What separates leadership teams that successfully navigate transformation from those that don’t?
To understand what differentiates leadership teams that successfully deliver transformation, we interviewed current and former CEOs who have led successful transformations. We also gathered survey data from over 1,000 executives to assess the state of transformation.
This allowed us to dig deeper into understanding what the barriers are to transformation, what transformational leadership teams look like, and the actions they take to succeed.
READ THE FOREWORD FROM OUR CEO
Organizations resist change by nature. Beyond formal structures and processes lies a web of cultural forces and entrenched beliefs that can be hard to shift. These invisible dimensions create organizational inertia.
Here we share the three key types of inertia that hold organizations back from effective transformation.
Insight inertiaLack of awareness or inability to recognize the need for change. |
Psychological inertiaStrong drive to revert to the status quo. |
Action inertiaDelayed response or inability to take and sustain required actions. |
Transformation isn’t just a process. It’s a systemic change that begins with the leadership team. To succeed, leaders must first address two critical questions:
Organizational inertia will conspire to subvert the transformation process. How is it then that leadership teams successfully overcome organizational inertia and transform their organizations?
Through our research we have identified four key pillars that CEOs should focus on to create the leadership they need to effectively transform.
Selecting and building the top team for transformation requires careful consideration of relevant experience, competencies, and mix of backgrounds. Look for leaders who have had ‘crucible’ experiences with a high change quotient and have the potential to grow and adapt. Be mindful of focusing too much on the individual to the detriment of the collective capability of the team.
CEOs should recognize that the team they have at the start of the transformation will be different to the one they have as it nears its conclusion. The individual leaders themselves will need to adapt along the way, and some may need to be replaced. An intentional focus on enabling the development of the team through the transformation is critical.
How your top team works together should not be left to chance; it needs to be actively managed. Begin by developing a common purpose and shared understanding of the need for transformation, define the objectives for transformation, and the strategy to achieve it. Once that foundation has been established, CEOs should create collective accountability and actively manage the culture of the team.
The top leadership team needs to be able to activate leaders at multiple levels in order to affect the transformation. In addition, those leaders can be a critical source of skills and perspective that may not exist within the top leadership team. Building an applying an extended ‘transformation leadership team’ is critical to success.
Transformation is more than a process: it requires systemic change within the organization that starts with the leadership team. It is the leadership team’s job to create the conditions for transformation.
Getting the conditions right for transformation success isn’t easy. Our research found there are eight key factors that impact an organization’s ability to effectively adapt and transform.
Our Transformational Leadership Study included a global survey of boards, CEOs, CxOs, and next-generation leaders that measures the nature and success of transformation efforts at organizations and the transformation actions taken.
We also conducted interviews with CEOs and former CEOs who have led successful transformations to understand how barriers to transformations present and how successful leadership teams overcome them.
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