By Alex Wray

Knowing that half of all acquisitions fail didn’t help Jack get back to sleep. After all, he was CEO. The buck stopped with him—and one year after his tech company had acquired another, things were going from bad to worse.

Integrating the two companies’ starkly different cultures had proven more difficult than anyone expected. Decisions about everything from advertising to IT had sparked bitter fights and bogged down business. Costs were rising, morale was cratering, and the much-touted “synergies” that were the reason for the acquisition had yet to materialize. Some of Jack’s best people were heading for the exits.

What nagged at Jack most was that all of this was happening even though he and his team knew better. They had MBAs. They had attended executive programs at prestigious universities. They had paid an army of consultants a ton of money. They could teach this stuff. Nonetheless, they were failing. As Jack stared at the ceiling at 3 a.m., one question echoed relentlessly in his mind—Why?

Discounting the Usual Suspects
Jack’s first impulse was to blame the usual suspects: poor planning, inadequate resources and the inevitable “unforeseen events.” However, according to research by McKinsey & Company, such factors account for failed change programs less than 30 percent of the time. The rest of the time, people are to blame—specifically, people who don’t “get with the program” and do their part.

Interestingly, while managers, upon hearing that statistic, might be tempted to look around them for the weak links, they should instead look in the mirror; the same McKinsey study found that 46 per cent of change programs fail because management’s own behaviours don’t support them. As the comic strip Pogo put it, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

To make change stick, leaders must change their own behaviour first. Doing so demands unflinching self-examination. It requires managers to identify where they are falling short—their own performance gap. For those willing to do the work, it’s a powerful first step in making the personal changes that enable them to lead change in their organizations.

A Great Plan is Just the Start
It is not unusual for organizations to plan well for change, as Jack’s company had done. They adopt proven, research-based methodologies. They get smart guidance from outside experts.

However, as research shows—and as we’ve seen at Wray Group time and again—even the most airtight plan is only part of the solution. Leaders must remember to write themselves into their change programs. If management isn’t leading by example or bringing their unique influence to bear where it matters most, change is likely to stall. But when leaders play their part, change has a much greater chance of taking root—four times as great, according to McKinsey.

What did this mean for Jack, a client whose name we’ve changed for the sake of privacy? It meant if he wanted to change his company, he had to start with himself.

Organizations Don’t Change—People Do
Another client story illustrates the cultural changes that are possible when management changes its behaviour first. A century-old financial services company was in a change-or-die situation because of the 2008 financial meltdown. The company had been hit with multiple ethics charges after a number of its traders played fast and loose with the rules. Faced with ruin, the company got serious; it brought in a global leader in strategy consultation to develop a comprehensive plan for clarifying expectations and setting behavioural standards for its 10,000-plus employees worldwide.

However, the company didn’t stop there. It also brought in a team of experts—including Wray Group—to coach 200 of its most influential leaders in adopting the transformative behaviours. These included increased collaboration and what the company called “challenge.” In a silo’d corporation where smart, high-performing leaders were accustomed to autonomy and rarely challenged by their peers—let alone subordinates—managers learned to hold each other accountable. Perhaps more importantly, they learned to receive criticism without it triggering a defensive response. Their culture moved from being less about “me” and more about “we.” That change, along with a renewed, enterprise-wide focus on integrity, is credited with pulling the company back from the brink.

Of course, changing entrenched behaviours is never easy. The managers had coaches to support them in pushing beyond their comfort zone, building new habits, and, most importantly, deactivating old ones.

Jack, the tech company CEO, went through the same process when faced with his own challenges. In each case, the work began with the leader identifying his/her performance gaps. This is an essential part of the process, and one that can be done in three straightforward steps.

Step 1: Identify the Change That Needs Your Support Most
For Jack, this step was the easiest. The change that most needed his attention was the

integration of the acquired companies’ cultures. He knew this was the right answer because:

• it was the change that mattered most;
• it was a change the company was struggling to execute; and
• his involvement could make all the difference.

Jack could say with confidence that focusing on integration would be his optimal point of impact.

Step 2: Find Your One Big Thing
Once you know which change needs your support, the next question to ask is, how do you best step up to support it? It can be tempting at this stage to come up with a laundry list. However, it’s most effective to pick a singular focus—your ‘One Big Thing.’

In Jack’s case, this, too, was pretty easy. He knew he needed to make the integration of the two corporate cultures a far higher priority. He admitted a tendency to avoid doing so, and it was clear to him that he was abdicating too much of the work to consultants.

It can take some soul-searching, but most managers know their One Big Thing when they come across it, because it:

• promises a significant benefit if achieved;
• describes their performance, not others’;
• offers genuine room for improvement;
• is not a quick fix, and may even be something at which they have tried and failed; and
• is a process versus an outcome.

Usually, finding the ‘One Big Thing’ isn’t rocket science—once it has surfaced. However, another identifying trait of the ‘One Big Thing’ is that, while it might be something simple, it also has the potential to have a profound impact.

Some examples of ‘One Big Thing’ other executives have identified include:

• To hold others more accountable;
• To practice greater patience when receiving pushback;
• To express my ideas at the executive table with greater confidence, particularly when
• they conflict with others;
• To give people more space and time to develop their own solutions; and
• To engage more constructively with people affected by the changes ‘I’ need to make.

Step 3: List the Ways your Behaviour Falls Short
Here’s where it gets interesting—or, as Jack put it, “this is where it gets personal.” Revealing inadequacies at work—putting forward something less than a perfect, got-it-all-together self – is tough work. However, failure to do so means you and your organization will only continue the same old dance.

Oddly, even when we know what we should do, even when we really want to do it, we often don’t do it. One famous example: after nearly dying from heart problems, Michael Eisner, the former CEO of The Walt Disney Company, vowed to let go of some of his duties in order to eliminate some of the stress from his life. He brought in Michael Ovitz, co-founder of the mighty Creative Artists Agency, as second in command, but Eisner—with his very life on the line—failed to see the idea through. He refused to share any real power with Ovitz.

This phenomenon is all too common. Despite knowing what to do, and declaring that we want to do it, we fail to do it. Some of us berate ourselves for this inconsistency, and, too often, others are happy to join in. However, rather than self-flagellate, we can do something that is not only more productive, but utterly vital if we want to change: we can name the specific ways our behaviour falls short.

This is rarely a comfortable exercise. It means ‘fessing’ up. It means admitting your shortcomings and seeing yourself at your worst. For some, it might be foreign to “think negatively,” especially about themselves. Ratting yourself out may be contrary to every instinct you have, but this step is critical. Until you fully and accurately see the behaviours that obstruct you from acting the way you aspire to act—you’re stuck.

One way to get a clear view of your counterproductive behaviours is to describe, on paper, what a film crew would capture if they followed you around all day. Most people, if they do this exercise honestly, find it mildly embarrassing, but the results can be revelatory. The list you’ll make will be a vital entry point for understanding the habits alive in your unconscious mind—habits that are keeping you immune to change.

To get the most out of this exercise, aim for quantity over quality. List as many behaviours as possible. Carry your list with you throughout your day. For a really honest—and brave—assessment, ask your spouse or partner for input. Some leaders also opt to incorporate a 360- degree assessment to illuminate blind spots and isolate the most troublesome shortcomings. As much as this process might make you squirm, it is essential for lasting change. Call it “the power of negative thinking” if it makes you feel better.

In Jack’s case, after a bit of thought, he sheepishly admitted that, instead of supporting his managers in the integration, he had instead skipped key meetings, procrastinated on those tasks he’d been asked to do, and, instead, spent his time chasing down the next acquisition! And while he may not have loved coming up with that list—who does?—he saw the practical value of the honest self-appraisal and awareness-building.

Congratulations. Now the Real Work Begins
Once you’ve undertaken the three steps above, congratulations—you’ve identified your performance gap. You’ll know:

• The change that matters most for your support
• The part you need to play in supporting the desired change; and
• Which of your behaviors currently keep you from advancing the change program.

By recognizing your performance gap, you’re already ahead of most leaders. That said, knowing how you need to change is just the beginning. A recent medical study showed that, even when cardiologists told seriously at-risk patients that they had to make lifestyle changes if they wanted to continue living, only one in seven patients was able to make the changes stick. If death isn’t a sufficient motivation for change, what hope does the average leader have in simply improving their behaviours at work?

The lesson for those heart patients, for Jack, and for you is that good intentions and will power are not enough. The reason people fail so often is that they are up against their unconscious mind. As we explained to Jack, you need to know that your inner game drives your outer game. And your inner game is alive with habits—ways of behaving that have become virtually involuntary and out of conscious awareness.

Habits can be good when it comes to flossing or looking both ways before crossing the street, but some habits rob us from leading the lives we want to live, without our even realizing it. Fortunately, thanks to breakthroughs in neuroscience —some within just the last five years—we can reshape and re-wire our thinking and effectively “kick the habits” that keep us from being at our best.

Alex Wray has over 25 years of experience as a trusted advisor of top teams and leaders throughout North America and globally, from Singapore to Switzerland. He is an expert at coaching and developing leaders and teams, supporting them to make the changes that matter most. Whether he is supporting the execution of global strategies, unifying silos, or enhancing collaboration, his belief is the same: leaders are best developed, real-time, while delivering business results.