People in organisations look to their leaders for direction, guidance, accountability, clarity, and connection. This is especially true when the organisation is in the process of instituting change. The process of organisational change requires both the understanding and the willingness to initiate and sustain change. People who want change should be able to both lead others towards the desired change and manage the way the organisation can get there.

Management and Leadership

The Forbes business magazine wrote an article in September 2013 revealing some insights into the world of leadership and change management. The article showed that more than half of organisational leaders were able to meet their initial goals. However, only a quarter of the leaders were able to sustain their change initiatives in the long-term.

Nine out of 10 leaders trained their respective managers when it comes to change management, with only 20 percent being successful to the very end. Only a third of managers understood the rationale behind the organisational change. Unfortunately, majority of the middle managers and supervisors failed to comprehend the need for organisational change.

The takeaway is that managers should also have leadership qualities. Change agents should not only have the correct mentality for organisational change. They should live such a mindset.

The Role of Leadership in Organisational Change

There is a wealth of knowledge dedicated to defining and describing the role of leaders and leadership in effecting change in an organisation. These can be summarised as follows.

  • Making a Case for Change

Leaders must make a strong case for change. Leaders must get very accurate information about reality, while also highlighting the different drivers of change. Leaders can then paint a picture of what the organisation’s future will look like.

  • Ensuring the Relevance of Change

The need for change should be grounded on facts. One’s understanding of these facts should be based on a comprehensive and thorough analysis and interpretation of collected data.

  • Building and Strengthening Relationships

Change agents should be able to engage others in a more positive, constructive, and meaningful way. This will help build strong interpersonal relationships and ensure commitment and dedication from everyone.

  • Developing Appropriate and Efficient Plans

An in-depth understanding of the real issues that beset an organisation can lay the groundwork for the creation of an effective plan of organisational change. Included in this plan is the identification of monitoring tools and practices that will provide a feedback mechanism for the effective evaluation of the programme.

  • Facilitating and Developing People Capabilities

Leader-managers can facilitate the acquisition of the much-needed competencies of everyone involved in organisational change. They can also help in the continuing development of such competencies and capabilities to ensure sustainability.

Leadership Competencies of Managers for Change

Leaders provide direction on how they envision their organisations. Managers must develop leadership competencies that will allow them to lead the rest of the organisation amidst change. These competencies are also helpful to anyone in the organisation. The following are expected of manager-leaders.

  • Sense-making and Sense-giving

Managers need to give accurate and relevant meaning to the collective experiences of others. It attempts to rationalise the actions of other people. Managers can also help others form a deeper understanding of themselves and their respective work. This empowers others to take action that is in line with what the leaders and managers have envisioned.

  • Visioning

Creating a very clear image of what the organisation will look like within a given time period is an important task of managers who want to lead for change.

  • Shaping and Translating the Vision

One must form his or her ‘ideal’ state of things in the organisation. This allows everyone to have a basis for the alignment of their individual vision to the organisational vision. Having a vision for the organisation is one thing. Translating it into reality is another. One must have an idea of how to make the vision a reality.

  • Trust-building

Not everyone welcomes change with open arms. One must win other people’s trust if the planned change is to succeed. Establishing, building, and strengthening trust in people is crucial for change to proceed smoothly.

  • Highlighting the Benefits

Managers can highlight the benefits that the proposed change can provide to people in the organisation. This gives people the motivation and encouragement they need to be amenable to such changes.

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  • Competence-promotion

Change managers need to promote perceptions of competence in their people. This is best followed with actual measures that will develop, build, and sustain people’s competencies.

  • Demonstrating the Need for Change

One-way managers can lead others amidst change is by demonstrating to others the unsustainability and irrelevance of the status quo. This will help others feel the need for change.

  • Aligning, Enabling, and Supporting Others

People empowerment is crucial in any organisational change. It requires the alignment of the different elements and principles of the organisation. Enabling and supporting the people in the organisation can also help improve the chances of success of any proposed change.

  • Maintaining Momentum and Sustaining Change

A quality of a good manager-leader is that he can sustain the transformation of the organisation. Constant and periodic review and evaluation of the change programme can help ensure sustainability of the envision change. This also helps maintain the momentum of the organisation.

Leadership Styles of Modern Managers

The effectiveness of initiating and sustaining organisational change hinges on the inherent leadership style of the modern manager. Two of the most prevailing styles of leadership that contemporary managers possess are charismatic and distributed leadership styles.

  • Charismatic Leadership

Motivation is the principal method of leading in charismatic leadership. People who have this leadership style encourage desirable behaviours using persuasion and eloquent communication. They also use the strength of their personality. Charismatic leaders conjure a sense of eagerness in other people to achieve the organisation’s vision or goal.

  • Distributed Leadership

Empowerment is the key element of distributed leadership. It presupposes that everyone has the capacity to become a leader. The focus is on the development of the leadership potential of everyone. It assumes that everyone is good at something. That person can be a leader in that task. This style of leadership requires mutual respect, transparency, and a high level of trust.

Managers do not only provide the framework upon which change occurs in their organisation. They should be ready to lead their people as they go through the different stages of the change process. Only by maintaining the momentum of the initial change efforts will the organisation sustain change and secure its transformation.

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