Critical Success Factors for Change Management and the Role of Effective Leadership

Introduction

This paper talks about the critical success factors that are related with change management. Among these factors is the presence of a shared vision, accountability, stakeholder involvement, and use of appropriate tools and skills in order to help the change. Similarly, the critical success factors of change management include proper adaptation of the correct enabling behavior, and the measure and processes put in place by the change leaders in a bid to process the change in the right way. In addition, the paper talks about the importance and roles of leadership as a key change factor. This include motivation, initiating action, creation of confidence, and provision of proper guidance to the employees of a given organization. Also, the importance and roles of leadership involves creation of morale within the organization, enhancing coordination between the organization’s management and its employees, and building a good and conducive work environment for them.

Critical Success Factors of Change Management

Shared Vision

When working on any sort of change effort, it is important for a leader to come up with and deliver an inspiring point of view for the future state of the company after the change, and encourage others to work towards it. This is because people tend to get adapted easily, and show more commitment when they are guided by a vision. Therefore, it is important for the change leadership to regularly remind the employees of the concerned organization about the positive attributes that are associated with the change in order to get positive results that are connected to the vision of the change leadership (Ali and Kidd 2013, p. 250).

Accountability

Leaders of organizations must take responsibilities for the change efforts which is considered essential. However, accountability is about action. This means that communication, participation, early and regular sharing of the organization’s vision, and resource commitment are actions that demonstrated the leadership’s commitment to the change. In addition, leadership responsibility serves as a critical factor when one wants to proceed or commit for the change. Thus, it is important that the change leaders show commitment to the desired change in order to be in a position to tune the mindset of the employees towards the desired change (Hrebiniak 2013).

Involvement of Stakeholders

In order for change to be effective, it is important that the change leaders understand the nature of the stakeholders, the level of support of each stakeholder towards the change, and the degree in which the involvement of the stakeholders can affect it. This means that a proper understanding the leadership of the change need to understand, support, and establish a two-way communication with the stakeholders. This is because they play a part in making or breaking the change effort (McLachlan, Amigo, Rowe, Winchester-Seeto, Hutchison and Williamson 2016, p. 231).

Tools and Skills

The skills that play a big role in change management include the ability of the change leader to have effective communication skills. These communication skills include proper understanding of the associated individuals’ communication styles, conflict modes, and effective realization of possible resistance and the measures taken to overcome the resistance.

The tools used for effective change management includes use of stakeholder management plans that may be used numerous times during the course of the change initiative. However, as much as these tools may be effective, it is important that the change leaders know the nature of the available tools that would help to lead and manage the change. This means that they need to have a proper mastery of the necessary tools to be used to implement the change (Ahmad and Cuenca 2013, p. 105).

Enabling Behavior

The most important and critical aspects of change occur at the behavioral level. This means that proper modification of the infrastructure of the organization is important to support the change effort in order to sustain the change. These modifications may include realigning performance management plans, job descriptions, and measurement systems.

However, the employees in the organization may respond differently to the change, therefore, it is important that the change leaders offer their support through training and coaching in order to give a helping hand in the change effort. In connection to this, change leaders need to recognize and reinforce their desired behavior through celebrating small wins that are associated with the change, availing feedback concerning the progress of the change on a regular basis, and noting that each individual in the organization move differently along the change curve (Gomes, Angwin, Weber and Yedidia, 2013, p.13).

Measures and Processes

The supporting foundation of an effective transformational change is a criterion for measuring performance within the business. This means that transformational change calls upon the change leadership to assess and realign the currently used measurement systems in order to support the change effort in each section of the organization. This is irrespective of whether the metrics used by the organization are able to track process, and/or financial or personal performance. This is because in most cases, contradictory measures exist within the organization that drive the old behaviors away, and eroding the organization’s support for the change (Bradley 2016).

Importance and Roles of Effective Leadership as a Key Success Factor

Importance of Effective Leadership

Effective leadership is important because it initiates action. This means that the leadership is responsible for beginning the work to be done by the organization, for instance, through effective communication of the plans and policies to the subordinates from the beginning until the point where it ends. In summary, leading by example is important in effective leadership (DuBrin 2015).

In addition to that, effective leadership is important because it acts as a source of motivation. This can be done through offering both non-economic and economic rewards to the employees of an organization who do well in their respective lines of duty. Effective leadership is also important because it is an avenue for providing guidance to the organization’s employees. This means that apart from supervision, a leader plays the important role of guiding his/