Transformational Change Leadership: Why Adapting Requires Leadership, Not Management

The term "Change Management" has always felt limiting to me. Change isn’t just about managing tasks and tactics; it’s about inspiring people through uncertainty, building sustainability, and pursuing the organization's grand vision—the overarching purpose that connects every action to a greater goal.

Transformational change is a leadership challenge. It requires motivational intelligence, a relational mindset, and clear intentions. Leadership in this context isn’t about authority; it’s about anyone with empathy, competence, and trust that other people are ready and willing to follow.

Inspired by the work of Professor John Kotter from Harvard University, I’ve adapted his principles into a new framework: The Relational Change Leadership Model. 

This model places people and relationships at the heart of the change process, ensuring their motivational and practical needs are met. It recognizes that lasting change requires continuous learning, flexibility, and cultural alignment.

These traits emerge in a thriving mindset and are absent in a surviving mindset. Therefore, the very first step in any change leadership initiative is to meet the people involved in the change where they are, not where you are. 

The Relational Change Leadership Model

Phase 1: Preparing – Identifying, Codifying, and Galvanizing Your Desired Change

Change begins with understanding and uniting people around how it best serves the company’s grand vision. Preparing sets the cornerstone for meaningful transformation by fostering the psychological safety, desire, and confidence of those you’re asking to change. Without a square, level, and plumb cornerstone, the desired change will struggle to remain sustainable.

1. Assessing: Cultivate Change Readiness

Change is a luxury for the safe, strong, and well-resourced. It lies in the abundant world of thriving mode. The more a person feels they are surviving, the more they will resist change. To a survivalist, change equals risk.

• Foster psychological safety by creating a vision where people see your proposed change as the smarter, safer, and most abundant thing to do.
• Encourage people to express their fears, concerns, and doubts. Without this space, genuine buy-in is impossible.
• Talk directly to those involved in your change initiative to get their input on what to change, how to change it, and why the change should happen.
  
  

2. Articulating: Connect the Grand Vision

Change should always serve the company’s grand vision. By connecting the dots between the change and the greater good, you make it easier to obtain buy-in.

• Get people involved in shaping the process and purpose of the change. This creates micro-influencers—informal leaders who can drive adoption with their endorsement.
• Recognize and communicate the human impact of the change. Speak honestly about the pros and cons, demonstrating your respect and intentions to keep their dignity intact.
• Share how the desired change will yield a positive ROI, ensuring that the change is seen as both beneficial and aligned with the company and stakeholder's values.
  
  

3. Assembling: Build a Diverse Coalition

A strong coalition is crucial to leading change. This isn’t about rank—it’s about influence. Influencers are people with clear direction. While many bosses aspire to have followers, actual leaders already do, regardless of their rank or title.  

• Form a diverse, trusted team of leaders who others follow by reputation, not just authority.
• Empower the Change Coalition to address concerns, foster buy-in, and inspire the actions and behaviors necessary for lasting change.
• Help the Change Coalition build trust by providing clear processes, empathetic and competent communication, and a healthy feedback loop.

Phase 2: Implementing – Entrusting, Empowering, and Energizing People to Want to Change

Implementation is where the change initiative comes to life. This phase equips people for success and sustains momentum through empowerment, communication, and celebration.

4. Coaching: Teach Them to Fish

Anything worth doing is worth doing badly at first. Lasting change is built on safe challenges and continuous learning. 

• Creating safe challenges and struggles creates a stronger bond to lasting change. Provide training, coaching, and resources that allow people to develop the skills needed for success.
• Address power dynamics and resistance empathetically. Employ active listening to resolve concerns. Change fails when it demands people betray their beliefs without explanation or respect.
• Promote a culture of experimentation, feedback, and reflection. Embrace failure as an expected and acceptable outcome, paving the way for growth.
  
  

5. Championing: Change Branding

Lasting change requires consistent, memorable messaging that embeds it in the minds of those involved.

• Deliver an impactful, salient message consistently (at least three times per week) to reach your intended audience.
• Maintain a healthy feedback loop, encouraging open dialogue around emotionally charged fears and doubts. Listen for dissension to uncover people’s real resistance. Until you know why they are not adapting, you’ll just frustrate them into non-compliance.
• Use storytelling to connect the desired change to the company’s grand vision. Inspire people to see themselves in the journey and align their personal motivations with the organization’s goals.
  
  

6. Celebrating: Recognize the Right Actions and Behaviors

To build momentum, celebrate the wins, big and small, to reinforce the desired actions and behaviors for lasting change.

• Recognize both small wins and meaningful efforts, no matter how small. Highlight individual and team contributions to boost morale.
• Reflect on successes and failures, adapting the approach as needed. This creates an environment where people feel valued and safe.
• Activate oxytocin—the chemical of connection—through sincere, specific gratitude that links their specific actions and behaviors to your company’s grand vision.

Phase 3: Sustaining – Refining, Aligning, and Reinforcing Lasting Change

Change becomes sustainable when it is fully integrated into the organization’s culture and processes. Sustaining change ensures it endures by reinforcing alignment, refining strategies, and embedding lasting behaviors.

7. Adapting: Continuously Refining the Strategy 

As Princess Shuri of Wakanda said, “Just because something works, doesn’t mean it cannot be improved.”

• Continuously monitor the impact of your change initiative, looking for friction and opportunities to optimize.
• Remain flexible. Empower people to suggest improvements and champion continuous iteration.
• Update the change initiative to reflect evolving realities while staying aligned with the company’s grand vision.
  
  

8. Aligning: Engage Stakeholders Holistically

Change often affects more than your internal team. Sustainable change requires alignment across all stakeholders, internal and external.

• Every stakeholder must see how their contribution serves the company’s grand vision. Be clear and forthright in your communication. 
• Ensure policies, procedures, and systems support the new way of working. Misalignment creates friction and resistance, slowing profitable growth.
• Engage external stakeholders (customers, vendors, partners, communities) to support and reinforce the change initiative directly.
  
  

9. Anchoring: Integrate the Change into Your Culture’s DNA

For change initiatives to endure, you must weave them into the fabric of the company’s identity. Obviously, the bigger the change you want to make, the greater the importance of this step becomes. 

• Embed the change into the company’s culture by aligning your policies, performance metrics, and motivators to the grand vision.
• Share legendary stories of success and resilience to make the change part of the organization’s identity. 
• Ritualize the desired change with intentional actions and behaviors that reinforce what’s necessary to sustain change.

How the Relational Change Leadership Model Expands on Kotter’s Approach

The Relational Change Leadership Model draws inspiration from John Kotter’s widely recognized 8-Step Model for Change Leadership while addressing several key gaps to better align with today’s organizational realities.

1. Leadership Over Management

• Kotter’s model emphasizes leadership, but it is still rooted in the traditional managerial focus on tasks and sequential execution.
• The Relational Change Leadership Model reframes change as fundamentally relational and motivational, prioritizing empathy, competence, and identity-based motivation at every stage.

2. Relational at the Core

• While Kotter’s model builds momentum through urgency and short-term wins, the Relational Change Leadership Model prioritizes understanding and relational trust as the driving forces behind sustainable change.
• Trust-building, psychological safety, and robust stakeholder engagement are explicitly woven into each phase of the process.

3. Iterative and Flexible Approach

• My model embraces iteration and feedback loops, using continuous insights to refine the strategy and address unforeseen challenges, ensuring adaptability in dynamic environments.
• Kotter’s model follows a linear and sequential structure, which can be limiting in dynamic environments.

4. Inclusivity and Diversity

• Kotter’s coalition-building emphasizes leadership-level alignment but lacks a strong focus on diversity or representation.
• My model calls for a diverse and inclusive guiding coalition that reflects all levels of the organization, empowering a broad base of contributors. It presumes everyone is a leader, not just those with authority. 

5. Expanded View of Stakeholders

• Kotter’s model centers on internal organizational dynamics, often neglecting the role of external stakeholders.
• My model incorporates holistic alignment with external stakeholders—including customers, vendors, regulators, and communities—to ensure broader buy-in and alignment with your company’s grand vision.

6. Motivational Intelligence

• Kotter’s steps are primarily process-driven, with less emphasis on addressing the motivational impact of change.
• The Relational Change Leadership Model integrates motivational intelligence by addressing internal and external motivators—both positive and negative. For example, it actively identifies and resolves fears or doubts while connecting individuals’ contributions to the overarching vision.

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By focusing on both the human element and long-term integration, this model ensures transformational change is not only achieved but sustained. Change led through relationships isn’t just effective—it’s transformative.