Leadership & Change

The world is changing, people are moving abroad, organisation are performing world wide, technology is improving day by day, mixture of cultures and values. All these factors affect the management and leadership in any organisation, and all we need is follow the trend other wise we will miss the flight.

There are three main types of change business models:

According t0 Lewin’s change management model: there are three main points that must be go in order to make the change, the first point is Unfreeze: most people make an effort in order to change people, to unfreeze this people there must be motivation or inspiration to be taken in place, this second point after unfreezing is the transition,  once the change has taken place, the organisation will be moving into transition period, and it might last for a period of time so suitable leadership have to be there in order to make this transition done , the last point after transition is refreeze, while the change has been implemented so the people inside the organisation should follow the new guideline and be ready for any change (Simms, 2005)

The McKinsey 7s framework model about change provide the organisation understanding and clear statement about the change, guideline for the organisation change, combination of rational and emotional competent, but it has disadvantages as well, because of all parts are together while something changes everything else has to change, and all the differences are ignored.

(Kotter International, 2016)

This model is step-by-step helps the organisation for better clarification and it focusing on implementing and accepting the change, and the transition is easier in this model.

Back in 1981 in UK, British airways announced that new chairman is taking over, he saw things that pervious chairman didn’t see, the organisation is working inefficiently, wasting time, effort, and resources, he decided that the whole organisation has to be restructured, to increase revenue and decrease expenses, he had a vision to change, and he done that by decreasing the workforce in the organisation, what he has done was brilliant, before his announcement he explained the reasons why things needs to layoff to prepare for any upcoming change, and without him we wouldn’t hear of British Airways as a popular organisation nowadays (Troyani, 2014)

Change is important, and if you don’t follow the trend you will fall, that’s what happened to many big organisations and one of them the popular is Nokia, they were moving to slowly and the competitors were taking over, of course all the blame goes to the management because they didn’t follow what’s going on. Their management strategy was to stay stable as long as we are making profit, then what happened is they got it out from the market by the ones who always adapt the changes.

According to all theories that i have stated, there are different approaches for the leaders to use in order to be in the picture of the change. Change is important nowadays in order to be in business, and it only can be done through wise management and good leadership, my recommendation to any organisation is to create great climate of change to the employees by motivation and inspiring them and break all the barriers between the top management and the subordinate in order to make them ready for the change, this is the first process which is the preparation, the second stage is making the guidelines by creating a vision and plan for the change, while the employees are motivated and ready for the change they will adapt the change easily, but it wouldn’t be that easy if they weren’t motivated at the first place. So since they are ready for the change and they have vision the last part is the implementation and stick to it, this stage where the change will take place into the organisation and everyone is ready for it, after the change is implemented everyone must stick to it.

Changing is not an easy task, it acquires patience and effort. everything should be studied and planned in order to complete the task, and it’s also important to follow the trend otherwise everything will fall down.

References:

 

Simms, H. (2005). Organisational Behaviour and Change Management. [online] Select Knowledg. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=CkXp1poaxqIC&pg=PA124&dq=Lewin%E2%80%99s+Change+Management+Model&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKuPTSvt7LAhWE1BoKHf5jC6UQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=Lewin%E2%80%99s%20Change%20Management%20Model&f=false [Accessed 26 Mar. 2016].

Kotter International. (2016). The 8-Step Process for Leading Change – Kotter International. [online] Available at: http://www.kotterinternational.com/the-8-step-process-for-leading-change/ [Accessed 26 Mar. 2016].

Troyani, L. (2014). 3 Examples of Organizational Change and Why They Got It Right. [online] Tinypulse.com. Available at: https://www.tinypulse.com/blog/3-examples-of-organizational-change-and-why-they-got-it-right [Accessed 26 Mar. 2016].

 

Most effective Leadership & Management Styles & approaches

Let’s start this blog by comparing managers and leaders, what are the differences and similarity between them although they must go in one hand, the most popular differences is the leaders focus on people, while the manager focus on structure, in general the leader of an organisation is the one who shows directions, motivate and inspire people, long-term thinker, welcomes the new ideas and approach, and friend of everyone, that is exactly what the great leader is, he/she considers their employees like family members, while the manager focuses more on how to get the work done by his people, he/she the one who give orders and directions, improving, planning, controlling, budgeting, and follow the rules, in my opinion, not all the managers are leaders but all the leaders are great managers. In other words leaders are the who people follow them, while the managers take people to work for them to get the job done at the end of the day.

Leadership theories have changed over the time,  Chester Barnard defines the leading by The ability of a superior to influence the behaviour of subordinates and persuade them to follow a particular course of action. There are mainly 2 types of behavioural theories that are exhibited by the leaders: concern for people and concern for product  (Kouzes, Posner and Bass, 2007) it means the first priority is the concerning about people the the product will come after. that is basically what the leading is. According to Henry Fayol he stated that management is different, it’s all about how the structure is going, it’s all about organising, planning, controlling and coordinating,(Krenn, 2011) it’s unlike the leadership approach which focuses more people within the organisation.

I believe the most effective approach to communicate with the subordinate in the organisation and to get the work done is to use both your leadership and management skills, and a bit more of leading, because if you get the people to follow you by motivating and inspiring them, they will do anything you will ask them for, however it’s important to not forget the management skills about all the theories that i have stated before, because at the end of the day you need to get the work done, so i believe by not be a ‘boss’ to your employee and be friendly and open-minded, the efficiency of the workers will obviously increase.

 

<y opinion about the statement that made by (CMI 2013) has two pictures, i agree and disagree at the same time, it’s true that you the leader should change his leadership approach by the people to be led, but at the same time most of things shouldn’t change, like trust, if you don’t trust your people then you are not going to succeed in the long-run, if your not willing to listen, then there is an issue and it will affect you by the time.

 

We have real life example of a bad and good leaders, let’s take Richard Branson for example, the founder of virgin group, he’s the man who became from zero to hero. By using his mind and his heart at the same time, his first priority is the people around him and the work will get done after, i like one of his best quotes :“you don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.”

He’s an inspiration for people who don’t work for him, so what do you think of the people who work for him. In the other hand we have so many examples of bosses who were terrible and drove the business to the zero, the ones who are closed-minded, poor communicator, and the “know it all”, these type of people who drive the organisation to the bottom (Hein, 2016)

Another Leader that i consider one of the best if he’s not the best is Bill Gates, He’s considered by many as “Leadership legend” because he was and still a simple man. Pursing what he loves, always looking forward, giving back what he gets to the community, so as we can see he is passionate about what he is doing and he get people to follow him, that’s why he is the most successful business man at the moment. (Rampton, 2015)

In conclusion i’ll give my opinion on how i like to be led or managed, there are many ways to motivate me and get to love what i do, the good leaders will inspire me and motivate me by open their hearts and minds to me, while the bad leaders will close all the doors and will force me to hate what i do. Small things that will make the difference in any situation.

 

References:

Hein, R. (2016). 11 Profiles in Bad Leadership Behavior. [online] CIO. Available at: http://www.cio.com/article/2386316/careers-staffing/11-profiles-in-bad-leadership-behavior.html [Accessed 24 Mar. 2016].

Kouzes, J., Posner, B. and Bass, J. (2007). The Leadership Challenge,. [online] Available at: https://www.etsu.edu/ahsc/documents/Leadership_Theories.pdf [Accessed 24 Mar. 2016].

Krenn, J. (2011). Management Theory of Henri Fayol. [online] Business.com. Available at: http://www.business.com/management/management-theory-of-henri-fayol/ [Accessed 24 Mar. 2016].

Rampton, J. (2015). How Bill Gates Became a Leadership Legend. [online] Entrepreneur. Available at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/250607 [Accessed 24 Mar. 2016].

 

The challenge of managing diverse teams

It’s important to manage a team which have different type of people, based on their background. because the world is moving a lot, it’s no longer in one place. let’s take the massive multinational companies, like HP, Apple, Samsung etc.. they all perform in every part of the world, but the products they produce differ from country to another, let’s take Toyota the famous Japanese company, they perform in Asia, Middle east, Europe, Africa and America, but in each region the product and services they produce are different, if you have a diversity team they know which product or services are better to produce in that region.

As the world is changing, and becoming more globalised, and all the big multinational organisations are performing in different areas, each organisation needs to have various people coming from different cultures. According to (Sammartino, O’flynn and Nicholas, 2002) they stated that diversity management will enable effective teamwork as they will great pool of ideas and this will great great picture for the management and the leaders to have the best decision out of the situation.  Mullins stated that managing different people at work is key skill of success, if people who came from different backgrounds is an advantage for the organisation because in the long term they will be creative and their imagination will be bigger from the people who are the same. The differences among individuals are divided into three main dimensions according to (Mazur, 2010)

Some people share the same features and this might create short-sightedness. But individuals who are unique will benefit the organisations more (Mullins, 2013). I have very good life experience example about diversity, i was involved with the marketing team to promote for meat around the world, i had a teammate which he was from India and we were discussing about promoting meat in India, but he told me India is not a good place for promoting the meat according to their religious. That’s why diversity is important because when we are in a team which is mixed of people we will have a better image among the globe. Let’s take another task which is gender-diversity, the support of increasing the female percentage in an organisations has increased in the recent years. Some studies showed that increasing the gender diversity will increase the outcome of the company, for many reasons, basically they understand the costumers by being respective to them, and you might miss out top talented females, and you don’t want to risk the reputation of the organisation, so as long as we live in this modern culture there is no such thing called women must stay at home, because the world is changing and we have to follow the trends. (Gibson, 2013)

Diversity of religion is a big task, it’s important because people believes are different, some of them think think that group are more important than the organisation, because the group can’t be wrong but the individual will, another party think the individual is responsible for his life and actions apart from the group (Mazur, 2010). It’s good to know how people think and what are their values because it will create big picture for the team if they are having a hard task to do, therefore, a great image will be created within the organisation.

 

Managing a diverse team is not an easy task, it takes a lot of time and energy for the managers, because people with different believes and values will not be easy to manage, some people are open-minded according to their culture and values, while others are not which could be good and bad for both parties in certain situations. If the managers were open-minded to their employees and Listened to all the reviews and the feedbacks from their different background employees this will create a better result for the decision at the end of the day.

I would like to conclude with the statement that Barra and Hansen  stated, bring diverse people together is not an easy task at all, in order to make that happen there must be a great leader who is willing to listen, discuss and give feedbacks behind the office. and if the leader has all these features, the leader will drive the organisation into another level.

 

Refrencess:

Gibson, M. (2013). Gender diversity: three reasons to get more women into senior roles. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2013/dec/05/gender-diversity-industry-civil-service [Accessed 19 Mar. 2016].

Mazur, B. (2010). Culture diversity in Organisational Theory and Practice. [online] Available at: http://www.joim.pl/pdf/MAZURv2n2.pdf [Accessed 19 Mar. 2016].

Mullins, L. (2013). Management & Organisational Behaviour. 10th ed.

Sammartino, A., O’flynn, J. and Nicholas, S. (2002). Managing Diverse working teams : Business model for managing diversity. [online] Available at: http://fbe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/747507/Managing_diverse_teams_business_model.pdf [Accessed 17 Mar. 2016].