When a person has been a part of a large corporation long enough, they are sure to see programs of the moment come and go. They well intentioned and are aimed at meeting the immediate needs facing the organization. However, much like the history of humanity, the programs are slight modifications of those that came before. As a new leader in a company, their role is to make an impact and improve the current state of the business. What is not obvious to these newcomers is the rich and sometimes flawed history that preceded their arrival. These new leaders are unable to reach directly into the historical archives of the organization and realize that the path chosen to fix the current obstacle was attempted previously, perhaps with great success or dramatic challenges. Organizations have a long memory with a tendency of holding onto the negative experiences the strongest. How do these well-intentioned leaders overcome the challenges of a culture where people are tired of repeating the past? According to Kotter “the methods used in successful transformations are all based on one fundamental insight: that major change will not happen easily for a long list of reasons” (Kotter, 1996, p. 20). There must be a clear path that the leader needs to follow in order to shake up the culture, opening people up for the changes. Enabling them not to just stick when they are being watched, but creating value where, if they went missing, the company would desire to have them back. This is where
As a Naval Officer I had the opportunity to experience both leadership and management. Today's Navy operates with fewer people and resources than before. Therefore, leadership and management are more important than ever. Very early in my career I was taught leadership and as I advanced through the ranks I experienced management.
Step 2 is forming a powerful guiding coalition. Leadership will have to be on board and on the same page in regards to the change. Kotter and Cohen reveal the core problems people face when leading change. Their main findings are that the central issue concerns not structure or systems but behavior and how to alter it (Farris, 2008). The success of the changes will depend on the ability of the managers to show their commitment to change and motivate the employees to do the same. Without any process to track the implementation, the change can also fail.
In the changing business environment, leaders of all organisations may face unprecedented uncertainty, especially the technology advancement and changes among the employees. To survive and succeed, leaders should have some necessary attributes. Meanwhile, some changes for leadership skills have to be made to confront the challenges.
One Minute Manager is a short story written by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. The story is about a young man who is in search of an effective manager because not only did he want to work for one but he is also wanted to become one. His search for this ideal manager took him to many places and made him interact with a lot of different individuals. He wasn’t pleased with what he encountered and he began to notice that most of the people he interviewed would fall into two categories: those who were interested in results and those were interested in people meaning their employees. He continued his search until he began to hear amazing stories about a manager that lived nearby. The young man met with this
They have to enlist others in a common vision (p. 17). The challenge, Kouzes & Posner says is to turn the idea into an inspired vision (p.106). The leader needs to imagine the possibilities and find a common purpose. The authors refer to James MacGregory Burns transformational leadership theory asserting that people commit to causes, not plans (p. 122). In order to have a transforming effect, the leader must raise the level of human conduct and ethical aspiration of both the leader and follower. Just like Kotter (1990) outlines the methods to change an organizational culture is by telling stories, using symbols, the designing of physical space, using jargon, rituals, etc., Kouzes & Posner suggest the same thing when they explain the power in using symbolic language to communicate a shared identify and give life to a vision (p. 143). When challenging the process, leaders know that in order to bring change they have to experiment and take risk (p. 19). The authors indicate that “proactive people tend to work harder …[by being] persistent in achieving their goals (p. 169) and treat every job as an adventure (p. 184).”
From your perspective, based on the video and articles for this activity, how did GE
Throughout time, many books and papers have been written to study the birthplace of leadership failure, its causes, results, and ultimately, the best way to oversea these situations to avoid future failures. Some leadership experts, may argue that the best way to learn how to lead, is to study successful leadership outcomes and more importantly, how former miscalculations were committed and as a result, what gran plan was used that resulted in the leaders turnaround success. To be a great leader, the individual has to be cognate of what elements, including external and internal impact, resulted in their failure, as well as, how to avoid leadership oversight in the future. In this paper, I will attempt to do just that, as I will incorporate the transactional and transformational leadership theory from this course and apply them to the leadership failures of one of the most entertaining leadership failures of all time: the DeLorean Motor Company.
Organizations must respond to their internal and external environment. Therefore, organizational success heavily relies on leaderships ability to manage change. Unfortunately, many leaders struggle to effectively lead change initiatives. In fact, Ashkenas (2013, para. 1) reported 60 – 70% of organizational change initiatives fail to meet their objectives.
The book The Heart of Change shows the practical side of the theories that are taught in the course textbook. It presents stories of successes and failures based in the application of concepts discussed in Organizational Behavior and Management and in class. Although we talked about several different concepts the ones that are evident in the examples in The Heart Of Change are the more progressive and individual centered approaches. The leadership characteristics that are important to successful change in an organization are those that are espoused in the transformational theory of management. It makes sense that ideals in line with the transformational management theory
Fullan discusses five components of leadership in a culture of change, in the book Leading in a Culture of Change (2001). The first component is moral purpose – making a positive change on the life of employees. “To strive to improve the quality of how we live together is moral purpose of the highest order (Fullan, 2001, p. 14). The second component is the understanding change process. Fullan list six ideas that help understand the change process 1) the goal is not to innovate the most; 2) it is not enough to have the best ideas; 3) appreciate early difficulties of trying the best ideas; 4) redefine resistance as a potential positive force; 5) reculturing is the name of the game and 6) never a checklist, always complexity (Fullan, 2001).
It is important to change various aspects of organization culture when trying to institute change in organizations (Kavita, 2005). The aspects that such changes should target include the balance of power in the organizations, the organization structure that supports the framework, leadership and management styles. Organizational history is also very critical, especially if it has a progressive track record success. However, if the culture despite the changes remains aligned to the organization goals and mission the employees will adopt it and embrace change.
Successful organizations have strong leaders and managers that develop, support and encourage employee longevity within a company. There is a significant difference between leadership and management however both skills have to be used collectively and both are important to a profitable organization. Leadership is a notion of communicating an organization’s vision, whereas management is more of the implementation of the organization’s vision. The manager typically carries out the responsibilities written by the organization and has a good team underneath them to carry out the duties and meet the goals. Most companies have a mission statement that mirrors and supports a company’s vision. When referring leadership and management, the two
In corporate America the term used to describe a person in a position of power is “Manager”. A leader can be a manager, but a manager is not necessarily a leader. Leaders motivate, challenge, and influence others to achieve goals. Great leaders have the necessary skills and attributes which allow them to connect with the team and organization. Being a leader is not the same as managing an organization. Leader’s posses the interpersonal skills needed to influence others to achieve a goal willingly. Leading is a major part of a manager’s job. Leaders do not need to be a manager to lead people, but managers must know how to lead as well as manage.
U.S. President, Harry S. Truman declared, “progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better” (as cited in Davis, 2012, para. 1). Change management is critical to an organization’s survival and prosperity. Organizations that are resistant to change will fail to meet the needs of their targeted markets and lose their competitive advantage. By utilizing Kotter & Cohen’s 8-step change model, change leaders can successfully implement a change initiative into their workplace culture. In an interview, Chief of Staff for Southern New Hampshire University, Mr. William Zemp, describes his role as a change leader for a government contract and how he utilized Kotter’s change model
As organizations change, leadership must find ways to adapt and adjust to those changes. Many times it’s the inability of being open-minded to new ideas, beliefs, thoughts and cultures that prevent individuals from moving forward. Saner (2004) states, “Increased globalization and integration of information technology have brought about a fundamental rethinking of how to conduct business and how to lead a complex organization for continuous improvement and reinventing of the organization” (p.654). In any organization, change brings resistance, but with positive managerial and leadership skills, accepting the challenges that come with diversity such as ambiguity, complexity, resistance and confusion, will give managers the foresight to effectively and efficiently implement processes that will benefit the organization as a whole.