THE HIDDEN LEADERSHIP WORK OF CHANGE
Why successful change needs more than one kind of leadership
One of the most overlooked barriers to successful organisational change is the assumption that all leadership is the same. In reality, change requires different kinds of leadership, yet we notice this distinction is rarely recognised.
It is well known that senior leaders play a critical role in change. They are accountable for setting direction, making strategic choices, and defining the framework within which change happens. They hold the organisation’s big picture: its purpose, priorities, narrative, and guardrails.
But what is not always recognised is that it takes a different kind of leadership work to make change real in people’s day-to-day experience.
This different leadership work is especially important for those with responsibility for teams, services, or operational delivery. Their change leadership is about translating strategy into shared priorities, helping people make sense of uncertainty, responding to local realities, and working with the emotional and practical impact of change as it unfolds. They are responsible for the doing that turns strategic intent into lived reality.
Then there is the informal leadership that emerges through the relationships and interactions between individual team or group members which has a powerful influence on how a team engages with change. Typically, where involvement and collaboration are not offered formerly, individual members find involvement through other means available, such as resistance, work arounds and even sabotage.
Equal work. Different work. Same system.
Difficulties arise when change leadership is regarded as one amorphous activity i.e. the different forms of leadership are not recognised or planned for and when accountability and responsibility are blurred. Some of the consequences we see arising from this:
Change is cascaded rather than worked through.
Too often, leaders tasked with bringing change to life are excluded from shaping its story yet remain accountable for delivering it.
Those with strategic accountability can unintentionally over-specify how change should be implemented, rather than creating the conditions that allow others to apply their judgement, skill, and experience.
The everyday work that makes change real
Leaders closest to teams arguably hold the most influential relationships in the organisation. It is in everyday conversations that change becomes either thoughtful or performative, coherent or disconnected, credible or imposed.
This is also where the informal leadership is engaged and brought alongside.
If change is to evolve well, a fundamental question for any leadership group is this: have we recognised the different leadership roles this change requires, and enabled people to succeed in the roles they are being asked to play?
Reflecting on your own context
We invite you to pause and reflect on your own experience:
How is change leadership understood and experienced in your context?
Which change leadership roles are over-emphasised, and which are minimised?
What impact is this having?
And what is needed of you now?
Strengthening collective leadership
Creating clarity about different role expectations does not fragment leadership, it strengthens it. When leaders understand and feel valued for the distinct contribution they are being asked to make, change becomes less about compliance and more about collective stewardship.
If these ideas resonate, we’d be glad to explore how these different leadership roles are showing up in your context, and what might be required to help change unfold more effectively.