Welcome to another edition of Impactful Teamwork! My name is Julia Felton, founder of Business HorsePower, and in today’s blog, we’ll be discussing how to elevate, empower, and energise your team members to enable effective transformation within your organisation.
This blog is a summary of the key findings from my latest podcast episode, inspired by McKinsey & Company’s recent research, Going All In: Why Employee Will Can Make or Break Transformations.
Why Employee Energy and Will Matter
At its core, transformation is a challenging, high-stakes endeavor for any business. While many leaders focus on strategy, execution, and outcomes, McKinsey’s research emphasizes an often overlooked component: employee will. Organisations that can successfully tap into their team’s collective energy for change are more likely to implement successful, long-lasting transformations. These transformations are more than just operational shifts—they are about fundamentally changing how employees work, engage, and deliver value to the business.
Transformation success isn’t just about implementing new systems; it’s about shifting mindsets, fostering commitment, and cultivating a sense of ownership across the team. McKinsey identifies three key steps for leaders: elevate, empower, and energise. In this blog, we’ll explore these concepts in depth and provide practical strategies for embedding them into your business transformation.
1. Elevate: Foster Leadership from Within
The first step in driving effective transformation is to elevate a core group of team members—high performers, new talent, and others who demonstrate a passion for change. These individuals become champions responsible for leading and designing the transformation process. According to McKinsey, 7% of team members need to be actively involved in driving key initiatives for the transformation to generate positive returns. However, most organizations involve only about 2%, leading to less successful outcomes.
How can you elevate team members more effectively?
- Identify Key Talent: Start by recognising high performers and those with fresh perspectives who can take ownership of critical milestones. Ensure this group is diverse in thought and experience.
- Create a Sense of Purpose: People are more motivated when they understand the “why” behind the change. Connect the transformation goals to a broader purpose, whether it’s improving customer experiences or contributing to a larger societal mission.
- Invest in Leadership Development: Provide these change leaders with the resources, training, and autonomy to innovate and experiment. Ensure they feel valued and supported throughout the process.
An example from the McKinsey study highlights a water supply company that clearly communicated its role in providing access to clean water. This purpose-driven narrative helped employees understand how their participation in the transformation would directly benefit the community, leading to greater engagement.
2. Empower: Cultivate a Broader Coalition of Change Leaders
Once you have elevated a core group of champions, the next step is to empower a broader group of employees—particularly influencers, managers, and supervisors—to model the right behaviors and encourage others to get involved.
In many organisations, middle managers and frontline supervisors are the gatekeepers of transformation. They are the ones who interact with employees daily and have the most influence on the culture. Empowering these individuals to act as role models is essential to driving behavioural changes across the organisation.
How can you empower employees effectively?
- Encourage Innovation: Empower employees at all levels to contribute ideas and suggest new ways of working. Frontline workers often have valuable insights that can lead to more efficient processes or customer-focused improvements.
- Amplify the Right Behaviors: Empower your managers to model behaviours that align with the transformation goals. They should be encouraged to disrupt unproductive norms, such as involving team members from various levels in brainstorming sessions or decision-making processes.
- Build Two-Way Communication Channels: Empowerment is not just about delegation; it’s about creating open dialogue. Managers need to feel confident providing feedback to senior leaders, and employees should feel their voices are heard.
By building this coalition of empowered leaders, you create a ripple effect that drives change across the organisation. These individuals can help break down resistance and build momentum toward the desired transformation.
3. Energise: Ignite Collective Will and Motivation
The final step is to energise your team around the transformation effort. Leaders need to inspire their teams, tapping into their intrinsic motivations and fostering a sense of excitement about what’s to come. Transformation can be demanding, so creating a sense of urgency and collective will is crucial for sustaining long-term change.
How can you energise your team?
-
Storytelling and Communication: One of the most effective ways to energise employees is through storytelling. Leaders can share personal narratives about why the change is essential, how it aligns with the company’s values, and what it means for the future of the business.
-
Peer Engagement: Encourage peer-to-peer engagement by creating forums where employees can share their experiences, successes, and lessons learned. These peer-led discussions help build camaraderie and reinforce the importance of the transformation.
-
Recognize and Celebrate Progress: Celebrate milestones and small wins along the way. Recognition can help sustain momentum, boost morale, and remind employees of the broader goal they are working toward.
The key here is to create excitement around the transformation, so employees feel energised and motivated to contribute. This requires consistent, authentic communication from leaders and a shared sense of ownership across the team.
Practical Application: Elevating, Empowering, and Energising Your Team
Let’s take a moment to consider how these three principles might work in practice within your organisation. Imagine you are leading a digital transformation initiative aimed at streamlining operations and improving customer experience. How can you ensure that the team is on board and ready to contribute?
-
Elevate: Begin by identifying key team members who will take ownership of critical milestones, such as implementing new software or redesigning customer workflows. Ensure these individuals understand the strategic importance of their role and provide them with the resources they need to succeed.
-
Empower: Encourage managers and frontline leaders to model the behaviors necessary for success, such as adopting new technology, embracing customer-centric thinking, and collaborating across departments. Equip them with the training and tools they need to communicate effectively with their teams.
-
Energise: Regularly share stories about how the transformation is impacting customers or improving internal processes. Celebrate early wins and engage team members in peer discussions about how the change is making a difference. Keep the energy high by acknowledging the hard work and dedication of those involved.
Conclusion: The Three E’s in Action
Effective transformation requires more than a great strategy; it demands the collective will and energy of your entire organization. By focusing on the three E’s—elevate, empower, and energise—you can unlock the full potential of your team and drive successful, long-lasting change.
So, how will you implement the three E’s in your organization this week? Reflect on how you elevate team members into leadership roles, how you empower employees to innovate and act, and how you energise your team to stay motivated throughout the transformation process. It’s time to tap into your organisation’s collective energy and make your transformation a success.
Until next time, remember to elevate, empower, and energize!
Show Notes:
Here are the highlights from this episode:
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.