How would you like to lead change and have followers line up to support you? How would you like to know what makes those people line up behind you? You can ... read on and see what it takes to be a real change leader.

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Leading Change - Being the Change
By Ed Kugler

As a change leader, it is up to you to insure that people believe in the change you are leading. Gandhi is oft quoted as saying, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” He certainly did that as he lived as a pauper among his people and brought down the British Empire with nothing but his example. You must do the same.

It is common to see the exact opposite. In one company we worked where the change being shouted was massive the leaders did nothing different. While they were attempting to lead a change that would require a new system in each and every part of the company, nothing changed for them. They were leaving at noon on Friday for their golf games while the masses below them were working nights and weekends to keep up with their ‘day jobs’. Sometime back I was reading a book and in it was this quote, “What we do everyday is what we believe, all the rest is just talk.” That says it all.

These so called leaders were very diligent in listening to their consultants and conducting their ‘Town Hall’ meetings every Friday morning. They conducted their monthly ‘Update Meetings’ and were popping the buttons off their sharp new suits at how well they were ‘managing’ the project. All the while the project was going down the proverbial tubes.

On one change project I worked with the employees that human resources determined were the ‘affected’ employees. I got my way and met with them privately, and they talked. The HR Director planned a communications meeting for the following Monday. It was his routine ‘Pizza Luncheon’. In my meetings with these ‘affected’ people one hundred percent of them told me they wouldn’t set foot in his meeting if they didn’t have to go.

Of course I asked, “Why do you have to go?

One young lady angrily replied, “If we don’t we’ll be on the list.” “The list” I asked.

Then the whole room erupted into a tirade of anger, spewing forth like protesters in a third world country, but this demonstration wasn’t staged. It was heartfelt and they knew they were right, they were living it everyday. The message was consistent from group to group … there was no trust in the midst of a massive change.

At the end of the week I met privately with the HR Director they were referring to and he asked what I thought. I’m in the business of delivering truth, it was time.

“I understand you are having a meeting with the folks on Monday,” I asked like a Defense Attorney on cross, already knowing the answer.

“Oh yes, we do them monthly, to keep everyone informed.” He proudly replied with more than enough authority to make you want to lose your lunch.

“You do realize that one hundred percent of your people do not want to attend your meeting don’t you?” I replied, emotionless, looking him straight in the eye.

He was more than a little taken aback, insulted but professional as he said, “Well … why wouldn’t they want to come?”

“It’s simple.” I said calmly. “Because you tell them nothing but BS every time you get together … there is no trust.”

That was a little like tossing a hand grenade on the desk that sat between us. You can imagine how things went after that, but he needed to hear the truth. He wasn’t the change he was asking of his people, anything but. At one point he actually told me he was happy he traveled as much as he did because he didn’t like ‘all those people coming in to his office complaining’.

Leaders are leaders because they are going somewhere that people want to go. They show by their every action that they are the change of which they speak. They lead as near to what Gandhi said as possible. And their actions reflect … what we do everyday is what we believe, all the rest is just talk.

Ed Kugler

Ed Kugler has been living change since the jungles of Vietnam where he was a Marine Sniper for two-years in the Vietnam War. He came home to a country he hadn't left and began work as a mechanic and truck driver. Since then he has worked his way into the executive suite of Frito Lay, Pepsi Cola and Compaq Computer where he was Vice President of Worldwide Logistics, a position he achieved with no college degree. Ed left in 1997 to consult and write. He is the author of Dead Center - A Marine Sniper's Two Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War and five other books and counting. He regularly consults with some o the nations leading companies on organizational change and coaches individuals to make the most of their lives. Ed is the father of three, grandfather to three and has been married to the same woman for 38 years and counting. http://www.nomorebs.com http://www.edkugler.com

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