(The) Who can help with your Change Leadership plan

How Roger Daltrey set me on the right path for change

It was 1990 something and as Roger Daltrey screamed “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”, I flicked off the cassette recorder and asked my somewhat stunned group, what did they think about that message?

That was the first presentation I delivered on change over 25 years ago.  I wanted to start a conversation about the differences between traditional management styles and change leadership.  My plan was to use the passionate lyrics of “Won’t Get fooled Again” by The Who to help my message land.

Every good leader demonstrates, by definition, strong change leadership skills.  Be it a CEO guiding the company to a more successful place or a team leader improving efficiency, both require doing something different and this requires delivering change.  People who can inspire change take away the fear of change, and through accountability they inspire trust and create an emotional connection.

Emotional connections help people with the cycle of change, if you can find that connection you can inspire exploration and the acceptance of change, even in difficult circumstances.

A few years ago, I was inspired by the passion of a presenter talking about Accountability as a Leader and being brave in your decisions. The business environment is consistently evolving, and, in these circumstances, it is easier and safer to keep doing the same thing.  However, in a rapidly changing world doing the same thing rarely gives you the same performance, let alone a better one.  In fact, it nearly always gives you worse results over time.  Everyday examples of this are seen in retail businesses or sports teams, if you do not continually adapt, change, and improve you will struggle to succeed.

The presentation ended with the message “so what will you do differently?  What is your plan for tomorrow?”.  An impassioned plea to the leaders present in the room to drive the necessary change for the business to prosper.  This triggered another musical association for me, which created a strong emotional connection to this message that still inspires me today.  The song lyrics are:

“What’s your plan for tomorrow?  Are you a leader or will you follow?

Are you a fighter or will you cower? It’s our time to take back the power”

How can you be that leader who inspires change, fight to do the right thing in the right way and take control of what is important?

At R&G Global consulting, we use data driven leadership and change acceleration to inspire your team to harness the power of change to excel in your market.

Mark Johnson is a Consultant at R&G Global Consultants, based in the United Kingdom.