Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, Soft Side of Change Management (20-slide PowerPoint presentation). This document contains 6 frame Change Management frameworks that deal with the "soft" side of managing effective organizational change:
1. Dimensions of Change
2. Emotional Cycle of Change
3. Ingredients of Change
4. Level of Commitment
5. Phases of Team Building
6. Trust [read more]
Also, if you are interested in becoming an expert on Change Management, take a look at Flevy's Change Management Frameworks offering here. This is a curated collection of best practice frameworks based on the thought leadership of leading consulting firms, academics, and recognized subject matter experts. By learning and applying these concepts, you can you stay ahead of the curve. Full details here.
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First of all, let’s start with the word “professional.” Well, I tried searching Google and found this one in Business Dictionary:
Person formally certified by a professional body of belonging to a specific profession by virtue of having completed a required course of studies and/or practice. And whose competence can usually be measured against an established set of standards and/or a person who has achieved an acclaimed level of proficiency in a calling or trade.
That’s cool then! Or is it?
Let me just take the following key phrases from the above:
“Certified by a professional body.”
“Measured against an established set of standards.”
Instead, let’s focus more on what kind on personal attributes someone needs in order to be able to “cut it” as a Change Management professional. Why? Because I think this is equally, if not more important, than the three bullets above.
Again, in my inimitable way, I like to be clear about what I mean so I checked in Google again and came up with this definition for the word attribute on Your Dictionary:
An attribute is a quality or characteristic of a person, place or thing. Personal attributes are character traits or personality traits.
So, let’s have a look at a sample selection of what I mean by this.
Diagnostician and developer of clear change goals.
The Facilitator.
The Designer.
The Project Manager.
The Educator.
The Marketer.
Inspiration Agent.
Systems Integrator and Coordinator.
Monitor.
Daryl Connor also addressed this issue in 2012 in his first of his two blogs on “Assessing Leaders for Change” called Assessing Leaders for Change Roles, from which the following are just a few of the many attributes/characteristics:
Approaches change as a process rather than an event.
Has a quick, thoughtful, and decisive manner when making decisions.
Strikes the right balance between inviting participation and making unilateral decisions.
Communicates directly.
Self-assured without appearing presumptuous.
I could go on forever with these lists if I wanted to, but, don’t worry, I won’t. What I would like to do is just delve a little deeper into something called “charisma.”
In my recent article called Change Management Methodologies I talked about charisma–i.e. I read an interesting article published by the Fast Company last year called “Cultivating Charisma: How Personal Magnetism can Help (or Hurt) you at Work” by Olivia Fox Cabane author of “The Charisma Myth,” in which she says, “There’s no one form of charisma that is good or bad per se. There’s only the right form of charisma for the particular situation” and “It’s charisma that helps determine which ideas get adopted and how effectively your projects are implemented.”
But can you develop charisma or is it something you were born with?
This article called “How to Be Charismatic” on wikiHow seems to think you can as it cites the following (oops sorry another list):
Exude confidence.
Show charisma through your body language.
Make people feel special.
Be witty.
Be engaging.
My personal view is that whilst you can develop confidence, you cannot develop charisma.
I’ll bet you are wondering what the point of all this is!
What I am alluding to is that a person who has a calling to be a Change Manager not only needs an amount of training and experience, but also needs many personal attributes/characteristics to be successful at what they do. Clearly, training is the first rung of the ladder which is followed by experience, but personal attributes/characteristics are those that are already there, but (to an extent) can be nurtured and honed through experience.
Basically, a Change Manager needs to be many things to many people.
This "new and improved" A Comprehensive Guide to Change Management,, which replaces my previous "best seller" of the same name, contains everything (well nearly everything) you would ever want to know about Change Management. This slide-deck now contains over 580 slides which includes [read more]
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"The only constant in life is change." – Heraclitus
Such is true for life, as it is for business. The entire ecosystem our organization operates in—our customers, competitors, suppliers, partners, the company itself, etc.—is constantly changing and evolving. Change can be driven by emerging technology, regulation, leadership change, crisis, changing consumer behavior, new business entrants, M&A activity, organizational restructuring, and so forth.
Thus, the understanding of, dealing with, and mastery of the Change Management process is one of the most critical capabilities for our organization to develop. Excellence in Change Management should be viewed as a source of Competitive Advantage.
This is a collection of common Strategy and Management Consulting Frameworks. A Management Consulting Framework provides a structured approach to analyzing and solving a common business problem. It allows Management Consultants to address a client’s business issue in an organized, thorough, and [read more]
Successful change isn't just about strategies--it's about people. The McKinsey Influence Model of Leading Change offers a unique, research-backed approach that differentiates itself from other change leadership frameworks by focusing on what truly drives behavioral transformation. Unlike [read more]
Seventy percent of change programs fail, according to the April 2001 Harvard Business Review article, "Cracking the Code of Change". According to Bain & Company, businesses that implement fast, focused, and simultaneous change programs can create enormous and long-lasting shareholder value. [read more]
Change is the only constant in the work environment today. However, a McKinsey study revealed that 70% of change programs fail, most often due to resistance from employees. For change to be successful, it has to be effectively managed. To achieve this, it is essential that the human side of change [read more]
First of all, let’s start with the word “professional.” Well, I tried searching Google and found this one in 
