55 Leading Change? Here's How to Do it Well

Leading change can feel overwhelming, especially when your team is looking to you for answers you may not have yet.

In this episode of the Joyfully Unstoppable podcast, Becky Hamm shares practical strategies for leading change with confidence, integrity, and clear communication. Whether your organization is navigating restructuring, uncertainty, shifting priorities, budget pressure, or you're navigating major life transitions, this conversation will help you lead through change without losing trust, morale, or momentum.

You’ll learn how to anchor your leadership in values, regulate your nervous system under pressure, and communicate honestly when outcomes are uncertain. Becky also shares a simple framework for talking with your team during difficult transitions, including what to say when you do not have all the answers.

In this episode, you'll learn:
• How to approach leading change when uncertainty feels high
• Why values and mission matter during organizational transitions
• A simple nervous system regulation tool leaders can use in high-pressure moments
• How to communicate clearly through change without overpromising or creating confusion
• A practical framework for maintaining trust, morale, and focus during change

If you are responsible for leading change in your organization, your team, or your own life, this episode offers practical tools you can use right away.

Resources mentioned:
Download the Leading Through Storms workbook: https://womenleadwell.net/free-resources

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Transcript

0:05

Welcome to Joyfully Unstoppable, the podcast for women who are ready to succeed without the stress. Whether you're leading a team, a classroom, a boardroom, or your own big, beautiful life, I am so glad you found us. I'm your host, Becky Hamm, leadership coach, speaker, and founder of Women Lead Well. Join me each week for straight talk, practical tips, and a dash of encouragement. Hello, friend. I hope that you are having a great day. Today, we're gonna talk about leading through change. Anytime I connect with somebody on social media, mostly on LinkedIn, that's where I'm most active, but also on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, I just shoot a little note to say, "Hey, so glad we're connected here. I would love to learn more about your work. What is challenging you right now? What are you excited about right now? What are you focused on right now?" Just some kind of an introduction, let's get to know you. And routinely, when women answer me back, and not all women do, which is fine. People are busy. People don't always like the, the DM exchanges, whatever. I do it because it makes me happy and, and I learn a ton of amazing things about the incredible work that women are doing, so I get a lot of motivation and value out of these interactions. But it is not uncommon when women respond to me, particularly with that question, what's challenging you right now, for a woman to say I am up to my eyeballs in change management. My organization is undergoing significant change. Organizations are merging, organizations are coming apart, whole sections of organizations are being dissolved. I mean, the last 18 months has been a trip, right? And not in the fun way. Not in the fly in first class to go to Puerto Vallarta for a vacay. But it has been insane. And so I wanted to talk today about leading through change, and I am so honored to be able to speak on this topic, um, in early June at a conference for higher education leaders, because higher education as a sector has undergone profound and systemic change since the pandemic. And it's not just related to the pandemic, but just changes in demographics, student loans, like the cost of higher education, all of it is prompting a fundamental revisit of the role of higher education in the modern, well, workforce, but the role of higher education just in modern society. And so I'm deeply honored to be able to have that conversation with leading higher education professionals in the state of Virginia. But I wanna share it with you because I get this question often. And so I'm gonna turn the table People ask me, how do I lead change well, right? How do I lead my team through change effectively without damaging morale or team performance? And so anytime a woman asks me that, I wanna ask them, "Well, what is most challenging about this change for you? Not for your team, not for the organization, but for you personally." And people have different answers. Some people are, um, programmed to be pleasers, and so change can often be difficult and scary and often emotional for people. Even good change can be really emotional. And so if you're a natural-born pleaser or if you're a highly programmed pleaser, then it can be hard for you to walk with people through that discomfort and uncertainty. Or if you're the kind of person who likes to be in control and you like to have your next five steps mapped out, well, the type of change that we've seen now for over half a decade is incredibly disruptive and highlights the illusion of your control over most things in life. And so it could be that change is difficult for you because you're a control freak or a recovering control freak. I say that with love. I myself am a recovering control freak. And change is hard because it can h- it can leave you feeling like you are predominantly out of control. And so whatever it is for you, I would ask that first question: What is it about change that is challenging for you? And then the second question that I would ask is, what's the one thing that you are most afraid of getting wrong? With the change that you're managing for your team, for your organization, or even change just in your own life. You're changing jobs, you might be changing, um, where you live. It could be, for many of the women who listen to this podcast, your kids are off at college, or maybe they have just literally the past couple of weeks graduated high school and are going to college, or have just graduated college. Those are all big changes. And so what are you afraid of messing up? What are you afraid that you might do wrong as you navigate this change, whatever it is? And so whenever we talk about change management, I always wanna start with those two questions: What is most challenging for you, and what are you most afraid of? What are you most afraid of messing up or that's gonna go wrong? And I ask that question, those two questions, because that self-reflection helps to anchor you and ground you in seeing that change, whatever the change is, is a highly emotional thing, even for incredibly successful, high-performing, high-capacity, oftentimes highly logical and analytical people. And so I don't want you to beat yourself up if you are wrestling with change and feeling like you can't get traction and feeling like it just feels yucky. I just wanna recognize or validate that, yeah, friend, it is. That is That's part of the process. That's not you doing anything wrong. I don't wanna say it's a feature, not a flaw, but it is a feature. It is just part of leading through change. And so whatever that is that you came up with, what's most challenging and what you're afraid of, what you're afraid is gonna go wrong, and or how you might personally not navigate it well, that's your starting point, right? We can't wish that away. That is real. That's, that is the terrain upon which you will navigate change. And once you recognize it and acknowledge it, what we're gonna talk about today, I'm gonna lead you through three strategies for navigating change effectively. And you know it because if you've listened to this podcast before, you know I'ma say it. It starts with getting clear on your core values and what is most important to you, what is most important to your organization, because those are your guideposts. That's your North Star, and you can get through anything staying aligned with those values. Those values are pointing you in the direction, even in the middle of uncertainty and rapid change and transition. So we're gonna start with the values. I am gonna talk about nervous system regulation today. Again, not surprising for anyone who has listened to this podcast for any length of time. But you can't lead other people through a challenging experience, particularly if you yourself are feeling challenged by the change, whatever it might be. You've gotta ground. You've gotta find safety in your body, and your team will draw from that. They will feel that groundedness from you. That will calm them. It will boost morale, and it will increase productivity. And then the third thing that we're gonna talk about is effective communication through change. You know I love transparency, and I always talk about being transparent as a leader. And so I don't mean this to contradict that, but I also wanna recognize that often in change when things are moving quickly, when organizations are transitioning, particularly in a situation where the change or the transition is perhaps unwanted, where it's coming in response to something negative like budget cuts or a shifting environment, your, your market sector has changed fundamentally and perhaps has shrunk significantly again, as I've talked about higher education, just the number of, of graduating high school seniors has shrunk significantly over the last several years. And so the population of individuals who might then decide to go to college, either a two-year or four-year, that has shrunk significantly. All of that impacts how universities and community colleges function. And so while I would love to tell you to just be transparent and share everything you know, that is not always effective in this particular circumstance, one, because information changes quickly, and the last thing you wanna do is spread information that 30 minutes later has turned out to be inaccurate because the circumstances have changed, and two, because the decisions that are made to lead organizations through changes like this, particularly unwanted changes, those decisions really need to be as good and strong as possible, and that means sometimes you want information from other people, but you wanna keep the conversation as protected as you can so that the, the conversation is not about grandstanding or, or messaging. It's just about what's best for the organization or what's best for the clients. And, and so you I'm gonna talk about a communication strategy, but I wanna be real clear, this isn't tell, tell everything. This is an open kimono kind of conversation when we're talking about communicating through change management. And so here's where I want us to start. We're gonna start with values. You knew we would. When outcomes are uncertain, our mind quite naturally tries to fill the vacuum, right? People try to draw their own conclusions because we wanna create stability. We don't like the chaos. But at the same time, what we might fill that uncertainty with is based in fear, right? Because we feel threatened by the change, and so we're gonna fill in any uncertainty or any lack of knowledge from a place of fear That can often mean that we rely on rumor or assumptions that can lead us to paralysis unless leaders give people something else to hold onto. What you can't necessarily give them as you're moving through a period of change is certainty, because things are changing rapidly, and a lot of the time you can't tell them what's coming because you don't know what's coming. This is what makes values so important. You can give them clarity about the things that won't change, the values that govern how decisions are getting made, or, um, any kind of decision rule. Like again, I come out of higher education, and when we, we went through significant budget cuts, 25% budget cuts in a two-year period. We d- it was brutal, and I've talked about this before on the podcast. I told my team, "Look, the size of our budget is gonna grow or shrink over time. That's inevitable. It's always in flux, and as that budget grows and shrinks, that's gonna grow and, and shrink our capacity to serve our clients, who are the students." But we are always gonna put serving our clients first no matter the size of the budget, if it's really big or if it's tiny. And so in every decision that you make, the first question you ask yourself is, how does this serve our students? How does this serve our clients? And if you can't give me a really good answer to that question, we're not gonna do it, even if we had a bajillion dollar budget. And so getting clear on those values for you as a human being and how you wanna operate, but importantly in this context for the organization, that helps you give clarity where you can in a way that you can that has integrity. And those values translate into priorities, and the priorities are what focus where your energy goes and where your team's energy goes. And again, that's durable. How you're gonna achieve the mission, how you're going to enact or embody your values. What you're gonna be able to do to achieve your priorities might change over time. You might not be able to give certainty on that, but you can give certainty on the values, the mission, and the priorities because those don't change with strategy. The strategy changes to accommodate them. And so when you can name those clearly, consistently at all times... And friend, let me tell you, if you are in an organization that is not currently undergoing significant change, do not wait. Start articulating those values and your mission and the priorities crystal clear as day every conversation you have till you feel like you are repeating yourself all the time. When it gets annoying to you, do it some more, right? You, you can never over-communicate your values and the organization's mission. Because you do that during the steady times, so when the water gets bumpy through organizational change, the team already knows. And if that's too late, if you're in a season of change right now, well then start today. But my friend, start today. Don't, don't s- log off of work before you at least one time today communicate core values and mission. That's what helps your team keep moving forward, and that's what helps boost morale because when they can tie what they're doing to institutional, organizational, or even personal values and mission, that gives them the feeling that their work is meaningful. Whereas otherwise, again, 25% budget cut in a really short period of time, people were feeling like, like they couldn't do good work anymore because they had so much less to work with. Well, that's not true. You focus them on the good work that they can do. They It might be less in terms of volume and, and it might be less in terms of impact. We're not gonna, like, dance around that reality. But they're still having positive impact. But it is up to you as the leader to frame that for them And this is the key. You can only lead from your values if you've actually named them. We've talked about this before. If you're not clear about your personal values, I, um, heartily encourage you to download the values clarification exercise. You can find that at womenleadwell.net/free-resources, and that will help you get clear on your personal values. And to find your organizational values, a lot of organizations have them on their website. Find out or ask your boss, um, what, what the organization values. You can look at the mission statement, you can look at the vision, and you can call out And this could be something that you could do constructively with your team if the organization doesn't have core values, is to come together and agree what are the values that we find to be most important in our work in this organization? And then collectively come together, come to agreement on what those core values are, and then as you're moving through your period of change, you can use them again as your guideposts And so let me pause here for a second, and I wanna get crystal clear on what I mean by values. Yes, one of your core values might be, let's say, integrity. Yes, I love that. That's a great core value to have, particularly as a leader. But what I'm asking you to do is to get really focused and to say, instead of integrity, something like, I will tell my team what I know and what I don't know, even when I don't know most things about the change that is coming. That's the value, integrity, but in a embodied way, right? What that value means lived out for you. And then second thing, the priorities that your team must protect and put their energy toward, regardless of the change that is coming or the change that you're experiencing, because not everything can be a priority, right? Particularly in the type of change that most people are experiencing right now, which isn't, "Oh, yay, look at the amazing growth and expansion and awesome unlimited resources we have." No, it is often the opposite type of change, and so you've really gotta get clear on what the priority is. So that's thing one, get clear about your values for you, for the organization. Communicate those relentlessly with your team. Two, nervous system regulation, because again, the cha- the fact of the change is oftentimes challenging and emotionally draining for us as individuals, and then we have to show up as leaders for our organizations and for our teams. And so we gotta get grounded. Not from, like, a woo-woo kind of a wellness space, but from a, our team kind of drafts off of or feeds from our energy. And so when we are feeling dysregulated or stressed or the bad kind of challenged, 'cause challenge is inherently good, it's how we grow, but when it's that bad kind of challenge, like we don't know the answer and it's kinda freaking us out, our team feels that even if we don't communicate it with words. And so you gotta get yourself grounded. You just do. It is a fundamental responsibility that you have, and I am gonna go so far to say that it is irresponsible for you not to. So why do I say that? Let me give you the short version. Under sustained uncertainty and pressure, so like when you are dealing with unwanted systemic change, your prefrontal cortex, that part of your brain which is where strategic thinking, empathy, judgment all live, that part of your brain is degraded in capacity. It kinda goes offline. Not completely, but it's... it is degraded. Why? Because your brain shifts resources toward threat detection and immediate response. Millions of years of evolution have told your brain to do this. This is survival of the fittest. Your brain is just trying to keep you alive, and this is how it's doing it. The problem is that leading an organization through change is not actually a survival situation, right? You're not the rabbit running away from the fox or the coyote. And so you need, in this moment, exactly the capacities that go offline under threat. You need nuanced judgment. You need to be able to read people accurately. You need to be able to make decisions with incomplete information. And if you're dysregulated, you cannot do that reliably. You can't. So again, this isn't woo woo. This is, you need to be as effective as possible 'cause these are really challenging circumstances. How do you get to be as effective as possible? You regulate your nervous system. Okay, Becky, sounds great. How do I do that? Breathwork. I love breathwork. It is so good for signaling safety in your body so that prefrontal cortex can come back online, and you can be more effective. So the one we're gonna talk about today is called a physiological sigh. Don't get wrapped up in the name. I know it sounds so weird, but here's what you do. You take two inhales through your nose, and you hold it at the top, and then you do one long, slow exhale through your mouth. And I would do this for 30 seconds, 60 seconds, and you should be mindful that everyone's body is different. So, hey, do what works for you. What I would say, when I started breathwork, and I would do the two sighs in, hold it at the top, exhale through your mouth for longer than you'd inhaled, um, it could start to make me dizzy. And so what I would say is this: if you haven't done breathwork before, I would do one of them, so two inhales in, hold at the top, long breath out, maybe do a couple of those, and then just take a regular breath. Maybe take two regular breaths, then do it again, right? Take a regular breath. Don't give yourself Like, don't hyperventilate because this is new for how you breathe. But the point is this: those two inhales in floods oxygen into your brain. You hold it at the top, so you're holding that, and then that long exhale through your mouth, that h- tones the vagus nerve, which is that connection between the brain and the body, and it, it just signals to your nervous system, "I am safe. We are okay." And so I would say, one I think I've talked about this in the podcast before. I would do that on my drive to work in the morning, so when I was in the car. So you might try the physiological sigh, um, while you're c- on your commute. I would recommend it before walking into any meeting. You can duck into the restroom. If you, like, work in an open concept space, you can duck into the restroom and do it. It doesn't have to be loud while you're doing it. You can even do it in a meeting, right? If you are a little bit discreet about how you breathe out through your mouth. But my point is this: it regulates your nervous system. Like, that's the bottom line, and that physiological sigh does it really quickly. And so just do it. And any time you start to feel yourself kick into fight or flight, like you start to feel anxious or you start to feel yourself kind of getting agitated, try it. Don't take my word for it. Try it for yourself and see what happens. It's your parasympathetic nervous system that starts to engage. That prefrontal cortex starts to reignite and function, and you just will be better able to lead your team Now, last thing we're gonna talk about today, one of the most consistent findings in research on leadership, leading through periods of change, one of the most consistent findings is that trust disintegrates when leaders pretend they've got answers they don't have. Let me say it again. Most consistent research on leading through change tells us that trust within your team disintegrates if you pretend that you have answers you don't have. If you tell your team that you don't have the answers, that does not cause a lack of trust to the same degree as you telling them you know what's going on when you don't. So rule number one, do not lie to your team. If you don't know, you tell them you don't know Spin or anything that seems deceitful is an immediate breach of trust, and particularly if your team is, is working through the adversity, they're working through the change, and then you're not even honest with them. Like, there's not- nothing's gonna kill morale faster. It's just not. And so while I understand the impulse to try to comfort them and, and give them certainty because the uncertainty is scary, just don't lie. If you don't know, you just say, "I... Here is what I do know. Here is what I don't know." And so yeah, let me give you my three-step process for how to communicate through change. And it is that, I just laid it out. Number one, you tell them what is true. You tell them what you do know, and maybe that is, like, aligning with the values of a mission, right? So what is the known? Step two is you communicate what you don't know. "This is what I am certain of. This is what has... Our mission has not changed. I can't tell you yet the extent of the cuts that are coming." Right? What is true, like what do you know for a fact, what is unknown. And then step three, you tell them what you're gonna do. That's it. "So our mission remains the same. I do not know the extent of the cuts yet." As I find out, I will communicate with you. Until then, we are going to continue to deliver the highest value product possible to our clients Right? Done. Here is what I know to be true, here is what I do not know, here's what I'm gonna do. Here's what I want you to do. Right? You're giving them guidance, you're giving them cl- as much clarity as possible, and you're treating them like adults because they know you don't have all the answers. You were put into this role as a leader because somebody believed that you could handle hard things. Change is a hard thing. You can handle it. And this is the, like, not beauty In every adversity, there is opportunity. There simply is. Every challenge brings opportunity. Here is the opportunity for you as you lead your team through change. Every leader is gonna be remembered right now leading through change. The question is, how you gonna be remembered? Remembered by your team, remembered by your organization, how you remember yourself moving through this period. Not all of those leaders had the answers, right? The leaders who were remembered fondly, who were remembered positively, the leaders who gained respect and credibility through this period, who became more effective through this period, they are the ones who showed up honestly. They kept their people anchored when everything was in flux. They are the people who moved forward anyway, even without a clear picture of what was coming ahead. And how were they able to do that? Because they tied into their values and their mission, and what they knew to be true, and they built on the foundation that those values and that truth provided You can do that. Some people love it. Some people find it fun. A lot of us don't, and so what I would say is, what do I know? What do I not know? What are we gonna do? Keep it crystal clear. And I would say, look, you can always reach out to me. I'm at Women Lead Well across all social platforms, so just shoot me a DM or hit me up in a comment on a post. And if you have a specific question about how to manage change in your particular organization, I would love to help you. I also have built a pretty extensive workbook on leading through change. It's called Leading Through Storms, and you can download that on the Women Lead Well website at womenleadwell.net/free-resources. And it's got multiple guides on how to communicate effectively through change, what to do when someone reacts in a, a highly negative way to change. Sometimes people can, can erupt with some anger or an inappropriate way, and so gave you some scripts in Leading Through Storms about how to handle that. Additional tools about how to regulate yourself and how to, how to handle, how to maintain morale through difficult change. I hope you'll join me next week when we talk about playing the long game. Often, our road to success is paved with setbacks, switchbacks, and a whole lot of pushback. So knowing how to stay the course, even in the face of some pretty significant headwinds, is vital to our success. Okay, now, if today's episode spoke to you, I would love for you to share it with a friend. We need more women leading from alignment, not adrenaline. And if you haven't already, please make sure to like and subscribe so you don't miss next week's drop. Remember, joyful, sustainable, and authentic leadership is possible, and you deserve to enjoy every minute of it. Until next time, I'm Becky Hamm, and this is Joyfully Unstoppable