You’ve implemented a transformation program, and it’s been a couple of years. You’re still waiting for change to happen. You wanted results yesterday!

It’s a common frustration among CEOs after you’ve invested time, energy and money into initiatives to bring the company to the next level. A corporate transformation program is an organised change program which, when successful would bring about significant enhancements to the company’s market position, branding etc and of course, ultimately, its bottom line.

As the CEO, you’ve hired teams of consultants locally and abroad and paid hundreds of thousands, probably millions to develop and implement new systems. You’ve probably also held strategy retreats for the senior team and other executives.

You’ve asked HR to implement its talent development plan and executives have attended leadership and soft skills training. And certainly, you feel it’s a great investment and you need to keep sending them for more training.

You hear that your people are starting to also feel tired. They’re feeling that they have more work during this transformation program than they did before! You’ve held more than one town hall meeting to motivate them and answer their questions.

You’ve implemented internal and external communications programs. You’ve created cross-functional teams and put competent leaders in place to manage the change and transformation process.

YOU have done so much.

You also accept that an organisation is made up of people. In the end, people are the ones who are responsible to bring the change process to fruition, to bring about the results you’ve promised and committed to the shareholders and the Board as stakeholders of your company.

So you’ve put pressure on your senior team especially your HR head – to step up the change program by sending people to more training, implement more engagement programs, improve the reward system etc.

It’s frustrating every time you have to prepare a progress report on the results your change initiatives have brought about when progress seems slow. When it’s evident that despite all the time, effort and money put in, things haven’t really changed, or they have not changed substantially to affect the bottomline.

At some point, you’ll be thinking: “What else can we do?” or “Where did we go wrong?” And, who do you share your frustrations with? Who can YOU talk to with full transparency and in confidence?

If you’ve never truly felt lonely where you are, you probably do now.

Why won’t people change?

Most certainly you’ve asked this question more times than you can count. I’ve asked too, during the change initiatives I’ve managed and championed in my own career, “Why won’t people change?” Is there a magic wand that helps people in organisations change the way they think and do their work? Change the way they participate in and impact teamwork? Change the way senior people lead their teams?

Is there a magic wand to help them champion what you want to achieve? To help them feel motivated and change how they see your vision, understand, accept and support it? Is there a magic wand that makes them rally around your vision and make it happen?

Resistance to change

There are many reasons why people will not change the way they work and lead. Leaders often cite resistance to change as the main reason for the failure of corporate change initiatives and programs. Success will happen in pockets because it depends on the leader who understands what you want, champions it and helps you make it happen. And the truth is, there will be others who will fear or feel threatened by their own insecurities and perceptions. And this will hamper your efforts.

Change is the only constant.

Culture WILL happen

How people do their work, how they work together as teams and lead their teams is what culture is all about. Ultimately, change and transformation programs will involve creating a new culture. Your people are the ones who live in, participate in and contribute to the creation of this corporate culture you so want to change with your new mission, vision, and corporate values.

And culture WILL happen whether you try to create the one you want or you don’t. It’s going to happen on your watch and it’s in your best interest to find the most effective way of doing this.

So, IS there a Magic Wand?

Changing a corporate culture is not as easy as it seems and unfortunately, there is no magic wand. And this is because change needs to happen at a personal level first – people change their thoughts, beliefs and perceptions before they can eliminate their own fears and insecurities, before they are willing to change their behaviours and actions to align with your mission, vision and corporate values.

The Power of Coaching

When I discovered Executive Coaching after my corporate career and decided to pursue it professionally, I realised that this was the answer to all the frustrations I had as a champion and change driver in the transformation projects I worked on during my corporate career.

As the project champion and a leader myself in the organisation, I’ve realised that how I interacted with, led and worked with the people closest to me – my own inner team – helped them become more successful in making the changes they needed to make. They received the motivation they needed after attending all the retreats, leadership development and other soft skills training programs. Their fears, insecurities and limitations were addressed and they received a helping hand with understanding how the mission, vision and values impacted them, what and how they needed to work from then on.

Yes, definitely, change happened in pockets because coaching happened in pockets. I often wonder today, how the outcome of the transformation program might have been different had we implemented coaching at the senior team level.

Today, you can have access to Executive Coaching for your senior team and can avoid the pitfalls I and my CEO experienced. We did the best we could without it but there’s no telling what we might have avoided and what money we might have saved.

Training as part of a change program is just training, and research has shown that training programs have a 22% chance of producing success in changing behaviours. But when you add Executive Coaching to post-training initiatives, the success rate increases to a whopping 78%.

A growing number of organisations recognise the value in building a corporate culture that offers not only the senior team but employees at all levels, the opportunity to grow their leadership and other skills and enhance their value to the organisation so that you achieve your strategic objectives and they reach their professional goals.

Imagine how coaching can help your change and transformation program succeed. What is the value of that to you?

Seventy-seven percent of leaders and HR practitioners report that their organisation is in a state of constant change, with priorities and strategies continuously shifting.

Contact me today to have a chat about how I can help address your frustration with how your change program is not producing results or if you’re interested in creating a corporate culture that is aligned to your strategic goals and increase the value of your senior team and employees.