Conclusion
We began this chapter by addressing the question of whether leadership actually matters and concluded that it does matter, particularly in times of significant organizational change. We then considered some important characteristics of leadership, such as leadership being a reciprocal relationship between leader and follower; leadership being personal; and leadership being an interaction of leader, follower, and context. Then the bulk of the chapter was devoted to leading organizational change. The point made at the outset of this section was that organizational change is planned linearly but actually occurs in a nonlinear fashion. Even so, it is useful to plan and implement large-scale change according to four broad phases—prelaunch, launch, postlaunch, and sustaining the change. Table 18-1 is a summary of these four phases.
| Organizational Change Phase | Leader Actions for Sub-Phases of Organizational Change |
|---|---|
| Prelaunch | Self-examination |
| |
| |
| |
| External environment | |
| Establishing the need for change | |
| Providing clarity of vision and direction | |
| Launch | Communicating the need |
| Initial activities | |
| Dealing with resistance | |
| Postlaunch | Multiple levers |
| Further implementation | Taking the heat |
| Consistency | |
| Perseverance | |
| Repeating the message | |
| Sustaining the change | Countering equilibrium |
| Dealing with resistance | |
| Choosing successors | |
| Launching yet again new initiatives |
Leadership today and for the foreseeable future requires that leaders have the abilities and the motivation to deal with four primary values:
Ambiguity—the complexity of external environments, organizations as open systems, and the growing diversity of organizational members means that leaders rarely face a situation that is clear-cut and obvious. Tolerance for ambiguity is a must.
Unanticipated consequences—As noted in this chapter, things, especially organizational change, never go as planned. Human beings are simply not that predictable. Thus, leaders must have a plan, a set of values to which they adhere, yet at the same time be adaptable and modify their behavior as changing situations demand. As long as leaders follow the vision and stick with their values yet adjust their behavior, they can still come across to others as consistent.
Avoiding impulsive behavior—Spontaneity can be fun and admired by others, but for leaders impulsive acts, particularly with decision making, can confuse followers. Moreover, impulsive people in leadership usually spend most of their time controlling the damage they have caused with this form of behavior.
Dealing with tension and paradoxes—As an academic department chair for many years I have learned firsthand about the concept of servant leadership and about the necessity of dealing with extraordinary demands and values.Here are some examples of what followers simultaneously demand:
To buffer them from the bureaucracy and the vagaries of higher administration yet keep them fully informed as to what is going on
To provide them with feedback regarding their performance yet leave them alone to conduct their work as they see fit
To avoid telling them what to do yet provide direction for the department and for the future
To be open and always tell them the truth yet remain optimistic and upbeat regardless of circumstances
So what is a poor leader to do? One or the other of these contradictions? Leaders, of course, are expected to do both. Dealing with paradox, with tensions, and with contradictions is the core of leadership today—and will be for quite some time to come. The previous examples come from my personal experience, but these conclusions are not idiosyncratic. As Zaccaro has summarized, there is a theory of executive leadership—behavioral complexity theory—that covers these ideas. The theory concerns the multiple roles that leaders are expected to perform and explains that a number of these roles have conflicting values and contradictory demands.
Finally, an irony: Being an effective leader is more complex and difficult than ever before, yet we need effective leadership more than ever before.