Yesterday I talked about how leaders are not change agents, pointing out a difference in roles between individuals who have authority within a change initiative, and those who don’t.
While people who are in leadership positions are not the same as the people who are change agents, change agents themselves must demonstrate leadership qualities to be effective. In that sense, change agents are leaders.
Because trust is essential for change agents, the same standards of integrity and credibility apply.
To gain buy-in, change agents consistently communicate the vision and purpose of the initiative.
Change agents frequently gain their own tribe of followers who also believe in the vision and want to be involved.
Savvy change agents may even be leading the leaders!
The tagline for Enclaria is “Equipping individuals to lead organizational change.” I frequently add “from the middle” in conversations, because my focus is building up the capability of change agents to influence their organizations. To that end, I believe it is important to distinguish between the leadership position in a change initiative, and the leadership characteristics that change agents must have to increase their power and influence.
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