Creating a passion for change – the art of intelligent leadership

All organisations are having to adapt to an apparently increasing level of change. In many cases they have met this challenge with difficulty. This article presents some of the drivers of change that have combined to produce a multivariate set which has led to a number of organisational and individual responses. A set of seven core leadership competencies is presented and these were used to create a semi‐structured change strategy elicitation questionnaire. Some 25 individuals who had successfully implemented corporate change from senior leadership positions were interviewed using this questionnaire, and a set of five consistent factors emerged from the research.