{"id":207,"date":"2011-05-15T05:52:31","date_gmt":"2011-05-15T05:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bizexteam.com\/?p=207"},"modified":"2023-07-04T16:21:08","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T16:21:08","slug":"change-leadership-our-continuing-review-of-leadership-traits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bizexteam.com\/index.php\/2011\/05\/15\/change-leadership-our-continuing-review-of-leadership-traits\/","title":{"rendered":"Change Leadership – Our Continuing Review of Leadership Traits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tMore models leading to the FIVE \u201cCs\u201d of Leadership; An overview of the attributes of leadership <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

In my last posting, I described several more approaches to leadership and leadership paradigms, as described by writers and scholars such as Mark Sanborn and Malcolm Gladwell.\u00a0 This posting describes yet another and somewhat more complex model, focusing on change leadership.<\/p>\n

John Kotter\u2019s Leading Change<\/em> <\/span><\/h2>\n

John Kotter is a Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at the Harvard Business School.\u00a0 In his 1996 book, Leading Change, <\/em>he describes an eight-stage process for change leadership.<\/p>\n

The eight stages he discusses are:<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>Creating a sense of urgency<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/span>Kotter explains that a major barrier to implementing change is complacency.\u00a0 He gives examples of organizations, which even in the face of collapsing profits maintained a leisurely pace and focused on marginally relevant issues, while ignoring the many indexes of poor performance or downright failure. The sources of complacency, Kotter explains, are many and complex. Kotter believes that organizations caught in this syndrome, can rarely break the complacency cycle, unless individuals within the organization raise the level of urgency<\/em> relative to necessary change \u2013 even to the point of driving the situation to crisis in order to generate support for change.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Building a coalition<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Because major change is difficult to sustain, Kotter, believes that driving it through the energies of one dynamic leader, can be create a tenuous situation.\u00a0 To sustain change, Kotter recommends building a guiding coalition composed of the right balance of power, expertise, influence, credibility and Leadership. \u00a0He describes pitfalls to building this coalition and cautions that there are types of individuals who are not good fits \u2013 principally those with large egos, and those who create mistrust through their behaviors.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>Developing vision & strategy<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Vision is essential to change; yet an ill-crafted, poorly communicated vision is less likely to motivate support. Kotter explains that, to be most effective, the vision shared can\u2019t not come across as autocratic or highly authoritarian.\u00a0 Neither can it come across as mind-bogglingly detailed or micro-managing.\u00a0 The most effective change visions are clear, simple, and the advantages are communicated simply, and directly.\u00a0 Likewise they are easy for others to see.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>Communicating the change vision<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Kotter explains that the real power of a vision comes when most of those involved have a clear understanding of the goals and directions. Thus, an effective approach to communicating the goals and directions is essential. Kotter describes what he sees as the key elements of effective communication of vision:<\/p>\n