Leadership matters. And as W. Warner Burke says, "Leadership is personal. The process concerns the use of self, how to be persuasive, how to deal with resistance, and how to be political, in the best sense of the phrase: how to embody the vision of where one wants the organization to go. It is important, therefore, for the leader who is about to begin a significant change effort to take some time at the outset to reflect."
Burke has useful suggestions for leadership reflection in three categories: self-awareness, motives and values. Here are some of his ideas for "self-awareness" in preparation for leading large-scale change or transformation:
There is growing evidence that self-awareness is related to performance; that is, high performers tend to have a greater overlap between how they see themselves and how others see them than do moderate and low performers. It behooves leaders who want to bring about a successful change effort to be as cognizant as possible about themselves in personal domains such as the following:
- Tolerance for ambiguity: The courses that organization change will take are not exactly predictable; being able to live with this kind of ambiguity is important.
- Need for control: It is difficult to be a "control freak" and lead change effectively. Organization change is messy, sometimes chaotic, and seemingly out of control; thus being clear about what you can control and need to control and what you're not likely to be able to control is critical.
- Understanding how feelings affect behavior: What is your typical reaction when others disagree or challenge or resist the change that you, as a leader, feel strongly about? Knowing yourself in these ways help you to manage yourself more effectively, especially in trying circumstances.
- Personal dispositions: Most people know whether their preference is extroversion or introversion, but what about other dimensions, such as the need for closure and intuition compared with sensing? (These are components of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), based on Carl Jung's personality theory). There is some evidence, for example, that intuition (trusting one's hunches, future orientation, and conceptual tendency) is more related to leader behaviors than is sensing (being fact-based, concrete, and practical).
- Decision making: It is highly valuable to understand the differences between times when as a leader you need to take the reins and decide, and times when you need to loosen control and involve others as a part of self-knowledge.
Our experience is that successful major change or transformation takes both leadership skills (visionary, persuasive communication, tolerance for ambiguity, ability to share power and control, etc.) and management skills (practical, concrete thinking, need to control, etc.) - i.e., leaders who can manage the "status quo" to make sure the trains run on time so to speak, while letting those with true change leadership abilities lead the change.
Cultivating individual (and collective executive team) self-awareness is a key ingredient for making major organization change work. It's all about positioning yourself and your players: with self-awareness, the best leaders properly position each executive in whichever camp best plays to individual and team strengths, mitigating weaknesses so the organization wins.
2009 Copyright © Moore & Associates
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