The five roles of effective change agents

Monumental workforce and societal shifts mean today’s leaders are expected to assume a stronger voice as well as a more active role in instigating meaningful change.

This shift in expectations has pushed leaders to prioritise supporting the psychological and physical wellbeing of their team members. It’s also forced leaders to reassess their responsibilities and expand their priorities far beyond simply delivering shareholder value. 

As McKinsey & Company has articulated, modern leaders must co-create meaningful value with and for all stakeholders, encompassing customers, employees, partners, shareholders, and society as a whole.

We evaluated international research and best practices, while also observing how CEOs and leaders are acting as personal change agents. As a result of our research and observations, we have identified five key roles that these leaders fulfill to reshape organisational wellbeing. The five roles are: embracer; investigator; challenger; integrator; and advocator.

The five roles of an agent of change

1. Role 1: Embracer

   An agent of change embraces, not delegates, their responsibility for wellbeing. 

   Working with their team, effective change agents study best practices and proactively review current organisational initiatives, systems and support offerings to improve their wellbeing practices.

   In embracing their responsibility, these leaders are able to magnify the positive impact on their people,enhance their brand’s reputation as a wellbeing trailblazer, and inspire wellbeing advancements in the broader community.

2. Role 2: Investigator

   An agent of change for wellbeing is an investigator of truth, not a believer of myths. They look beyond media hype, vendor sales talk, and internal rationale defending ‘the way it’s always done’. 

   They impress upon their teams the importance of evidence and rigour around all wellbeing business decisions and are rewarded with a culture of better-informed business cases, greater confidence in budget allocations, and reduced organisational risk.

3. Role 3: Challenger

   An agent of change for organisational wellbeing is a challenger who refuses to accept the status quo.  They are an early adopter who always looks for more innovative, effective and scalable ways to support their people. Their overarching mission is to seek out or build the most compelling wellbeing support framework possible. 

   They are not afraid to trial a four-day work week, abandon their office attendance policy, or reinvent poor-performing employee assistance programs (EAP). 

   Atlassian is one Australian technology success story that is embracing a four-day work week, along with other flexible work policies. Under the “Team Anywhere” policy that Atlassian introduced in April 2021, the company’s team members can work from anywhere they have the legal right to work.

4. Role 4: Integrator

   An agent of change for wellbeing doesn’t pass the baton to their people and culture team and then consider the job done. 

   Internally, they integrate wellbeing into their decision-making processes, embed accountability across all parts of their organisation, empower the collection of qualitative and quantitative data, and give their wellbeing teams the profile, training and budget they need to make a genuine difference. 

   Externally, they promote the alignment of wellbeing goals across supply chain partners and provide mentoring to community stakeholders at an earlier stage of their wellbeing journey — to integrate wellbeing insights across the entire ecosystem in which they operate.

5. Role 5: Advocator

   An agent of change for organisational wellbeing makes it their mission to ‘walk the talk’ and be vocal about embedding wellbeing into organisational culture and financial decisions. 

   Internally, they assume an ongoing advocacy role to keep employee wellbeing at the forefront of conversations across their organisation. 

   Externally, they champion the importance of collective wellbeing and the dismantlement of health care barriers across the community. 

   The authentic leader also commits to ongoing openness and vulnerability on their wellbeing journey and recognises that this is an important step in addressing barriers to care.

   In a Sonder-commissioned survey of 1025 employees working 20+ hours per week in Australia, 80% said that seeing or hearing leaders talk about their mental wellbeing makes them feel that they can also talk about their mental wellbeing in the workplace.

A new form of influence

Leaders who assume personal responsibility in speaking up for organisational and community wellbeing embody a new form of influence. They recognise the urgent need to put the wellbeing of their people first to create a better future both inside and outside of the workplace.

As health influencers Belkin, Appleton and Langlois have established, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the possibilities for people to come together “in collective mobilization, mutual aid, and solidarity, and the tangible linking together of mental health, illness, and suffering with the aims and paths of broader social progress and justice.”

This backdrop provides leaders with the opportunity to co-create the best ‘new normal’ possible by reshaping organisational wellbeing and becoming personal agents of change.

To do so, leaders must embrace their responsibility for wellbeing; investigate truths and not believe wellbeing myths; challenge the status quo and break existing conventions; integrate wellbeing into their organizational practices; and advocate for advancements in wellbeing both inside their organizations and on the broader stage.