When you need to adjust course to reach ambitious goals, inspiring change can feel essential and elusive.
At Leading Elephants, we believe lasting change - the kind where your team catches the vision and brings unparalleled creativity to the table - is achievable. We know you care deeply about your people and about the shared impact you can have together. The way you lead change can make all the difference in creating real impact and meaningful belonging.
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And let’s be real: change done poorly leaves casualties in its wake.
Whether it’s weak resignation, active resistance, or a fractured culture, the aftermath of change can be devastating. Every poorly implemented initiative makes future change that much harder to lead. Simply put, no team can afford to sustain the repeated costs from change efforts that fall short.
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"Why didn't this work out how we imagined?” Often we can’t explain how our expectations versus reality diverge so significantly.
To help you see where your intentions go awry, let’s explore your default approach to leading change. Under pressure, we double down on our strengths - with often unintended impacts on our reputation and relationships.
We know it’s one thing to name what not to do as change leaders. It’s another thing to develop the instincts and skills to know what to do to lead change in inclusive ways. Across the journey of a major change, we see five major moves that great change leaders demonstrate...
As leaders step into more inspiring change leadership, there’s a point where momentum almost grinds to a halt. Somehow as it becomes real, they start to look for an exit back to their old and familiar ways. Let's have some straight talk on the most common off ramps leaders take on the way to great change leadership.
The fundamental miss is that leaders don’t see that the decision is not the same thing as a change process. One is a change, the other is a transition. An organization doesn’t operate well at greater scale overnight.
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​So when we come in and work with leaders, one of the first things that we do is to normalize what this transition process looks like.
For many leaders we work with, equity is core to their mission and a critical reason why they do the work they do. Dedicating their lives to meaningful work that benefits someone beyond themselves is key to their identity.
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But let’s be candid. Leadership is more complex than ever and a lot of us, including ourselves at Leading Elephants, feel deeply the responsibility to upgrade our cultural competence.
As leaders step into more inspiring change leadership, there’s a point where momentum almost grinds to a halt. Somehow as it becomes real, they start to look for an exit back to their old and familiar ways. Let's have some straight talk on the most common off ramps leaders take on the way to great change leadership.
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Even at work, change is a deeply personal journey. It's not just about new procedures, systems, or structures. It profoundly impacts our identities, requiring us to adapt and grow. When we are asked to step away from the status quo, we are stepping out into new territory and that takes energy to navigate. And there will be feelings…
Change is a formidable force, capable of either amplifying or diminishing power. Part of the change journey is learning to confront our own relationship with power, both personal and societal - and then recognizing that everyone’s experience to change is affected by the power they hold.
Rather than perceiving change as an external force acting upon us, we can choose to view it as an opportunity for empowerment, action, and growth. The crux of transformation lies in recognizing that no one can force us to alter our behaviors and beliefs; this power to act resides within us. When things are in flux, we have more power, agency, and influence than we might imagine. We just have to recognize it and use it for the good of our teams.
The reality is, even when faced with the same change, its impact can be vastly different from one individual to another. Why? Because change can cut to the core of our identity.
How we lead change determines just how successful our initiative, project, team, or organization will be.
As leaders, we are called to do four important things for our teams:
Testimonials
Mala B., CEO
We knew we needed to re-envision our academic vision, but Leading Elephants helped us to figure out what it meant to take this journey as a team. They facilitated crucial, heart-felt conversations on sensitive issues. With the help of Michelle and Amber, our team moved toward a place of deeper trust and more open dialogue.
Kurtis I., CEO
Leading Elephants helped us analyze and diagnose and dig into the problems we were trying to solve, and then zoom out to think about systemic issues and the change that needed to occur. They helped clarify my thinking as a leader about the role of collaboration in both solving problems and leading change across large, complex organizations.
Remy W., President
Leading Elephants helped our team realize change does not have to be something that happens to you or the organization. They helped us leverage the energy and wisdom of leaders across levels and functions to create a future we could all rally behind.
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