Change leadership assessment

The 10 change leadership skills

Ten skills separate change leadership that works from change leadership that is merely well intentioned. Score yourself honestly against each one, note the evidence behind the score, and the report will show you where to look first.

The 10 fall into three groups.

Change planning

1. Developing, following, and adjusting a well-researched change plan
2. Developing and communicating a compelling change narrative

Change platform

1. Building around influential supporters
2. Engaging influential opponents early
3. Getting early wins, and turning those people into change champions
4. Broadening the change platform when required, without neglecting people already on it

Change interventions

1. Having a visible intervention strategy rather than reacting case by case
2. Building rapport first, where necessary, before making other interventions
3. Making the right intervention at the right time
4. Making use of indirect interventions as well as direct, one-to-one ones

Scoring yourself honestly

The skills are deliberately generic, which makes them quick to grasp and lets you lay your own change methodology over the top of them without conflict. The value is in the evidence, not the number: a score of four that you can justify with a specific example is worth more than a five you awarded on instinct.

Most people find the change platform group hardest. Building around supporters is intuitive; engaging influential opponents early is not, and it is where change programmes are most often lost.

Using the assessment in a session

The assessment works best immediately after an experience rather than before one. Run it at the end of a change management simulation, when participants have just made these decisions under pressure and can score themselves against what they actually did rather than what they believe they would do.

It also works as a standalone self-assessment, and as a before-and-after measure either side of a development programme. Nothing is sent anywhere, and no registration or download is required.