Assignment 7 CET765
Sandy Nightingale
An Examination of the Role of a Leader in Orchestrating Change
People can make or break an organization’s
success. When leaders inspire others,
coach, build trust, and drive individual and team performance, organizations
thrive. When workers readily
collaborate, take initiative, make effective decisions, and embrace change,
organizations prosper. Peter Senge
wrote in his opening remarks in The Dance of Change, “If you are an
organizational leader, someone at any level concerned deeply about these
challenges, then you face a daunting task.
In effect, you are engaged in a great venture of exploration, risk,
discovery, and change, without any comprehensive maps for guidance”.
However, as Senge points out, leadership
isn’t about having all the answers. The
mountain men of the
Effective leaders know how to listen. If you are going to inspire, mentor, stretch
and retain today’s workers, you have to hear what they are saying. Effective listening is a fundamental part of
the work of a leader. Listening requires
that you stop and accurately absorb new data, mentally sort and categorize it
into useful information, and possibly act on it. It is important to hear the content,
understand the context, and evaluate the implications. A good leader listens with focus and respect,
and without bias. By actively listening
from a leader’s perspective throughout conversations with your fellow workers,
you will gain valuable information.
Developing trusting relationships, where feedback is genuine,
information is clear and accurate, and the message is consistently reliable, is
the kind of cutting edge advantage that will lead to the loyalty, commitment,
and retention of good employees. Leaders
who genuinely and consistently listen to what their employees are saying best
represent the qualities of leadership needed to successfully direct an
organization.
Participants in a forum sponsored by the
·
Partnership
and voice. Effective reform leaders hear
the voices of many stakeholders—families, businesses, and other groups and
institutions. They look for widespread
participation in important aspects of change.
Establishing partnerships and listening are skills that permeate many
aspects of reform.
·
Vision
and values. Effective reform leaders are
dependable and committed “keepers of the dream”. They know that the dream is continuously
evolving and that it belongs to everyone.
·
Knowledge
and daring. Effective reform leaders
develop relevant information bases and cultivate human resources to minimize
failure while encouraging risk taking.
They study, train staff, bring in experts and mentors, and consult their
own insight and experience to increase their capacity to make good decisions.
·
Savvy and
persistence. Effective reform leaders
know how the system works. They can put
up with resistance inside or outside the building, but they eventually find
ways to win cooperation. They are good
managers and maintain a network of supporters to lean on in times of particular
stress.
·
Personal
qualities. Effective reform leaders put
to good use an array of personal qualities, such as good communication and
listening skills and a well-developed sense of humor.
But leadership is not restricted to people
occupying particular positions. It is
the responsibility of leaders to create more leaders. Any person who can deliver the leadership
function is a leader. Such persons can
include principals, superintendents, and school board members. Teachers, parents, community members, and
students can act as leaders. A good
leader does not singly create a vision and impose it; he or she builds a vision
together with the participants of the school organization. In this way it becomes the common ground, the
shared vision that compels all involved.
When first implementing TQM, leadership
must be used to articulate a vision of the future for the organization and how
TQM fits into it. Leadership is a key
element in successful implementation of large-scale change. The leader shows the need and sets the
vision, and defines the basic purpose, goals, and parameters. The leader must be able to motivate others to
stick to the process during early stages when resistance and obstacles may seem
insurmountable. Staff may be involved in
the design of specific system elements.
The leader should study TQM, talk to others who have used it, and
possibly attend a training session. The
leader must acknowledge the existing organizational culture to ensure good
fit. TQM needs to be aligned with other
organizational processes. In order to
implement TQM, the leader must begin to develop a new culture. TQM should be implemented gradually to ensure
meaningful culture change, and frequent feedback should be used to ensure that
change isn’t just superficial. One of
the most important “do’s” for an effective leader is to involve employees in
the decision making process, at whatever stages and levels possible.
Adopting
the TQM philosophy will make an organization more competitive, establish
a new culture which will enable growth and longevity, provide
a working environment in which everyone can succeed, reduce stress, waste and
friction, and build teams, partnerships
and cooperation, all visions that a good leader hopes to accomplish. TQM is about building quality in from
the beginning and making quality everyone's concern and responsibility.
Consumers are willing to pay a premium for higher-quality goods and
services. Organizations that employ TQM work on the premise that any product or
service can be improved upon and this improvement equals reduced cost, better
performance and higher reliability. The
eight principles of Quality Management provide a great framework for effective
leaders to follow:
·
Customer-Focused
Organization – The goal should be to understand current and future customer
needs, meet customer requirements and strive to exceed their expectations.
·
Leadership – Effective
leaders establish unity of purpose, direction, and create the environment in
which employees can become involved in achieving the organization’s objectives.
·
Involvement of People –
It is the responsibility of leaders to create more leaders. Involving people at all levels enables their
abilities to be used for the organization’s benefit.
·
Process Approach – An
effective leader should manage resources and activities as a process.
·
System Approach to
Management – Using a system approach contributes to the effectiveness and
efficiency of the organization.
·
Continual Improvement –
The organization works on the premise that any product or service can be
improved upon and this improvement equals reduced cost, better performance and
higher reliability. Continual
improvement is a permanent objective.
·
Factual Approach to
Decision Making – Effective leaders make decisions based on the logical and
intuitive analysis of data and information.
·
Mutually Beneficial
Supplier Relationships – Effective leaders maintain mutually beneficial
relationships between the organization and its suppliers.
Deming’s 14 Points also provide valuable
guidelines for effective leaders to follow.
Creating constancy of purpose towards improvement will aid in long-term
planning. Effective leaders should
actually adopt the philosophy, rather that merely expect the workforce to do
so. They will gain their employees
respect by doing this. Adequate training
should be provided for employees. This
will reduce variation and increase productivity. Barriers should be broken down between
departments so that effective teamwork can take place. The job of quality is everyone’s job. Employees
should feel a sense of pride in their workmanship.
In summary, effective leaders
inspire others, coach, build trust, and drive individual and team
performance. Effective leaders know how
to listen and establish valuable partnerships.
They have a vision and know how to effectively share that vision with
others. They study, train staff, bring
in experts and mentors, and consult their own insight and experience to
increase their capacity to make good decisions. They are good managers and
maintain a network of supporters to lean on in times of particular stress. Effective leaders are persistent. But most importantly, a good leader does not
singly create a vision and impose
it; he or she builds a vision together with the participants of the organization. In this way it becomes the common ground, the
shared vision that compels all involved.
References:
Senge, P., (1999). The
Dance of Change.
Jenkins, Lee, (2003).
Improving Student Learning: Applying Deming’s Quality Principles In
Classrooms (Second Edition).
On-line References:
The Role of
Leadership in Sustaining School Reform. Online: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/Leadership/
(
TQM And
Organizational Change And Development. Online: http://www.improve.org/tqm.html (
Lessons inauthentic
Leadership. Online: http://www.refresher.com/!authenticleadership.html
(
Facilitative
Leadership: The Imperative for Change. Online:
http://sedl.org/change/facilitate/leaders.html
(