The Health Strategist
research and strategy institute for continuous transformation, of
in person health and digital health
Joaquim Cardoso MSc
Chief Research and Strategy Officer (CRSO)
May 7, 2023
ONE PAGE SUMMARY
The article emphasizes the need for leaders to adapt their leadership approach to effectively lead change in organizations.
Challenges of Leadership in Changing Times: The past two years have highlighted the unpredictable nature of leadership challenges.
- Leaders have had to navigate a range of issues, including the pandemic, remote work, social justice, supply chain disruptions, climate change, hybrid work arrangements, and geopolitical instability.
- Flexibility and empathy are important qualities, but the key requirement of leadership remains contextual effectiveness.
Contextual Effectiveness as a Leadership Imperative: Leadership effectiveness is determined by the leader’s ability to adjust their approach to suit the specific context and challenges they face.
- History provides examples of leaders who excelled in certain circumstances but struggled when faced with new challenges.
- Founders, in particular, may not be the best fit to lead once a business reaches a certain scale.
- Alphabet’s success is in part a testament to the self-awareness of Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who recognized the need to step away from the CEO role.
- Facebook’s current travails, in comparison, are partially caused by Mark Zuckerberg’s failure to acknowledge this necessity.
- Recognizing the need for a change in leadership style and skills is crucial for sustained success.
Three Imperatives for Leading Effective Change: To achieve contextual effectiveness, leaders should focus on three main tasks:
- Drawing the map: Effective leaders proactively recognize issues before they become emergencies. They continuously analyze the changing dynamics of their organization’s environment and create a clear, prioritized vision for the future direction of the business.
2.Establishing the mindset: Leaders must ensure that the executive team not only understands the map intellectually but also embraces it emotionally. The leader’s mindset should foster a shared conviction about the necessity of change and generate enthusiasm for the positive outcomes change can bring. Overcoming resistance and maintaining motivation is essential, as change is inherently challenging.
3.Communicating the message: Once the map and mindset are established, effective communication becomes vital. Leaders need to effectively convey the message of change to the broader employee population. A compelling message, aligned with the map and supported by the right mindset, can activate and engage employees in the change process.
In a rapidly changing world, leaders must be willing to adapt their leadership approach to effectively lead change.
- Contextual effectiveness requires leaders to draw the map, establish the mindset, and communicate the message.
- By embracing these imperatives, leaders can drive successful change and position their organizations for long-term success.
DEEP DIVE
Leading Change Means Changing How You Lead
Adapting your leadership approach is necessary for achieving the change your organization requires.
MIT Sloan Management Review
B. Tom Hunsaker and Jonathan Knowles
March 21, 2022
One of the toughest challenges facing leaders is that the job requirements can change dramatically and unpredictably, as the past two years have amply demonstrated.
Of necessity, leaders had to divide their attention between responding to the pandemic and managing a remote workforce and have been even further stretched by issues such as social justice, supply chain disruption, climate change, hybrid work arrangements, and geopolitical instability.
It would be easy to conclude — as many commentators have — that the key requirements of leadership are flexibility and empathy.
While these qualities are certainly beneficial, especially at this specific, stressful moment, the enduring requirement of leadership is to be contextually effective.
Effective leaders are those who adjust their leadership approach to suit the context and challenges they face.
History is replete with examples of individuals who displayed extraordinary leadership under certain circumstances but were unable or unwilling to subsequently change their leadership approach.
In business, it is frequently observed that a founder is rarely the leader best suited to run the business once it achieves a certain scale because it requires a different style of leadership and skills.
- Alphabet’s success is in part a testament to the self-awareness of Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who recognized the need to step away from the CEO role.
- Facebook’s current travails, in comparison, are partially caused by Mark Zuckerberg’s failure to acknowledge this necessity.
Three Imperatives for Leading Effective Change
In our work with leaders, we encourage them to think of contextual effectiveness as comprising three main tasks:
1.Drawing the map [recognize an issue before it becomes an emergency]
The late publisher Arnold Glasgow observed that great leaders recognize an issue before it becomes an emergency.
They consistently map the changing dynamics of the company’s environment and create a clear, prioritized vision for where the business should be headed.
2.Establishing the mindset [ ensure that the executive team has more than just a cognitive understanding of the map]
The second task of leadership is to ensure that the executive team has more than just a cognitive understanding of the map.
The leader’s mindset drives a shared conviction about the necessity of change and an enthusiasm for the improvements that successful change will bring about.
This enthusiasm is vital because achieving change is harder than maintaining the status quo.
3.Communicating the message:
If the map credibly identifies the needed change, and the mindset creates the appetite for change, the message is the key tool for activating that change among the broader population of employees.
About the Authors
B. Tom Hunsaker is on the strategy and leadership faculty at Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Jonathan Knowles is the founder of the advisory firm Type 2 Consulting.
Originally published at https://sloanreview.mit.edu on March 21, 2022.
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