tenacious Tortoise, LLC.

This post was originally published at the Tenacious Tortoise blog. Reprinted with permission.