Supporting Change

Four Roles of a Supervisor in Change Management

Communicator

Communicate with your team about the change

With change comes fear, uncertainty, and perhaps resistance for many people. As a leader, it is crucial to share information that helps your team better understand the reasons for the change.

Consider the following questions to help start the conversation:

1. What does this change mean to the team?
2. What’s in it for them? Why now?
3. How will it make their jobs better?
4. Why should they get on board?
5. Why is this change important?
6. What problem are we fixing?

Avoid the risk of your team seeing you as withholding valuable information; this creates mistrust within the team, leading to problems down the road.

Advocate

Demonstrate support for the change

Employees look to their direct supervisor to assess their level of support for the change effort. As a supervisor, if you have not bought into the change, neither will your employees.

It is critical for you to demonstrate your support in active and observable ways.

Take ownership of the change
Provide positive examples of how the change will help the process or business

Coach

Coach your team through the change process.

Support your employees through the process and help them address potential barriers.

See the ADKAR model for an individual’s process in accepting change:

Awarness of the need to change
Desire to support the change
Knowledge of how to change
Ability to demonstrate new skills and behaviors
Reinforcement to make the change stick

Help your team successfully navigate this process by asking the following:

What’s my role in this change?
What do I need to be doing differently?
What will change for me?

Liaison

Engage and provide support to the team.

It is your role, not only to provide information about the change from the leadership team to your direct reports, but also to provide information from your employees back to management.

Provide input to the leadership team on how the change is going, how it is affecting your team (positively or negatively), and what people are struggling with.

Note

By the number… 1/3

1/3 of employees will accept the change
1/3 of employees will ride the fence
1/3 of employees will resist the change

Scenario	Yes	No	Comments/Recommendations for Improving Readiness
Have you prepared a clear statement of why this change is required?
Do you understand the advantages of this change?
Have similar changes been successful in the past?
Are you prepared to promote the message of why change is needed?
Are the leaders at your site showing their readiness for change (lead by example)?
Have you properly trained your team for new work requirements?
Have you established appropriate avenues for communication?
Do your staff members see a need for change?
Is technology (or other required infrastructure) in place to accommodate the change?
Are potential risks well defined?
Do you trust the leaders of the organization who are leading this change?
Have you created incentives to recognize those who lead and support the change?

Tools & Resources

How will you impact your team’s response to change? What steps will you take to ease frustration during the process? How will you ensure you are on track?