OWP liVe REPORT

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Four steps to catalyze the change you want, but haven’t made

L E A D E R S H I P

The reason we don’t make the shifts that we genuinely crave as individuals, is because they conflict with another goal, says John Weeks, Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at IMD As human beings, we crave change – whether a change of career, clothing or food — otherwise we become bored. But we prefer change when we have some control over it. And we often resist change because we feel it’s bad for us individually. Or, even if it is beneficial, we resist change because we lack the resources or confidence in ourselves to pull it off. More often, though, the reason we don’t make the changes that we commit ourselves to making – shifts that we genuinely crave as individuals – is because they conflict with another goal. “We have to find these hidden commitments that are dictating our behavior and preventing us from making that change. We have to surface them, challenge them and remove their power. This is how we tackle immunity to

change,” says John Weeks, Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at IMD. A readiness for change and self-efficacy, as well as behavioral strategies and less self-blame and wishful thinking can help us stay the course and achieve the change we want to make, but haven’t. In this OWP session, Weeks outlined a four-step management framework for doing that.

what they are currently doing instead of empowering people – a common goal among attendees. Many of the executives were not delegating mission-critical tasks to staff. Even when they do, they were micro-managing the employee.

“But these behaviors are working against your goal to make a change,” says Weeks.

Outline competing commitments

JOHN WEEKS IMD Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior

Next, the professor told participants to consider, why they are so resistant to change. What is the worst thing that could happen if they did make the shift? “The barrier to change is often a commitment to prevent a fear from coming true, or a loss,” he says. In the example of employee empowerment, participants said there tends to be a fear of being judged by the employee’s poor results, or a fear of not being in control. Or that the worker will do the tasks better than the leader could, potentially making the manager redundant.

Unearth your commitment to change

The first step is to identify what you as a leader are committed to changing. One webinar participant said they wanted to empower their employees, for example. After all, delegation would free up the leader’s time to focus on higher value strategic tasks.

Identify what you are doing instead

Then, Weeks asked participants to identify