You have the authority to change everything. The budget to make it happen. The position to set direction for thousands of people. So why do 70% of organizational transformations still fail? Because having power and knowing how to use it are two completely different things.

What You'll Discover:
🎯 The CEO's paradox - strategic perspective as both superpower and blind spot
🚫 Why culture can't be commanded - compliance vs. genuine commitment
⚡ Your real levers of influence - what gets rewarded, measured, and recognized
🔄 Dual operating system approach - stability for operations, agility for innovation

Key Strategies:
Reward the behavior you want publicly (signals what leads to success) Use authority for safety/compliance, influence for culture/innovation Create psychological safety by modeling vulnerability from the top Work with informal leaders without destroying their power Balance speed (direct control) vs. sustainability (hearts and minds)

The Hercules and Buddha Approach:
Be strong when protecting principles and making tough decisions. Be gentle when building relationships and creating safety. The art is knowing which moment requires which approach.

Real Insight:
Culture is what people do when you're not watching. Values become culture only when they're consistently demonstrated and rewarded, not just declared on motivational posters. Series Completion: This concludes our three-part series on leading change from every level - front-line, middle management, and top leadership. Each requires different tactics but the same understanding: change is a human process, not mechanical.

Your Monday Action Plan:
Five daily conversations with yourself and others to build sustainable change foundation. Ready to use your power to enable others to succeed?

Transcript

Leading Change When You Have the Power (But Need the Wisdom)

You have the authority to change everything. The budget to make it happen. The position to set direction for hundreds or thousands of people.

So why do 70% of organizational transformations still fail? Why do well-intentioned changes create resistance instead of results?

Because having power and knowing how to use it are two completely different things.

This is the third part in the series on leading from where you are and today, we're talking about leading change from the top - where your biggest challenge isn't getting permission, but getting genuine buy-in. Where moving too fast can create chaos, but moving too slow can kill momentum.

The CEO's Paradox

Here's the irony of senior leadership: you have more authority than anyone else, but you're also the most isolated from the daily reality of your organization.

You see the strategic challenges. The market pressures. The competitive threats. But do you see the broken printer that's been frustrating your team for six months? The process that takes three approvals when it should take one?

Your superpower - strategic perspective - can also be your blind spot.

Culture Can't Be Commanded

Let me start with the biggest misconception I see: "I, as a leader, can 'command' cultural change."

You can command compliance. You can mandate processes. You can require attendance at culture workshops. But you cannot decree that people trust each other, take initiative, or care about outcomes.

Culture is what people do when you're not watching. It's the unwritten rules. The social norms. The behaviors that get rewarded in practice, not just in policy.

And it's influenced far more by what you do than what you say.

Beyond the Motivational Poster Approach

I'm sure you've seen it too: organizations hang motivational posters with mission statements and company values, assuming they'll automatically become part of the culture.

That's like opening up a "Gym" at the office and expecting everyone to get in shape. Sure, the people who were always receptive to the message will embrace it, but everyone else will just carry on as always.

The problem isn't the values themselves - it's thinking that declaring them makes them real.

Values become culture only when they're consistently demonstrated and rewarded.

Your Real Levers of Influence

So what CAN you control as a senior leader? More than you might think:

What gets rewarded: Both formally (promotions, bonuses) and informally (attention, recognition, resources)

What gets measured: The metrics you track signal what actually matters

How decisions get made: The processes that determine who has input and how choices are evaluated

Who gets hired: The people you bring in shape the cultural DNA

How conflicts get resolved: The way problems are addressed sets behavioral norms

These are your actual tools for culture change.

Reward the Behavior You Want - Publicly

Here's one of the most powerful tools you have: public recognition.

When you reward someone publicly, you're not just motivating that person - you're telling everyone else what behaviors lead to success.

If you want innovation, celebrate the team that tried something new, even if it didn't work perfectly.

If you want collaboration, highlight examples of departments working together to solve problems.

If you want people to speak up about issues, recognize someone who raised a concern that prevented a bigger problem.

Make the invisible visible. Show people what success looks like in your organization.

Building Your Organization for Change

Most leaders optimize their organization for today's challenges. But what happens when tomorrow's challenges arrive?

The most important thing you can do is build the ability to change into your organizational DNA.

This means creating systems that can adapt. Hiring people who thrive in ambiguity. Developing leaders who can navigate uncertainty.

Don't just solve today's problems - build tomorrow's capabilities.

The Dual Operating System Approach

John Kotter has a brilliant concept called the "dual operating system" that's perfect for organizations needing both stability and agility.

Layer two ways of working on top of each other:

The stable hierarchy handles operations, daily business, established processes - everything that needs consistency and reliability.

On top of that, create a network-like organization designed for rapid change and innovation.

The beautiful part? People can voluntarily move between systems. Your early adopters get a home for innovation. Your stability-loving employees get the structure they need.

Both are valuable. Both are necessary.

When to Use Authority vs. Influence

Having power doesn't mean you should always use it. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is choose NOT to exercise your authority.

Use authority for:

• Non-negotiable safety issues
• Compliance requirements
• Resource allocation decisions
• "Stroke of the pen" solutions that remove barriers

Use influence for:

• Cultural change
• Behavioral shifts
• Innovation initiatives
• Building commitment to vision

Authority gets compliance. Influence gets commitment.

A former CEO of mine used a method called the "Hercules and Buddha approach" - sometimes you need strength, sometimes you need gentleness.

Be gentle when building relationships, sharing vision, and creating safety.

Be strong when protecting your principles, maintaining standards, and making tough decisions.

The art is knowing which moment requires which approach.

The Speed vs. Sustainability Balance

You feel the urgency. Market pressures. Competitive threats. Board expectations. You want to move fast.

But sustainable culture change takes time. Push too hard, and you create resistance. Move too slow, and you lose momentum.

Here's the balance: Move fast on the things you can control directly. Take time with the things that require hearts and minds.

• Fast: Updating technology, changing reporting structures, reallocating budgets
• Slow: Changing how people collaborate, building trust, shifting mindsets

Know which category your change falls into.

Creating Psychological Safety from the Top

Google's Project Aristotle found that psychological safety is the number one predictor of team performance. But it can't be mandated - it has to be modeled.

Admit when you don't know something. Ask questions instead of giving orders. Acknowledge mistakes publicly. Celebrate people who bring you bad news early.

When the person with the most power makes it safe to be human, everyone else relaxes. They start taking appropriate risks. They surface problems before they become crises.

Vulnerability at the top creates strength throughout the organization.

Working With Your Informal Leaders

In earlier episodes, we talked about informal leaders - people who have influence beyond their formal role. As a senior leader, these people can make or break your initiatives.

Don't try to promote them or make them official - that often destroys what made them powerful. Instead:

• Involve them early in planning
• Share information freely with them
• Let them maintain their independence
• Listen to their concerns seriously

Think of them as your organizational immune system - they'll attack bad ideas and protect good ones.

Your Monday Morning Action Plan

Here's exactly what to do this week:

Monday: Identify what behaviors you've been rewarding (intentionally or not). What message are you actually sending?

Tuesday: Find one example of the behavior you want to see more of. Plan how to recognize it publicly.

Wednesday: Look at your organization structure. What needs stability? What needs agility? Where might a dual approach work?

Thursday: Have a conversation with one of your informal leaders. What are they seeing that you might be missing?

Friday: Ask yourself: What am I trying to control that would be better influenced? What am I trying to influence that needs direct control?

Five conversations with yourself and others. Start building the foundation for sustainable change.

Senior leadership can feel lonely. You're making decisions that affect hundreds of lives. You're balancing stakeholder demands that often conflict. You're trying to be visionary and practical simultaneously.

But here's what you need to remember: your organization is watching everything you do. Your behavior sets the tone for the entire culture.

That's not pressure - that's opportunity. You have the chance to create the workplace you wish you'd had earlier in your career.

Completing Our Series

This completes our three-part series on leading change from where you are:

Part 1: Leading from the front lines - driving change without formal authority Part 2: Leading from the middle - bridging the gap between vision and reality
Part 3: Leading from the top - using power wisely to create sustainable change

Each level has unique challenges, but they all require the same fundamental understanding: change is a human process, not a mechanical one.

Your Call to Action

Right now, you have the opportunity to build something remarkable. Not just a more profitable organization, but a place where people can do their best work. Where innovation thrives. Where problems get solved quickly because people feel safe speaking up.

You don't need to be perfect. You just need to be consistent. Consistent in modeling the behavior you want to see. Consistent in rewarding what matters. Consistent in creating the conditions where good things can happen.

Your people are watching. Your organization is waiting. The question isn't whether you have the power to create change - you do.

The question is: What kind of change will you create?

Model the behavior. Reward what matters. Build for tomorrow.

Share this series with other leaders who are ready to lead change the right way. Let's create organizations that actually work for humans.

This is The Liberty Framework. True leadership is about enabling others to succeed.

Thanks for joining me on this journey. Now go make it happen.