Organizations rarely stand still. They can’t, because markets shift, technology accelerates and internal transformations follow each other ever faster. In this dynamic, leaders are asked not only to give direction, but also to provide support.
At Bunchmark, we look at leadership as a combination of firmness and connection. An approach that ties in strongly with the principles of Secure Base Leadership: a leader feels like a safe base from which people dare to move. Especially in times of change, this combination is a prerequisite for keeping employees on board and allowing them to shine.
You can read what we mean by that in this article.
A “secure base” is someone with whom you dare to move. Someone who provides security, not by controlling everything, but by remaining present where things get exciting. In an organization, that is “the leader. That may sound soft, but the opposite is true. A leader who acts as a safe base actually requires more: more clarity, more presence, more awareness of one’s own behavior. Less fleeing into crowds or making decisions to avoid uncertainty.
So security begins with clarity. Not only about what is changing, but especially about why it is necessary, what that means in concrete terms for behavior and cooperation, and what else you ask of people. Leaders who remain vague create unrest. Leaders who only focus on results without providing context create resistance.
“In a leadership session of an organization in the sustainability sector, the team worked together on a clear dot. They realized it was about attracting different types of assignments. The CEO mentioned that this also meant they would start saying ‘no’ and how difficult he already found that himself. An open conversation ensued and the assignment did not become easier, but it did become clearer.”
In many organizations, resistance is treated as disruption: something to be managed, circumvented or pushed away. From our perspective, resistance is actually a signal of commitment. People resist because it matters to them. Because they have something to lose, or because they see something their manager may not have seen yet.
Effective leadership here requires actively making room for concerns, questions and doubts. Not as a capstone, but as part of the process. Seek out the resistance rather than trying to remove that feeling; listen without trying to solve it immediately.
This requires a shift in the core: from managing behavior to understanding underlying dynamics. A leader who remains curious in the face of resistance increases support and the quality of decision-making. Moreover, this allows you to stay on course, even if not everyone wants to go along.
“Within an IT organization, an executive received a fire letter from the team about the impact of the transformation. In it were specific things that were going wrong. With all good intentions, this executive went to fix content. Unfortunately, this had an undesired effect. The team did not feel heard. They wanted to engage in conversation and share what in their eyes was not being seen.”
One of the most underestimated challenges for leaders in change is that they must constantly switch between levels. Not either strategic or human, but always both. And then also knowing when which level requires attention.
That means switching between the strategic whole, the team dynamic and the individual employee. Single-minded focus undermines the whole. A leader who directs only on results loses people. A leader who focuses only on well-being loses direction. In short, as a leader within change, tightrope walking is a requirement.
“A commercial director in professional services kept talking to her sales team about how she felt and how they were doing and that it was a tough new assignment after all. Very helpful you might say, the team felt seen. However, they were not encouraged to take responsibility in the change, bordered on what could no longer be done.”
Change does something to teams. But just as much with the leader himself. Especially under pressure, patterns emerge that normally remain hidden: the urge to fill gaps, avoid tension, or want to solve quickly what actually takes time.
The trick is to stay in place, just when the pressure is on. Not wanting to solve everything, not filling every silence. Not removing all tension. That’s where maturity emerges in a team.
The same goes for distributing responsibility. Strong leadership means monitoring direction and frameworks yourself, while leaving ownership where it belongs: with the team and the individual. Taking over weakens, but distancing without involvement destabilizes. The balance lies in making roles and expectations explicit.
“I have to sit on my hands like this,” a director said to me the other day. “I had wanted to do it myself ten times, but I know by now that there’s little point if I keep plugging the holes. Sometimes I have to blow off steam and share it with someone outside the organization. That gives me air and this allows me to endure the delays. I keep focusing on the small steps the teams are taking.”
Good leadership in change is actually a balancing act: being clear and listening, staying on course and being open, thinking and doing. Not as loose tricks, but as something you see reflected in how someone behaves on a daily basis.
The best leaders are a kind of home base for their team. A place where people feel safe, but are also challenged to get moving. Not by tightly directing everything, but by simply being there at the moments when things get exciting. That is the difference between change that happens to people, and change that they themselves believe in.
“The CEO of a family business threw on the table in the MT meeting: I’m working so hard and I’m getting stuck because I don’t know how to get it moving anymore…It became the start of open conversation and everyone’s responsibility was immediately turned on.”
Easier said than done. Absolutely. Leadership is not a talent, or something you sense. It’s a trade. And a profession has to be learned. Especially in times of change, it becomes apparent whether leaders are able to consciously and consistently shape that practice. Bunchmark helps organizations enable that from leadership vision to concrete development programs.
Do you recognize this in your organization? We’d love to talk with you about what effective leadership requires in your specific context. Contact.
