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Change ... requires creating a new system, which in turn always demands leadership.
Kotter, 1995
In today’s workplace
change is almost unavoidable and certain, and achieving successful
change is one of the biggest problems that modern organizations face. Change
has become a major strategic obligating and it is clear that without doing
things differently, companies are unlikely to succeed, or last. It is rare for
large organisations to not have to undergo, at some point in their lifecycle, a
change that fundamentally shifts the business. The causes for this can be numerous
and diverse, including responding to technology changes, market maturation or
wider macroeconomic environment. Regardless of the cause, large-scale change is
required, and for successful change strong leadership is key.
Change
leadership is a type of leadership that focuses on these large-scale changes
within an organization. It is the ability to influence and enthuse others through
personal advocacy, vision and drive, and to access resources to build a solid
platform for change (Higgs and Rowland, 2000). Change leadership concerns the driving forces, visions and
processes that fuel large-scale transformation. According to John Kotter, the chief
innovation officer at Kotter International, a firm that helps leaders
accelerate strategy implementation in their organizations and the Konosuke
Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at
Harvard Business School, it can be
likened with putting an engine on the whole change process and making it go
faster, smarter, more efficiently.
Change leaders are
key in selecting and motivating a high performing team. During transformation
and throughout the embedding to ‘business as usual’ (BAU) leaders who rely on
their skills to ensure that the teams that work for them continue to be focused
on the objectives of the change. Crucially change leaders are needed to drive
the move into BAU and to support the cultural shifts that large-scale changes
often require.
Machiavelli
wrote: "There is nothing more difficult
to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success
than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things." To
see what drives successful change leadership, The
Center for Creative Leadership conducted a study to determine what those
change leadership skills are. The survey sampled participants who were senior
executives “with more than 15 years of management experience, responsibility
for 500 or more people, and decision-making authority as members of top
management teams.” Through the study, they identified nine characteristics of
change leaders falling into three categories.
When communicating they
focus on the why of the change as well as the what. Their communications become
even more powerful when they are connected to the values of the organization.
Successful change leaders
are not bound by structure and silos. They bring employees into the
decision-making process early, engaging the needed resources for collaboration
both in planning and executing change.
Successful change leaders don’t expect others to commit to changes that they are not fully on board with themselves. They experience their discomfort while moving through change but are persistent in sustaining the change process until the desired results are achieved. By contrast, unsuccessful leaders are impatient with results and do not display an ongoing commitment.
The study also
identified three characteristics of successful change leadership in leading the
process.
Successful
change leaders ensure that they maintain a focus on the people side of change.
Real change leaders (RCLs) are more concerned about a large, transformative vision for the business and how the employees become empowered enough to contribute to the creation of that vision. One risk of change leadership, however, is it has the potential to get out of control and not account for the smaller details in that line of work. In addition, a company may not act upon every proposed change to the established structure.
Change Leadership is important for influencing and inspiring action in others, and responding to vision and agility during periods of growth, disruption or uncertainty to bring about the needed change.
Fadzai Danha is a consultant at Industrial Psychology Consultants (Pvt) Ltd a management and human resources consulting firm. Phone +263 4 481946-48/481950 or email: fadzai@ipcconsultants.com or visit our website at www.ipcconsultants.com
This article was written by one of the consultants at IPC
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