The Human Skill All Leaders Need In Times Of Change

The saying goes that change is the only constant in life. The same can be said in business, where technological upheaval, policy shifts and global instability have left many small business owners wondering when the dizzying ride will end.

But as leaders add change management to their long list of responsibilities, a crucial leadership task often falls by the wayside. Communication can be the first casualty in times of change when it should be the top priority, says communication and human skills expert Leah Mether.

“Most changes fail because they’re over-managed and under-communicated,” she says, noting the propensity for business owners to update policies and procedures rather than leading their people through change. But when the biggest current catalyst of change is artificial intelligence, she says human skills, like communication, have become invaluable. “You can’t be a great leader without being a great communicator.”

People Weren’t Designed To Cope With So Much Change

As the world responds to multiple inflection points, Mether says it’s understandable that many small and medium business owners feel their heads are spinning. “The pace of change we are seeing will never be slower than it is now,” she says. “I don’t say that to terrify everyone, I say it to help people see that having the skills to adapt to and navigate change has never been more important.”

Studies confirm the seismic impact of artificial intelligence in the workplace. 69 per cent of executives told an IBM survey AI has already transformed core operations. Another report found 78 per cent of C-suite leaders expected AI would alter employee roles within 12 months while 57 per cent of employees reported their roles had already changed. An Employment Hero SME Pulse poll found 89 per cent of SMEs had adopted AI to some extent, and 63 per cent were increasing investment.

Whether it’s AI or another form of change, like financial pressures, internal restructures or regulatory upheaval, stress compounds when employees feel uninformed about disruption that will directly affect them. “Communication underpins all human connection, and when we are dealing with change, we have really basic human responses,” Mether explains. “Our bodies are designed to see change and uncertainty as a potential threat, and it throws us off into that fight, flight, freeze, or fawn mode.”

She adds that those physiological responses make it harder to absorb information when it’s needed most. “When you get bad news or hard news, you stop listening, because you go into a spiral in your head about what does this mean for me, and how am I going to deal with that?” she says. “People are feeling knocked off centre and your job as a leader is to provide that steady hand through it.”

Mether notes that leaders are also human, and will have to overcome the same biological responses to guide themselves through change as well as their employees. “You can’t make people magically be okay through change, but how you show up, communicate, and lead can absolutely have a huge impact. And there are some basic tips and frameworks that you can use in uncertain times to provide that clarity and steadiness,” she says.

A Four-Part Framework for Communicating Through Uncertainty

Mether’s first rule of communicating change is not to hold back. Leaders should regard communication as an ongoing process rather than a box to be ticked on a to-do list.

“It needs to be absolutely dialled up, and you need to keep banging the drum,” she iterates. “You need to keep communicating. Over-communicate, if anything. That’s better than under-communicating, because you want to give your team the assurance that you are keeping abreast of the situation, you are doing what you can to lead them through it.”

The first step in Mether’s four-step framework for change communication is to share what’s known. The second step is to explain what’s being done. She says most business owners cover these instinctively, then stop instead of progressing to step three: outlining what they don’t know. “That’s a really big mistake,” she says bluntly, “because you can bet that the bit everyone in your team is talking about is the bit you’re not mentioning. That is dangerous, because in a vacuum of information, people make up their own stories, and the stories they make up might be very different to reality.”

She says it takes courage for a leader to admit they don’t have answers, but employees will feel comforted knowing they’re being sought. A pledge to share updates, whether weekly or once they’re available, is step four.

“When you do this, you build trust with your team,” Mether says. “They don’t see it as you’re trying to hide something. They feel like you, as a leader, are on top of things, you’ve got your finger on the pulse.” She says people are looking for transparency rather than honesty, drawing an important distinction between the two. “Honesty is sharing the truth when you’re asked. Transparency is sharing the truth that you think needs to be told and shared because it’s the right thing to do,” she explains.

Mether acknowledges owners will want to keep some decisions close to their chests but advises against defaulting to secrecy. “I challenge every small business owner out there to really ask the question of, ‘What am I withholding and is it actually serving the purpose that I want?’ You may lose some of your best staff because they think the writing’s on the wall, or they think that your business is in trouble when actually you’re doing okay.”

Human Skills Are An Essential Part Of AI Adoption

When the change that is being communicated relates to AI, Mether’s advice is to be upfront and share the best information available at the time. “The challenge here is it’s changing so fast,” Mether explains. “I think it’s really important to communicate that with your team, because this is different to other changes that have happened in the past. You don’t want to be scaring your people, but have the conversation about what you’re looking at.”

A growing body of evidence suggests AI adoption works best when clear guidelines and guardrails are established governing its use. Mether says this means not just drawing up an AI use policy but ensuring all employees understand it.

“Do you want them to be using it? If you do, are you giving them parameters? You know, don’t be putting your client details in there, for example. These are big conversations, they’re big changes. And I think the biggest risk is not having any conversation, because that’s when things get out of hand. You might have someone in your team using AI for something that is not appropriate at all, because you haven’t had a conversation,” she says. Indeed, a global survey found 33 per cent of employees employed AI tools in secret, while 42 per cent felt like using it was cheating, partly because they lacked express permission.

Employees are most likely to embrace rather than fear AI in the workplace, Mether says, when leaders make it clear that their human skills are valued. She says these so-called ‘soft skills‘ are finally getting the recognition they deserve, now that AI provides an obvious source of comparison. “We’ve almost treated those human skills as the fluffy extra,” she says. “They’re nice to have, but not as important, and businesses are really waking up to the fact that we do need to focus on those essential human skills, because people drive performance.”

Small and medium businesses are bringing her in to boost human skills in people originally hired for their technical expertise, to create a point of difference. “I know a couple of businesses that are doing this, they’re using AI for the bits it can advance, but doubling down on some of those old-school methods of communication,” she says. “Because so few people are doing them now, that’s becoming a competitive advantage.” This may mean doubling down on phone calls, focusing on client relationships or using storytelling to convey complex information, anything that AI can’t do.

But she points out that AI sceptics shouldn’t interpret her advice as permission to eschew technology. “Gone are the days where we could just rely on our technical skills, but that doesn’t mean go all in on your human skills and ignore AI,” she says. “Getting that balance right is important.”