The CEO’s Role in Business Transformation
When it comes to transforming a business a fundamental business process, the importance of the role of the CEO cannot be overstated.
As a CEO, you are at the helm of your business.
You are responsible for guiding it into new seas with confidence and certainty. Your peers will look to you to set an example and lay out the path to the big prize. You will be looked to spell out the purpose, meaning and impact of the changes you wish to implement.
New visions come with upheaval and change.
There are always casualties. This is to be expected and entirely natural. Such change is very often long overdue and healthy although unpleasant sometimes.
For successful transformation to take place, you will need to be visible, transparent, accessible, and hands-on. If you truly wish to inspire confidence in your ideas for business process transformation, you will need to fully engage your leadership team with your vision.
Because you are the CEO having your own vision is vital. It’s a very powerful forcing mechanism for change. Realistically though, in this new era, the idea that a successful vision is bestowed wholesale upon an organisation is rare indeed.
An autocratic vision isn’t a bad start point - it’s a great place to begin. Someone has to carry that torch and it’s right that it’s you but it’s sometimes an uncomfortable place for those looking on.
To execute a vision without the engagment and buy in of the rest of the operation will almost guarantee failure.
Putting Successful Transformation Into Practice:
The first principles at the heart of every successful transformation.
Having your vision spelt out in a way that’s prepared to be built upon - the foundation for success.
Declaring the clear outcomes as a result of this vision - having a set of achievements and results in mind is not negotiable.
Setting out the high level changes and benefits of those changes will always help add credibility to the story and case you are making.
Getting Into The Detail
ONE: Understanding Your 'Why'
Successful transformations require a deep and meaningful connection to a desired future outcome. Knowing which changes you need to make is not enough. You need to be clear about why things need to change.
When it comes to transforming existing processes, you should always keep in mind not only your goals for the planned changes but what’s driving you to want to implement them.
For example:
The justification for why you need to expand in one particular area or geography.
What will this expansion or change contribute to the overall success of the company?
Why is this important to you?
Why will it be important for everyone in the business?
What will it enable you and the company to do in the wider world?
Why now?
TWO: Setting Clear Goals
If your business transformation goals are clear, realistic, data-driven, and smart, you'll find it easier to engage and motivate your leadership team.
As the CEO your energy and inability to be distratcted from the pursuit of you vision will pay enormous dividends as you enter the inveitable choppy seas.
If your transformation efforts don't immediately bear fruit, this clarity will give you the motivation to keep going and eventually bring everyone else along with you.
It's essential to have both long and short-term goals that are easy to communicate to your teams. You may also have a few key reference points that you can use to support your ideas.
Stories of other companies that have grown as a result of making similar changes
Figures and statistics that inspire interest and curiosity
These can all help to add weight to your plans.
It’s likely that you have engaged transformation consultants to analyse your business processes and report back to you on the effectiveness of your current operations. Their findings will give you evidence of the need to change and will give a more detailed overview to share with your teams.
Connect with Your Teams
Find interesting and engaging ways to share this material. Some of your more creative people will not be enamoured with the idea of yet another dry dusty lecture about profit margins, key performance indicators, and acquisitions.
Employ interactive strategies that will create opportunities to visualise the complexity, as an alternative to the usually documents and presentations.
Connect with your employees on a human level. Share the information with them through conversations rather than have your leadership team deliver another tired old edict from on high.
The days of sitting in a back room smoking cigars with CJ or issuing orders while catching some rays on board a yacht somewhere in the Caribbean, are long gone.
Today's teams expect their CEOs to be an example of the changes they wish to see in their organizations and include them in their rationales.
Your teams will need to see your conviction and understand your vision if you are to succeed.
Motivation
Once your teams are fully engaged with the transformation strategy, another important role of the CEO is to keep them engaged and motivated during the early implementation stages. Change can be uncomfortable, and for time-pressed employees, it can seem like yet another demand on their internal resources.
The role of the CEO is to make the transformation process as effortless as possible for beleaguered team members.
Hire more professionals if necessary
Make it fun!
For example, if wholesale digital transformation is required, hire a specialist IT team to guide staff through the changes. Show up at staff meetings, along with the IT team, and share any success stories about how the change is working so far.
Be visible as you begin using the new systems yourself, and share your excitement, challenges, and successes where possible.
If cultural transformation is your priority, you might want to bring in a team of specialist workshop facilitators to set up some fun and engaging explorations of your company's culture. Working in this way will give your teams an opportunity to delve into the issues in a collaborative, experiential, and creative way. This way, you can include them in the transformation process and hear their thoughts and concerns.
If you choose to work in this way, be present at the workshops yourself. Join in with all the exercises. Ask questions that you imagine your teams might want to have answered.
Be human and make your interactions with your teams meaningful, personal, and informative.
Taking an overview of where and how your teams are currently working and how they are achieving their current levels of success will give you a better idea of how to connect with them in ways they find meaningful.
If some employees seem resistant to change, team building, transformation, and strategy workshops can help to close the gap between you and your teams and improve communication between team members while the changes are being implemented.
It’s a good idea to begin working this way as early as possible, and continue with this strategy throughout the transformation process.
If you’re struggling to engage senior peers at the outset, these explorations could be an ideal framework for demonstrating and evaluating the need for change. They could also allow you to build a blueprint that will assist in the codification of the planned transformation.
Showing Up
If you choose to hire a business transformation consultant, you will need to work closely with them. If you are serious about embodying the transformation you wish to see in your business, a good coach or specialist should also help you to evolve personally.
You will need to be willing to let them into all the nooks and crannies of your business and delve deeply into what's currently real within your organization.
Don't back away from this process as it could reveal essential insights that would be difficult for you to spot alone.
Use Interactive and Disruptive Exploration Methods
There will be a point in the transformation process when things seem to be going ahead smoothly but perhaps there's suddenly no spark in the business, or team members seem disengaged.
It's easy at this point to allow your brightest and best to slip through the net simply because they don't feel truly involved or engaged. Even if things appear to be going well, business leaders need to understand that not all members of staff will feel comfortable seeking them out to express their concerns.
Try to avoid poring over endless statistical reports and continue to explore interactive modes of assessment and evaluation.
It's not enough to simply get your teams involved. You need to keep them involved by remaining present until the dust settles.
Continue to show up, and they'll see that you're easily reachable when they are ready to talk.
Repetition and Reinforcement
Make sure you are repeating and reinforcing the rationale behind the changes and re-emphasizing the smoothest ways to implement them. This should not only be for the benefit of your leadership teams but also the business process management team and the teams throughout various departments.
If you are changing your business model, you may experience resistance from teams simply because they have become accustomed to the old ways of working.
Repetition, reinforcement, and eventually, evidence of success will gradually help them to adjust.
Modelling
As the CEO of your company, employees will be looking to you as a role model for the changes. Whether you will be process modelling, culture modelling, or modelling ease of managing business growth, change takes time. Adjustment requires patience.
Team members who are resistant in the beginning may be reassured when they see you embracing the changes with relaxed confidence.
Inspire them with your continued conviction and use stories and anecdotes to increase their understanding of how the changes could impact the company's long-term goals.
Show Results and Highlight Successes Stories
As the transformation becomes more established and the positive results become clear, your role may change slightly. You will need to remain available to your leadership team and continue to share stories of the transformation's successes.
At this stage, these successes may begin to bring obvious benefits for your teams.
For example:
Updated systems could mean reduced workloads,
A new business model could enable some teams to work from home,
Efficiently managed business growth may be bringing with it a plethora of rewards and benefits for staff,
A better work/life balance might come as a result of re-organizing teams for smarter work practices.
Continue to reinforce positive results of the transformation and reward yourself and your teams for exceptional adaptation to transformed systems and practices.
If your new business model has brought improvements to the customer experience, this will also benefit the company, so be sure to share those stories as well.
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