The Hindu Business Line : Leading organisational change

THE winds of change are blowing hard. The impact of this on corporations and industries are varied. A few have taken this as opportunity; others are still resisting and quite a few have sadly perished. Change per se has no characteristics of good or bad. The processes involved in change and the resulting effects can only determine whether the change is for good or bad. This is true in all cases be it in society, education, the economy, the family or self.

CEO and his dictum: While most of us appreciate the need and importance of change, we poorly manage and overcome the resistance, of which there is plenty. Today, many organisations are taking initiatives to bring change. To initiate and implement the appropriate change process, they bring in a new leader from outside the organisation or promote someone from within. They create fear and make people work and improve the bottomline.

Therefore, before bringing any change, it is imperative to have the right kind of CEO (change agent), lest he himself becomes an obstacle for any change.

Interest and intensity: The fundamental principle of change is "no one can change the value of others unless he or she is willing to change." As this sounds almost like a truism, it is most often ignored or given less importance. For every change, "interest and intensity" are essential.

Broom or the sweeper?: Today, most companies have realised that among the four Ms (men, material, machine and money), men make or break a company. However, some of them need a better understanding of manpower. It is an accepted belief that the appointment of new management or a new CEO always causes change since the "new broom sweeps clean". However, it is not the broom that makes the difference; it is the sweeper.

Unless the leader of the company can create an interest and desire for the change in the minds of the employees, all his attempts will be futile.

Creating interest in the minds of employees for change is difficult. While a few companies do manage to generate the interest, they fail to sustain it.

What makes change possible? People. What makes change not possible? People. It is difficult to find a CEO who would not understand the above. Then, what is the problem? Why does a leader sometimes fail to bring about change? The reasons could be many.

What is leadership?: Obviously, there is a difference between a leader and leadership. In simple terms, a leader is the person and leadership is the quality of the leader. It is presupposed that when one becomes a leader, he automatically imbibes the qualities of the leader. This is not true. No one has created a clear understanding of what distinguishes effective leaders from ineffective ones.

Leading by example: A CEO of a corporation wanted to bring change in the performance appraisal system and suggested a 360-degree feedback. While he insisted that all his employees undergo this process, he excluded himself from this appraisal system. Some senior managers brought this to the notice of the chief of the personnel department and they insisted that the CEO should also be apart of the intervention. But the chief of personnel was not willing to take it up with the CEO. Analysing this real-life case, the following inferences can be made.

The leader thinks the change is only for others and not for him;

The CEO has self-doubt;

He cannot build trust with his employees;

Employees will not have the commitment, and try to follow the CEO, thus diluting the process;

The HR chief is not willing to communicate with the CEO as he is either afraid or he also shares the same view as the CEO;

The leader who has no faith in his initiative, expects others to follow.

The 360-degree feedback plan was shelved after some time. The conventional leadership principles will hold no water today as followers have changed. The paradigm has changed from leadership by command to leadership by example. This in the nature of true leadership. Rather than being a remote, analytical, machine who issues commands, the CEO needs to be seen living and working by them.

Vision and value: A vision is needed to give a company the right goals and to align the whole company behind achieving them. It is especially important now because empowered workers are likely to get distracted unless everyone is aligned with one vision.

Culture: Organisational values constitute the culture of the organisation. It is a set of beliefs that people share about what sort of behaviour is `appropriate' and `inappropriate'. As long as there is no congruence in organisational beliefs and employees' values, there will always be a rift between the two of them. Some employees are aware of the above reasons for their rift and others may not be aware as this is embedded in their "sub-conscious. Hence, their indifference to any management change initiative. To change an organisation, a leader must change the people, their beliefs and attitudes and their ways of working. This can be very difficult, especially in strong cultures and often in successful companies. It is therefore important to understand the readiness of the organisation and management to change.

Communication: If a leader cannot communicate to his employees about his vision, values, the need to change and how the charge could help the employees in their work and their earnings, he can safely forget about bringing any change. There must be a genuine drive where everybody participates and involves themselves. While creating a communication strategy, the leader has to keep in mind the following three things: Specifics, frequency and measuring.

It is essential that every employee knows exactly what is expected of him or her. Most of the talking will have to be done by line function and shop floor supervisors. Unless all of them speak a common language, there is a danger that the actual expectations will not be understood and met. To ensure the above, a "measurement mechanism" has to be developed lest the disparity between the managers and the managed will lead to conflicts only.

Power point: One of the most abusive words is `empowerment'. For a common man, power is associated with superiority, ego, arrogance and other negative connotations. In a real sense, power is equivalent to prosperity. One who has power is one who knows how to surrender; surrender to his ego and arrogance.

In a typical power relationship, carrying out a task will be accompanied by a series of "rebukes and rewards''. If the rebukes outweigh the rewards, then the relationship will be oppressive. In some cases, power relationships will also be happy as long as the deal is fair to both the parties. The supporters of this power relationship have to understand that even though the rewards are more, the chances of highest performance will not take place, as the other variables will also influence the performance.

On the other hand, the punitive element is more in power relationships, the employees become more oppressed and they may indulge in subversive activities and create more damage. Moreover, in power relationships, one has to constantly watch and monitor others, which would add costs by way of more manpower and time.

Times are changing and so are people. If a leader wants to empower others, he needs to bud others. Empowerment is nothing but "enabling others to act".

He develops relationships based on mutual trust and gets people to work together, towards collaborative goals. In a way, a leader empowers the others to become leaders and he becomes a leader of leaders.

Finally, a leader must inspire constituents and the opponents (who make resistors) and take their morale high. He must link his dreams and visions to those of others. Leaders are born or made; the question is whether they live or exist?

(The author, founder of Bodhi, a people development organisation in Chennai, is an organisational and people development consultant.)

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