The Successful Transformation Series | Part 3: Transforming leadership with credibility and trust

To recap The Successful Transformation Series, transformation starts with understanding a business and the leadership running it (Part 1). To transform the business will mean transforming -to some extent- the leadership at different levels in the organization (Part 2). To initiate, nurture and embed a new way of leading the business, those bringing about the transformation need to inspire credibility and trust (Part 3).

Credibility comes from a Business Mentor having stood in the shoes of the business leader and having delivered transformations in the past.

Studies have proven that an external mentor is superior to peers in increasing the effectiveness of team playing. The higher effectiveness is attributable to the fact that the external mentor is seen as more credible than a peer of oneself.

This results in external mentors being more effective in bringing performance changes than peer mentors.

Business mentoring is based on a trusted relationship, offering a safe environment to talk openly and the required absolute confidentiality related to sensitive leadership topics.

The Business Mentor will expeditiously uncover the real human and organizational pitfalls, the taboo subjects every organization tiptoes around and those people issues most likely to obstruct the transformation process.

Providing an external view and adding a wider industry perspective, the Business Mentor fosters new ways of thinking. He or she will offer a gateway to a vast personal network of proven experts.

Ultimately the Business Mentor offers peace of mind and confidence in a good outcome when the mentee is most in need of it.

As an experienced business leader, the Business Mentor is able to engage on a peer to peer basis with the C-level sponsor of the transformation project. The relationship enables the transformation challenge to be prioritized on the sponsor’s personal agenda.

• First of all, the sponsor will be more visible and more engaged to passionately communicate about the transformation. This means communicating a convincing the Big Why for the project, what’s in it for each individual and be vocally supporting the change throughout the process.
• The Business Mentor will facilitate the sponsor's support at all levels of the organization. This includes clarifying roles and expectations towards each involved department and engaging with top management when issues are escalated.
  
• Finally, the sponsor will walk the talk. He or she will be the first adopter, be part of change activities and allocate sufficient resources to make the transformation possible.

As both research and experience show, the sponsor's commitment is the most defining factor contributing to success. An effective sponsor is proven to more than double the chance of delivering a successful transformation.