Throughout the leadership program, we’ve been
constantly reminded how change is always constant. Because of this,
organizations must stay proactive and adapt to any changes in order to survive
(Obolensky, 2014). Leading and adapting to changes however is not always easy.
One common reason why organizations fail to lead during change is because they
approach change as a monolithic process (Anthony & Schwartz, 2017). As
leaders, it is important to keep in mind that adapting to change consist of a
multi-step process.
According to Brown (2011), company culture plays a
large role: as it correlates to an array of things in an organization (p 406).
Figure 15.4 shows and define what strong and weak cultures are:
To
ensure organizations have strong company culture, there must be a strong
commitment and share of company values. In addition, it is important for
leaders to note that strong culture often times leads to higher resistance to
change (Brown, 2011).
Another helpful tool to consider for organizational
transformation is the Strategy-Culture Matrix:
Since
company culture correlates to an array of areas within the organization, it is
ideal to know the status of the company culture before implementing a strategy.
Figure 15.5 shows the relationship between company culture and strategy: which
can help leaders decide the most appropriate strategy for the company.
For this week’s module we watched
two videos that focused on transformational strategies. The first video consisted
of a short interview with Gallery Furniture owner, Jim McIngvale. In the 31
years of his business, McIngvale dealt with two major issues. The first was a
recession that lead to a decrease in new homes (which decreased customer
traffic) and another was a $30 million fire that resulted in an 80% drop of the
company (VitalSmarts, 2012). Due to these changes and continuing decline, McIngvale
decided to take immediate actions.
Since McIngvale was aware of customers leaving the
store without any purchase, he decided to train his employees on how to
approach potential customers. Something that left me in awe was when McIngvale
quoted that he had to “teach them (employees) to love what they hated”
(VitalSmarts, 2013). This statement reminded of myself when advising students
who disliked or wanted to avoid online classes. Since individuals who resist
something mostly focus on the negatives, it is important to counter this by bringing
out the positives (Brown, 2011). In McIngvale’s case, he showed his employees
examples of successful people to bring out the message that they too can be
successful if they implement the new strategy (VitalSmarts, 2013).
The second video for this week’s module was a TED talk
by Stanley McChrystal titled, Listen,
Learn….Then Lead. Throughout the talk, McChrystal shares what he learned
about leadership in the military. He initially talked about how he was raised
with the traditional styles of leadership, but in time, he realized how
leadership styles have changed. In summary, he has learned the importance of
relationships. One of my favorite quotation in the TED talk actually occurred in
the end where McChrystal quotes, “If you're a leader, the people you've counted
on will help you up. And if you're a leader, the people who count on you need
you on your feet.” (McChrystal, 2011). Unlike the past, leadership has shifted
from a traditional, “one-leads-all” to that of a polygarcy: where everyone has
a leadership role (Obolensky, 2014). The key here is that everyone can learn
from each other. While they’re not necessarily employees, an example that occurs
in my organization is between me and students. As an advisor, it’s always
important to remember that students actually have experiences in classes and
other university resources. From this other perspective, I can gain new
information: which can be used for future advisement.
References:
Anthony, S. & Schwartz, E. (2017). What the Best
Transformational Leaders Do. Harvard
Business Review. Retrieved from
https://hbr.org/2017/05/what-the-best-transformational-leaders-do
Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to
organization development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
McChrystal, S. (2011). Stanley McChrystal: Listen,
learn…then lead. TED. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/stanley_mcchrystal
Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex Adaptive Leadership:
Embracing Paradox and Uncertainty (2nd ed.). UK: Gower Publishing.
VitalSmarts. (2012). Influencer: Gallery Furniture
Video Case Study [Video file]. YouTube.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E20RW75Fhu4
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