Anders Lodberg Theut

In my experience there is the question of your personal leadership style and then the change leadership role you play in different stages of the change, let me focus on the change leadership role here. When dealing with org changes i would break it down the following way. 1) be explorative and curious when looking at what needs to change, 2) be organized and allow time for deep thinking when trying to bring it all together in a case of change and direction, 3) be decisive and driving when the getting the buy in for the change from stakeholders , 4) be clear and respectful when announcing the change 5) be empathetic and listen a lot when driving through the change in the org. Always take and show ownership

i am always surprised how easy it is for people to act professional in very hard situations. it is my consistant experience through many reorgs. Nevertheless it is still good advise to be extra professional in change situations, put your own emotions in the background and be mindfull about sharing everything you feel. the challenge here, is to still keep acting with authenticity, something which is also required in order to "sell the change". to me that balance is made by understanding for yourself what is right and wrong in a change, and generally try to communicate that professionally e.g I think we have offered good terms for the colleagues we had to let go, I was sad to see how many good people had to let go, etc.

Here I think there is a time for everything. how much you empower depends on what kind of change we are talking about. If the change is about restructuring with the likeliness of making people redundant, I would caution broader empowerment until the "high stake work" is done. Leave this to the expert and give leaders clear directions what role they will play, dont allow experimentation. Once any redundancies are carried out, and the work becomes about adapting to a new org setup or operating model, involve leaders at all levels. But remember empowerment requires power, in these processes often through delegating more authority to make things work, make decisions flows smoother and control the process by defining clear guard rails up front.

this is easier said than done, and what i typically see leaders struggle the most with. To do it well, you need to start early. The way you start early is, to think about, and DOCUMENT your thought process, through the process of designing the change. E.g when doing an operating model change, start by spending time on capturing the problem statement and the aspiration and success criteria for the change; what are the current paint points, and if it is financial then be honest about it. Then keep refining that through the change, and practice it when you onboard stakeholders on the "the program". At the time you announce it, it should be clear what you are doing, if you have started working on it early this way.

in my experience, Dealing with organizational and operating model changes, what is useful in the early planning phase is to get a picture of: 1) which areas of the business will be impacted, 2) which stakeholder groups are linked to these areas, 3) what is the scale of impact by area, 4) what will be their likely reaction / attitude towards the changes, 5) how can their concerns be addressed, by stakeholder group, 6) what kind of program and leadership effort will these actions require, 7) who will be responsible for carrying it out. Those are the basics, and that can be done in different formats, depending on complexity and scale - can also just be a conversation in a meeting with a meeting log