The Wrong Leadership Strategy

As well as the readiness to acquire new skills, IT staff and employees in the operational business units must be able to change the way they work. Employees will also need to have access to a new infrastructure, which provides collaborative tools and a modern work environment.

Personal experience teaches us that someone always has to take the initiative to instigate a change and drive it forward. Positive role models are a huge boost on the road to transformation. You'll also need to take a radical approach to get attention. And if all those involved have a positive experience, then the rest will just fall into place.

When your computer desktop looks different to your neighbor's, when you don't use a VPN to access the system, when you share documents on your OneDrive or Dropbox account and present PowerPoints on your iPhone – then your colleagues will start to think about changing their mindset and their habitual ways of working.

As one of the leading Microsoft Dynamics partners, COSMO CONSULT offers a modern multi-cloud enterprise application environment. Our CEO, Uwe Bergmann, sees us as a role model for our clients.

Hence, we asked ourselves why most employees do not make use of the new technologies. The answer was the same as the one we regularly hear from our customers: People tend to resist change – nobody likes to leave their comfort zone.

To master the transition to the digital age, your employees will need to be ready to change. Therefore strong leadership support is essential – to drive change forward and to motivate new ways of working and thinking.

At the same time, however, managers must be sensitive to the concerns of their employees, they need to listen to them, address them, facilitate a positive digital experience, share a digital vision and manage the process of change with a steady hand.

What about your company – have you also encountered resistance to change? What is your personal strategy to counteract this?