How to Build Confidence and Resilience in Change Leadership

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Great leadership in the workplace is instrumental to the success of any organisation. A knowledgeable, passionate, and empathetic leader has the potential to steer effective decision-making, foster problem-solving attitudes, and contribute to the overall productivity of a company.

But there’s more than that. In a recent survey, 35% of respondents said that a good leader can also help enhance employee well-being. And with mental health in the workplace becoming an increasingly important aspect for more and more companies, this is certainly something worth keeping in mind.

What happens, then, when a much-loved leader leaves an organisation? Without a proper process in place, this might usher in a time of disruption and discontent. If you want to learn how to succeed at managing your change leadership, keep reading our guide.

The Importance of Confidence and Resilience in Change Leadership

Many aspects are crucial when it comes to carrying out an effective leadership change within an organisation, but two are definite priorities: confidence and resilience. Both can generate an array of benefits, including:

• Trust: Employees going through a change leadership period need to know things are going to be OK. They need, essentially, to trust whoever the new leader is. If the new leader demonstrates that they are a confident and resilient individual who has the skills and resources to steady the ship in the worst of weather, then that’s a brilliant start.
• Empathy: Change of leadership can stir up all sorts of emotions in employees, particularly those who were close to the former leader. With a confident and resilient attitude, the new leader can begin to form authentic relationships with their teams, fostering a sense of understanding and belonging through empathy.
• Engagement: Keeping employees involved and engaged through a transitioning period such as that of change leadership is vital to the overall effectiveness of the process. By leveraging confidence and resilience, the new leader can better communicate, collaborate, and engage with employees, who in turn will be in a much better place to withstand any potential hurdles.

Now, let’s examine both confidence and resilience in more detail and offer some advice on how to enhance each one during a change of leadership.

Building confidence

Fostering confidence—both within yourself and among your staff—is a necessary first step when embarking on a change leadership journey. But what can confidence help you with, exactly?

Self-awareness and self-assessment

A confident leader is not just a leader who knows what their skills and strengths are (and how to use them)—it’s also someone who has a deep understanding of their weaker points, and who is not afraid to own up to their mistakes.

By building confidence, leaders can empower employees to share both their best and their not-so-good moments, helping them to celebrate wins and milestones while at the same time being receptive to constructive criticism and offers of help.

Setting achievable goals

Achieving big goals can often be tempting, but it might not always be realistic, especially during times of such major transition as those that a change in leadership is likely to bring. So, to keep things simple and feasible, and avoid dampening your team’s morale, be sure to set objectives that are within your reach.

A good idea is to follow the popular SMART framework for goal setting. This indicates that the goals should be:

• Specific: It’s no use to draw up a list of vague, generic goals. Nobody will be interested in working towards them, and they might also feel unattainable. Instead, try to be as precise as possible, even if it means narrowing down the list to only one or two items.
• Measurable: The goal itself must be easily measurable to determine whether the process of achieving a goal is working or if anything needs to change.
• Achievable: This is possibly one of the most crucial factors. Goals should be realistic and feasible, otherwise they might discourage your whole team and feel disconnected from your overall strategy. A financial services organisation would be unlikely to achieve a 100% improvement in customer retention within a year, for example.
• Relevant: Your goals must make sense to your organisation—not anyone else’s. Using sector-specific tools can help you set goals that are relevant to your unique situation. If you run an NGO, financial software for nonprofits can provide tailored reports on grant management that helps you set realistic targets.
• Time-bound: Lastly, it’s crucial that goals have some sort of deadline. This doesn’t have to be a strict one, but having a rough date or period to work towards can generate that sense of urgency and momentum in employees, helping them do their best to achieve it.

A confident leader knows exactly which goals are within their reach, and trust their capacity—and that of their team—to achieve them.

Continuous learning and improvement

Earlier we mentioned how a confident leader should be knowledgeable. In our digital age, when everything seems to be moving at breakneck speed, today’s knowledge might no longer be sufficient in tomorrow’s business world.

The solution? Continuous learning and improvement. Consider things like training, joining webinars or LinkedIn groups, and enrolling in a course to refine specific skills.

Be sure to also provide plenty of networking opportunities for your team members, as this is another great way to learn from others and improve skills and knowledge.

Developing Resilience

Resilience can be defined as the ability to “bounce back” from a difficult, stressful, or even traumatic event, situation, or period. This results in regaining control of things and achieving better overall well-being.

Mindfulness and stress management

Well-being in the workplace is now becoming more of an expectation than a “nice-to-have”. There are many positive implications for both employers and employees. Employees enjoying better mental and physical well-being are happier, more productive, and more loyal to their employers. In turn, this means a more profitable workforce, which directly benefits companies.

A change management period can be extremely stressful for new leaders, so be sure to allow yourself plenty of opportunities to nurture your own well-being, which ultimately will allow you to develop and strengthen your resilience. Consider activities such as yoga, mindfulness, journalling, and incorporate regular exercise into your day. And don’t forget to treat yourself to a good night’s sleep as often as possible.

Embracing challenges and learning from failure

As much as you would love for everything to fall into place like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, there are bound to be times when things just don’t click.

Have you received unexpected criticism from your employees who didn’t feel adequately supported at a specific point in the process? Consider upping your communication and networking initiatives, and make it crystal clear that your door is always open.

Has your budget management software shown that a specific activity you took during the early stages of your change leadership process resulted in a hefty loss? Don’t get too hung up on this—instead, use it as an important lesson that should inform and guide your actions and decisions moving forward.

Building a support network

Employees are not the only ones who benefit from having regular support—leaders do, too, especially during transition times. By building a support network for yourself, you’ll be able to interact with other leaders going through a similar situation (or who have gone through it already), gaining not only support but also practical tips and advice.

Also, don’t underestimate the power of your personal support network. Family members, close friends, and even former trusted colleagues can be vital in having your back at this often stressful time.

Practical Techniques for Leading Change

Now, let’s look at a few hands-on ways in which you can turn your change leadership into an utter success.

Effective communication

Collaboration and communication are two pivotal aspects for a leader during such a profound transition period. Make sure you keep all the relevant people always in the loop at each stage of the process.

Consider organising regular meetings—both one-to-ones and team-wide—and be utterly open and transparent when explaining how the transition is unfolding. This might become even more challenging if some of your employees work remotely.

In this case, be sure to implement and use cloud-based collaboration platforms. These enable people, whether in-house or remote, to interact, share information, and access files securely.

Engaging and motivating teams

Did you know that customer satisfaction can go up by 10% if employees are more engaged? This is just one of the many reasons why you should prioritise team engagement and motivation during your change leadership period.

To foster these, schedule team-bonding activities, incorporate gamification into the process, and give regular feedback to team members. All this will go a long way towards keeping everyone involved at a time when so many things may feel out of control.

Managing resistance and conflict

The arrival of a new leader, as we mentioned earlier, can bring to the surface all sorts of emotions. Sometimes, these might not be entirely positive ones: from sadness to shock, from resentment to mistrust, this can quickly become an incredibly challenging period for employees, if not acted upon swiftly.

For this reason, it’s vital that the new leader is able to handle any potential resistance or conflict that arises in their workforce, especially in the early days. Instead of adopting a defensive attitude and shutting everyone out, the new leader should be prepared and willing to positively deal with criticism as well as other issues—whether about their own leadership style, any specific employee’s behaviour, or the transition as a whole.

Final Thoughts

Change leadership can be a crucially complex time for an organisation. To make sure things go as smoothly as possible, new leaders should focus on developing confidence and resilience. These will help foster trust, engagement, and a sense of belonging in the workforce.

Follow the tips in our article and you’ll be well on your way to turning this transitional period into an utter success.

This article was guest written by James Deverick.