In the past weeks, I have been trying to hammer the fact that the business landscape is once more changing fast. We seem to be entering a new economic cycle characterised by high inflation and lower economic growth (Click HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE to read about it). However, notwithstanding all the change in the business environment, I still see business leaders who pay little to no attention as to how they need to change their specific behaviours to lead organisational change, as businesses need to continuously adapt to the changing external environment. The common pitfall is that business leaders rely on those behaviours that helped them grow their business and get them to where they are today. Few realise the importance of having the mindset based on the realisation that the best way to safeguard the business success achieved, their business needs to change and evolve and to do that the business needs to rely on a leadership that is successful at leading change. The first step for any business leader to lead change is being able to learn to recognise and act when it’s necessary to first evolve their own behaviours. Bottom line, businesses today require leaders with an open mindset that is constantly seeing how to pivot to new priorities, delegate old ones and shift the way they interact with their teams.

We all know that changing behaviour is hard. That is why have a process outlined to make it happen is important. Below please find an outlines of a four-step process to help business leaders change their behaviours when needed.

• Step 1: Increase Your Self-Awareness: Business leaders can only change their behaviour when they’re aware of how it’s perceived by others and of the thoughts and feelings they experience as they attempt to change. Business laders need to regularly seek feedback on how they’re perceived, not leave it in the hands of external circumstances. Second, they need to be wary of thoughts and feelings that suggest that feedback is either unnecessary or inappropriate. Noticing such thoughts is the first step to overcoming them.

• Step 2: Make Commitments: While awareness of how others perceive us can itself be a change catalyst, making commitments to others raises the likelihood of success. Such commitment would help business leaders restraining themselves to revert to old behaviours, when they feel the urge to do so.

• Step 3: Overcome Interference: Despite the best of intentions to change, business leaders often struggle when they encounter thoughts that derail their intentions. Business leaders need to understand that they are not infallible and thus need to create a gap between feedback that can provoke within them negative reactions and their actual reaction to any comments or feedback received. By doing so, business leaders can then have more productive conversations.

• Step 4: Practice: Rarely do business leaders find they can set a personal change objective, choose a path, and execute with no trouble. Successful change usually arises from trial and error, which takes deliberate practice. Business leaders do better when they practice small, needed changes deliberately, learning from the experience, rather than aiming for a big bang of all needed changes.

I am personally tired seeing business leaders being the main stumbling block for the change that their own business is crying out loud for. Behaviour change is hard, but it’s a skill leaders who want to succeed amid near-constant organisational change need to develop. By increasing their self-awareness, committing to change, overcoming limiting thoughts and deliberately practicing new behaviours, leaders raise the likelihood that the change initiatives they’re tasked to lead will be successful.