Are You a Great Change Leader?

Written by Ed Cook

Exploring the question, “Are you a great Change Leader?” is an insightful exercise. The personae that tend to emerge, in response to the question, break in one of two directions:  Lawyer or Scientist.

The Lawyer will begin with a recitation of the available evidence underlying their Change Leadership prowess: the project that landed well, the difficult situation that was smoothed over, or the success in conflict resolution.  It is all true, all valid, an airtight case because it proceeds from the Lawyer’s reliance on a logical argument.  

In contrast, the Scientist will pose the  question slightly differently: “How do I know if I am a great Change Leader?”   A hypothesis will be formed. Evidence will be collected. Finally, a judgment will be made as to the validity of the hypothesis. Again, it is all true, all valid.

Both approaches rely on an important perspective: evidence. Specifically, evidence that extends beyond the knowledge of the Change Leader. Knowledge is informed by outside evidence, not inside justification.  That means asking others for an assessment of your skills as a  Change Leader.  Both the Lawyer and the Scientist know that understanding the truth can be difficult.  Biases in self-judgment are insidious and difficult to eliminate.  The most insidious part is: How do you know you are biased? The answer: Get an outside perspective.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

The Dunning-Kruger Effect bears out the need for an outside perspective.  In their 1999 paper, "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the authors showed that people often do a poor job of judging their own competence at a task, particularly at the extremes of competence.  Revealed in their experiments was that those who performed at the low end of the performance scale judged themselves to be better at a task than they really were.  Meanwhile, those at the top judged themselves to be worse.  In a New York Times interview published on March 11, 2011, Dunning described the effect: "If you're incompetent, you can't know you're incompetent ... The skills you need to produce a right answer are exactly the skills you need to recognize what a right answer is."  

The explanation was that the bias results from two different effects. For those at the low end of the performance scale, an internal illusion of their ability existed.  For those at the high end, there was an external misperception of others’ ability.   In their original paper, they state that "the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others."  The solution?  Get an outside perspective.

In addition to simply asking others how you are doing. In their later work, Dunning and Kruger demonstrate that training in a task can increase the ability to judge competence at a task.  The skill of judging your skills can be learned!  Understanding the standard of performance for a task is the first step.   To know if you have built the competency, you must know what “good” looks like.  For a Change Leader, starting with the purpose of the role is essential to understanding the standard of performance.   

The Change Leader’s role is to create the conditions to make it easier for people to do things in a new way that will achieve the value of the change.  --The Change Decision

This definition implies that the role of the Change Leader is about more than just getting the project done or the change completed.  Making it easier for people to do their work is about culture.  To be a better Change Leader is to be better at growing the culture that you want for your organization, growing Joy at Work. So how do you grow Joy at Work?  

“In order for change to happen, the Leader must change first.” –The Change Decision

This brings us back to the core question: “Are you a great Change Leader?” 

Be a  Cultural Anthropologist

A role that applies the detachment of a scientist along with the human insight of a lawyer is a cultural anthropologist. Cultural Anthropologists apply the scientific process to understand how groups of people act, organize, and live in communities, but like lawyers, they apply their experience of the human condition, specifically in forming hypotheses to test.   Applying the scientific approach means gathering data.  Following the advice of Dunning and Kruger means Change Leaders should not only assess themselves but also ask others to assess their ability to lead change.  The following outlines a useful start toward self-assessment for Change Leaders. Using these questions, others can give a Change Leader feedback on how they are doing so that they can know where to improve.

After a leader goes through this assessment and gets feedback,  the answer to “Are you a great Change Leader?” will be clearer.  From there, it is a matter of continuing to use the Change Leader strengths that are revealed, and also finding just one thing to focus on improving.  

An important element in this discussion is the use of the terms  Leader and Manager.  There is a broader discussion of the topic here, but in the context of becoming a great Change Leader, the use of “leader” is important.  To be sure, there is a role in managing change as well.  In fact,  an entire profession is driven by organizations like the Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP) and the Change Management Institute (CMI)  that define the role of a Change Practitioner.   A Change Leader is a person accountable for the success of an initiative.  Change Leaders define what success looks like,  and although they would be wise to rely on a highly competent Change Practitioner, they also need to contribute to the success of the change effort.  This is not something that can be outsourced or delegated.  Only the leader of the group can play the role of Change Leader. 

One Thing

Being a Change Leader can be a daunting task, but with focus,  anyone can improve their competencies and become a great Change Leader.  To do that,  follow the advice that so many have given.  And focus.  Answer this question:

What is the one thing I can do to make my next change initiative easier?

The answer will lead the aspiring great Change Leader to an understanding of what to focus on next.  Change Leaders can learn more of the specific to being a great Change Leader through our Joyful Change Leader course, which provides straightforward tools that any leader can use to improve the outcomes of their next change. Couple that with a Coach or Mentor to help guide them.  Getting regular feedback on how they are progressing, and it will only be a matter of time before  a leader can readily answer an emphatic, “Yes!” to the question, “Are you a great Change Leader?”