Leadership Styles in Change Management - 3 Key Lessons From the Hard Man Who Found His Heart

I am constantly on the look out for interesting, informative stories and illustrations of leadership styles that support successful change management - and especially ones that are people centred as well as process focused.

In the course of recent research I came across the very interesting story of the man of nails who found his heart.

Andy Pearson founding chairman and former CEO of Tricon Global Restaurants Inc. [KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell] has recently undergone a huge change in leadership style. The new Andy Pearson, a man who is now in his mid-70s, has transformed himself into a new kind of boss who majors on inspirational motivation.

Having carved himself a decades-long reputation of ruthless, hard-nosed, numbers obsessed success in corporate America with companies such as Pepsi Co and McKinsey, he now feels that he has arrived at a personal point of change that he feels has universal significance...

Through working with colleagues at Tricom, Pearson experienced a Damascene conversion as he realised the importance of the human heart in driving a company's success - one person at a time - and how this kind of success can't be imposed from the top but must be ignited and nurtured through attention, awareness, recognition, and reward - true inspirational motivation.

Lesson number (1) - People will respond to their leaders efforts to connect with their emotional side

Pearson realised [albeit rather late in life in my view!] that the need for recognition and that the need for approval is a fundamental human drive - and key to inspirational motivation in change management situations

He was also a big enough man [in my view] to change direction and style almost overnight.

Pearson's own re-definition of leadership is as follows:

"Great leaders find a balance between getting results and how they get them."

Lesson number (2) - The need for recognition and approval is a fundamental human drive

He now believes that it's less important to issue orders than it is to seek answers and ideas from below. He sees his job is to listen to the people who work for him and to serve them. He still believes in firing those who don't perform!

"Ultimately," Pearson says, "it's all about having more genuine concern for the other person. There's a big difference between being tough and being tough-minded. There's an important aspect that has to do with humility."

Lesson number (3) - The big leadership difference between being tough and being tough-minded

So Andy Pearson's experience clearly shows that people benefit from a change management leadership style that addresses their emotional side and gives them respect and approval.

Properly applied in a change management context, this is exactly what a people-oriented leadership style will deliver when employing the holistic and wide view perspective of a programme based approach to change management.