I've decided I'd like to do myself out of a job.

This week I'm in China attempting to do exactly that. I am teaching change management (amongst other things) to a group of HR professionals. The idea being that if we develop their capability, they need less external support from consultants like me. For well over a decade, I have been a consultant for hire and delivered everything from short skills-based workshops to facilitating regional strategic planning. 

I'm a little embarrassed to say that in many of the supervisor, management, and leadership development programs I have designed and delivered leading and managing change was not specifically taught.

At best it may have been given a quick review, at worst not mentioned at all.

We covered a lot of great and relevant topics including:

• Self awareness/Self regulation (emotional intelligence)
• Prioritising and planning
• Empowerment and delegation
• Dealing with conflict, to name a few.

And, given that change is constant, how is it that we are not better equipping our supervisors, managers, and leaders to lead change? And further, how about equipping our people, from the moment they join an organisation, to be able to participate in and deal with change?

I am toying with some ways of how we can introduce leading and managing change as a fundamental or core topic for leadership development. For example, here are some preliminary thoughts I sketched out (literally) on the back of a napkin during a break in my training.

• For those that are participating in change, they need knowledge of the plan, skill of resilience, and attitude of openness.
• If you are managing change, you need knowledge of the priorities, ability to influence and an attitude of confidence.
• And when you are leading change, you need to have a vision, be able to motivate and stand in conviction.

If even just the leaders in organisations were better equipped to lead and manage change, then I may no longer be needed to consult to them. I'm good with that.