Concluding my theme on change management and rewards begun on Monday, Knowledge@Wharton published another article in which DuPont’s CEO Ellen Kullman dissected the need for change in her organization to maintain its success as an innovation powerhouse, even during the recession. But the main difficulty in the process lay, in Kullman’s words, in “understanding the dynamic relationship between what should not change and what has to change – and having absolute clarity about that.”

Isn’t that the struggle of every business leader as it fights to gain market share or maintain its position, or change direction in the face of a changing world and customer needs to avoid becoming obsolete?

But once you figure this out, as DuPont did, what do you do to make the change real? Kullman implemented four leadership principles:

1) Focus on what you can control
2) Adopt a new trajectory by rethinking your business model
3) Communicate
4) Maintain pride around the company’s mission

These four principles reinforce her point of knowing what should change and what should not. The economy is out of your control, but this recession may be forcing you to acknowledge truths in your organization, your industry or your market that will require a new business model. What steps are you taking to chart that model, communicate it to employees and follow though on the change to achieve success? In the midst of that change, how are you helping employees maintain pride in the company and its mission so they will remain engaged in their work and committed to their role?