Ronny Zaman has interests in a diverse array of market sectors, including serving as chairman of Navana Pharmaceuticals, Anowara Construction Ltd and Gas One. This article will look at business leadership, particularly leading through change, helping to ensure employee alignment with organisational goals.
In a recent survey by Gartner, just one in three mid-to-senior level business leaders agreed that the last change they led culminated in healthy change adoption by employees. According to Gartner, healthy change adoption is defined by success elements that leaders can directly influence, such as persuading employees to act on change, doing so on time and in a healthy way that does not impact their engagement, performance or cause undue stress.
As Gartner Director of HR Practice Kayla Velnoskey points out, in business today, changes are continuous, stacked on top of each other, interdependent and often driven by external factors. While business leaders are accustomed to volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, the nature and pace of change today has made it challenging to implement.
Ungovernable change lowers employee trust in a company’s ability to manage change effectively. A 2025 survey by Gartner involving 141 HR leaders revealed that organisations experiencing ungovernable change where 1.6 times less likely to experience high change trust from employees. Another 2025 survey by Gartner revealed that a staggering 79% of employees said they had low trust in change.
Ingrid Laman serves as Gartner HR practice’s vice president, advisory. In the Gartner report, she explained that organisations with an above-average healthy change adoption reported a two times higher year-over-year revenue growth rate. As Ingrid Laman highlighted, for companies with in excess of 50,000 employees, this can equate to $2.2 billion annually.
Great business leaders use inspiration and vision of change to persuade employees to adopt it. Nevertheless, Gartner’s research revealed that this is only effective where there is high change trust. Where change trust levels are low, according to Gartner’s model, only around 25% of changes led by inspirational leaders achieved healthy adoption.
Today’s evolving business landscape demands more from business leaders. While traditional parameters such as productivity and profitability remain important, organisational health has become a key focus that is wholly reliant on the effectiveness of its leaders. Employee trust and loyalty must be earned by creating working environments where all team members feel valued, respected and able to grow. Leaders must therefore be agile, navigating rapid change, pivoting strategies and guiding teams through change. To achieve this, leaders must drive innovation, foster growth and build genuine human connections.
Leading through change is integral to effective business leadership. Worryingly, a report by Forbes suggests that just 8% of executives demonstrate strong change leadership skills. Adaptability is crucial in a world where change is the only constant. Merely surviving change is no longer enough: effective leaders must go a step further, leading through change to enable the organisation and its workforce to thrive.
Over the past few years, the pace of change has accelerated significantly in most modern workplaces. In addition to leading through change, many business leaders are grappling with a reduction in resources. Against that backdrop, leaders are also facing a historic drop in employee trust, with 79% of employees reporting low trust in organisational change, according to Gartner.
The great leaders of today not only deliver results but also support employee wellbeing, developing talent, sustaining engagement and guiding teams through ongoing change. Leading through change requires a holistic approach, not only focusing on the mechanics of change but also on how people experience disruption and how leadership drives outcomes through it, setting direction, removing barriers, reinforcing purpose and encouraging new, more efficient ways of working to sustain momentum across the organisation.