Leading change (without losing your humanity or your sanity)
Part 2 of a new leadership mini-series on leading change
Welcome back to Lead with Intention!
Today our mini-series on leading change continues - in last week’s free newsletter, we explored the personal toll that leading change can take and I offered some thoughts (from my coaching practice and personal experience) on how to maintain both your resilience and your humanity whilst leading change.
And that’s the premise of this new mini-series.
How can you lead change, without losing your humanity?
And indeed, your sanity (or peace of mind)
Each newsletter in this series will focus on a key theme of change leadership, pairing practical strategies with mindset and self-leadership work. Here’s a glimpse of what’s coming up:
Reflecting on your readiness to lead change
Using Kotter’s change model
Navigating resistance
Influencing without authority
Keeping momentum when change fatigue sets in
Sustaining change (and your own energy) long after the spotlight moves on
In today’s episode, the second in this series, I’m digging deep on why change often feels so hard, and what it really requires from us as leaders. I also want you to understand why YOU are the right person to lead change (even if you don’t think you are).
And I’m providing paid subscribers with some powerful coaching prompts (and a downloadable worksheet) to help you navigate this.
And don’t forget - as a paid subscriber, you also get access to my FULL library of leadership and career coaching advice on any topic you need - head to the main navigation bar on the Lead with Intention homepage and look for “Your Leadership Toolkit” You can search by topic, or scroll the categories I have put together on everything from effective communication, to having challenging conversations, to delegation, career clarity and more.
Chapter One: Why Change is Hard (And Why You’re the Right Person to Lead It)
Let’s start with this: You don’t have to feel fully ready to lead change to be the right person to do it.
Read that again. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that you will NEVER feel fully ready to lead change. The clue’s in the name CHANGE - it means something new is coming, and that brings with it exploration, agility, curiousity, challenge.
If you’ve recently found yourself in a role where you're being asked to lead a change initiative (large or small), you might be feeling everything from excitement to anxiety.
Those butterflies can mean both!
Maybe you're restructuring a team, embedding a new strategy, navigating a leadership shift, or trying to drive culture change. And maybe you're wondering if you're truly equipped to guide others through it.
That doubt? It’s normal. That discomfort? It’s part of the process.
That impulse to hide, delay, or defer to others? Also, completely human.
But here’s the quiet truth about leadership (and something I focus on with my coaching clients):