When change gets personal – Anu Saarelainen on supporting leaders

It is often assumed that leaders cope with change better than others because they understand how it works. Yet that understanding does not make the questions and emotions go away when the change touches their own role, future or professional identity.

Leaders, too, need a chance to pause, make sense of the situation and find new perspectives. This is where an external coach can provide valuable support.

When change affects the leader

Anu Saarelainen, Head of HR, Drive Products Division, Motion, ABB, works closely with business leaders, including through different kinds of change. From a leader’s perspective, change often has two sides. They are responsible for driving it forward and supporting others, yet it may also affect their own role, responsibilities or future.

The change may involve organisational structures, redefined roles or responsibilities, or the leader’s own career path. Sometimes it is welcome. At other times it brings uncertainty or calls for an entirely new direction.

Whatever the situation, it is important that leaders have the opportunity to process it, consider their options and look ahead.

“An external coach can be like a torch in the middle of change. They help the leader see new perspectives and opportunities when the way forward is not yet clear,” Anu explains.

The coach’s role is to spark insight and break fixed patterns of thinking

Leaders often get support from their manager, HR and their own network. An external coach adds something different: an independent, confidential space where leaders can pause, look at the situation from their own perspective, explore new viewpoints and find a way forward that works for them.

Executive coaching is not only about going from good to better. It can help leaders make sense of complex situations, recognise their own patterns of behaviour and find a new direction when circumstances around them change. In Anu’s experience, coaching can be a valuable part of good leadership and of how leaders are supported. It can open up new perspectives and create meaning and possibilities, even in difficult periods of change.

“We want to offer leaders the chance to talk through their situation in confidence with an external professional. It gives them space to think calmly, weigh up their options and form their own view of the best way forward.”

Coaching can help leaders prepare for difficult conversations. It also gives them a chance to stop and consider what the change means for them personally and for their role as a leader.

“It has been wonderful to see the excellent results that coaching has delivered.”

Values matter most in moments of change

For Anu, it is important that a company’s values show in its actions, especially in times of change.

Supporting leaders through change is not just an HR process. It is part of responsible leadership and of building organisational culture. It means supporting both leaders and other employees throughout the change, and treating them with respect even when the future raises difficult questions.

“Change always leaves a mark, and we can influence what kind of mark that is. By offering good support, we show that we care about people. No one should have to face change without the support they need.”

Could we support leaders even more proactively?

Values also show in how proactively support is offered. At ABB, coaching methods and tools are built into many development programmes for leaders and specialists. These programmes aim to strengthen leaders’ interpersonal and leadership skills, as well as participants’ capacity for self-reflection.

Anu points out that support for change may need to be planned even further in advance. Changes that are personally significant and stir strong emotions challenge leaders in a different way from everyday management situations. Executive coaching can therefore be built into the planning of organisational change and transformation from an early stage, rather than brought in only once the change is under way and its effects are already being felt.

This raises an interesting question for the wider conversation: how can we support leaders proactively through change in a way that strengthens both how the change is led and how values are put into practice?
 

Could coaching help you lead through change?
See how how executive coaching can give you space to reflect, gain new perspectives and navigate complex leadership situations. Explore Executive Coaching →