Leadership and change

Introduction

The passage from “the Prince” can be related to the contemporary issues concerning leadership of change. First of all, the word “Prince” can be viewed as metaphor for a company and the word “people” can be viewed as customers. After examining the passage, it would seem clear that the idea of the Machiavelli’s passage is effective management according to the changing circumstances. It can be argued that the word “Prince” can also be viewed as the metaphor for a leader, change leader or a head of the company. In this case the word “people” can be considered as followers or employees accordingly. The last sentences of the passage indicate Machiavelli’s view on the importance of price – leader to create a culture which is based on shared values, to connect emotionally with people who follow him and to influence them to achieve the shared goals.

Leadership has existed for very long time, since people have started acting in close relation with each other. Leadership is present in all cultures (Rukmani 2010). The aim of an essay is to discuss the role of the leadership. The essay also identifies the differences between leadership and management. It will descry the qualities which are inherent a good leader. The essay will give a wide range of examples of different styles of leadership.

The topic of the essay is leadership of change, therefore the essay provides a critical discussion of such areas as leadership and change, leading in tough time. It is also will look at the role of change leader in the organization. Most of the people fear changes, therefore the essay will describe the ways of how the change leader should prepare his followers and himself for time of change.

Mike Cannell (2010) claims that most of the people at some point of their life are leaders. There is no single definition of leadership. John Adair (2006 cited Cannell, 2010) mentions that leadership is personal relations. He claims that leadership, like all kinds of personal relations, has something unknown and mysterious. Anne Morriss and her colleagues (2011) believe that on one hand, leadership is about making people better as result of leader’s presence, on the other hand, it is making sure that leader’s influence endures in his absence. Northhouse (2007) defines leadership as a process where an individual influences people to achieve a common aim. Angelo Mastrangelo, Erik R. Eddy, Steven J. Lorenzet (2004) assign personal and professional leadership. They identify professional leadership as a process and direction which are provided for the members of the company for achieving the organizational goals. It is likely that the organizational goals of the company are profit and reputation, therefore the leader in professional leadership should be a person who can inspire employees, who can explain them that they are part of the company and that by working efficiently they earn not only money, but and status. Angelo Mastrangelo (2004) and her colleagues identify personal leadership as “the personal behavior of leaders in performing the responsibilities of professional leadership, including demonstrating expertise, building trust, caring and sharing for people, and acting in a moral way”.

It is now clear that the leadership is a wide topic and it is does not have one definition. To understand more the meaning of the leadership, it is important to look at the differences between management and leadership.

 “Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right things”    Waren Bennis Ph.d. on Becoming a Leader

Rowe (2007) points out that the position of the manager gives the authority to do certain tasks in the organization. He claims that the power does not make an individual a leader, it makes him a boss.  From his point of view, leadership differs from management in that it makes people, who follow the leader, to achieve common goals. Managing, to some extant, is about planning, controlling, tactics and organization (Cannell 2010). It can explain why French King XII from the Machiavelli’s passage gained Milan very fast and lost it very quickly. Louis XII can be viewed as a manager from this point of view. He had power, he control under people, but could not influence them to work together towards the achievement of shared goals.

Nahavandi (2000 cited Burnes, 2004) lists such differences between management and leadership. First of all, leadership is a process of affecting people to reach common goals, while management is a process directed towards the accomplishment of organizational goals. Leadership concentrates on future, management focuses on present. Leader’s tasks are to create a change, to be close emotionally to his people, to create environment, where his followers have shared values. Manager concentrates his attention on preserving the status quo and maintaining stable. The task of the manager is to complete his work and to follow the rules and keep to the policies. It is important to recognize that managers use the power of their position to influence people, while leaders use their personal power. Leaders convince their followers by their charisma.

After examining Machiavelli’s passage, it is clear that the main task of a good prince-leader is to keep his followers satisfied. Therefore it is important to look at main qualities of a good leader.

There are many theories that explain what makes a person a good leader. Senior and Fleming (2006) in their book “Organizational change” divide these theories into two categories. First category includes theories which suggest that there is a particular set of features that a good leader should have. The second approach dismisses this opinion and concludes that leadership styles differ according to the situation. Admittedly, both categories are right. A good leader definitely should be intelligent, outgoing person, dominance and conservative (Lord de Vader and Alliger 1986 cited Senior and Fleming, 2006). However, leader should know how to react in particular situations, using particular qualities.

Useem (1996 cited Senior and Fleming, 2006) give examples of the kinds of behavior of the leader for particular situation. Such as: inspiring a shared vision, searching for opportunities, celebrating the completed tasks, setting examples, enabling the followers to act.

Many companies try to identify a good leader. Mike Williams (2005) in his book “Leadership for leaders” lists characteristics of people with high potential to become an effective leader. He states that the potential leader should be questioning, active and curious. The potential leader should be able to expand his understanding. He has to want to learn and to be open for new options and possibilities.

Phoebe Eng (2009) in her article points out that a good leader understands the value of nuance. He deals quickly with a difficult task and he knows that the solution of any problem requires a large number of information and analyses.

Scholasticus K. (2010) in his article names such leader qualities as communication skills, ability of building trust, enabling people to participate and making successful decisions. A great example of a leader with good communication skills is Adolf Hitler. It is not that he was a good leader, it is just that he could influence people to follow him by making very good speeches. Giving emotional speeches and promising people a good life was his secret weapon. Another good example of the leader with such important quality is Cuba's longtime revolutionary leader Fidel Castro (Hoffman 2009). He knew the importance of the communication skills. He could speak with his followers for hours without any speech papers.

President Abraham Lincoln is the best example of such quality as ability of winning trust from people. He has managed to build people’s trust by handling the Civil war.

Ricardo Semler, Brazilian business executive and the owner of Semco Company, is a good example of such quality as enabling people to participate in leadership and management (Bloomsbury Business Library - Business & Management Dictionary 2007). Semler is the world ideal example of business leadership. Semco is the company where employees select their own superiors and they have all rights to take part in approving expenses of the company.

There are a large amount of studies which identify transformational and transactional leadership styles.

Regina Eisenbach and her colleagues (1999) identify transactional leadership as an exchange process. The followers of the leader get a reward after their performance (the completion of certain tasks). If the leader is viewed as leading company and the followers as customers, it is possible to give an example of transactional leadership. The UK’s leading Health and Beauty Company Boots provides their customers with a card. By buying products from Boots shops, customers collect points which they can change on some product or they can get some discount.

Ping Ping Fu, Anne S. Tsui, Jun Liu and Lan Li (2010) identify transformational leadership as a process of motivating the follower to do more that they are expected and putting their own interest for the good of the company. Regina Eisenbach, Kathleen Watson and Rajnandini Pillai (1999) point out that transformational leadership includes charisma and idealized influence. They also claim that such style of leadership is about stimulating followers to question their ways to do things and providing them with learning opportunities. Tichy and Devanna (1990) believe that transformational leadership is a process of recognizing the importance of change and creating a new vision.

A great example of the transformational leader is Walt Disney. He was a leader who had a large amount of leadership capacities (Thomas. B 1966). He knew all his employees by names and he wanted them to be happy and work in close relations with each other. He always encouraged them to learn more and more. He has paid for an art school for his employees to learn more about animation. As the result his movies and cartoons have improved very much. Walt Disney understood the need of change. He knew if he wanted to build a progress and achieve success, he had to be one step ahead of change. He has taken chances to create new technologies. Many people told him that it was too risky, but he was optimistic and he believed in it.

It is very important to recognize that change is a part of leadership. Today’s business world is very competitive. One of the ways to survive is to change to the needs of a very quickly changing world. If the company does not want to change, it is a dead-end street. The French King, from the Machiavelli’s passage, did not change anything in his policy towards people of Milan, that is why he “speedily lost it”.

However, leadership of change is not only about reshaping to the needs of the environment, it is more about creating a change (Macaux 2010).

As it has been mentioned before, there are two main approaches towards leadership. The first one is “one best way of leading”. The second one suggestes that there is no “one best way”, the leadership style depends on the particular situation (Senior and Fleming 2006) and it most appropriate to leadership of change.

Tom Darcy and Brian H. Kleiner (1991) claim that change is an integral part of today’s business environment. They identify change as putting aside traditions and ways of people living and working together. Susan Albers Mohrman (2008) says that “Change leadership is a team sport”. Changes in organization can be met with fear and uncertainty by employees. That is why it is worth noting the main tasks of a change leader. Susan Albers (2008) identifies four main tasks of a change leader of a company. First of all, it is keeping employees focused on what the company is trying to achieve and what changes have to be done. The second task is creating opportunities for a team to learn and develop themselves. Third one is explaining to the team why these changes are necessary.  According to Susan Albers (2008), the last task of the change leader is to keep discussing the importance of changes with the employees and explain that the new things are expected from them as the situation has changed. Hooper and Potter (2000 cited John Potter, 2001) have interviewed 25 business leaders who managed to lead their companies through organizational changes. They listed five key areas of leadership activity of a change leader. To begin, it is ability to create understanding among the employees. As it was mentioned above, some people fear changes and they resist to change their ways of doing things. Second is to be able to communicate effectively. Hooper and Potter (2000 cited John Potter, 2001) point out that nowadays people communicate with each other only through phones or e-mails. They suggest that it is really important that people communicate face-to-face, meet each other in person and discus things, especially in times of changes. The third key area is releasing the potential in the people. According to Hooper and Potter (2000 cited John Potter, 2001) people do not use their brain 100%. If to help them to unlock their potential and engage their brains, it can give great results to the company. Next is setting a good example for the employees.  Leadership in time of changes can take all energy and can really stress people out. Therefore the fourth key area of leadership activity is to be aware of how stress can affect people and a leader.

Leading a company through changes can be very challenging for a business leader. Therefore leader should prepare his follower for the time of change, but he also has to be prepared. Michael Bisesi (1983) suggests three main ways to prepare for change. First way in his list is to learn more about employees and how they work in groups and in a company. Learning more how people work together in problem-solving or task-completion situations will help the leader to understand how they are going to react towards changes. Second is talking with employees about their careers. Michael Bisesi (1983) believes that it will help the leader to know if his employees are matched correctly with their responsibilities. This way of preparing for change can also be very important in time of change. The final point is hiring “broadly educated people”. Broadly educated employees are more flexible and more adaptive to changes.

If the French King had had qualities of the change leader, he would have tried to create some changes. First of all, he should have speak to them and explain that he was there to make their lives better, that all changes were for their own good and that he would try to build a society with shared values. He should have said that all of them has to work together in order to reach their goals. 

Conclusion

Leadership is very fide topic and it does not have one definition. The most common definition of leadership is that it is the process of influencing people to work together for achieving common goals.

Leadership is important part of any organization. However, some people get mixed up by thinking that management and leadership are the same. According to Nahavandi (2000 cited Burnes, 2004), leadership differs from management. Leaders concentrate on future, while managers live in present. Managers use the power of their authority, leaders influence people by their charisma. Leaders think of creating changes, being close to his followers emotionally and of creating environment where people have shared goals and values.

As it was mentioned before, every company needs a leader. Therefore, many organizations try to identify a good leader. To recognize a potential leader, companies should look at at such qualities in person as: questioning, curiosity, activity. The potential leader is always opened for new ideas and possibilities and he has desire to learn more.

It can be argued that it is quite difficult to identify certain characteristics of a good leader. There are two approaches which explain what makes a good leader. The followers of the first approach believe that there is only one best particular set of features that leader should have. The believers of the second approach argue this point of view and suggest that leadership styles differ according to the situation.

It can be argued that a good leader has to have the particular set of qualities, but at the same time he has to have features that are only shown in particular situation.

There are many studies that identify transformational and transactional leadership. Transactional leadership style is an exchange process between a leader and his followers. People get reward if they accomplish their task. Transformational leadership is a process of motivating people to do more that they are expected, to learn more, to be critical to themselves and never stop trying to achieve new goals.

After examining a large amount of literatures, it is clear that many researchers of this subject (Regina Eisenbach et al 1999), (Hugo Zagoršek et al 2009), (Tichy and Devanna 1990) connect transformational leadership with leadership of change.

Change is important and integral part of any organization. Companies should create changes in order to stay or become leading companies. Employees usually fear changes and look at them with suspicion. Changes in organizations can take all energy and can lead to stress and resistance to accept changes. Therefore the main tasks of a change leader is to prepare his people, to explain them that changes are necessary, that it is good for them and for the company. The change leader should influence the employees to work together as a team in order to go through tough time of changes and achieve shared goals.

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