Change Management Positions: Roles and Duties

There are three basic levels of change management:

• Enterprise Change Management Capability – This refers to the permanent function of change management in an organization. That is, it entails maintaining a change management department or team, a set of processes for change, and formalized procedures for initiating change projects.
• Organizational Change Management – This function views change management from the top down. It involves identifying organization-level processes, groups, and structures that will need to change.
• Individual Change Management – On the other hand, individual change management is bottom-up. It begins at the individual level, focusing on employee motivation, resistance, and psychology.

All of these change management professions are essential for successful change management.

Typically, most of the skills required will overlap, though each role emphasizes different talents and responsibilities.

Organizational change management, for instance, requires more of a strategic focus.

Individual change management, however, will require more interpersonal skills, communications skills, and understanding of group psychology.

At the end of the day, change management is driven by people. Strategic thinking and other hard skills are certainly required.

However, change managers must put people at the center of their models, which adds more weight to soft skills.

7 Must-Have Skills and Responsibilities for Change Management

This discipline is very cross-disciplinary, requiring a mix of business skills, digital savvy, and people skills.

Here are a few of the most important tools you’ll need to succeed in today’s change management positions:

1. Communication

The ability to communicate is essential to many jobs.

However, it’s absolutely critical for change managers.

Communication skills help:

• Mitigate employee resistance
• Boost motivation, morale, and productivity
• Enhance collaboration at every level, boosting program productivity
• Get higher quality feedback from participants and stakeholders

Every change management program is driven by its employees.

The better you can communicate your vision, your plan, and your program’s benefits, the more successful your initiative will be.

2. Leadership

Leadership is essential for driving change programs forward.

Employees need:

• Examples to follow
• A direction to move in
• A vision and a story to hold on to

Providing these is the leader’s job.

In some cases, change leadership and change management are handled by different people. In smaller organizations, the same person may wear both hats.