Leadership & Change

Source: Tony Manning / Strategist 2015

Just like conjoined twins, change and leadership can not be separated and that can be because a good leader has to sail the “waters” of change which are always “rough” and may be filled with risk, however some people sail these “waters” successfully only to find that the changes they “fought” for had a small effect or they helped strengthen the state of affairs (Spence n.d.). Actions in the work environment are influenced by the behaviors of leaders and that is why leaders have the responsibility to change the organization’s strategy and monitor the change because managing change is one of the most challenging roles of leaders, that is to say companies that encourage and promote change survive in highly competitive systems, however most leaders today do not understand change and how to effectively get people in the company to change even with the increased number of theories and models about change (Gilley, McMillan, Gilley 2009).

According to research carried out by McKinsey & Co, 70percent of change start-ups in organizations fail because changing an organization requires improving old systems which may be difficult but the real problem is that changing may involve unknown factors that may or may not affect individuals, therefore individuals fear because change threatens their stay in the company and this leads to resistance and it may be said that individuals resist, using the Theory of Constraints which “suggests that addressing the three questions about change sequentially helps overcome resistance to change and achieves buy-in from all of the key players and questions include: what to change, what to change to and how to cause the change, so managers should use this theory (Umble and Umble 2014). Most managers formulate actions to make performance better but some managers may disagree with change saying that they are okay with current systems being used and no change should be made, this may be caused because individuals do not see the problem or they are comfortable with the problems around the company but with the Theory of Constraints, managers should listen to these individuals’ “perspectives” and they should understand them which will help managers explain the problem and its effects to the company and managers should not also forget that people have different “backgrounds and experiences” and that their reactions to change may be affected by that, therefore managers should allow different thinking of what can and cannot be changed and also consider developing a common “criteria” that makes “a good solution” which will solve the problem of individuals that have different ways of solving the problem in the organization (Umble and Umble 2014).

In the video above, Sherri Hartzell (2013) helps explain Kotter’s 8 step change model and the steps include: “establishing a sense of urgency, creating the guiding coalition, developing a vision and strategy, communicating the change vision, empowering broad-based action, generating short-term wins, consolidating gains to produce more change and anchor change in the organization’s culture”, she also mentions that employees do not easily accept change but it is the role of the manager to communicate and motivate them to allow the change and the manager also needs to identify people with in the organization that will help see that process of change is smooth in the organization.

Source: IndianCarsBikes.in 2015

Looking at Ford as our example, in 2006 the auto-maker was almost filing for bankruptcy because the company made a loss of $12.7billion, in the same year Alan Mulally was made the leader of the company (Mckinsey&Company 2013). Mr. Mulally realized that the problem at Ford was the culture and it needed to change because his very first role as a leader was to communicate the importance of teamwork which was meant to enable managers work together and reduce “internal rivalries” (Legget 2014). Mulally embarked on “positive leadership” and this helped the employees at Ford to always have an idea that pushed them forward and they also participated as one team because under the new leadership “everyone’s contribution was respected” (Nisen 2013) and with the change in the leadership style, Ford was back into being a profitable company.

As I conclude, I would like to say that managers should understand that change is part of the organizational factors that will determine the success or failure of an organization, the earlier managers begin to change their organizations, the better. That will be because due to globalization, managers have to deal with issues like technological change which is very rapid due to new innovation and issues of cultural diversity with in the organization. According to Kotter’s 8 step change model, we can get to understand that leading change can be done slowly and continuously hence it is a process that involves leaders and followers participating and contributing towards the positive change of an organization (Kotter International 2015).

References

Automonster (2010) Ford Motor Company Posts $2.1bn profit: Exceeds Expectations in 2010 1st Quarter [online] available from <https://www.indiancarbikes.in/auto-news/ford-motor-company-21-bn-profit-2010-1st-quarter-8979/&gt; [08/June/2015]

Fast Company (2010) Why Change is So Hard [online] available from <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpiDWeRN4UA&gt; [09/June/2015]

Gilley, A. McMillan, S.H. Gilley, W.J. (2009) ‘Organizational Change and Characteristics of Leadership Effectiveness’ Journal of Leadership & Organization Studies [online] 1 (16), 38-47. available from <http://jlo.sagepub.com/content/16/1/38.full.pdf+html&gt; [08/June/2015]

Hartzell, S. (2013) Explaining Kotter’s 8 Step Change Model [online] available from <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fOQ_XjCcyA&gt; [09/June/2015]

Manning, T. (2015) Tony Manning / Strategist [online] available from < http://www.tonymanning.com/strategy-concepts/&gt; [10/June/2015]

Mckinsey & Company (2013) ‘Leading in the 21st century: An interview with Ford’s Alan Mulally’ Insights & Publications [online] available from <http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/strategy/leading_in_the_21st_century_an_interview_with_fords_alan_mulally&gt; [08/June/2015]

Kotter International (2015) Kotter’s 8-step Process for Leading Change [online] available from <http://www.kotterinternational.com/the-8-step-process-for-leading-change/&gt; [09/June/2015]

Legget, T. (2014) ‘How Ford’s Alan Mulally turned around its fortunes’. BBC News [online] 1st July. available from <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28087325&gt; [07/June/2015]

Nisen, M. (2013) Alan Mulally Explains How He Turned Around Ford. [06/November/2013] available from <http://www.businessinsider.com/alan-mulally-leadership-style-2013-11?IR=T&gt; [08/June/2015]

Spence, R. (n.d.) From Status Quo to Success [online] available from <http://www.leadersthatlast.org/pdfs/the-practice-of-adaptive-leadership-review.pdf&gt; [09/June/2015]

Umble, M. Umble, E. (2014) ‘Overcoming Resistance to Change’ Industrial Management [online] 1 (56), 16-21. available from <http://web.b.ebscohost.com/bsi/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=b25fccc2-4e87-4dd1-aOea-eb23clf92a3b%40sessionmgr113&vid=14&hid=125&gt; [10/June/2015]