Haris Ahmed of Chicago Asks: What Do You Do When Change is Inevitable?
Change leadership, or leadership that’s open to change, is a critical factor in achieving the company’s goals. When management opts to keep things as they are despite the warning signs, they inevitably hamper the company’s growth and have reduced its profit potential. For Haris Ahmed, CEO of Chicago management consulting firm Pragmatium Consulting, Inc., being adverse to change and refusing to adapt to changing environments could spell disaster for the organization and the business as a whole. Where once you were the leader of the pack, you could suddenly find yourself lagging so far behind that you become a cautionary tale.
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But if your leadership style is geared towards pliability and flexibility and you’re not afraid to bend when the wind blows, you give the organization a better shot at achieving its goals. Businesses have the same objectives: to enhance profits and become the leader in their industry. The difference lies in the direction that they take to achieve these. And for the most part, those who do succeed recognize when change is the only way to stay in the game, and undertake a strong pro-active approach to implement these changes.
So what do you do when change is inevitable?
First of all, good leadership entails recognizing factors that point to changes looming on the horizon. Simply put, your research and analysis skills should be sharp enough to allow you to identify these factors before your competitors see them. Or you take action before the rest of the world does.
With that said, the most important component of your change leadership is your team—the people that you lead. In order to have an effective strategy for adapting to the industry’s changing climate, you need to have the right people to work with. New talents or expertise may be needed, and acquiring these is your first step towards developing a strategy that shifts you from where you are to where you want to be.
It cannot be emphasized enough that the members of your organization should be able to help you make that inevitable shift. No matter how well-researched and solid your plan is, without the right people, the plan may fail or fall short of forecasted outcomes.
And when you do get the right people on your team, the second most important component for an effective strategy is communication. Remember that you got these people on your team to help you adapt to change, and listening to their inputs is critical to the strategy development process. Each member of your team has his or her own skillset and expertise, and they will bring these to the drawing board, if you let them.
To sum it up, research and analysis, talent, and communication are essential components for adapting to change. When you have all of these factors taken care of, you have the right foundation to adapt to, or even create, change in your industry.
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