Four lessons on leading through change from Xero’s former CEO

Over the last 40 years, I’ve experienced multiple waves of technology change, economic shocks, social shifts and most recently, working and living through a global pandemic.

As I have worked to respond and where possible take advantage of these changes, I’ve come to appreciate the following things about leading change:

Change is a human thing more than a technology thing

Technology doesn’t innovate, yet – people do. Technology amplifies the potential of people by making more information available and providing a greater ability to connect with others of like minds.

People are the source and force of change. Yet they also offer the greatest resistance to it because of our natural human reaction to fear the unknown, protect ourselves, and hold on to our attachment to past knowledge and success.  

Being able to lead through change requires real care for the human nature of change and understanding the effect your mindset, words and actions have on others.

Make sure to understand and acknowledge people’s fear in the face of change and work hard to create an environment that makes it safe for them to challenge you and speak openly about their concerns.

You are how you think

Experience has convinced me the fate of organisations and teams is defined by how their leaders and people think in the face of change. 

There are so many examples of how the wrong mindset led to failure in industries such as media and retail where the emergence of digital media and online shopping wasn’t taken seriously enough, soon enough. 

When experiencing something new, I’ve learnt never to think of it as stupid or unlikely to have an impact. You can only afford to have an opinion on new trends after you have immersed yourself to really understand it and connect with people who know more than you.

Applying the right mindset requires you to be self-aware, observing yourself as you would an actor in a play, slowing down in the moment, and applying the right way of thinking to the situation you face. I recommend you find a way that works for you to be mindful or pause during a stressful situation.

Be aware of what you are saying and how others are receiving it. 

It is not about you

I led ninemsn (a digital media joint venture between Microsoft and PBL, owner at the time of Channel Nine and ACP Magazines) when it was a startup and the online advertising market was born. 

I joined as CEO with no experience in advertising and media – my background was in technology sales. In every meeting I went to with members of our 100-person team, I was the one who knew least about the domain of our business. All I could do was listen, learn and use my influence as CEO to remove obstacles that stopped us from making the progress we aspired to.

My focus was on three things:  

• Creating clarity of purpose and priorities: We reduced our list of things to do from 10 to three
• Driving alignment: Making sure we had our organisation and resources aligned as best as we could with our most important priorities
• Focusing on performance: Making sure we checked in regularly on progress and learnt from mistakes and adapted accordingly

Ninemsn became the industry leader at the time, a great team and place to work. I realised that having no domain expertise was a blessing because it required me to do what all leaders should do – be a great coach rather than star player of their organisation.

I recommend you bring a head coach mindset to your team where you do something every day to improve how your team works together. Make sure to ask questions that help identify where things aren’t going well and take action to improve the situation with your team members.

Don’t avoid difficult conversations

Words are all we have. Our capacity to change things for the better is defined by the frequency, speed and quality of the conversations we have, particularly the uncomfortable ones. Honest and direct feedback is fundamental to great teamwork and effective change. 

The key ingredients to confronting difficult conversations are being clear about the context, having care for people and the courage to just do it.

I believe you can say the hardest things in a humane way if you really care and take the time. Stay calm, objective, and grounded and show respect for the people concerned. Overcoming the fear of having difficult conversations can be stressful but with experience, you will gain confidence and see the benefit for all. Have the courage to step up and each experience will set you up better for the next.

Ask the people you work with to give you feedback on how you are working together, including one thing you could change to improve your working relationship. This is a useful way to build trust and encourage your people to speak up regardless of where you sit in the organisation. 

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