Many leaders can explain what change management is. But when it comes to demonstrating the core skills required to lead through change effectively, they often fall short. Managing change shouldn’t be treated like a checkbox in leadership training — it’s a critical capability that requires more than buzzwords or broad advice. When done well, change management can strengthen team resilience, boost employee engagement and drive more successful outcomes during times of transition.

Yet despite its clear advantages, only 33% of companies report successful organizational transformations, according to McKinsey’s 2021 Global Survey. Gallup research also highlights a deeper issue at the heart of change: only 13% of U.S. employees strongly agree that their organization’s leadership communicates effectively, and just 15% say leadership makes them feel enthusiastic about the future. These numbers reflect a core challenge — while change is constant, the ability to lead it effectively is not.

Common challenges leaders face during change can include:

• Rapid pace of change that outpaces planning or communication efforts.
• Limited time to communicate clearly and consistently with all stakeholders.
• Lack of clarity around roles, expectations and outcomes.
• Leaders inserting personal emotions into the process, which can affect objectivity.
• Change fatigue from too many initiatives happening at once.
• Ongoing instability that disrupts focus and weakens team morale.

The solution is to treat change management as a tangible skill that can be practiced daily. Learning and development (L&D) teams must equip leaders with concrete examples and practical tools that they can absorb, embody and use to guide their teams with clarity and confidence.

Modeling Situational Change Ownership^TM to Align Teams

Change doesn’t succeed through strategy alone — it takes leaders who model the behaviors that foster trust, ownership and adaptability at every level of the organization, then develop those traits in those they lead. To guide change effectively, leaders must implement and nurture in their team members the six core Situational Change Ownership™ characteristics .

When practiced consistently, these behaviors help cultivate a culture of ownership — an environment where individuals and teams are accountable, aligned and empowered to contribute meaningfully during change.

1. Open communication

In times of change, clear and consistent communication is one of a leader’s most powerful tools. It’s not just about delivering updates — it’s about fostering understanding and trust across the organization. To demonstrate open communication as leaders and team members, they must consistently:

• Address and disclose concerns early and often.
• Encourage and offer honest feedback without fear of judgment.
• Ask for and provide clarity on roles and expectations throughout the transition.

Open communication can help ensure everyone is working from the same information, not assumptions. This works to build trust, reduce confusion and keep organizational teams aligned as plans evolve.

2. Flexibility

Change often brings unexpected turns. Leaders must be prepared to pivot and support their teams in doing the same. To practice flexibility during change, leaders and team members must:

• Expect leadership styles and readiness levels to change based on individual and team needs.
• Work together to adjust timelines and plans when challenges arise.
• Normalize that plans may shift — and that’s okay.

Flexibility can help relieve some of the stress associated with change by preparing individuals to adapt more easily. This can help people stay engaged when things don’t go exactly as planned.

3. Curiosity

Instead of approaching change with assumptions or resistance, leaders should model a mindset of curiosity and openness and encourage the same in their team members. With their direct reports, leaders should:

• Ask and solicit thoughtful questions during planning and execution.
• Invite alternative viewpoints and input from your team.
• Explore problems without rushing to fix them.

By practicing curiosity, leaders can help their teams approach change initiatives with questions and an open mind rather than suspicion. This can help drive trust and understanding, increasing the chances for better change outcomes.

4. Creativity

Navigating change often requires finding new solutions under pressure. Leaders should empower their teams to think creatively about roadblocks. To model creativity, leaders will need to:

• Offer space for brainstorming and ideation.
• Recognize unconventional ideas and celebrate problem-solving efforts.
• Model creative approaches to their own work.

Creative thinking can help teams overcome uncertainty with confidence and ownership by giving them a unique perspective when addressing the unexpected challenges that occur during any change initiative.

5. Accountability

In a time of transition, strong leaders set the tone for accountability — not through pressure, but through shared ownership. Leaders should empower their direct reports to speak up when they are struggling with a task or some aspect of the change initiative, so any confusion or misunderstandings can be cleared up, ensuring consistent alignment.

To uphold this skill, leaders must:

• Follow through on their commitments and set expectations for the same from team members.
• Hold others accountable with empathy, not blame.
• Make space for team members to speak up when struggling.

By modeling accountability on their teams, leaders can ensure progress, build reliability and strengthen team cohesion under stress.

6. Optimism

Change can often feel like a loss — but effective leaders have the power to reframe it as a meaningful opportunity. Teams naturally take cues from their leaders, and if a leader appears disengaged or doubtful, direct reports are likely to mirror that attitude. Optimism doesn’t mean ignoring challenges; it means helping the team stay focused on what’s possible. To foster this mindset, leaders must:

• Highlight early wins and future benefits.
• Stay grounded but forward-looking when addressing setbacks.
• Show genuine belief in the team’s ability to adapt.

Optimism can inspire resilience and help teams stay motivated, even in the face of uncertainty, by helping them to focus on the opportunities versus the losses.

Putting Change Leadership Into Practice: How L&D Can Get Started

It’s not enough to teach the theory of change leadership — leaders need support applying it. To move from awareness to action, L&D teams must design learning experiences that are embedded in day-to-day realities and reinforced over time.

Here are a few ways to instill real behavioral change in your leadership development programs:

• Start with action plans. Encourage leaders to create personal action plans during or immediately after training. These plans should outline how they’ll apply specific change leadership behaviors in their current roles, tied to real initiatives underway.
• Use real-world examples. Ground lessons in real scenarios your leaders face — whether that’s restructuring, rolling out new tech or merging teams. Contextual relevance boosts retention and reinforces that the skills are immediately applicable.
• Reinforce with follow-through. Training must go beyond one-and-done. Tie learning to follow-up conversations, check-ins or frameworks, and track how leaders are showing up during key moments of change.
• Align with organizational expectations. Clearly define what effective change leadership looks like in your culture. When leaders know these behaviors are expected — and rewarded — they’re more likely to commit to building them.
• Build a support network. Offer mentorship and peer coaching to give leaders safe spaces to reflect, troubleshoot and grow. Shared experiences help normalize the challenges of leading through change and accelerate skill-building.

3 Steps to Sustaining Change Leadership

Sustaining change leadership is essential for building agile, resilient organizations that can thrive in constant transformation. As change becomes a permanent feature of the workplace, leaders must be equipped to guide their teams not just once — but again and again.

Here’s how to embed lasting change leadership in your organization:

• Develop the right mindset through emotional intelligence. Sustained change leadership begins with mindset. Leaders must build emotional intelligence (EI) — including self-awareness, empathy, openness and resilience — to guide teams through uncertainty with confidence. These are not fixed traits, but skills leaders can develop through intentional focus on interpersonal effectiveness, assertiveness and reframing change as opportunity.
• Reinforce and personalize learning across leadership levels. Change ownership doesn’t happen in a single training. It requires ongoing reinforcement and contextual relevance. Tailor learning to leadership levels: offer executive coaching and strategic readiness tools for senior leaders, while equipping mid-level and front-line leaders with actionable behaviors and real-time decision-making support. Embed activities that create lasting leadership habits.
• Measure what matters to ensure long-term impact. To sustain momentum, focus on metrics that reflect real behavior change. Look for alignment between expectations and outcomes, cultural shifts in engagement and openness, and the lasting adoption of change leadership behaviors. Tools like Situational Leadership® assessments can help track development and adaptation over time — giving L&D a clear view of what’s working and what needs support.

Bringing It All Together

When leaders consistently demonstrate these six characteristics, they don’t just manage change — they model the mindset and behaviors that enable their teams to thrive through it.

By building a Situational Change Ownership™ culture, leaders can create alignment not by mandate, but through example — leading teams who are more collaborative, adaptable and invested in the journey forward.