What a leader needs is to change the behavior of her organization. That is the essence of leadership. The good news is that there are many companies lining up to help you exactly that. The bad news is that it won’t work.

There are masses of enterprise software companies that are selling change. They sell tools, services, platforms, workflows, something something management software, etc., and they want you to believe that those are enough for the change you seek. The problem is that you cannot write a check and get change. The absence of a good tool may obstruct change, but there are a whole lot of other things that also obstruct change: lack of talent, fear of failure, vested interest in the status quo, a broken culture, conservatism bias, magical thinking, lack of resources, conflicting messages, unclear strategy, poorly-defined goals, and yes, bad leadership. Buying a tool will not solve any of those problems. If the absence of the tool is the only problem, then it’ll work. But it probably isn’t what most needs to change.

The seduction here is that what you want is the results of change. But who really wants to change? Change is hard. Change is uncomfortable. Change is humbling. The vast majority of the time we only change against our will when there is no alternative. The rest of the time it comes from inspiration, and you can’t write a check to buy inspiration.

What these companies are selling they can’t deliver. It’s not because they’re lying. It’s not because their product doesn’t work. It’s because their product usually only solves the easiest part of a multipart problem. The harder part is making the people in your organization think and behave differently so that they are willing to learn this product and apply it. Given the choice, I will take an inspired organization with the wrong tools any day of the week over an uninspired organization with an unlimited budget for tools. Writing a tech for a tool is an easy answer that won’t work. Changing people is hard, but it’s the only way to succeed.