as easy as... measuring engagement

If we can get clear about where we’re headed and why (the direction of change), people will follow. Right?

If only it were that simple!

Leading change is not about perfection; it’s about balance. Balancing planning with momentum, clarity with compassion, and your needs with those of your team. And while clarity and direction matter, they don’t mobilize people.

So, how do we get people on the path to change?

Engagement.

Change requires you to engage your employees with logic, compassion, and consistency. We fail to create change when we don’t identify the right reasons and don’t generate enough passion for the change. The lesson? Successful and lasting change requires that we leverage both logic and passion.

Engagement fulfills this need because it connects the business and the people in deeply professional and personal ways. It provides you with insight to understand what makes sense and what matters to your employees, allowing you to build a bridge between business strategy and individual purpose. It creates connection through respectful communication and compassion in the face of resistance.

Let’s break down what engagement looks like when it’s present. While we may experience a feeling of being engaged, true engagement depends on specific conditions.

• Mission & individual purpose are in agreement.

• Company culture & personal values are aligned.

• The available resources & support are matched to employees’ needs & safety.

• Leadership is aware of & dedicated to individual aspirations.

• Job expectations are fulfilled by people’s skills & abilities.

So, what makes this kind of engaging leadership possible? It comes down to a few core competencies that balance the realities and demands of your work, circumstances, and people during change.

COMPELLING COMMUNICATION

• Organizes clear, concise messages, suited to the needs of the audience

• Delivers messages in a manner that prioritizes understanding over personality

• Balances logic and emotion to create effective, meaningful messages

HUMILITY AND EMPATHY

• Practices care for and awareness of self and others

• Acknowledges and learns from mistakes, laying the foundation for psychological safety

• Demonstrates respect for people’s intrinsic value and worth

PERSEVERANCE

• Possesses the ability to assess the effort and energy needed to address difficulties

• Marries realism and optimism to create an authentic, encouraging presence in the face of challenges

• Connects effort to present demands and future needs to ensure sustainable outcomes

Engaging leadership during change is a balancing act, grounded on the skills, knowledge, and abilities that support success. This is important: Leading change is about achieving balance. Not perfection. Just balance.

The work of making change happen involves balancing the time needed for preparation and the drive to create momentum.

Navigating the day-to-day circumstances of leading change means dealing compassionately with resistance while continuously assessing the team’s readiness to change.

Managing people through change is an ongoing balance between the head and the heart, ensuring people know and connect with the change.

To achieve balance, you can ask yourself powerful questions that will uncover what you need to do, what it will mean for your employees, and how best to navigate challenging communication. We will use these and a few other key questions to further define these concepts.

ACCOMPLISHING YOUR WORK

Because you have work to do to make change happen, you need to explore how much preparation to do before it’s time to take action and build momentum. This means developing a plan that is sufficient to meet the need, sustainable with the resources you have, and adaptable to meet challenges along the way (Preparation). And this leads to taking action at the right time with enough people ready to move (Momentum).

You can assess the effort and timing needed with these questions:

• How much preparation do I need to do?

• Is the plan sufficient, sustainable, and adaptable?

• When will it be too late to change?

• When must I begin to create momentum?

SURVEYING YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES

Your team and their circumstances can support or be a barrier to change. All change will stir up some level of resistance, the natural, hard-wired human response to anything that does not match with our expectations of the future. This is a normal and predictable element of any change. But even in the face of resistance, you can assess the team’s readiness. This is the mental, emotional, and environmental point when people are willing and able to begin to change; they understand enough, accept enough, and have enough support to try.

These questions can help you navigate resistance and determine readiness:

• What level/type of resistance will I encounter?

• What exactly are people resisting within this change?

• How do I know if people are ready?

• How ready is my team for the change?

CONNECTING WITH YOUR PEOPLE

Balancing logic and passion is essential to leading change. Leaders must be prepared to meet people’s need for information by clarifying the logic behind and reason for the change, as well as creating a clear understanding of the steps needed to reach the future. This is speaking to the head. In a similar way, it is vital to speak to the heart, demonstrate care, and support belonging by addressing their individual fears and concerns, as well as creating a vivid picture of their place in the future.

Use these questions to clarify how you can connect to heads and hearts:

• Where will you find the necessary and relevant information to support the business case for change?

• What words, phrases, and facts will appeal to people’s heads?

• What are the issues and concerns that matter most to your employees?

• What words, phrases, and stories will appeal to their hearts?

With many organizational changes, the timing and outcomes are defined for leaders. While this doesn’t remove the responsibility to prepare and create momentum, it does mean that leaders can turn their attention to understanding their circumstances sooner. Which, in turn, will prepare them to address the needs of their people with more confidence and accuracy. This begins with understanding the types and intensity of possible resistance and estimating how ready your team is to make the changes you are asking of them.

Considering the resistance you have already encountered or could encounter, what might prevent your team from being ready enough to change? Be sure to look beyond personalities, willfulness, and other subjective factors. Taking time to do this early in the change process—and revisiting this question at regular intervals—will equip you to respond with composure and compassion.

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REFLECTION

Communicating effectively during change means meeting people’s need for information and need for care and belonging, with attention paid to both the present and the future. To help you, here are two short reflection exercises. Don’t feel that you have to aim for perfection. Simply use these to identify key elements for communication throughout the change initiative.

One message for the head

What will appeal to people’s heads? Providing information that logically clarifies the change and creates a clear understanding of the steps they need to take. This is clear, concise, and credible communication about the facts behind this change.

First, focus on the present.

1) What are 2 facts about this change?

2) How are these facts objectively relevant to the team's work?

3) What is a simple way to state/convey this information?

Then, consider the future.

1) What are 3-5 actions employees will need to take to achieve this change?

2) How will these actions objectively and measurably alter the team's work?

3) What is a simple way to state/convey this information?

One message for the heart

What will appeal to people’s hearts? Communication that acknowledges people’s need for security, care, and belonging, that addresses their individual fears and concerns about the change, and that creates a vivid picture of their place in the future. You can do this by preparing clear, concise, relatable communication that focuses on the personal impact of this change.

First, focus on the present.

1) What are 2 or 3 concerns you hear from employees about this change?

2) What is the biggest impact of this change on an employee's identity?

3) What is a simple and compassionate way to state/convey your understanding of this information?

Then, consider the future.

1) What are your hopes for the team and the future you are trying to achieve with this change?

2) How will the workplace feel once the change is accomplished?

3) What is a simple and compassionate way to state/convey your understanding of this information?

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When you lead through change, it takes more than a roadmap to guide people forward. It requires you to create connections that bridge logic and emotion. That’s the power of engagement, creating harmony and synergy between personal interests and organizational needs—making real change possible.