Great leaders manage change well. Great pastors also manage change well. But it’s not easy. In my research for my book, Brain-Savvy Leaders: the Science of Significant Ministry, I learned that brain insight can help us navigate change successfully. Consider these 4 ways to successfully navigate change. (Reprinted by permission from Brain-Savvy Leaders).
4 Ways to Successfully Navigate Change
1. Keep others informed and welcome their input.
Build into your change buy-in plan specific dates when you will communicate progress. Tell your team how you will evaluate progress and when you will report it. Bring all your key players into the conversation. If they feel they are in the “out” group, resistance to change will be higher, as it creates an away response, a response that hinders followership. Be thorough in your assessments. If the change is not going as planned, be honest yet focus on solutions, not problems. Give hope.
Elicit feedback from several sources, not just from those at the top of your organizational chart. The more collaborative your evaluation process, the more successfully you can navigate change. When others feel that they contributed to the evaluation process, they sense more freedom and thus more ownership.
2. Acknowledge that change is scary.
When you talk about the progress you’re making, continue to verbalize that you understand how difficult and scary change can be. Be sure that you don’t speak in a patronizing way that implies that it’s difficult for your team and not for you. Let them know that it’s scary for you as well, another way to build empathy, an important leadership competency. Help your team realize that it’s normal to feel unsettled during change and that it will pass.
