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LEADING CHANGE (CONT’D)

Week 12December 28, 2013

Class Activities:Due in today’s Class (28Nov’13):• Group presentation by each group on ‘Brief analysis of any failed project(s). Time 3-5 min.• Group presentation by each group on force field analysis in your organization’. Time 3-5 min.• Submit & discuss synopsis of your semester Project in class (22 Nov’13)

Update on Semester Project• Semester project’s presentations & Report on 05 Jan’2014 (13th week)

Final Exam Date ??? 12 jan’ 14

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Leadership linked to organizational metaphors

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Leadership linked to organizational metaphors: Advantages & disadvantages of each metaphor• The machine metaphor

– draws attention to clear goals and the need for structure, – but overuse of this metaphor results in micromanagement of outcomes and too little risk

taking

• The political system metaphor – adds the harsh reality of organizational life, and reminds us of the necessity for involving

influential people when change is desired, – but overuse can be seen as manipulation.

• The organism metaphor – highlights the need for people to be involved, and to feel the need for change, – but runs the risk of moving too slowly and too late.

• The flux and transformation model – is useful as a reminder that organizations and their people cannot be wholly controlled

unless we rule by fear! – Leaders must encourage discussion of conflicts and tensions to enable change to emerge, – while avoiding the trap of being too vague and lacking direction.

• Successful change leadership is achieved by combining aspects of all four metaphors

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Case Study - COMBINING THE METAPHORS: REFLECTIVE COACHING SESSION

• Once I realized that my boss was using a completely different organizational metaphor from myself, I began to see how we were clashing in our discussions about how to run projects and how to improve processes.– I prefer the machine metaphor. – I like things to be pretty clear. In my area we have a well-defined structure with clear roles

and objectives set for each person. The team runs like a well-oiled machine, with me in the engine room pulling levers and thinking about plans and processes.

• On the other hand, – my boss prefers a more fluid style of working. – Objectives are flexible and revised daily, and the hierarchy means very little to him. If

someone shows initiative and promise, he will go directly to that person and have a quite intense conversation to convey the importance of a particular initiative.

• It used to drive me crazy. I couldn’t keep control.• One day we had a chat about this using metaphor to discuss our differences.

– It was most illuminating, and we started to see the pros and cons of each approach. – As a result I agreed to incorporate more flexibility in certain projects, and he agreed to stick

with the plan rather than review and change other, more stable processes.

• We still clash from time to time, but it doesn’t cause so much irritation!Source: Global Services Manager, Oil Company – on use of metaphor to enhance understanding of other people’s viewpoints

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LEADERSHIP STYLES AND SKILLS

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Styles and Skills required of leaders• Table 4.1 is also useful because it reveals a wide range of styles and skills

required of leaders, depending on the metaphor in use:– • goal setting;– • monitoring and controlling;– • coaching and supporting;– • building vision;– • communicating vision;– • building coalitions;– • networking;– • negotiating;– • facilitating;– • dealing with conflict.

• The difficulty with a list of skills this long is that is seems unattainable• Let s find a way through the various requirements of a leader to pinpoint the

most important roles, skills, styles and areas of focus needed to make change happen.

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VISIONARY LEADERSHIP

• Warren Bennis (1994): – The first basic ingredient of leadership is a guiding vision. – The leader has a clear idea of what he wants to do ( professionally and

personally), and – the strength to persist in the face of setbacks, even failures. – Unless you know where you are going, and why, you cannot possibly

get there.

• Visionary leadership has become something of a holy grail. – It seems to be a rare commodity which is greatly sought after. – One of the recent research (see next slide) indicates that:

• today’s business leaders place considerable value on visionary leadership as a tool for organizational change.

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VISIONARY LEADERSHIP

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VISIONARY LEADERSHIP

• But is visionary leadership really the answer?

• The views of the – supporters of visionary leadership, and – those who make the case against it, are discussed:

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1. Bennis on the characteristics of visionary leaders• Warren Bennis (1994) identified three basic

ingredients of leadership:– • a guiding vision;– • passion;– • integrity.

• He also developed a useful comparison of the differences between management and leadership – (Table 4.2 – next slide), – which unpacks some of the different qualities of a

visionary leader.

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Managers and Leaders

• Most managers have to do both roles ?

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2. Kotter on what leaders really do• Kotter (1996) echoes the ideas of Bennis. • He says,

– ‘we have raised a generation of very talented people to be managers, not leader/managers, and

– vision is not a component of effective management. – The management equivalent to vision creation is planning.’

• He says that leaders are different from managers.• ‘They don’t make plans; • they don’t solve problems; • they don’t even organize people.

– What leaders really do is prepare organizations for change and help them cope as they struggle through it.’

• He identifies three areas of focus for leaders and contrasts these with the typical focus of a manager:– • setting direction versus planning and budgeting;– • aligning people versus organizing and staffing;– • motivating people versus controlling and problem solving.

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3. Bass: proof that visionary leadership works!

• Bass (in Bryman, 1992) developed the notion of transformation leadership, which many managers find meaningful and helpful.

• He distinguished between transactional leadership and transformational leadership (next slide), and – identified through extensive research that:

• charismatic and inspirational leadership were the components most likely to be associated with leadership success.

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3. Bass: proof that visionary leadership works!TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP• Transformational leadership involves the leader raising the

followers’ sense of purpose and levels of motivation. – The aims of the leader and the followers combine into one purpose, and – the leader raises the followers’ confidence and expectations of

themselves.

• Transformational leadership comprises:– • charisma;– • inspiration;– • intellectual stimulation;– • individualized consideration.

• Transactional leadership is simply an exchange in which the leaders hands over rewards when followers meet expectations.– • contingent reward;– • management by exception.

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4. Gardner: the need for leaders to embody a story

• Howard Gardner’s (1996) influential research into the nature of successful leaders gave rise to some interesting lessons about visionary leadership: – He chose 11, 20th century leaders who have really made a difference, and

• researched their lives and their work by reading their biographies and tracking down any speeches, letters, audiotapes and videotapes that were available.

– He chose a mixture of different types of leader, • combining business leaders, political leaders and those who influenced our thinking and behaviors

without being in a position to lead directly.

– The list included among others: • Alfred Sloan, head of General Motors, • Pope John XXIII, one of the most influential and popular popes of modern times, • Martin Luther King, the advocate of African Americans, and • Margaret Mead, a cultural anthropologist who deeply influenced our ideas about childhood, family

life and society.

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4. Gardner: the need for leaders to embody a story

• Gardner’s findings indicated that: – Those leaders who had really made a difference to the way others

thought, felt and acted all appeared to have a central story or message.

– Stories not only provide background, but help the followers to picture the future.

– The story must connect with the audience’s needs and be embodied in the leader him- or herself

– Gardner makes the point that phonies (hypocrites) are never in short supply, and the individual who does not embody or act out his or her messages will eventually be found out

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Individual Assignment #2

• Based on Gardner’s findings choose a leader of our age who really made the difference by pursuing a central story or message that connected with the audience’s needs and embodied in the leader him – or herself.

• Briefly narrate the central message of the leader. • The answer should not be more than one A4 size page typed in font 12

single space.• To be e - mailed and submitted in hard copy in next class• Each student to choose a unique leader. CR to remove the conflict of

duplication, if any • Note: the leader you choose should not be our Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H), or

his companions, or Allama Iqbal, or Quaid-e-Azam, or any leader of our independence movement

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5. Heifetz and Laurie: vision is not the answer

• Heifetz and Laurie (1997) say that vision is not the answer• They say that:

– The senior executive needs to alter his or her approach to match the needs of 21st century organizations.

• They say that: – What is needed is ‘adaptive leadership’. – This is about challenging people, taking them out of their comfort zones,

letting people feel external pressure and exposing conflict.• ‘Followers want comfort and stability, and solutions from their leaders. But that’s

babysitting. Real leaders ask hard questions and knock people out of their comfort zones. Then they manage the resulting distress.’

– They believe the call for vision and inspiration is counter-productive and encourages dependency from employees.

– There is a difference between the type of leadership needed to solve a routine technical problem and the type of leadership needed to enable complex organizational change.

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5. Heifetz and Laurie: vision is not the answer– Leaders of change should concentrate on scanning the

environment, and drawing people’s attention to the complex adaptive challenges that the organization needs to address,

– such as culture changes, or changes in core processes.

• This means not solving the problems for people, but giving the work back to them.

• It also means not protecting people from bad news and difficulty, but allowing them to feel the distress of things not working well.

• These ideas are quite a long way from the concept of transformational leadership mentioned above, which indicates that successful leaders are charismatic, visionary and inspirational.

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6. Jean Lipman-Blumen: Leaders need to make connections rather than build one vision

• Jean Lipman-Blumen (2002) says that vision is no longer the answer. – She encourages leaders to search for meaning and make connections,

rather than build one vision– She notes that there is a growing sense that old forms of leadership are

unsustainable in an increasingly global environment.– She says that the sea change in the conditions of leadership imposed by

the new global environment requires new ways of thinking and working which confront and deal constructively with both interdependence (overlapping visions, common problems) and diversity (distinctive character of individuals, groups and organizations).

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6. Jean Lipman-Blumen: Leaders need to make connections rather than build one vision• Lipman-Blumen talks about connective leaders (see next slide):

– who perceive connections among diverse people, ideas and institutions even when the parties themselves do not.

• In the new ‘connective era’, she says that leaders will need to reach out and collaborate even with old adversaries.– Mikhail Gorbachev is a good example of this in the political arena. – Nelson Mandela is another

• Again, this approach is different from the suggestion that leaders need to develop and communicate clear vision in an inspiring way.

• Jean Lipman-Blumen encourages leaders to: – help others to make good connections, and – to develop a sense of common purpose across boundaries, – thus building commitment across a wide domain.

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Leadership for the 21st century: Less vision, more connection?

• The world is changing. – Organizations are more dispersed and less hierarchical. – More information is more freely available. – People want more from their jobs than they used to.– The increasingly globalized economy and access to news and information

are encouraging people to form cooperative relationships with a measure of independence.

• Does this then change the role of the leader of change?• Are people’s needs for strong leadership starting to

shift? • Perhaps clear, visionary, authoritative leadership is no

longer working?

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Leadership for the 21st century: Less vision, more connection?

• The territory inside organizations is also changing. – John Kotter (1996) draws our attention to changes

in organizational structures, systems and cultures (Table 4.3 – next slide)

• What does this mean for leading change? – this means a shift from expectations of one

visionary leader to the need for increased connectivity and overlapping agendas between different groups.

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20th Century Organizations &21st Century Organizations

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Lord Macaulay’s Education System: an agenda for Change of British India

• Pakistan inherited the education system from British which was designed on the basis of Lord Macaulay’s address to British parliament in 1833. – English language was used as a medium of infusing English

culture in Indian society to strengthen British Empire on long term basis, and helped in dominating a much larger country, India through creating a franchise of privileged class.

– The intentions of designing the education system for British India may be judged on the basis of the following speech, he made on 10th July 1833:-

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Lord Macaulay’s address to British parliament in 1833: an agenda for Change of British India

• "I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native self-culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation."

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Lord Macaulay’s address to British parliament in 1833 : an agenda for Change of British India– “Are we to keep the people of India ignorant in order that we may keep them

submissive? Or – do we think that we can give them knowledge without awakening ambition?

Or – do we mean to awaken ambition and to provide it with no legitimate vent? – Who will answer any of these questions in the affirmative?

• Yet one of them must be answered in the affirmative, by every person who maintains that we ought permanently to exclude the natives from high office. I have no fears. The path of duty is plain before us: and it is also the path of wisdom, of national prosperity, of national honor. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.”

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Food for Thought• Macaulay's Minutes were not only an agenda for change; it was indeed an

agenda for developing a nation who remains mentally slaved to them, generations after generations, even when they had gone from India. – It has permanently impinged in the minds of desi’s that all that is foreign and English is

good and greater than their own.– We, in Pakistan are still following the same education system which Lord Macaulay

designed for British India to form a class who may be interpreters between Gorey Aaqas’ (white rulers) and the millions whom they governed and still governing their minds; a class of persons, Pakistani in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.

• Are we not the real product of the Lord Macaulay’s change policy - A class of mental slaves ?

• Isn’t this high time that we need to change it? • Do we find enough courage to CHANGE this philosophy?

• Lets make efforts to change this status quo with some thing of our own, in line with our own spiritual & cultural heritage, values, ideology, faith and pride - some thing better for our future generations which could bring back our self-esteem.

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THANK YOU