3 Signs Your Organization Is Ready for Change Leadership

As an organization navigates the waters of growth, it will hit periods where a transformational change is needed. These are beyond the range of your usual, everyday goal adjustments, and could reflect a complete makeover for your business. These are the moments of challenge and opportunity that can be high-stakes for your company.

One of the main factors in how successful you are in making transitions will be having effective change leadership for this sensitive time. Leaders during change need to act differently than during general operation. With high stakes and often urgency on the line, their methods are adjusted and optimized to drive the new implementations. But how do you know when your business is ready for this more active form of leadership? Here are 3 signs that let you know when change leadership is not just helpful, but needed.

New opportunities have arisen in your industry, or for your business specifically

Maybe you have developed a product that you feel ready to launch on a larger scale, or your customer base has grown exponentially to the point that you can’t keep up as you are, or perhaps you have discovered new lines of product that you want to grow into. Your market can change drastically as consumers’ needs and awareness change, and this can be an excellent opportunity for you to transition and establish yourself before your competitors saturate the market. Anytime that your business needs to scale up to keep up with demand, this also calls for change leadership to ensure that the stages of major growth are handled competently, and to ensure that your business does not lose the qualities that attracted your customer base in the first place.

Technology updates have presented your business with new solutions.

As the technological tools available to businesses rapidly develop, you may find yourself in a completely different playing field than when you first defined your business plan. Whether there are new manufacturing tools available, online sales networks that open up new markets, or new marketing tools to demonstrate your product, tech can be a defining factor of your business plan.

Your business is starting to fall behind.

If you find that your business is missing the mark, it may be time to define a new course, rework the business plan, look over your marketing and strike out in a different direction. If sales have hit a ceiling, the market has become overly saturated, your brand is not specific enough, or some other newly discovered aspect is holding you back, it’s time to make a change to survive.

Change leadership is an active, progressive form of driving a business forward. While with transition comes risk, allowing your business to become stale ensures its mediocrity-or even failure. Catching the moments where change is necessary and shifting to change leadership lets you move forward, find the new opportunities, and scale.

About

Jeff Evans is the CEO of Envision Global Leadership. He also practices in the areas of leadership development, human systems change, and organizational capability, serving clients in a powerful capacity as learning partner and coach. He has spent the past 25 years heavily involved in supporting executives through transformational change, organizational development, and the management of organizational development and education systems. His wide experience includes work as both an internal and external consultant.