Kathrine Walsh discusses some of the lessons John Kotter, the author of ”Leading Change“ and ”The Heart of Change” has learnt, in the article ”Five Things I’ve Learned About Change“
I personally admire Jack Welch as a change leader. And I have learned many lessons from him. He’s said that “the world is moving in nanoseconds,” so you better damn well be sure you’re good at change. He’s also talked about how “incremental change can easily be resisted by a bureaucracy.” Constant baby-step improvement is fine, but it is not enough. Sometimes sweeping change is what you need. It is what leaders do. They take existing systems and adapt them to new waves of technology and competition.
The more adaptable you are, the better. I’ve found that the more adaptable organizations or individuals are to change, the better they can sustain high performance over time. There is a definitive relationship between leadership and change……. The companies that were better at change were performing better over time. And they had better leadership.
The most basic aspects of leadership and change are a function of human nature. I’ve found there are specific steps in the process of how people make significant changes. The steps tend to be universal, independent of the content of change. They apply to process reengineering, the need for more innovation, new business strategies, you name it. The eight steps are to create a sense of urgency, put the right team together, create a sensible change vision and strategy, communicate the plan to obtain buy-in, empower people to act, garner some short-term wins, then pound away the changes you are trying to make until you implement them and can make them stick. That basic process is at the heart of leading change.
Details of leadership are situational. Leaders, by definition, have to fit into the situations they’re dealing with. As situations change culturally, and through time, successful leadership styles change too. I would bet that if you look at the people today who are providing terrific leadership in their organizations, some of the things they’re doing are different from their counterparts in 1950. Today there is more diversity in terms of gender, ethnic background and race. As the details vary, so does the leadership style.
I’ve had to lead change at various points in my career. So I can say that if you don’t know how to do it, good luck to you! The better you are at seeing and identifying the right steps, the higher your chances of success. In my personal life, I cope with change poorly at times (according to my wife). But in general, I create change, and the reason I do it well is because I have a high sense of urgency.
Some great tips….!
Technorati Tags: Change, Lessons, Learning, Leadership, Management, Business, Context, Book
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
“The most basic aspects of leadership and change are a function of human nature.” Absolutely. Leadership is about change. You do not need a leader to sit still or maintain a bureaucracy. Leadership is about change. It is about relationships. It’s about moving people and organizations forward. I am afraid we over analyze and over think leadership. What stands in the way of people making leadership decisions is our choices. It takes time and hard work to build the relationships with others that produce change and improve the lives of people. It often means we must choose between what “we” want now or what can be accomplished over a period of time.
Great leaders constantly are looking at the reality of the world around us and finding opportunity or danger. They then inspire us to make good decisions to meet that challenge.