Change Leadership

The scene was as interesting as it was tense…

The people gathered to view the new process by which decisions would be made especially when there was conflict and disagreement in the community. A rather autocratic government now took the place of the former system which was also autocratic but gave no rights under the law of the land to this particular community.

Time For Change

The new system at least seemed more fair as the leader, loved and recognized by many sat in judgment daily from sunup to sundown. It was clear that while the new system was a change from the old one, it was again time for change.

Otherwise the new leader was going to burn out.

And so it was, on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening. So when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit, and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?” Exodus 18:13-14 (NKJV)

The story above comes from the Bible in Exodus 18 and the leader is none other than Moses the Deliverer and Lawgiver. As the people of Israel settled in to their “new normal” way of life, virtually every experience of every day was a change from what they remembered from their lives in Egypt as slaves.

A case may be made that everyone was applying the practice we today call “change management” in order to deal with change and prevent chaos.

Unfortunately, Moses was wearing himself out by taking all of the responsibility upon himself. His father-in-law observed the problem and gave Moses some advice.

He recommended that leaders at various levels from each tribe of Israel be appointed to deal with the day-to-day problems in the community and that Moses only resolve the most difficult cases. We may learn much from the events of Exodus 18.

Micromanagement is Poor Management

With Moses making all the decisions and judgments for the community, it is fair to say that he was applying micromanagement. He was not allowing (or in today’s language, empowering) the people who could solve many of the challenges to do so.

As we see Moses’ life in total, he does not appear to be a power-hungry despot who simply desired to control everything and everybody.

More likely, Moses was a “C” on the DISC personality trait scale and tended toward a perfectionist style.

Leaders with the C-personality style may have a tendency to micromanage not so much because they do not trust others but because they think they can do the job better than others…and teaching them to do so would take too much time and energy.

However, micromanagement is poor management for several reasons:

• It fails to equip others to do the task
• It fails to seek buy-in by stakeholders
• It fails to enlarge the number of stakeholders
• It fails to use the gifts of others and the leader efficiently
• It limits cooperation, collaboration, and innovation
• It undermines success, achievement of goals, and even profit

However, micromanagement is just a symptom of a greater problem Moses and the community faced. Since they departed from Egypt, change was a daily experience.

We may say that Moses was trying to manage change.

From Change Management to Change Leadership

Change management has become a recognized discipline in the business world. In fact there are a number of specialists or experts in the field of change management and I own a number of their books. I confess that as a specialist in church leadership, change management has become a fascination.

Here is a sampling of some of the books on the subject:

• Epic Change by Timothy R. Clark
• Leading Change by John P. Kotter
• Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change by William Bridges
• Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
• The Complete Idiots Guide to Change Management by Jeffery P. Davidson
• Immunity to Change by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey
• Change by Design by Tim Brown

Note that John Kotter titled his book Leading Change instead of Managing Change–he has the right idea. There are also advanced degrees available for change management.

I think there is a sense in which change management is a misnomer and somewhat negative. The term may communicate the vision of a leader reacting to change and since change is constant, the leader and is team may alter their course of managing change daily.

The term also carries the idea of managers manipulating the effects of change on others to their advantage, which is certainly not what is taught in the books and degrees on the subject.

Perhaps “change leadership” might be a better term for what is usually meant by “change management.” Let’s go back to Moses. The solution offered by Jethro put Moses squarely in the role of leading the people through change and providing a more stable community.

People do not just want change managers but they want change leaders who take the community through crises that cause change.

Proactive Leadership

Change leadership is proactive and not reactive. It matches what change management experts actually want to do with their books and resources. I think we have a lot of change managers like Moses at the beginning of Exodus 18, but what we really need in businesses, churches, and communities are change leaders like Moses after he met with Jethro.

When you say “change management” don’t you really mean “change leadership?” What do you think of the terms “change management” and “change leadership?” How does micromanagement diminish the role of leadership? How did the changes Moses put into place in Exodus 18 improve his effectiveness as a leader?

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Dr. Tom Cocklereece is CEO of RENOVA Coaching and Consulting, LLC
He is an author, professional coach, and leadership specialist
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