Learnings
Read more on change and behaviour
Change, behavior, and management is not phenomenas that can be easily described or put into a formula. Nevertheless I wanted to share some of my thoughts and learnings on my favorite subjects.
If you wanna learn more, or if your have questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Some of the challenges I meet as a change partner
Middle managers are often seen as the glue that holds organizations together. They are translators, connectors, navigators, and coaches. But in recent years, the manager’s role has become more complicated, and they are under pressure from a number of factors, including the rise of generative AI (gen AI). Do managers still matter in this new era? The answer is yes. Managers hold the keys to the future of work, yet they haven’t been set up for success to lead under pressure.
Many leaders are promoted based on their IQ skillset and past performance as specialists. However, frustration often arises when they face the pressures of leadership—be it personal, team, or cross-functional etc.. Under pressure, they revert to old habits, relying on the same IQ skillset that once brought them success as specialists.
This creates a cycle where the leader’s role shifts back to that of a specialist, leaving little time for true leadership. Challenges that should be addressed as a leader become distractions, affecting performance and putting bonuses at risk. This often leads to short-term thinking and a focus on individual performance over team success.
The hard truth is that not all specialists become effective leaders. Their profile might not match the demands of leadership, and despite numerous training courses and good intentions, emotional intelligence (EQ) often remains underdeveloped under pressure. As a leader, your EQ is crucial. It bridges the gap between what you know and how you can effectively lead, ensuring sustained success and high performance in your new role.
How will you ensure your employees are fully engaged and performing at their best?
Considering that 70% of all strategy executions fails, what is the cost to your company if your strategy doesn’t succeed? Often, it’s not the strategy itself that’s flawed, but the lack of employee involvement and leadership support that hinders success. By addressing this, you can significantly reduce the failure rate and enhance your strategy’s effectiveness.
Way too often the company focus is to be as efficient as possible, with no time or condition to change. If you don’t create the “slack” (Slack means; if you are 100% effective or utilized, you have 0% opportunity to learn new things or master new processes or cope with uncertainties, overall, you have zero opportunity for innovation or implementing the strategy), your transformations plan will not get the desire outcome.
In today’s change making you cannot outsource “the change” because you are busy with something more important.
- What should be your focus?
- What behaviour factors need to be address?
- What should you and your team stop doing? or do differently to get enough slack to innovate new ways of working
- Have you asked your team, what you can do different, for the team to be more successful?
And lastly, what would it look like if you imagine the value of your strategy in 5 years if it achieves the bottom-line growth you envision.
Do you have enough slack?
Way too often the focus is to be as efficient as possible, with no time or condition to change. If you don’t create the “slack” your transformations plan will not get the desire outcome.
Slack means; if you are 100% effective or utilized, you have 0% opportunity to learn new things or master new processes or cope with uncertainties, overall, you have zero opportunity for innovation or implementing the strategy.
Today’s change making need a new kind of leadership
Today’s rapidly changing world demands a new kind of leadership. Leaders face complexities and uncertainties where they can’t possibly have all the answers, making the traditional command-and-control approach insufficient. Leadership is no longer just about managing business tasks—it’s about understanding who you are, recognizing your shortcomings, and transforming yourself before you can effectively lead others.
To thrive, leaders must cultivate the inner resources needed to navigate these challenges. Emotional intelligence (EQ) becomes a critical differentiator, enabling leaders to build resilience, empathy, humility, and authenticity—the foundation of human leadership. However, many overlook the importance of self-reflection in their journey. By becoming more self-aware and understanding the psychological patterns that drive their behaviours, leaders can unlock their full potential.
As AI and other technologies reshape the landscape, the need for adaptive, empathetic, and collaborative leadership has never been more pressing. This path of self-awareness and emotional intelligence is essential to transforming your leadership and meeting the demands of today and tomorrow.
What got you here – won’t get your there! (Marshall Goldsmith).
Why my clients choose a change partner
I founded Mindset by Lentz, to help you leading change.
I facilitate leaders to lead themselves, their teams to avoid the strategy execution gap. The gap between what needs to be done and what is getting done in connection to the company’s strategic objectives. I am supporting companies navigating change, with focus on the behavioural factors impacting the strategy execution to strive for a higher success rate.
No solutions fit all. When strategy execution fails with rates upon 70% (source) – behavior factors can be the glue to strive for greater impact.
Linking Personal and Business Change
In today’s fast-paced and complex world, the pressure to balance day-to-day business performance with the demands of transformation is significant. Leaders often find themselves caught between external pressures and the need to foster change readiness and adaptability within their organizations. The challenge is not just in managing these pressures but in transforming them into opportunities for growth and innovation.
Business change and personal change are deeply interconnected. The effectiveness of your strategy execution hinges on your leadership’s ability to adapt, reflect, and evolve. Just as businesses must be ready to navigate change, leaders must develop the emotional intelligence (EQ) to lead these transformations. By understanding and addressing the psychological patterns that drive behavior, leaders can create a culture of resilience, empathy, and authenticity—qualities that are essential for both personal and organizational success.
This holistic approach ensures that as you balance the social side of strategy execution, you also strengthen the human side of leadership. With a focus on both KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and KBIs (Key Behavior Indicators), you can drive not only performance but also sustainable, people-centered change.
Whether it’s managing AI adoption or fostering psychological safety within your team, the path to effective change lies in aligning personal growth with business objectives.
In essence, the journey of business transformation is inseparable from the journey of personal leadership transformation. By integrating these two elements, you can ensure your leadership, and your organization are equipped to thrive in the demands of today and tomorrow.
It could be you are….
[…] C-level leader facing a transformation with notable change in direct areas, structures, assignments, or processes and want to get your people with you or you need your people to work more balanced to perform the best.
[…] middle or top leader facing a new strategy launch and need to perform while focusing on the strategy executions – the elements, initiatives or changes that has a direct impact in your area. You might just need a few hours to get the time, to focus and reflect to set the directions.
[…] the new C-level wishing to make a cultural change and want to have a change partner by your side.
[…] middle manager feeling the pressure from the top, bottom up or both, it could be performance pressure, change initiatives, capabilities, time or resources to perform what is expected.
[…] in the middle of a merger & acquisition and need to combine cultures.
[…] PE (Private Equity) investment leader, with the need to grow significant, balance the culture, perform, and make significant changes.
[…] smaller but fast-growing business with suddenly many new employees to balance the scale.
[…] smaller business that are transforming – it could be with AI implementation and want to both perform and transform while balance behaviour factors to cope with the new ways of working.
[…] change agent that need extra support.
[…] smaller business driving transformations and don’t have the capacity to have a full time change partner.
Change is changing
The Kotter and Prosci change models are still popular for long static change but with the rapidly changing world with increasing speed, more modern change methods are needed. This constantly changing world needs updated methods with the right techniques and a trusted partner by your side to reach your strategic objectives to create more impact.
No Change Model fits all, I compare other popular change models to fit the modern business.
When Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model debuted in 1996, it was groundbreaking for recognizing the social and cultural aspects of change. Almost 30 years later, while it offers valuable insights (e.g., authentic urgency), it struggles in today’s complex environments because:
- Change is rarely linear. Organizations often don’t progress neatly from step one to eight, and Kotter’s model lacks substantive strategies to overcome resistance. In contrast, as your trusted Change Partner & Executive Coach I identify barriers and causes of resistance to offer specific strategies to build the muscles of awareness to overcome.
- Change isn’t one-size-fits-all. Kotter’s model treats all changes the same, but modern organizations manage 10-20 concurrent changes. By distinguishes between types of change and supports diverse change initiatives the focus is tuned in on the people side, how can we unlock the potential of the behavior factors in your business.
- Change can’t be solely top-down. With power distributed more widely, involving staff at all levels brings greater insights and motivation. The Change Making today engages cohorts across the organization at every step.
I am your trusted Change Partner that walk the extra mile to lead you through the change curve.
My brand does not launch & Leave – I sustain. My hands on approach on how to Perform & Transform your business with focus on the social side/people side of your strategi execution, gives you the opportunity to reach for greater impact.
Buzz words are not making any impact - People do!
People do not come to work to make mistakes or with the behaviour of “not performing”, or with a mindset or willingness of “not executing” the strategy. Instead, people are in roles, processes or functions that do not support the strategy execution but only the performance in the day-to-day business. And on top, way too often lead by a specialist and not a conscious leader with high emotional intelligence, that has the ability to unfold the employees potential, cope with the uncertainties, know the nature of empathy, to listen and reflect to cause correct for the company to realize their strategy.
My clients see changes in behavior before it reflects itself in the P&L
You will see change in the behaviour before you see the direct effect in P&L (profit & loss), hence the “Behaviour is our culture in action” that drives the P&L. Depending how many change initiatives, the change readiness and change ability in your organization, it takes from 9-18 month to sustain the change initiative with leaders with high emotional intelligence.
I help you with change to
unfold your potential
