Leadership and commitment

Sandy: The temptation is to engage people in your organisation only when you feel you have all the answers, the braver and more effective thing to do is to communicate early and honestly. Give people a voice in that transformation. Involve them from the start in a meaningful way to get them on board to provide their support and wider engagement. We've seen that some of the best ideas can come from the more junior members of the team. As you're communicating and engaging. Make sure the transformation is brought to life for each individual, so that they understand how it impacts them and their teams. Explain the reasons and the benefits for the future and illustrate what role they will play. When you're on a transformation journey. There is no such thing as over engagement or over communication, the more the better.

Chris: Leaders will not have the headspace for transformation, unless it's a real priority for them. There are some practical things you can do to help with this. For example, aligning individual leaders incentives and objectives. Make some tough decisions over what activities need to be changed or even stopped to make room for the transformation, reassign business as usual responsibilities to free up time. However, fundamentally, leaders need to truly believe in the ambition, the objectives and the outcomes that the transformation will deliver. This requires dedicated time and discussing debating and shaping the transformation so they can lead and commit to it.

Christian: When you start a big important transformation programme, it's crucial that the leadership team come together as a real team working to a common goal. Each leader must personally commit to investing the necessary time, having a clear role and having an incentive to deliver. The leaders must be prepared for the difficult days and the bumps that will happen along the way. These programmes are hard, and it's very likely that some difficult decisions and trade-offs will need to be made. That is absolutely normal, but it's so much more effective when leaders genuinely support each other and allow their teams to focus on delivering the programme.

Mark: Rather than thinking of breaking down silos, look at it from the other direction. Creating an environment that fosters collaboration and co-working. Three things are important. Firstly, a shared goal. Making sure people are clear why they're working together and encouraging them to proactively share information. Secondly, team connections. The best teams work when there are personal relationships and trust. This doesn't happen naturally. You need to dedicate time and effort to build this. Finally, providing clarity over how decisions will get made in a way that empowers people. Creating this sort of environment will bring the whole organisation together to drive the transformation forward. 

Mike: Do you want to be a good leader? If so, you should rely heavily on what you already know from leading everyday business with your clients. It's important that you create an environment of transparency and collaboration so your team feels empowered to come up with thought-provoking ideas. Couple this environment with your goals for transformation, so it becomes crystal clear what you are trying to achieve. If you're able to set up a team in this way, it will allow you to focus on deepening these core leadership skills, ultimately passing them down to create future leaders over transformation.