What You’re Getting Wrong About Your Role as a Leader in Business Change

This article covers:

• Why your assumptions about leadership in change are likely wrong
• Two points of commitment that separate success from expensive failure
• What “walking the talk” demands, starting with your own behaviour

If you’re a senior leader sponsoring a change programme, this article is for you. Although you’re probably not going to enjoy reading it.

You approved the budget. You announced the vision. There was a moment of celebration: we’re doing this. Then you returned to business as usual, assuming your job was essentially done. The programme team would handle delivery. You’d check in at steering meetings, review progress reports, and hold people accountable. Results would follow, surely.

This is the critical point where most change efforts falter. The strategy and technology are often fine. The true problem: leaders, including you, typically misjudge what their role really requires.

Gartner’s July 2025 research found that only 32% of leaders globally achieve healthy change adoption. Two-thirds get it wrong. Meanwhile, 79% of employees have low trust in change entirely. The uncomfortable and inconvenient truth is that leadership is the common factor in failure. And if you’re reading this thinking “but not me”, that’s precisely the problem.

Your role isn’t what you think it is

Most leaders believe their job is to set direction, allocate resources, and hold teams accountable. But truly effective leadership in change requires much more: a fundamental shift in how you behave and engage.

Leadership behaviour is at the heart of everything. What you drive, want, and desire shapes every outcome. If you don’t create an environment where people can be genuinely open, where they can challenge assumptions and explain what’s really happening, then people around you will tend to tell you what you want to hear. The programme looks healthy on paper, yet problems compound beneath the surface.

Research from Gartner, published in Harvard Business Review, quantifies the problem: in 2022, the average employee experienced 10 planned enterprise changes a year, up from just two in 2016. The number of change programmes will likely be higher in 2026. Yet engagement has fallen, support for change programmes has dropped, and the disconnect between employees and their leaders has grown. Your people are exhausted. And while you’re planning the next initiative, they’re wondering whether this one will fail like the others.

Commitment has a sequel most leaders miss

At Oliver Wight, we call this the “point of commitment”: the moment when leaders decide to proceed—not just formally, but genuinely. Too often, visible commitment is only performance; verbal agreement doesn’t match non-verbal cues.

This is why we insist on face-to-face conversations at critical moments. You can listen with your eyes as well as your ears. When someone’s words say “I’m committed” but their posture says “I have reservations”, those reservations need surfacing before you proceed. Moving past the point of commitment before there’s proper alignment sets up failure; there are too many opportunities later for people to revert to old behaviours when things get difficult.

But there’s a second, subtler point of commitment that most leaders miss. The first point is the initial, personal decision to move forward with the change. The second point of commitment occurs once the change is underway and people can see actual, tangible improvements. At this stage, commitment must deepen as leaders continue supporting the programme or else it may evaporate. If people put tremendous effort in and don’t see benefits that matter to them, fatigue sets in. The next change programme becomes just another burden rather than an opportunity.

Change also requires collective movement, not just individual adoption. Think of it like Russian dolls: the message must cascade and translate for different audiences. What motivates you differs from what motivates middle managers, which differs again from what matters to frontline teams. At every level, people need to understand what’s in it for them. You sit at the centre of this structure; the most miniature doll, but the most important one. Everything else fits around your behaviour.

The words seem simple. The actions are much, much greater.

Walking the talk starts with you

Development Dimensions International’s 2025 Global Leadership Forecast, surveying nearly 11,000 leaders across 50 countries, identified the two most significant skill gaps in today’s leadership: strategy setting and change management. These are the capabilities you, as a leader, are traditionally supposed to excel at.

Walking the talk means more than visible sponsorship at launch. It’s about going first in admitting that things need to change, including your own behaviour. It means staying visible throughout the journey, not disappearing after the announcement. And it involves investing in coaching that helps people translate what they’ve heard in theory into how they actually work.

Without the proper understanding, coaching, and support, even willing people find the step too far. You may become frightened when you realise what you’re really asking; not just of your organisation, but of yourself. You’ve got to lead the charge all the way through, and that’s often where commitment wavers.

Co-creation matters here. Change must be driven with people, not done to them. When employees help shape how change happens, they understand the bigger picture and their place within it. When change happens to them, they experience it as extra work for no clear gain.

Ask yourself: are you truly prepared to lead the change you expect from others? Be honest: if your answer isn’t a firm yes, pause until it is. Because your people notice, and their belief in any change starts with you.

This article is based on the Oliver Wight panel discussion “Is your leadership the reason business change keeps failing?” Watch the video here.