Throughout his career, Bill Donges has
grown accustomed to managing change.
“I’ve been a professional change
agent,” Donges says. “I’ve moved from
company to company. What you find is
you have some current culture, some
condition of the company … and it wants
to come to some new place. Sometimes,
they know exactly where that is, and
sometimes, they don’t, but you have to
go through this transition.”
The problem with change is that it’s not
easy to implement.
“There will be a lot of skeptics,” he
says. “They’ll ask a lot of questions, and
a lot of change initiatives simply don’t
work because the people have resisted
those changes and the uncertainty that
the changes have caused. My rule of
thumb on that is you have to lead your
way through a change — you can’t manage it.
“You have to be out in front. It’s change
leadership, not change management.
You have to be out there making it happen. It’s work to do that. You will get
people pushing back. You’ll see the culture not wanting to go to a new place.
You have to take it there.”
His latest assignment has been the
transformation of Lane Co., an Atlanta-based real estate management and construction firm. Since joining the firm as
CEO in the spring of 2005, Donges has
moved the company from being just a
local player into a $220 million company
operating throughout Georgia, North
Carolina, Florida, the Mid-Atlantic and
Texas. He has also increased the number
of new construction units from 352 in
2006 to 1,329 last year. He did it by focusing on communication, setting goals and
winning over employees who resisted
the changes.
“It has a lot to do with your attitude
and how you go into it,” Donges says. “It
can look like a very tough battle, but you
have to be into it and get a thrill of the
battle. You know it can be difficult, but if
you know what the end is, you can work
through it. Just look for the positive in it.
It’s the only way to do it.”
