Leen Kawas, an experienced biotech industry leader, highlights ways in which vision and emotional intelligence can help executives succeed.
Companies in every industry encounter change, often on a regular basis. Maybe market conditions fluctuate, and the business must revise its operations and marketing functions accordingly. Alternatively, emerging technologies could provide the company with a significant (but pricey) advantage.
Regardless of the change type, the business must develop a strategy to successfully navigate the obstacle. Biotechnology leader Leen Kawas emphasizes that vision and emotional intelligence are proven strategies for successful change navigation.
Leen Kawas’ Success in Change Navigation
Leen Kawas is a highly successful biotechnology leader who is well acquainted with change management. She currently serves as Propel Bio Partners’ Managing General Partner.
This growing Los Angeles venture capital firm supports biotech startups and early-stage companies requiring financial, operations, and technical assistance. Although Leen Kawas accepts all founders’ pitches, she is always seeking interest from female and minority candidates.
Prior to her current role, Leen Kawas excelled as another biotech venture’s Chief Executive Officer (or CEO). She successfully navigated several fast-moving drug development cycles and led the company through its initial public offering (or IPO) in September 2020. Both positions required Leen Kawas to handle complex challenges and opportunities.
3 Change Management Challenges
Here, Leen Kawas details three change-related challenges organizations must navigate. These obstacles can affect businesses in any industry. Each company’s success (or difficulty) in handling these changes can affect the firm’s marketplace success.
Employees’ Reluctance to Accept Change
Not surprisingly, employees often push back against change that shakes up well-defined systems and processes. As creatures of habit, they prefer to stay in their comfort zones and avoid uncomfortable disruptions.
To enable forward progress, leaders should clearly explain why the change is necessary. Giving specific examples will likely be useful. Employees should also be involved in the decision process. Surveys, feedback loops, and town hall meetings may be useful here. Increasing employee engagement often decreases resistance and results in higher overall adoption success.
Inadequate Leadership Direction
Effective change management relies on ongoing leadership support. If employees sense leaders aren’t actively involved in the change process, the team members will likely display lack of motivation. This can result in reduced productivity and may negatively impact the company culture.
To avoid this downward spiral, Leen Kawas says leaders should clearly communicate their change vision. They should also provide team members with training and resources to effect the change. When leaders complete the same training, employees are more likely to develop a favorable opinion of the change.
Lack of Effective Communication
Implementing any form of change should ideally involve effective top-down communication. When leaders at all levels don’t communicate the same message, employees may become suspicious and signal their resistance to change adoption. Not surprisingly, team members may also make up their own theories about the change.
To head off this undesirable outcome, companies should specify the communication channels used for change-related updates. Company intranets and emails, along with newsletter content, can provide regular reports. Taken together, this consistent communication can help reduce employee concern and gradually build their trust.
How Leaders with Vision Can Better Navigate Change
In the evolving 21st-century business landscape, change is one of the few constants. Integration of emerging technologies, increased focus on operational efficiencies, and other disruptions create ongoing challenges for leaders. In addition, “change fatigue” can threaten to shut down innovation and/or collaboration.
In this often-volatile environment, forward-thinking leaders must develop the mindset and skills to guide their team members and other colleagues through change. Leen Kawas offers three guidelines for effective leadership during organizational disruption.
Develop a Clear, Inspiring Vision
Every impactful organizational change begins with a well-developed vision. To support it, leaders will objectively state the reason(s) behind the upcoming change. They will detail the advantages of this strategy along with the consequences of non-implementation.
Equally importantly, the leader will address the ways the change may emotionally impact team members. When everyone involved is clear on the specifics, they may be better able to embrace the change. Once they take this step, they can dedicate the resources needed for successful implementation.
Involve Team Members in the Change
Most capable professionals don’t want to be subjected to a dictatorial leadership style. To avoid unproductive resentment, an effective leader will involve their team in the change process. This increases the odds of employee engagement and helps create a sense of ownership.
Additionally, Leen Kawas says enlisting team members’ involvement helps ensure that the change adheres to relevant criteria. To illustrate, software experts can verify that new software is compatible with existing workflows and processes.
Recognize Noteworthy Achievements
As the change process continues, leaders should monitor the logistics and ensure that all goals are being met. They should also evaluate the degree to which team members are involved in the change process.
When the team reaches specific milestones, the leader should ideally recognize the team members responsible for these successes. If team members are showing a higher level of ownership and dedication, the leader should also celebrate this increased engagement.
3 Ways Emotional Intelligence Can Contribute to Successful Change
Emotional intelligence (or EI) refers to an individual’s ability to express and manage their emotions. An emotionally intelligent leader also empathizes with others’ feelings, enabling cultivation of beneficial relationships with colleagues. Leen Kawas emphasizes that good emotional intelligence skills can help enable productive change.
Understand Feelings and Emotions
Leaders who identify their feelings about upcoming changes can better understand how to navigate them. Looking at the changes from different perspectives is a good first step. To illustrate, the leader should note how each change affects them personally and professionally. This knowledge better equips them to develop a change navigation strategy.
Bring Empathy Into the Mix
While the leader copes with their change-related challenges, they should understand that team members are faced with their own conflicts. By listening to others with compassion and empathy, the team leader can help build trust at a pivotal time. In turn, these actions help the leader reaffirm their role in building team cohesion.
Share Feelings and Build Relationships
High-EI leaders often share their feelings and concerns with team members. Although this puts the team leader in a vulnerable position, this self-disclosure can help build the foundation for good interpersonal relationships. In turn, mutual respect and trust often set the stage for improved productivity and steady progress toward change-related goals.
Emotionally Intelligent Leaders Practice Resilience
Leen Kawas emphasizes that leaders with high emotional intelligence are typically very resilient. While they navigate complex (and challenging) scenarios, they are able to bounce back from their setbacks. By cultivating beneficial relationships with their colleagues, they receive the support they need to confidently make progress toward goals.
