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They are motivated by business performance and the impact they have on people inside and outside their organizations. Not satisfied with status quo, they are catalysts of change and know when and how to adjust their leadership to varying circumstances. To trigger a different kind of leadership in themselves and in others, great leaders monitor five key factors: alignment, relationships, trust, accountability and flexibility.

Let’s catch up with Erin Sills and Sheila Bouman to hear more about high change, high impact (HCHI) organizations and the leaders that fuel their success.

Before we get into leadership, first what is a HCHI organization?

Erin: HCHI organizations typically share the following characteristics, they:

• Operate in a fast paced environment
• Strive to surface the passion of their people
• Are working towards lofty and ambitious goals
• Experience high pressure from stakeholders
• Have employees that share an excitement about being part of something new

What do leaders need to know about leading HCHI organizations?

Sheila: Leaders of HCHI organizations must stay laser focused on making an impact on business results and their people. They must know that if they want to see a change in either, they need to adjust their leadership approach. Change is normal and necessary today, but too many leaders keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. Leaders stuck in old patterns lead with a 30W bulb and this keeps them blind to the symptoms that are holding their changes back.

How do these leaders know when to change their approach?

Sheila: It is time to lead differently when:

• Efforts are not aligned, decisions get revisited or sabotaged, and people work at cross-purposes to each other
• There are unhealthy competitive behaviours, strained relationships and evidence of ‘silo-ed’ thinking
• Trust is weak − resulting in limited collaboration, unnecessary churn and unnecessary duplication of work
• People avoid accountability, blame others, make excuses or simply abdicate responsibility
• New ideas and directions are criticized, people complain, struggle with personal stress and demonstrate lack of flexibility or nimbleness

What is different with HCHI leaders?

Erin: These leaders keep their eyes wide open and constantly scan their organizations. Leaders in HCHI organizations:

• Create alignment with a sharp focus, have a line of sight to goals, have clear roles and expectations and promote coordinated and complementary efforts between individuals and teams.
• Foster high impact relationships where people are transparent, stand for the collective success of their organization and each other, have quality interactions and are free to test their assumptions with each other.
• Build trust by openly sharing information and feedback, having confidence that people are watching each others' backs and have a belief that the right people are doing the right work.
• Reinforce accountability by holding themselves and others accountable for business results as well as interpersonal impact.
• Expect flexibility and nimbleness through curiosity, resilience, innovation, a willingness to adapt personal behaviors, are comfortable with ambiguity and are quick to course correct.

What best practices have you used to help leaders adjust their leadership in HCHI?

Sheila: We believe in implementing ‘right practices’ rather than ‘best practices’. While best practices definitely have a place, it’s important to remember that while these practices have worked for other organizations, they will not necessarily work for yours and might inadvertently limit innovation and limit your success.

We work with our clients to identify and implement their own right practices – which are developed after a broad contextual review of their strategy, leadership, organizational capacity and operating environment is completed.

Where do leaders start?

Erin: Ultimately, it starts with a conversation to understand the leader’s goals, the impact they want to have on their business and people and what changes may be required. We then ask challenging questions that help them identify blind spots that may dull their vision or delay progress. With this insight, leaders start to see how they need to refine their leadership to be more successful.

To learn more about this work in action, take a look at the Case Study: High Change, High Impact of Olympic Proportions

If you need to sharpen your laser focus, Navigo would be pleased to have this conversation with you. To set up a no-obligation meeting – simply contact us at: 604 689 8780 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              604 689 8780      end_of_the_skype_highlighting or .

Sheila can be reached directly at sbouman@navigo.ca, Erin at esills@navigo.ca.