Poor leadership is one of the key barriers preventing UK organisations from embracing change, a new report has revealed.

According to a recent study, 88% of businesses have experienced change over the last two years but only a paltry 9% said that they had been truly successful at managing that change.

The report by Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 organisational performance, leadership development and executive coaching consultancy, Lane4, entitled Emerging stronger: Strategic insights for leading in tough times revealed that 51% of companies had experienced some success, leaving 40% whose change initiatives had failed to achieve their intended objectives. And of the diverse barriers that stifled change in these organisations, people factors and leadership ability were the most significant.

Senior managers, CEOs, directors and partners from organisations ranging from small businesses to large corporations across the globe were asked what were the most challenging barriers to change.  These included people factors (36%), leadership factors (34%), practical factors (25%) and external factors (5%).

“To succeed at the change game, leaders must manage a multitude of challenging barriers," said Katie Warriner, research consultant at Lane4. "Our survey findings indicate that people factors require the most attention. Therefore, to ensure successful change, leaders must consider engagement as a mindset rather than a stage on a project plan. By developing and communicating a compelling story for change, shaping an effective process and enabling the people, leaders can ensure that people understand the reasons for change, care about initiatives being a success and are equipped to make it a success," she said.

Respondents said that leaders lacked the knowledge and skill to lead change effectively, 30% said messages were unclear and communicated too formally, preventing employees from really understanding what the change was about, 14% said that change was too top-down and that leaders failed to involve the people who would be impacted by the change and an overall lack of vision and alignment contributed to the failure.