Leaders Want Better OCM Skills Too

Two words that are all too common these days: change fatigue. It can feel like everything is changing and everyone is exhausted as a result. To support people during peak seasons of change, leaders need to flex their organizational change management skills. We met with Julie Harrison, an executive coach and change expert, who shared that almost every leader that she coaches wants to improve their OCM skills, but does not necessarily know where to start. 

Leaders can take these steps to improve their OCM skills: 

1. Research the value of change management.

Julie often hears from leaders in the C-Suite, mid-level manager, and everyone in between say, “I want to get better at change management, but I honestly don’t understand what it is.” The first step to improving change management skills is for leaders to educate themselves on what change management is and why it’s necessary for change to be successful. A great way to start learning more about OCM is by reading through the Prosci website. Prosci is a leader in change management research and has a plethora of articles, data, and statistics to demystify change management for leaders. When leaders understand what change management is and its value, they can be better champions for change management. 

2. Answer these five questions about the change: 

• What’s changing?  

• When is it changing?  

• Why is it changing now?  

• What’s the risk of not changing? (Pro tip: This is key for people to know) 

• What’s not changing? (Pro tip: This gives people comfort) 

Julie shared that often once leaders answer these five key questions, the light bulb goes off. They’ll say, “Yeah, you're right. My team members don’t know the urgency of the change or the risk of not changing.” Leaders often know about a change long before their team and sometimes they forget the criticality of bringing their teams up to speed and along the change journey with them. 

3. Tap into your emotional intelligence. Leaders should ask themselves, “How do I think my team will react to the change?” This helps leaders pause, consider, and rely on their emotional intelligence and plan what they should do or say to overcome objections or roadblocks. Leaders must think through what they need to share to get people on board with the change.  

4. Engage an executive coach and change management practitioner. When there’s not a change practitioner, leaders often don’t know where to start with leading people through change: Where should I get involved? What should I communicate? To whom do I communicate and when? When a leader is new to change management, they should rely on help from an executive coach and an OCM practitioner and learn as much as they can. An OCM practitioner will create a change management plan so that leaders understand what’s needed to lead people through change. When an OCM practitioner and executive coach partner together to support an executive through the change process, even more magic can happen: leaders will be coached through what they need to do to influence and lead people through change.  

Many leaders want to improve their change management skills but simply don’t know where to start. Leaders should understand the basics of change management, answer five key questions about every change, tap into their emotional intelligence, and rely on a professional coach and change management practitioner to successfully lead change. Improving OCM skills to become a better leader won’t happen overnight but it can happen by taking the right next step.  

Contact ChangeStaffing to learn more about improving change management skills and recruiting OCM support!  

Thank you to Julie Harrison for her thought leadership and for collaborating with us on this blog.  

Written by Kylette Harrison