Here's how you can embody the key characteristics of a successful culture change leader.

Having the courage and capability to engage in necessary conversations about mindsets and behaviours is key. Then being willing to make the tough decisions when people aren't able to shift their approach and come on the culture change journey. Applying consistent standards of behaviour to every member of the team, regardless of their role or seniority is critical. Allowing excuses and exceptions is the most common reasons culture change objectives aren't achieved. Every leader needs to be on board - driving culture change only works when leaders are an example of what you want, coach their people, and see performance standards as both what people achieve as well as how they go about it.

Culture change takes courage. Cultural change leadership is not for the faint of heart. It takes courage. Courage creates a shared purpose on moving beyond that which is known, to that is which is a future state or unknown. Cultural change leadership also requires "bravery". Leaders and HR practitioners have to be ready to stand out among the few versus the many. Change is never easy, and not always popular, so the willingness to challenge the status quo is part of the larger picture, which aligns to tactical boldness. Understand and speak about the tangibles and help employees visualize these tangibles and action on them in support of the cultural change.

Una visión clara de la empresa es el cimiento para la organización y poder comunicarla a los colaboradores proporciona el rumbo y la certeza de hacia dónde se dirige y los pasos que cada miembro de la organización debe hacer para contribuir, como seres humanos la certeza nos da seguridad y nos ayuda a poder desempeñarnos mejor. La visión debe desde luego, ir acompañada de hechos que la respalden, en otras palabras, no basta con declararla y comunicarla, debe de gestionarse a través de las acciones de sus miembros y sobre todo de sus lideres.

Painting a clear vision for the future and cultural change is critical, and achieving this requires an intensive and comprehensive employee listening strategy and its implementation. Additionally as a change agent, we need to hone our skills to communicate with clarity and impact. This requires our authenticity and passion. This way, employees can truly feel the energy and become hopeful and motivated for the future. Clear,tailored and impactful communication and engagement can ensure that everyone in the organization understands the vision and feels being invited to be part of the journey.

Authenticity - people can see through a facade, culture change needs to come from a place of authenticity that adapts to the needs and environment that it's happening in. Leaders need to lead from an authentic place to guide their teams through culture change.

Cultural change leader who has clear vision to see the route to go. These leaders who understands the needs and shifts the values, attitudes, behaviours within the organization. Change leaders who shapes organizattion's ID and performance. They only do not have visional clarity but also they are role models being as resilient and persistent. Change leaders are open to collabration and feedback, supports continous learning.

When we want to change something, generate a transformation or spread a culture, we just need to "create the wave", from there the actions begin, and if we have disicpline and resilience, these actions multiply and take root. This is what true leaders do.

15 years ago, upon the successful conclusion of a significant change management project, my project deputy told me: “I’ve never thought it will be possible, but you seemed so sure we would that I thought to myself: “I might be wrong, for sure he knows something that I don’t know”. So, I persisted because I trusted you”. While I’d like to claim strategic foresight in this matter, truth to be told, I was merely young and restless 😊. Nevertheless, I remember that moment every time I start a new project; trust is crucial.

Successful culture change leaders embody vision, strategy, and effective communication. They demonstrate empathy, adaptability, and inclusivity while fostering collaboration and accountability. For change leaders, resilience is key, as they navigate challenges with optimism and perseverance. By inspiring others with a clear vision, strategic thinking, and empathetic leadership, the change leader brings novation to the organization.

In my experience, to be an empathetic leader with Gen Z, we need to prioritize open communication and create a safe space for them to express themselves. Be authentic, transparent, and share information openly. Understand their aspirations and provide opportunities for career growth and meaningful work. Promote collaboration and teamwork. Provide regular feedback, and leverage technology to enhance productivity. As leaders we also need to continue to educate ourselves about Gen Z's needs and stay adaptable in your leadership approach.

I think that many organisations facing large scale change spend so much time on selling the vision they can forget to create a sense of urgency (Change timing) with their teams. It isn't enough to know 'why' the change needs to happen. To galvanise grass roots support they need to understand the 'why now'. This speaks directly to the early and late majority groups and gives the opportunity to bring along a critical mass and gain solid forward momentum with the change.

Studies have shown that the higher a leader is in the organizational hierarchy the lower their empathy ability is. The first step is to acknowledge one’s own shortcomings and to make decisive effort to raise one’s empathy levels. One way of doing that is to engage with conversations with other people, listen carefully and learn about their experiences, perspectives and emotions.

Communicating effectively in a culturally diverse environment is a pillar of successful culture change leadership. This means not only sharing information clearly and openly but also listening actively to feedback and adjusting your messages to ensure they are understood by everyone, regardless of their cultural context. Leverage multiple channels and styles of communication to accommodate different learning and processing styles.

Más que un enfoque empático, que es un "must to be·,el enfoque debe ser de adulto y claro y con una metodología clara y probada tendente a cambiar lo que la gente hace, porque una de mis máximas en el cambio es que "nada cambia, sino cambia el comportamiento de las personas"

An empathetic approach is not a one size fits all solution since not everyone experiences change in the same way. As a leader, it’s important to make space for your team to share their questions, concerns, and other thoughts around the change with you. A good place to hold space is during regularly held 1:1 meetings. Even if you don’t have all the answers, listening and playing back the facts and feelings in each 1:1 conversation can help the individual people within your team navigate change.

Consistency is critical in culture change, building trust and belief in your authenticity. If as a leader you know you will need to challenge behaviours, achievements and outcomes along the way, start as you mean to go on - take time to explain how challenge goes with the programme and make sure you treat everyone in the same way. Team need stability and a calm head from their leader, and consistency is a key component of that.

Consistency builds trust. It is one of the great building blocks of culture. When you embrace a consistent message through your words AND actions, employees will know what to expect. Predictability builds confidence. Confident employees feel empowered to act more independently for the good of the company, and that leads to good outcomes for everyone

I've led several regional and global culture change initiatives, and authored a LinkedIn Learning course on the topic. In my experience the best predictor of success is role modeling of the desired culture, values and behaviors by the organization's most senior leaders. The leaders are responsible to set the direction by leading the way through their actions - otherwise, their words will not be taken seriously. Two of the best ways I've found to ensure this is to have the senior leaders commit to their actions in a video format so they can be held accountable; and then to have a performance management system that requires multi-rater feedback and holds them accountable for their actions, and 'how' they achieve their business targets.

Role modelling and consistency are key. Be clear on what role model supports the culture you aspire to embed. Then ask yourself, and get feedback from others, on how far you role model the aspired example. Then ensure you role model/get feedback every day. Sounds simple? When you focus on it, it becomes easier and easier.

Trust is the foundation to any team, and consistency is the way to build it. When leaders consistently uphold values and principles, it demonstrates reliability and integrity, which are essential for fostering trust within the team. Change can be destabilising, and consistency provides a sense of stability amidst uncertainty. It reassures team members that, despite changes happening around them, there are constants they can rely on in their leaders and the organisation's values.

Consistency is important in the actions of leadership and in messaging. Once a culture has been defined, leaders then need to encourage the right behavior with the right actions. For example, if an organization’s senior leaders preach wellbeing, then drive hard projects and hard deadlines with overwhelming force, it’s not consistent. There’s a disconnect between the idea of culture and the experience of it. Consistent behavior helps in gaining employees’ trust and fostering a great culture within the organization

Culture is a collective experience. This, it has to happen in teams and across teams. Without active collaboration, change is most likely to be limited and will not stick. The leader has to demonstrate, orchestrate and insist on collaboration.

A colaboração é sempre uma porta de entrada para uma transformação. Visto que se alguém está contribuindo comigo é como automático eu querer retribuir.

Successful change leaders are known to rely on collaboration with their teams, across departments and players outside of the organization. Change requires contributions, commitment and engagement of various stakeholders and even third parties. A leader is so strong as s/he able to mobilize others to help them achieve great goals.

Embracing a collaborative spirit goes beyond working together, it is about achieving more together. It is about celebrating the power of togetherness!

The Leader who fosters spaces for participation, and promotes brainstorming and innovation through conversations with active listening to the interventions of each team member, ensures that what is developed is virtuous and perceived as teamwork, generating greater commitment to the designed actions and the results to be obtained. El Líder que propicia los espacios de participación, y promueve la lluvia de ideas, e innovación a través de las conversaciones con escucha activa de las intervenciones de cada integrante del equipo, logra que lo que se desarrolle sea virtuoso y percibido como un trabajo de equipo, generando mayor compromiso con las acciones diseñadas y los resultados a obtener

En el libro” 📕 Liderando la transformación organizacional” impulsado por Vicente Gonçalves Presidente del Human Change Management, institut expongo un capítulo la importancia del líder participativo. Para poder iniciar un cambio de cultural es necesario tener un liderazgo que genere entornos de colaboración y entornos participativos. Cuando las personas se sienten parte del proyecto de cambio contribuyen a que ese cambio se implemente con mayor rapidez.

Es geht um eine veränderungsfreundliche Unternehmenskultur, ehrliche und rechtzeitige Kommunikation, Mitarbeitermotivation- und Einbindung, Agilisierung, Einstellungen, Werte und Normen, Selbstverwirklichung, Potentialentfaltung und um sinnstiftende und nachhaltig wirksame Entscheidungen.

Collective ambition is what is key here. Organisations that harness a collective ambition thrive because they foster a healthy environment where every team member feels they are part of something larger than themselves. This alignment does not just facilitate cooperation; it energises the entire team, enhancing their commitment and the quality of their contributions towards organisational goals. This culture approach acknowledges and leverages the diverse strengths and perspectives each individual brings, which is vital for innovative problem-solving and sustaining long-term change. By ensuring that the team's collective ambition is understood and embraced by all, leaders can create a powerful, inclusive, and dynamic work environment.

Participating with the team in developing the plan and opening the space for discussion and suggestions instils confidence in every member of the team and makes him feel his importance. It creates a sense of challenge and determination to succeed and reach better results than expected because he feels that he is a source of trust, and delegating some tasks increases the team’s faith in their leader.

Always a big deal for functions within an organization to work collaboratively. And it speaks clearly to culture driven by the top. Instances where the reward system is designed to support competition among functions it can make each function work in silos that way not benefiting from the critical relevance of collaboration, sharing and working as a team

Cultures don't change overnight. To successfully transform a culture take a long-term perspective and commitment, and a huge investment of time and money - especially by the company's senior most leaders. These require a good deal of both individual, team and organizational resilience. In order to build these kinds of resiliences, an organization needs to invest in thoroughly training its leaders and employees, and giving them the resources they need to sustain the change over time. A culture transformation is a multi-year investment, many internal and external factors will change over the course of time. The leadership needs to constantly be aware of this and find ways to re-energize and nurture its leaders and employees.

From my perspective, resilient individuals and leaders are more likely to take risks, challenge the status quo, and pursue new opportunities. This courage can lead to breakthroughs and cultural shifts that might not have occurred otherwise. Setbacks are seen as opportunities to learn. However, next to the mindset, you need to take a "long breath" approach and have patience, persistence, and strategic vision to drive meaningful transformation over time. The ability to focus also on incremental progress combined with the recognition and appreciation for the existing tradition allows building momentum and gradually shift of cultural norms.

Agreed. Also, involving the team in the clarification of those challenges and in solving and overcoming them is part of demonstrating the right change leadership behaviours. Even if making enough decision for the good of all that might not initially be perceived as such ... explaining and selling the relative benefits of the future state vs. the disadvantages of the current situation helps to motivate so called resistant members if the team to explore or at least move through acceptance. I guess if, as leaders, we constantly consider the team's needs whether these are solution based or perhaps fear based or whatever is fundamentally at the heart of resistance or challenge, then we can't go far wrong... even if it's not always that easy.

Cultural change is not a linear process; it requires flexibility and adaptability. As a leader, being adaptable means being able to course-correct in response to feedback and changing circumstances without losing sight of your ultimate goals. It also means being open to learning from the cultural insights and experiences of others, allowing these to shape the path of change.

The nature of the human psyche is not to accept change easily, and here the role of the leader is focused on showing the positive aspects, instilling the spirit of challenge, experiencing change, and keeping pace with development to achieve excellence.

No matter where I was changing culture the resistance was everywhere. As a manager you just make it part of your daily life to overcome this. On this path stay true, tough and resilient. Learn things form other leaders, read books to grow your imagination and find ways where others can't.

Resiliência se resume pelo movimento forçado e contrario que, ao final, volta a posição anterior. Exemplo, uma esponja amassada em sua mão, ao soltar, ela volta a posição anterior. Somos esponjas ou copos de vidro? Então, tenha absoluta certeza e coerência em tudo o que você faz, pois as pessoas querem por vezes, que você seja um copo de vidro.

Resilience is paramount when navigating through change. Leaders must demonstrate determination and a positive attitude, even in the face of adversity, to inspire their teams to persevere. By showing resilience, leaders send a powerful message that setbacks are not permanent roadblocks but rather opportunities for growth and learning. Their ability to bounce back from challenges and adapt to new circumstances instills confidence in the team and reinforces the belief that the change is achievable.

“Os transtornos são passageiros, os benefícios são para sempre” Temos que ser transparentes com a equipe, mostrar que teremos alguns obstáculos ou conflitos de interesses pelo caminho, mas o objetivo fim, nos motiva a termos uma postura positiva frente às adversidades, no fim todos ganhamos e brindamos!

Get input from your team early on so the journey feels like a shared, collaborative process. Actively listen to concerns to build trust, and empower problem-solving by encouraging teamwork to find creative solutions. Celebrate small victories to keep spirits high, and always remind everyone of the positive impact ahead to keep the whole team aligned and motivated.

Realise fast that your expertise and skills will only get you so far, and that without collaboration and learning from the people around you, and elevating their expertise, you won't create the change you're looking for.

Hasta que no se pone en marcha El Cambio cultural no sabemos todos los puntos de dolor o logros que puede tener ese proceso de cambio es importante ir avanzando e ir aprendiendo durante el camino. Ni VUCA, ni BANI, si no Antifragil consiste en salir reforzados de las diferentes situaciones a las nos tenemos que enfrentar en la actualidad.

In my experience, it is all about embracing the journey of continuous learning, because every lesson learned is a step towards growth, mastery and success!

If the goal is for the team to achieve excellence and achieve the goals, then this requires attention to raising the educational and cognitive level of the team members so that they are able to analyze obstacles and develop the correct solutions that achieve the goals.

Keep learning all the way long and do it one of the principles of you teams. This is what we did in 3D Molier and foster it among our newbies. Once an employee understands that learning is smth what makes their life and career better it becomes part of their DNA.

APrendizaje continuo, a traves de intercambio de ideas, ya sea con estructuras liberadoras, coaching grupal o individual, capacitacion creativa con co creacion de contenidos y facilitacion por numerosos agentes de cambio de la organizacion. El cambio que viene postulado desde la direccion no funciona mas, esta basado en una mentalidad unica y cerrada, poblada de juicios y formas de hacer que por lo general no conocen lo que esta pasando en el terreno.

Leaders must first be prepared to learn everyday, in all that they do. Actively seek out feedback, reflect whilst approaching all interactions with generosity of spirit, being open to learn for all situations, both the good stuff and the bad. Be open to new thinking and ideas 💡

In my experience, shifting culture and curating a culture that embraces change comes from the willingness to remain a STUDENT. There’s a degree of humility one must possess to submit to learning continuously. You may be a SME, but remain the Jack of all Trades and the master of none. “Even a broken clock is right twice a day”. Stay hungry for knowledge…stay CURIOUS—this breeds ingenuity, vision, clarity—basically all of the remaining choices stem from this one in my opinion.

Make your words and actions make those around you feel worth more. Use empathy and rapport to build trust. Move at a methodical pace. Show interest and respect. Capture what people say so that value is retained and the best ideas go forward, regardless of who they come from. Read Principles by Ray Dalio Have some fun

I think the most important thing to remember on top of the above is that you need to be realistic. Change takes time and introducing a whole ton of it and initiatives at once won’t lead to success it will lead to chaos, confusion and a lack of results. Be focused, clear on what you’re trying to achieve and break it down into bite sized pieces to enable the team to do this on top of their jobs, and see results. Then ensure you are over communicating to create clarity. The roadmap may move rapidly but you can’t just initiate it all at once - deliver well a few things at a time and then move to the next - make it achievable for those you need to come with you.

Be the change you want to see in others. The more they see you enacting the change, the more likely they are to follow. Use the terminology desired, demonstrate the required behaviours and recognise those who do the same.

I call it the “F” word of the corporate world: fun. We rarely talk about fun and rarely place any importance on it in the workplace. Yes, work is a place of…well, work. At the same time, when the team is happy, the team is more productive. If we want a culture that has great retention, high morale, lower relative stress, and skyrocketing productivity, we need to look for opportunities to add some elements of informality, creativity, and competition to break up the monotony of the day job. We spend so much time away from our families, and if we truly believe that family is the cornerstone of our culture, then we should seek to minimize the misery of our work life with deliberate elements of fun.

I have found it incredibly beneficial to understand your wiring and that of those around you. I find that having shared language around our deepest drivers - our Personal Values - the quickest way to build the right connection.

You need to lead by example. It is often seen that teams try to work around the Leader's capabilities and guidance. You should be the torch bearer for bringing about any change in the Company's culture, For others to follow you , should set an example how to work in a changed culture settings. Foster open communication, respect new ideas , innovations and collaborate with your team members. You should use a collaborative approach rather than forceful approach as culture change agent.

A successful culture change leader is not just visionary and empathetic; they also possess the ability to translate visions and strategies into specific, measurable actions and outcomes. Effective leaders develop actionable plans that account for the human factor, recognizing that change is perceived differently by each individual. They must be prepared to address a variety of perceptions and emotions, managing them with empathy and understanding. Leading by example is crucial, as it sets the tone for the entire organization and ignites the spirit of change.

Based on my experience, what is missing here is the importance of examplarity: no matter what the leaders says, or what they do when in public, their behavior will be noticed on a daily basis, and will be interpreted by the teams when identifying what is acceptable or not, what is desirable or not. It is the necessary complement to a clear vision about the reason and the destination of the change.

One thing, I have found helpful is treating everyone with respect and respecting their views and values! Always being willing to learn