In this episode of the Proteus Leader Show, host Erika Andersen interviews Kerri Wint, Practice Director for Leading Change at Proteus, about the essential skill of leading people and organizations through change. They discuss how the pace of change has accelerated, making adaptability a daily life skill. Change is framed as a personal transition where individuals must let go of existing identities, tasks, or expertise (e.g., reliance on spreadsheets) and adopt new ways. Kerri outlines four practical actions leaders can take to ease this transition: (1) explain the personal benefit of the change, (2) clearly define the new behaviors expected, (3) involve people early in designing the change to give them ownership, and (4) provide ongoing support and feedback. These actions build momentum, turning change into a "team sport" where people enroll others, creating an organizational shift. Finally, Kerri reminds leaders that they themselves are also in transition and should apply the same four principles to themselves, cutting themselves slack to move faster and better support their teams. The episode ends with a call to explore more resources on the Proteus Leader website.
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You're listening to the Proteus Leader Show with Erika Andersen, where you will get practical tools and insights for leading, managing, and staying ready for the future. Erika is the founding partner of Proteus, a firm that focuses uniquely on leader readiness. A nationally known executive coach and bestselling author, you may already know her as one of the most popular leadership bloggers on Forbes.com. Ready for something you can use today? Here's Erika.
Hello and welcome to the Proteus Leader Show. We're thrilled to have you as always. Today we're going to be talking about a skill set that every leader and manager in the world needs to have these days, the ability to lead their folks and their companies through change. To give you some insight and practical ideas in this area that's key to all of our success, I'm talking with Kerri Wint. Kerri's the Practice Director for Leading Change here at Proteus, and she came to us with over a decade of experience in managing change and helping others lead through change at GE and Bank of America. So welcome to the show, Kari.
Thank you, Erika. I'm really happy to be here.
I am really happy to have you. So I've just said that all of us who are managers and leaders need skills for dealing with change. Do you agree?
I absolutely agree because I know what I've experienced in my career is just an incredible acceleration in the amount of change we face every day. And I hear that from all of our clients. They're experiencing big changes, but more importantly, they're experiencing small changes. So it's not just the big events that happen anymore, the big tidal waves of change that come in. It's these constant changes in our processes, our products, our clients, more akin to like this lapping on the shore of waves constantly coming at us. So we really have to be ready for it. Because it's always around us. It's a life skill these days.
I love that, life skill, like a daily skill that you need to just lead.
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay, love that. So what do we as leaders most need to understand about change, about how it affects people?
I think the key to understand is that change is not just about the decision that we make as an organization or the end state we're trying to reach. And it's not about just the list of tasks that have to be done to get there. It's about the fact that people are doing something today and we're asking them to do something different tomorrow. And in that, they have to stop doing things. They have to let go. They're going to have to end some things that they may welcome, but many they may not want to let go of.
Mm-hmm.
And then they're going to have to begin new things, some that may be helpful, but some that may be scary. So they're really transitioning from where they are today to the end state of whatever the changes you're trying to implement. So they have to go through a process that's very personal for each person.
Okay. I'd love an example just for our listeners, just an example of a common thing that people have to let go of that's hard for them.
I think a great simple example is as every business tries to be more efficient, we are seeing so much automation of processes. We typically have done a lot of analysis on spreadsheets and people would do calculations whether it's support finance or business or operations. And we're seeing that automated. We're seeing people leverage systems. And that always feels like a good thing, a good logical thing, because we're more efficient and potentially more accurate. But if I'm the person who is using that spreadsheet, and I'm the person the organization relied on for that information, you know, that is something that may be important to me.
Mm-hmm.
There may be a piece of being an expert and being the person that others come to for that information that's going to be hard to let go when now all of a sudden everybody can go get it in the system and the system is going to calculate it. So I have to think about that as a change leader when I'm going to ask somebody to let go of something that they may be proud of or have an identity with.
Oh, I love that. So even though the new may be better and we as leaders are, hey, this is better, you guys, it still can be very hard to let go of.
It can be. And that's why I think we see people with some resistance and it doesn't seem logical to us as leaders because it should be easier.
Mm, that's great. So, so what are some practical things that we as leaders can do to make that letting go and going to the new easier for people?
Yeah, I think there's really 4 key areas that we found help people move through transition and move faster. The first is really helping them understand the need for change, and not just the corporate top-line benefit to the business, but why is it beneficial for me? You know, if I think of the example that I just shared, being able to maybe shift some time from tactical work to something a little more strategic or building other skills could be a great benefit for me if I, if I get to let go of this spreadsheet.
Yeah.
So helping people understand why it's important and why it's valuable and beneficial for me, that's key as a starting point.
Okay.
Additionally, it's helpful to be very clear with people on a behavioral level. What do you need them to do differently with what you're asking and what the change is all about? 'Cause the clearer you can be on behaviors, then people know what to do. Don't ask me to be just more collaborative. Like, what does that really mean?
Yeah.
Right?
Be specific.
The 3rd key area is involving people early on as you're developing the change or developing the new way gives them a chance to participate. helping them, letting them help figure out some of the details enrolls them. It gives them a bit of control. So they feel like they're participating, their input is being incorporated, and change is not being done to them.
Yeah.
But they're a part of it. I mean, those 3 I think are key, and we see some organizations shifting more towards that. I think the 4th and the final area is this idea of making sure people feel supported. Throughout, and that they can be successful, that they may make some mistakes along the way, but there's going to be a way for them to feel supported, whether it's asking them for feedback and incorporating their feedback, getting back to them, giving them a place to get questions answered, but letting them know this is a time of uncertainty and there's someplace they can go as they're trying to figure it all out, as they let go of things and pick new things up.
That's great. So, so it sounds like you're saying that doing these things will help Change work better overall on an organizational level. Talk to me about that. Why is that so?
Well, I think what's important is when we think about those 4 areas, in addition to just our work plan, our action item list, or our tactics, you know, we are really winning the hearts and minds of people. We're bringing them along. We're building momentum. And now we have more people working on the change and working through those action item lists together. Right? I like to say change is a team sport. And so you really have to build the team. You have to enroll people and get others to enroll others. Because then with that momentum, you now get an organizational shift. And now everybody's working through the tasks that need to happen to get to that end state, not just you and the change team.
That makes a tremendous amount of sense. So last question, how can we make change easier on us as the leaders? 'Cause we're right in the middle of it.
Yeah, you know, it's a great question because as leaders, we seem to focus on always helping others. And I think the most important thing I say to leaders is, Know that you're going through a transition also. You may be further along in the transition because you may have had the information longer because you've been working at a higher level in this change, but you are going to have to let go of things and you're going to have to pick up things too. You are transitioning just like everybody else, so recognize that, cut yourself some slack, and think about how you could do those 4 things to help yourself.
Ah, great.
Because the faster you move through, The more you're enabled to pull others through.
Kerri, this is such good, helpful advice. So listeners, I hope you feel a little better armed with some information, some practical tools to guide your people and your organization through change. I feel, and I know Kerri feels, that we're just scratching the surface here. So if you're interested in some more insights and tools, just go to ProteusLeader.com/topics and click on the Leading Change topic. There's a lot more there for you. So thanks for being here with us, Karen.
Thank you.
And thank all of you for being here with us. Keep having a great life, and let's talk again soon.
We hope you're feeling better equipped to create the career, the business, and the life you want. For more insights and tools for leadership and management, join us at ProteusLeader.com. Have an excellent day, and thanks for listening.
