Avoiding The “Change Agent” Trap

By Gail Golden

Melissa was a whip-smart, highly successful business leader. She had worked her way up through the ranks, earning promotion after promotion by driving results and demonstrating her expertise. She was an acknowledged world leader in her technical area. So it was no surprise when she was lured away from “Secondo Company,” where she had worked for many years, to take on a senior role at “Primo International.” Primo executives were delighted to recruit a leader of Melissa’s stature, and they made it clear they were looking to her to drive change and turn things around in a big way. Within a year, Melissa was turfed out. Her long and brilliant career was in a tailspin, her reputation badly damaged. What had gone so wrong?

The Set-Up
When companies bring in a leader from the outside, they almost always expect her to bring new ideas and new ways of running the business. This can be a very productive way for companies to rejuvenate themselves – but sometimes, it indicates a failure of nerve on the part of the existing leadership team. Rather than lead the charge themselves, they let the new person be the fall guy. They fail to provide the support she needs to institute change. Instead, they remain comfortably on the sidelines, or even undermine her efforts.
So if you’re hired as a “change agent,” watch out – it might be a set-up, and you won’t always be able to detect it in advance. The people recruiting you may themselves be unaware of their mixed motives. The good news is there are ways to avoid Melissa’s fate.

Watch-Outs
Research on how to build influence and drive change has identified which leadership behaviors succeed and which ones crash and burn. Here are some of the big watch-outs:

“I’m going to drive change from day one.” As a successful leader, you
got where you are by having a strong drive and sense of urgency. But as a new leader, slow down. No one but you expects you to make changes immediately, so take time to listen and learn.
“People already know how good I am.” No, they don’t. It takes time to develop your credibility. And it’s tricky because you have to find a way to
show what you know without sounding like a wise guy.
“I can drive change through my individual efforts.” No, you can’t. In
large organizations, change happens by building alliances. You need champions, the more senior the better, for you and for your ideas. So focus on building those networks before you try to push your new ideas.
“We did things much better at my old company.” This may be true, but don’t say it. It only antagonizes people and makes them defensive. When you say “we,” be sure you are referring to your new company, not your old one.
“I’m going after the big win.” It is usually better to look for the “low
hanging fruit,” the quick wins that bring quick results and show others you can make things happen.
“I can convince others to my viewpoint through argument.” Logic is one tactic that convinces people to change their opinions and behavior, but other kinds of influence are often much more powerful.

Influence Builders
The sheer force of your personality and the brilliance of your ideas are not going to make you an effective change agent. Fortunately, research has shown what does work to influence others to support your initiatives:

Good, old-fashioned likeability – being warm, accessible and supportive.
Reciprocity – giving others the kind of help you want to receive.
Establishing common ground -enabling others to see why the change matters and how it will benefit them.
Inclusion – making others part of the creative process so they feel a sense of participation and ownership.
Commitment – inspiring others to actively and publicly state their support for the change process.
Peer power – demonstrating to people that others like them are getting on board.
Trust – earning people’s confidence in you as a person and in the power and value of your ideas.

Speed Bumps
Driving change is never easy. Any change effort brings resistance, because people almost always prefer the familiar, even when they know there’s a better way. Dealing with resistance is further complicated by the fact that people often are not aware of why they are resisting – they may say they support the change but also sabotage it. Observing and listening carefully to the “blockers” may help you to understand the assumptions and motives that underlie their behavior. Putting yourself in their place can enable you to see why they are not embracing the change. You can then reframe how you talk about the change in a way that helps them to embrace it, or at least to get out of the way.
happy ending

The good news is that effective business leaders are driving change all the time, often at breakneck speed. Being a change agent is part of what makes business leadership fun, challenging and satisfying. Sometimes you fail, but even then, you can take what you have learned and apply it to the next challenge. Melissa picked up the pieces of her career, developed a successful consulting practice and now earns big bucks giving out the advice that was rejected by Primo International. She has learned to avoid the watch-outs and use effective influence tactics. And so can
you.

Gail Golden is a consultant with Chicago’s RHR International and coaches Chicago female executives on how to be more effective in the male-dominated executive setting.