Leading culture change is like juggling. Keeping several balls in the air requires intense focus, great communication (between hands), spirited effort, and a keen sense of the bigger picture (the blur of the whole).
Effective cultural change leadership requires focus, communication, passion, and sense of the whole. As organizations become more complex, the number of balls in the air increases. The usual leadership requirements for performance accountability, morale management, and regulatory compliance have now been coupled with a host of cultural change initiatives: diversity, service, innovation, continuous improvement, and cost control. But, each new object to be tossed can be as different as it is uncomfortable, and the shift from simple juggling to complex juggling usually happens with little warm-up time. And, no one seems to remove any old items from the leadership mix! 
The Happy Juggler 
The secret for finding the joy in leading cultural change parallels the secret of making complicated juggling a work of pride and joy. What works in cultural change leadership is also a reminder that effective cultural change leadership is a performing art. 
Delivering intense focus. Great jugglers concentrate! Focus combines confidence, knowledge, and concentration with humility and wonderment. Leading cultural change also starts with honing knowledge and concentration--going to school on the elements of change, becoming smart about each new ball added to cultural change. Being a cultural change leader requires that you not only gain knowledge, you also share it, become a resource to others, and demonstrate the power of continued learning. Rosebeth Moss Kanter wrote, “Leaders are more powerful role models when they learn than when they teach”
Helping hands talk to each other. Great jugglers have communicating hands---hands that talk with each other so the right one knows what the left one is going to do. Great leaders do as well. They promote, encourage, and model communication at its best. They tell all hands (employees) where they envision the organization going, and they lead by their examples. The power of walking the talk has not been overrated! Effective cultural change leadership requires extraordinary communication. Leaders help create an honest understanding of the value of the change--and what the commitment or cost will be. They must clearly and frequently state the vision for the change, repeat the value of the change, and ensure everyone knows the path. As people get the information they need, they develop a complete perception of the future. These informed pictures are less painful than the anguish they erroneously imagined. 
Keeping the performance spirited. Jugglers engage in juggling with spirited energy. Leaders keep the performance spirited by showing their enthusiasm and being consistent models. People take their cue as to a change effort’s importance by the manner they witness leaders acting consistent with the needed change. Tacit compliance is viewed by employees in two ways: 1) as a signal their commitment is not required, and 2) as a sign the leader is more interested in obedience than courage. 
People are leader-watchers. Since they watch every nuance and action, the behaviors and priorities of leaders must be consistent (over time) and congruent with the cultural change effort. When it comes to change, observation counts far more than conversation. Employees do not watch leaders’ mouths--they watch their moves. Performance is spirited when it is rewarding and affirming. Great leaders approach their role as a chance to give something special to employees every day. 
Feeling the blur. Great jugglers see the task as a whole, not as a sequence of steps or checklist of tasks. Feeling the blur means keeping sights on the ultimate purpose. Keeping sight on the purpose spiritmeans using it as a tool for auditing every activity and goal. Great leaders ask, Will this effort contribute to building a culture that achieves our primary purpose, vision, or aim? If the answer is suspect, they discard the activity or goal for one more likely to achieve the purpose. 
It means integrating parts into a whole so that focusing on the whole yields the needed outcomes. Jugglers integrate diverse objects around their similarities, and plan convenient handles for the objects they toss. 
 (Leadership Excellence China, Dec. 2012)