Executive sponsors are members of the steering committee who dedicate a large percentage of their time and effort to supporting your change project. Typically, they represent the part of your organization that will experience the greatest impact from the change. For example, if you are implementing new finance software, the Chief Financial Officer might sponsor the change, or co-sponsor it with the Chief Information Officer.

The executive sponsor is more involved in the project, meeting project representatives on a more regular basis, attending important project activities, and addressing issues that require executive help, but that don't need input from the entire Steering committee.

If your project doesn't have one, get one. If you have one, but they don't actually...