Leading Change: It’s a Chess Game

Leadership Coaching Notes MARCH 2011

Like a chess game, leading change is a lot about continuous and skillful “positioning.” Chess masters consider how to respond to the variety of possible choices their opponents might make – more than a dozen moves ahead before they move. (I find it mind boggling!)

Fundamentally, masters of change (chess or leadership) take a broad, long-term and detailed view of future possibilities. They habitually consider the potential impact of their next choices before they thoughtfully move to strengthen the probability for success. They move to create a future vs. act from habit or familiarity. Some moves may appear “weak,” but from a bigger context, they position moving forward, e.g., like a soccer/football player who passes the ball backwards to a player with more options for scoring.

Leaders don’t play with chess pieces or soccer balls; they play with words and actions. They don’t play against anyone; they play against resistance to change. The story and questions below show how a senior leader used the chess strategy to build buy-in for changes needed to deliver stronger team results.

Adam’s Challenge:

Adam arrived excited about helping his diverse, geographically dispersed team deliver more value to key stakeholders. He thought it was obvious that stronger collaboration and new performance disciplines would support everyone’s success and enthusiasm.
He was shocked to learn how much headwind he faced.

• The prior leader’s laissez-faire style permitted diverse managers to do their own things in their own styles and to their own standards … as long as they didn’t embarrass him or the organization. They liked their autonomy and didn’t want to change.
• Adam worked for a boss who’d leave shortly and didn’t want complaints from Adam’s managers. He had no interest in rocking the boat on his remaining watch.
• The organization lacked common standards for setting goals or managing performance, so there was little cultural support for making changes that were critical.
• His managers met his ideas with resistance, both outright and passive.

He called for help. Keep reading to learn how he used positioning to shift their thinking, willingness to change and, over time, the impact of their efforts

A Short Case Study about Building Team Buy-In

Leverage the Vulnerability of Being the New Kid on the Block

Knowing that new kids are usual suspect and easily ostracized, we explored how to invite his managers to view Adam as their supporter while, at the same time, raise their interest in serving the needs of key stakeholders better. We chose his next leadership moves to convey both his appreciation of his managers (build relationship) as well as to build the case for changing, with Adam as their chosen vs. imposed leader.

6 Positioning Questions to Focus Managers on Reasons to Change

Adam brought his managers together “to help build greater mutual support.” This positioning played to their self-interest, but he also designed the meeting to create a deeper and compelling awareness of what their key stakeholders needed and what the team could deliver to better meet those needs.

In the meeting, Adam didn’t tell, he asked. Rather than “don’t you think?” questions, he asked truly open, curious questions that helped everyone appreciate the views and current contributions of each manager’s group. He designed questions to expand their world views, tap into their desire to be part of making a real difference and create new urgency for raising performance. He brought everyone together and asked each manager to share answers to 6 questions.

Click here for a copy of the questions he asked that helped to shift managers’ readiness and support for accepting his leadership, releasing comfortable habits and making a bigger difference.

Impact of Positioning Questions

Shared World View: The conversations began to build a shared team context instead of the narrow worldviews of isolated islands of (self-) interest and control. Adam helped them shift decision criteria from internal to external and positioned greater reason for collaboration and change.

New Confidence: By highlighting current successes, he built their pride and the confidence and positioned greater readiness for taking the risks of changing.

Common Compelling Vision: Once they co-created the need for changing, Adam invited them to envision the specific changes required and define synergies that would improve value for external stakeholders. Their vision became the magnet for change vs. him the ogre demanding it.

Leader as Resource: His questions defined his role as their chief supporter for achieving the changes they wanted. As they built a stronger awareness of and confidence in each other, they were gradually more open to experimenting with new approaches for improving value, with Adam facilitating their progress.

Momentum: With their shared, externally driven definition of “success standards” (not arbitrarily imposed by Adam), the shifts began to appear. Better feedback from stakeholders and improvement on the new metrics reinforced the team’s collaborative efforts and use of best practice.

The Competence-Confidence Loop

The more confident managers became, the more willing they were to invest in building new competence. And, likewise, the more competent they became, the more their confidence grew. It became a wonderful virtuous circle.
Adam started with little influence or support for his vision, but he built them from within the team. It took months of patient and flexible positioning and consistent implementation discipline, but everyone began to see the impact they were creating and enjoyed the feel of working on a team making exciting progress.
Adam achieved new and self-renewing success by shifting his own definition of “leading” away from telling and convincing to positioning change by asking, promoting curiosity and focusing forward. It stretched his growth and patience, and proved well worth it.

What’s Next?

If you or people you are developing need to bring your teams to the next levels of performance and contribution faster, I can often help you achieve your goals easier and with Energy to SpareTM. Please contact me for a free first conversation to explore your situation and how I might help. I look forward to talking with you!

What do you think? Will you share your ideas about how you recharge and ease the load everyone quickly encourages you to carry?

Please send any feedback to mkimbell@corporateadventure.com.

All the best,

Meredith Kimbell
Executive Advisor,
Strategy Consultant Corporate Adventure

Leadership Coaching Notes uses real or composite client examples drawn from 25 years of coaching and consulting with leaders committed to solving their toughest personal, interpersonal and organizational issues.
Unless otherwise attributed, all material is copyrighted by Meredith Kimbell © 2011. All rights reserved. You may reprint any or all of this material if you include the following:
“Leadership Coaching Notes © 2011 Meredith Kimbell, Corporate Adventure, Reston, VA. Used with permission.”
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