As a leader, sooner or later you will be involved in, or even leading, some form of significant change. The challenge of leading change is significant. The reason for this is quite simply that most of us are to some extent change resistant. As a result, it can often feel like you are pushing a heavy rock uphill.

By the same token, when it comes to change, leaders are often:

• Vague about what they are trying to achieve in the medium to longer term.
• Poor at presenting a picture of what things will be like when the change is achieved.
• Uncompelling in creating a case why people should get on board in making a change happen.

While you, as the leader, might want to communicate in big picture terms, the truth is most people don't just want the rough outline. They want to see the specific steps that they will have to follow to get from where they are now to where they are heading.

Part of the reason for this is that people want to get the clarity, not just on the actions but, more importantly, on what the implications will be for them. Another reason is that it starts to build trust and take away some of the worries and questions that people have.

Next it allows people to make choices about whether they want to be supportive or oppose the change. Finally, we all only follow when we can clearly see the way forward.

The Bottom Line

Leading change is a tough call. So what do you need to start doing to more clearly set out the steps on the change journey?