Leadership comes in many colours, and no matter how much leadership experience you have, the palette will keep changing and new portraits will get created. The portrait looks pretty, why do I have to change it? What if I make it worse? If pretty is relative, then how do I know if my changes will make it prettier? These are all questions that a great leader should ask when introducing change. The decision to make a change is easy but seeing a change through and understanding its impact is what makes the decision difficult to take in the first place.
As a leader in the software tech industry, I’ve struggled a lot to get the right amount of strokes in. Too many strokes in the wrong place and I’m making it worse, too little strokes and I’m simply getting nowhere. I have seen many leaders that are natural at introducing change and will seize every opportunity to add their mark. What distinguishes a great leader is one that is capable of making changes but deeply understands why they’re not making them. Most changes are bound to introduce chaos, and as they say “there is beauty in chaos”, but recognizing the right time to introduce the unwanted (yet necessary) chaos is the trick here!
Trust plays a massive role in leadership. If the people don’t trust their leader, then no matter how good they are, the chaos introduced will be the spotlight of any change. Seeing past the chaos requires strong trust and belief that the end portrait will look better than before, even if it’s ugly in the process. Building the trust needed to instill believers that are ready to execute the change is what makes incredible leaders. As a leader who is always ready to introduce change for the cause of making things better, I need to build my case. Building my case means having the right answers to such questions:
- What am I aiming to improve or introduce with this change?
- Why now? Why not later?
- How will I measure the success or failure of this change?
- What is the cost of this change?
- What is my fallback strategy if this change fails?
Having answers to these questions will allow any leader to create the confidence required to recruit believers that will support and drive the proposed changes. Introducing transformational changes without a strong case can be seen as “leadership arrogance”, and will likely be seen as unnecessary chaos.
Building your change case is one thing but recognizing when it is necessary to build one is a whole other game. A competent leader is assumed capable of creating change. This means being ready to take action no matter how painful it is to take. Making too many aimless changes can be seen as arrogance but lack of actioning when change is necessary can be seen as incompetence. I have seen leaders do more harm than good by fearing the action of change. People look up to their leader to set the right tone. If a leader misses the line (a.k.a opportunity for change), then it’s harder for the people to care about the better picture. As a leader, you should ask yourself at all times “If I had a chance to remake the current portrait, would it look the same as now?”, and if my answer is a solid “No”, then it’s time for a change, but remember to build your case! Change can be a tough call when everything is just fine, but perhaps “just fine” is not the goal here and that’s what your change case should reveal. They say “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, but what if it ain’t broke and it ain’t working efficiently either? Talented leaders can recognize when the beauty of the end portrait will be worth the ugly chaos.
Being able to measure success or failure is the pivot of Leadership. Without measurement, we might as well create our portrait in the dark and hope for the best. With proper measurement, the lines are vividly drawn as leaders are kept in check and their decisions are backed up with data. Lack of measurement results in leaders aiming in the dark and causing constant chaos without any value in return, which would eventually lead to a series of unjustifiable changes and mistrust all around. This is essentially the worst type of leadership and is considered the toxic type.
Ultimately, leadership is an art that requires a unique combination of skills, creativity, and intuition. Effective leadership is about recognizing and adding the right number of strokes required to make the portrait look its best.