Managing change doesn’t have to be so hard

Cara Mia DiMassa is a freelance writer.

Leaders are faced with the need to keep their teams engaged and effective in the midst of a shifting corporate landscape and a host of factors that could each create potential roadblocks and paralysis. At the recent Ragan Leadership Retreat & Summit for Women, Elise Mitchell, an executive coach and consultant, and Wendy Davidson, former CEO of Hain Celestial Group, shared insights on how to successfully manage through change and uncertainty.

Changes including economic uncertainty; shifting social, political and cultural norms; GenAI adoption and scale; and a need for more nuanced metrics and stronger business acumen are transforming the work world, said Mitchell, the author of “Leading Through the Turn: How a Journey Mindset Can Help Leaders Find Success and Significance.” And it’s important for an effective leader to plan for them.

“Many of you are trying to keep not only your team engaged, maybe the team members of other divisions that you work with and support, but maybe it’s the whole front line, the whole employee base of your company, to try to keep them engaged in this journey that you are on,” Mitchell said.
Here are some highlights from both women about how to effectively manage through change:

See the benefits of change. While much about the shifting work landscape can be scary, said Mitchell, it’s important to focus on the benefits of change that we can enjoy. Change can often bring new rewards, new skills and new experiences, she said.

“As a leader, you have more control to shift the mindset in you and in your team,” Mitchell said. “Shift from an ‘are we there yet’ mindset, with change as an event, to change as a way of being.”

Address both loss and opportunity. Davidson, who has overseen three company turnarounds, noted that people react to change differently: Some see loss, while others see opportunity. Some are wondering what they will do if the change happens, while others are emboldened by what they regard as progress, she said.

As a leader, Davidson said, “you have to lead both of those camps.”

Never underestimate the value of storytelling. Leaders must clearly communicate the context of change, why it’s needed and their vision for the future, helping people understand their role in the transition.

That’s also why it’s important to have an effective communications team in place, Davidson said. “Everything that the company does, especially when you are going through a turnaround, is about storytelling internally and externally. There has to be the context of what are we dealing with, and what are we going to do?”

Foster psychological safety. Both women said that team members are more likely to step up and show leadership if they know their leader will support them, even when mistakes happen. This can be done by sharing information openly, involving employees in the process and seeking their feedback to build trust and buy-in.

Mitchell also suggests asking good questions — a centerpiece of the storytelling process — as a part of this process. What is the real dilemma here? How might we think differently? What is your greatest hope? Biggest fear? “You are coaching people to think,” Mitchell said. “If we keep rescuing people, we keep thinking for them.”

It’s also important to acknowledge and accept that things can go wrong. Davidson says she tells employees that mistakes are part of the process. “I don’t want you to make the same one multiple times, but I want you to take risks and we’ll learn together.”

Giving this permission overtly, Davidson said, made her more successful as a leader. “People will only be engaged if they have psychological safety to do so, and leaders have to set that tone.”

Demonstrate resilience and adaptability. Leaders set the tone by responding constructively to unexpected challenges and modeling the adaptability they expect from their teams.

Mitchell used an analogy to motorcycling, which requires you to “ride loose” to avoid accidents. You anticipate the road ahead, make a plan, keep one eye on where you want to end up and head in that direction.

“We are asked to innovate and create, to sharpen our competitive edge,” Mitchell said. “Change is hard. Does it have to be? Not necessarily.”