Finding and using your change intelligence

LAS VEGAS — Leaders at any level who are accountable for driving mission-critical change in their organizations need to be aware of their change intelligence and use it to be effective in improving their business.

Change intelligence, or “CQ,” is the awareness of one’s own change leader style and the ability to adapt one’s style to be optimally effective across a variety of people and situations, said Barbara Trautlein (left) of Change Catalysts during her presentation, “Develop your Change Intelligence to lead Organizational Transformation that gets Results,” presented at AAPEX in Las Vegas on Nov. 4.

To Boost change intelligence, Trautlein recommends conducting a self-assessment of your own style of leading change. “Do you primarily focus on the heart — the people — and engaging and collaborating with them? Do you primarily focus on the head — the purpose — and spearheading new visions and innovative strategies? Or do you primarily focus on the hands — the process — and the tactics and tools to make change happen?” she asked.

Each style has its strengths, but each can also become a weakness when that strength is overdone, she says. “We can be blind to other critical aspects of leading change if we focus primarily on only one style and neglect the others,” Trautlein said.

“First become self aware, and then build skill in flexing your muscles to incorporate other important leadership behaviors to lead people through change,” she said.

Regardless of your style, each one has its challenges. “For heart-oriented change leaders, it’s often failing to challenge people to move out of their comfort zone and move forward with a sense of urgency. For head-oriented change leaders, it’s often failing to enroll others in their exciting vision, or neglecting to show them the road map to get from current reality to future state.,” Trautlein said. “For hands-oriented change leaders, it can be neglecting the emotional needs and concerns of others, and failing to be flexible in managing their well-laid-out plans as situations evolve.”

In the end, having multiple options gives us the most power, she said. “By becoming aware of our change leader style, we become aware of other possible styles. Therefore, we are better equipped and empowered to flex our approach to lead people through change.”