Change Makers: A Closer Look at the Savills Change Management Team with Benay Josselson: Part Two

A team is like a mosaic. Each piece is different but brings an essential addition to the whole picture. The Savills Change Management team is a group of individuals with unique experience and credentials. Together, they bring their clients a well-rounded perspective on navigating and implementing change. Learn more about our team and the Savills approach to change management in our series, Change Makers.

What Every C-Suite Leader Needs to Navigate Organizational Change

The C-suite plays a pivotal role through organizational change of any scale. As someone who has both advised and worked right alongside company executives throughout my career, I have direct experience with the pressures they face when implementing change.

In short, they are walking a tightrope. They must spearhead new policies, programs, or processes that benefit the bottom line while keeping employees engaged and productive. While driving business performance, the C-suite must also manage and mitigate employee turnover. The C-suite that does this successfully in today’s business environment typically exemplifies and prioritizes a few key qualities and practices. From my own experience, here is what I believe any C-suite needs to do to effect change that enables both the organization and individuals to thrive:

Lead and strategize with empathy

What are companies looking for most in a CEO today? Not a prestigious degree, or impressive management track record, but social skills. Empathy — the ability to relate to peers, colleagues, and subordinates alike — is an essential part of that skill set.

Leaders who think about change in terms of high-level strategy must equally consider how the big picture may impact individuals from day to day. That requires a significant amount of empathy and willingness to examine change from every possible perspective. If a policy or process change saves money, but alienates employees or doesn’t align with company culture, it may be a false economy.

Be comfortable with the uncomfortable

When it comes to delivering change on a company- or enterprise-wide scale, no one person has all the answers. Some leaders are uncomfortable when they don’t have the answers, or if there is no apparent silver-bullet solution. But change is a process — a collaborative one that requires a certain level of humility.

Taking the time to encourage dissent and debate within your executive leadership group will help build consensus. Once the decisions are made, however, it is important to be unified in the direction.

At times, not every leader will be comfortable with the chosen route. Perhaps the change disproportionately affects one business function or will cause inconvenience for a period of time. Regardless, C-suite leaders must always project unity, knowing that the agreed-upon direction is one that benefits the business overall. Speaking to employees about change with confidence — even if you are uncomfortable — will likewise instill confidence in employees.

Always have a mechanism for communication

While open-door policies sound good on paper, in practice, they can sometimes be counterproductive — putting too many demands on a CEO’s time, making managers overly dependent, or discouraging candidness. Building a direct line to the C-suite may not be realistic, but establishing meaningful mechanisms of communication should be a part of any C-level leader’s approach to change.

The goal is to ensure that all voices are heard. This can manifest most simply in setting clear protocols for communication between employees, managers, and leadership. Polling, surveys, focus groups, and other methods for gathering opinions are also reliable ways of soliciting feedback and facilitating trust.

Ideally, these efforts are part of a feedback loop in which the C-suite directly responds to employee concerns. Responding to feedback — and being honest when there are suggestions or needs the company cannot accommodate — helps establish transparency as change is implemented.

Empower your “deputies”

If the C-suite is the figurehead in the change process, less senior leaders and managers are the deputies who must be empowered to communicate and drive the change at the employee level. They cannot do it without the support of the C-suite.

The role of the C-suite here is to ensure all managers or dedicated change champions have the training and resources they need to successfully roll out new policies and procedures.

Managers must understand how to communicate and solicit feedback from their reports, as well as introduce and roll out change incrementally. Why does this matter? Because success in communicating with employees at all levels will multiply, fostering positive feelings and engagement in the change process on a peer-to-peer level while building the critical consensus an effective transition needs.

By empowering senior and middle management, the C-suite will not only help the overall strategy materialize but also give these valued leaders an active role in the process, helping to generate buy-in and facilitate engagement across the company at every level.

Stay accountable

Employees must have trust in their leadership to stay engaged at work. One way the C-suite can maintain credibility and trust is to demonstrate accountability for any change, by actively taking part in the change themselves.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many C-level executives voluntarily took significant pay cuts to help balance the impact on employees. Where companies moved from private offices to open layouts, some C-suite leaders also relocated to more visible and accessible spaces. In other instances, executives requiring employees to be physically present in the office have increased their own presence in the office to lead by example.

In this way, change is not something that is imposed on people — the impacts are shared and those at the top assume appropriate responsibility.

Engage a change management expert

Even when the C-suite seemingly has a foolproof change strategy in place, executing it can be cumbersome, politically and practically. Outside change management professionals act as crucial allies for the C-suite, serving as both soundboard and facilitator.

Having stood on both sides of this scenario — leading change within my own company as well as advising clients on their own transitions — I know how invaluable it is to have a partner solely focused on making organizational change successful. Depending on the need, change managers are versatile “co-pilots” who can help C-suites gather and/or analyze employee feedback, craft impactful messaging for employees, and plan and project manage the change process, among many other tasks. Perhaps most importantly, change managers offer unbiased recommendations that lend a balancing element of objectivity to the process.

Driving and sustaining change

While the degree of success of a change is ultimately everyone’s responsibility within a company, it is the C-suite that steers it in the right direction from the start. Championing a clear vision decisively and with empathy sets the tone for the entire process.

Leaders who prioritize good communication, empower managers, and embrace accountability will demonstrate confidence in a chosen path — and their employees will notice. C-suites looking to both save time and amplify impact should consider engaging an outside change management team. By doing this, they will build on the vision, tools, and talents they already possess as leaders to streamline the change process and maximize the benefits of transformation for everyone within the organization.

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Benay Josselson is Executive Vice President and leader of Savills Change Management team. Benay has built a reputation as a tireless worker, instrumental leader and valuable advisor for internal and external clients committed to people-centric workplace development. A partner to the C-suite, Benay has successfully developed, launched and implemented strategic initiatives to attract, develop, engage, and reward employees to drive clients’ cultures of growth. She has a proven track record of scaling organizational infrastructure for future growth, as well as leading change and communications management and integration efforts during company acquisitions and other significant corporate changes.

Get in touch with Benay: bjosselson@savills.us