Managers and Supervisors critical roles in change

Based on a recent in-house training regarding change management, it was emphasized that Managers and Supervisors have a critical role during change.

1. Communicate with Direct Reports about the change
   Communicating the need for change, the vision and the impact are the most critical activity identified for managers and supervisors to perform during change.
   Employees require a consistent message from the leadership team and direct managers. They want to know why the change is occurring, what's in it for them (WIIFM), and what the expected benefits for the organization are.  Listening and allowing discussion are two-way communication are critical success factors concerning employees' ability to receive and internalize messages from managers
2. Advocate and champion change
   Direct managers need to support change and play a visible role during the transition by attending training and project events and leading by example.  This requires a managers to be proactive in obtaining timely information and complete details about the change.  Most importantly, managers need to speak positively about the change and be engaged.
3. Coach employees through change
   Managers need to be available for coaching throughout the change, to listen to concerns, to answer questions and to be respectful of the impact changes have on employees.  They also identified helping employees understand the required behaviours, articulating how their contributions support the initiative, removing barriers as needed and identifying corrective actions.
4. Engage and liaison with project team
   Providing input to the project team and engaging in the design and engagement phases are critical roles for managers. Employees need to be incorporated into the feedback and be incorporated into the solution. Having a close working relationship with a project team enables managers to have difficult conversations with employees to help increase the desire to participate in change.
5. Identify and manage resistance (more on this later)
   Managers are reported as being in the best position to identify resistance and fulfil the role of mitigating resistance throughout the life of the project.  Managers are able to report resistance.  Manager/ supervisors' role include understanding the root cause of resistance, removing barriers and having difficult conversations with employees to help increase the desire to participate in change.
6. Continuing managerial responsibilities
   No one said it was easy. You need to continue to their normal roles in daily team operations and in operationalizing new ways of working. This includes maintaining reporting function and team engagement tactics such as huddles and meetings, and providing structure and accountability for the new way of working.  This includes adjusting schedules and responsibilities as needed to attend training events and engaging in preparation and reinforcement activities.

Most common mistakes for managers and supervisors
Some of the biggest mistakes made when managing change are below.  Make sure you avoid these.

1. Role abdication
   Perhaps due to lack of understanding, managers have abdicated their roles during change or did not take the responsibility for change:
• Not accepting responsibility is the largest factor. If managers do not understand their role as change champions, they are seen as abdicating. Others say change management duties as extra work and not a normal function of their role.
• Ignoring change: others felt if they could ignore or hide from change and focus on business as usual. The adopted the mindset that the changes would either go away or happen on its own regardless of their efforts.
• Not seeking better understanding: one of the most common mistakes occurs when managers do not seek to understand the change and its impact - operational ignorance.  They struggle to ask for support during change management and did not acknowledge their personal journeys through change
  
  
2. Communication mistakes
   Some managers feel that a single communication should be sufficient - they communicated to rather than with employees. Rather than admitting their own knowledge gaps, managers would communicate what they knew at the time.  Supervisors often did not understand how to filter messages appropriately, or what messages to filter, often oversharing or adding personal bias.
3. Failing to support staff
   Many managers feel that employees would change if told to do so and did not need additional support. This led to unrealistic expectations because supervisors did not acknowledge that individuals accept change at different paces. Supervisors also struggle to manage resistance appropriately due to fear, empathy or a general misunderstanding of the root cause of resistance. Supervisors got caught up in their own journeys and how the change impacted them, keeping them from addressing their teams' needs
4. Ill prepared
   Managers can underestimate the impact change can have on their teams or overestimate their teams' ability to handle change. Either due to false assumptions about change or not knowing how to prioritize change among daily operations, supervisors can be ill prepare when it is time for change
5. Resisting the change
   Some managers are more receptive to change than others and this can cause problems. Some supervisors would talk the talk but not walk the walk. Managers would take sides, usually with their direct reports causing a us-versus-them mentalities. If you are personally resisting a change "seek first to understand."

Remember, you are the preferred senders of communications messages for both personal messages and organization-level messages.  Executives and senior levels are the preferred senders of the business messages, overwhelmingly, an employee's direct supervisor is the preferred sender of personal messages. So while the leader may communicate the change, direct supervisors can support it especially with the WIIFM conversations. 

*based on Prosci Change Management