Change up or change down?

We sometimes get into the debate about is leadership really required to lead change – do you need the top team bought in or can change be driven from the bottom up? It’s an interesting debate and one that never really gets resolved. I don’t intend to try, but will add my two penny worth of opinion here.

You don’t need the top executive completely sold on change, as long as they don’t inadvertently sabotage it with other issues. I have worked in organizations where the top team are giving support, in a sign off and sleep sort of way, but allow the senior management team to get on with re energizing the organization. It’s not for the faint of heart and it always takes longer, because you have two constituencies to swing opinion in, those below and also those above in the hierarchy.

If you do get top team support, fantastic ! But again, it’s not a guarantee of success, just a higher profile if you do and a bigger blame to shoulder if you don’t. When there is failure to deliver heads will roll, but it seems generally lower than the board room. So my advice and council to those of you involved in delivering change when the top team is less than enthusiastic, is to persevere.  Lay out the benefits to the organization very clearly when pitching to the board, and use the same solid benefits when selling to the people who are going to be in your delivery team. If you can get board buy in, not necessarily leadership, you can galvanise people around you to get things done. Your confidence in tackling the board will not go unnoticed and it will affect how others view you.  Taking action, sometimes above your fighting weight in the organization, wins respect in many situations.  As I said earlier not for the faint of heart.

One of my first and most influential bosses once told me ” if you want to be a change agent, be prepared to be fired every day of your career”. Wise woman Annie – getting things done can mean getting to the root of the issue and it can feel like you are treading on egg shells. Well we all know that to make an omelet you need to crack a few shells…