To help illustrate how CQ is relevant to change leaders like yourself, I thought I’d share with you some of the questions I’ve been asked about how to apply the principles of the book to your team or organization:
- With all the leadership books out there, why was it important for you to write this book? From my first day on the job, standing in front of a room full of all-male steelworkers all decades older than me, I lived firsthand how challenging the role of a change leader can be. It can be pretty scary to be the one up front and center and intimidating to realize that even the best education and training doesn’t always prepare you to lead the change. It’s been my passion for the last 25 years to equip change leaders to successfully navigate and direct change even in the most complex and challenging situations. When you know your CQ, you know what to do next even if it’s a situation you’ve never faced before.
- What type of leader would benefit from reading Change Intelligence? I wrote the book for at any level charged with implementing change. So, whether you’re on the front lines or in the C-Suite, Change Intelligence can be applied directly to your situation. That being said, the demands and dynamics of leading change can be very different at the CEO versus project manager versus front line supervisor levels, and I offer advice to guide each based on my decades of experience coaching up, down and across organizations.
- What types of change is the book relevant for? What industries? The book is full of real-life case studies of transformations from mergers to new technology implementations to process improvements in industries spanning healthcare to high tech, refineries to retail, and steel to sales teams. This is critical, because as leaders, we are constantly on point to manage multiple changes at once, and the pace is increasing, and the scope becoming more complex every day. What matters is less the specifics of the change or industry dynamics, and more that by knowing your CQ you are equipped to lead change even when you’re facing a challenge you’ve never experienced before.
- What’s the book’s key message – the bottom line – and how can I apply it today? The big “ah-ha” of the book is that it is possible to lead successful and sustainable change – if it’s led effectively. And it is possible to lead change effectively – not necessarily by starting with “overcoming resistance by others” or applying a new tool or process – but rather, by looking inside, and starting with yourself as a change leader. What are your strengths? What are your blind spots? What are you natural tendencies as a change leader? The 15-minute Change Intelligence self-assessment ($97 Value) that comes free with every book helps you answer these questions quickly, and the customized report each reader receives contains simple, practical, and applicable coaching for how to bolster your CQ right now, on the job today. When you know your CQ, you experience an immediate increase in your confidence and competence in leading successful and sustainable change.
Ready to create powerful and lasting results for your team or organization? Discover your Change Intelligence here.