4 Common Roadblocks for Leadership in Change Processes: Part 1
Organizational change efforts focused on equity and inclusion can be powerful, transforming everything from the impact of programs to employee retention. But stewarding that transformation requires real leadership.
Leadership support ensures that change efforts can realize their transformative potential. Without it, the process will tend to remain an underresourced side-project, or will flounder in cycles of conflict and confusion. Unfortunately, the structure of leadership roles creates many opportunities to unintentionally undermine equity efforts, even when leaders want to do the right thing.
In our years of supporting organizations across sectors, we’ve seen four leadership roadblocks come up again and again:
Distance
Bottlenecks
Drift
Perfectionism
In this 4-part series, we’ll explore each roadblock, share real world examples of how they show up, and offer practical suggestions for moving forward. These roadblocks are not inevitable! Understanding them can help you to avoid them, and be the transformative leader your organization needs.
Distance
A nonprofit executive director was vocally committed to racial justice, and even included it as a goal in the organization's yearly strategic plan. But when it came time to evaluate managers’ performance, she chose not to include equity-related metrics, calling them “too hard to quantify.” As a result, there was no roadmap for managers to follow, and no incentive to improve. Despite the public commitments, the internal culture remained unchanged, and employees across all levels noticed.
Leadership roles require a different kind of thinking than other roles. Leaders need to see the big picture of the whole organization and the context in which it operates. This is, of course, a critical strength, but it also has downsides. When you’re focused on the bird’s eye view, you can sometimes miss what’s happening on the ground in day-to-day operations and staff experience.
This distance can lead you to believe that everything is going well, because it looks that way from a distance. But the rough patches that seem minor from your vantage point are often deeply felt by staff. You might be skeptical of concerns that staff and consultants report, or dismiss them as “making a big deal out of nothing” (a reaction that can be unconsciously shaped by generational stereotypes). Even with good intentions, leaders can come across as oblivious or uncaring, which damages trust and makes collaboration harder.
Less frequently, the bird’s eye view can cause the opposite problem: believing that a change process is failing based on high-level indicators. If a committee misses a deadline, or a training doesn’t result in visible shifts right away, you might conclude that the effort isn’t working and pull back support. What you don’t see are the subtle but vital shifts taking place within individuals and teams. Building awareness, strengthening relationships, and daring to think beyond the status quo don’t necessarily show up in high-level metrics, but they’re essential to effective change work.
To avoid this roadblock, practice noticing what scale you’re focusing on – the whole org, a program, a single team – and ask what might be happening at other levels that might be less obvious to you. Listen to people whose roles give them more direct insight into day-to-day issues. Remember that the big picture and the details are connected, and that contradictions and complexity are part of the landscape.
- Leadership coaching to integrate organizational values into daily practices
- Tactical alignment between values and operations – embedding equity principles into performance reviews, budgeting, and decision-making
- Clear guidance to help employees understand how equity values apply to their work and how to measure progress
Leadership roles are demanding and even the most committed leaders can lose sight of what’s happening on the ground. Bridging that distance takes intentional strategy and support. At Think Again, we help leaders do just that through:
Leadership development through one-one-one coaching, small group work, and cohort-based programs
Organizational assessments of policies, processes, culture, and climate, with a focus on equity and effectiveness
Strategic planning and implementation support to align action with values
Trainings, workshops, and retreats for leadership and staff
Next week, we’ll dive into Bottlenecks: how well-meaning gatekeeping can stall progress and what to do instead.
