Remember that famous line from the classic movie "Cool Hand Luke?" "What we have here is a failure to communicate." Well, when it comes to transformational change, what we have here is a failure to inspire. If "transformational change" becomes nothing more than a cover for downsizing, it will be extremely difficult to get the demonstrated commitment you need to implement transformationally different processes, systems, and structures. 
It's ironic that so much emphasis is placed on "employee engagement" when we see such a lack of "Sponsor engagement!"
Good Sponsors Inspire Others
If leaders want to drive transformation, they need to be a source of inspiration for the rest of the organization. When leaders are able to visibly demonstrate passion and engagement for the story of transformation, when they serve as a visible example of change, they can harness the collective power of the organization.
It's a lot easier to talk about transformation than it is to actually serve as an example of transformation individually, and as a group. But it is that visible demonstration that really is the trigger for signaling that "this is a change of a different magnitude and importance."
In early April, at the ACMP (Association of Change Management Professionals) conference in Orlando, one of the keynote sessions was a question and answer dialogue with Gerard van Grinsven, the President and CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA). Van Grinsven gave the audience multiple examples of how he led organizations at CTCA, Henry Ford Hospital, and Ritz-Carlton.
For example, he talked about how when he first went to Henry Ford he spent three nights a week for several months visiting the homes of people in the Bloomfield Hills, Michigan community where the hospital was located. The purpose of these home visits was to really understand his potential clients from a cultural perspective so that the hospital could better respond to the needs of the community.
While he didn't use our term of Sponsorship, van Grinsven was "expressing, modeling, and reinforcing" what patient satisfaction means from an executive perspective.
We talk about the fact that a good Sponsor must demonstrate personal sacrifice. What better example than a leader who gives up personal time each and every week?
For the change management professionals in the audience that day, this session served to say that a leader can really inspire others when he actively operationalizes the concepts of good Sponsorship.
It was powerful!
And what made his comments even more impressive was the fact that business results in organizations he led put him at the "top of the leaderboard." Here was an example of a leader who had closed the Inspiration Gap.
Transformational Change Leadership: What's Required
So what does it take for leaders to close the Inspiration Gap?
1. Sponsors need to provide the organization with psychological cues that the transformation will be managed differently from the way other changes are managed. The psychological cues can come from the way the change is communicated, the level of transparency, the level of resources that are allocated, etc. What is important is that people can immediately sense that this is different.
2. From the beginning of the transformation, there must be complete alignment between what Sponsors say, what they do, and what they reinforce with their direct reports. For example, Sponsors can't send emails that the transformation is the highest priority but focus their time and attention to business as usual activities.
3. Sponsors must provide a compelling vision of what is changing, why it is changing, and what the consequences will be for the organization if this change isn't successful.
4. Sponsors must demonstrate that they are willing to make some sacrifices that will be perceived as personally painful if they are asking the organization to also make sacrifices.
5. There must be a high degree of transparency in how the transformation is managed.
6. Sponsors must provide reinforcements that directly align to the transformation. If you are looking to transform then your current performance management system will not work.
Change is hard. Transformational change is geometrically more difficult. Your leaders must demonstrate their personal commitment through their own actions, and close the Inspiration Gap.
