Unlock Success: 5 Essential Behaviors of Leaders Who Thrive in Change

Essential Behaviors of Leaders Who Thrive in Change

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are notorious for their high failure rates, with studies often citing figures closer to 70-90%. A consistent culprit? The human factor. Organizations frequently treat the closing date of an M&A as the finish line, when in reality, it's just the starting gun for massive, disruptive change. This period of integration, lasting weeks and months, throws employees into uncharted territory, disrupting their sense of normal.

Leaders navigating this environment aren't just managing a new organization; they're guiding people who no longer belong to the company they initially joined. This disorientation can lead to resistance or uncertainty as employees seek their place. Yet, amidst this disruption, new challenges and opportunities for growth constantly emerge – not just in integration, but within the marketplace and among customers. And let's be honest, M&As aren't the only changes leaders face. Reports indicate that the average organization has undergone five enterprise-wide changes in the past three years, with a staggering 73% expecting this pace to accelerate.

In such a dynamic landscape, change agility isn't merely a desirable trait; it must be ingrained in the very DNA of the new organization and its leaders. It can't be confined to a select few; it needs to be the default mode of operation. Successful change-agile leaders at every level respond to shifts in the business environment by actively seizing opportunities, even if it means discarding old models and developing entirely new ways of doing business. They strive to make change thinking contagious, embedding it into every interaction, from daily tasks to complex strategic decisions.

These five integrated behaviors, when demonstrated together, empower leaders to cultivate a competitive advantage for their organizations in an ever-evolving world.

1. Share a Compelling, Clear Purpose

Purpose acts as the ultimate guidepost for action. In the face of change, people naturally resist what's unknown. Change agility demands a clear answer to the fundamental question: "Why?" This answer must tap into what's meaningful and important, offering an irresistible invitation for everyone to embrace the journey.

As Shoei Yamana, CEO of Konica Minolta, wisely stated, "My belief is that people don’t work for numbers…they need to share the same belief that they are creating value in some way." If you, as a leader, cannot clearly articulate the purpose behind organizational changes, it's highly improbable that your employees will be able to effectively implement them. A shared purpose transforms reluctant followers into engaged participants.

2. Look Ahead and See Opportunity

While often seen as the exclusive domain of senior executives, fostering change agility requires empowering mid and front-line leaders to identify opportunities. These leaders are closest to the markets, customers, and daily operations, making them uniquely positioned to spot emerging trends and potential advantages. They need to be encouraged and incentivized to look beyond short-term goals, identifying trends and taking proactive action.

History is replete with examples of market leaders who failed to see or act on opportunities ahead – think Kodak, Sears, and Motorola. To embed this behavior throughout the organization, leaders should:

• Make Opportunity-Seeking Part of the Regular Conversation: Simply asking questions like, "What are our customers talking about? What do you think they will want a year or two from now? What new trends do you think will impact us?" sends a powerful message that looking ahead is crucial.

• Provide Space to Experiment: When a potential opportunity is identified, empower individuals or groups to experiment with ways to capitalize on it. Minimize bureaucratic hurdles and multiple layers of sign-off, which can stifle momentum and create a risk-averse culture.

• Advertise Successes: Nothing fuels progress like visible success. Share stories of foresight and proactive action at company events, and publicly recognize middle and front-line leaders who are identifying and acting on opportunities. This demonstrates that the status quo is no longer sufficient.

3. Seek Out What’s Not Working

The old adage "bad news doesn't travel up" rings true, especially during times of significant organizational change like M&A integrations. For genuine learning and improvement to occur, organizations need to address problems head-on. This requires creating a psychologically safe environment where people feel comfortable sharing "the good, the bad, and the ugly."

Consider Derek, who led the integration of several internal units into a merged organization. He meticulously worked on fostering psychological safety within his new team of direct reports. They openly discussed challenges using a trust framework, acknowledging what they brought to the team and what they needed from each other. Through regular "pulse checks" and difficult conversations, this open communication and psychological safety cascaded throughout the 250-person organization. It culminated in a two-day meeting where the entire organization openly discussed what was working well, and what opportunities and challenges needed addressing. Impressively, even amidst integration turbulence, their employee engagement survey scores were among the highest in the company’s history – a testament to the power of open feedback.

4. Promote Calculated Risk-Taking and Experimentation

Robert Kennedy, famously paraphrasing George Bernard Shaw, said, "There are those who look at things the way they are and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" Too often, traditional organizations instinctively ask "Why?" when faced with risk. Change agility flips this script, requiring leaders to ask "Why not?" and to actively establish opportunities for pilots, prototypes, and experimentation.

Experimentation is the lifeblood of R&D. While an overall strategy guides researchers, any R&D scientist will tell you that success often emerges from dozens of "failures." Without the willingness to experiment and learn from what doesn't work, true breakthroughs are impossible. Leaders must cultivate a culture where calculated risks are encouraged and seen as integral to innovation and adaptation.

5. Look for Boundary-Spanning Partnerships

As work becomes increasingly complex, achieving significant results often hinges on cross-functional teams and collaborations. Change-agile leaders and organizations are actively dismantling traditional functional silos, replacing them with formal and informal structures that facilitate the rapid flow of information and decision-making around specific products, customers, or regions.

For example, Maureen, a mid-level learning and development leader at a rapidly growing global tech company, recognized an opportunity. With her company expanding through acquisitions, retaining key talent and enhancing the employee experience were strategic priorities. Seeing an opportunity to improve both employee experience and cost efficiencies across dispersed learning teams, she proactively brought together her fellow learning leaders. Together, they designed and implemented a new shared services organization that centralized training development and vendor management. This initiative created standardized branding and processes, leveraged tools, and generated significant cost savings through consistently negotiated contracts. The result: a more consistent employee learning experience across the company and more efficient addressing of learning needs.

Transform Your Culture: Embrace Change, Drive Success

These five behaviors of change-agile leaders, when applied in concert, are not just individual actions; they collectively drive powerful culture shifts that dramatically increase organizational agility. These shifts are crucial at all levels of leadership, from the C-suite to the front lines. Embracing these behaviors can be the critical differentiator between M&A success and becoming another statistic in the failure column.

Ready to lead your organization through change with confidence and achieve lasting success?