Leaders As Change Agents

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Leaders As Change Agents
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Professor Adrian Furnham

• Business Psychology UnitDepartment of
  PsychologyUniversity College London

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Some definitions

• Psychologist
• man who goes to a strip show and looks at the
  audience
• Psychology
• study of the id by the odd
• Psychologists greeting each other
• youre fine how am I?
• Business guru
• word used by journalists because they cant spell
  charlatan
• Business consultant
• a simple organism designed to translate bullshit
  into air-miles

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Six major areas of investigationTopics and
associated issues in leadership research
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(No Transcript)
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A History of Psychological Thinking about
Leadership

• Trait Approach (Great Person, Traits).
• Behavioural Approach (Typological, Style).
• Situational Approach (External, Social,
  Contextual).
• Charismatic Approach (Transformational).
• New Ideas
• Tele leadership, Servant leadership,
  Non-leadership.
• Ethical/Value-Based/Spiritual Leadership

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New World
Old World

• Wired
• Office hours
• Corporate headquarters
• Local/global markets
• E-excitement
• Surplus of youth

• Wireless
• 24/7
• Centres - companies
• Web-based marketing
• E-fatigue
• Surplus of wrinklies

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Culture is the way we do things around here
Bower, 1966, cited in Deal Kennedy (1982)
Culture is a system of informal rules that spells
out how people are to behave most of the time
Deal and Kennedy, 1982
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Comparisons of corporate culture taxonomies
Authors
Dimensions
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Type of change
Chango-philes
Chango-phobes
People Things

• Love psychological, human resource programmes
  aimed at changing attitudes, beliefs, behaviour
  values
• Love changing systems, be they organisational
  charts, structure, process or gadgets

• Hate attempting to change others (and probably
  themselves)
• Against rocking the boat in any way whatsoever

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Individuals dont change by themselves they are
changed by others. They tend to be more
accepting of change when

• it is understood
• it does not threaten security
• those affected have helped create it
• it follows other successful changes
• it genuinely reduces a work burden
• the outcome is reasonably certain
• the implementation has been mutually planned
• top management support is strongly evident

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Organisational factors for and against change - 1
Factors for change

• repealed or revised laws or regulations (often
  government based) that lead to new opportunities,
  markets, or ways of operating
• rapidly changing environment (geographic, market,
  political situation that makes old methods,
  processes, or products redundant
• improved technology or technology that can do
  things faster, cheaper, more reliable new product
  development or selection by consumers
• changing workforce (for example, more educated,
  more women) with different demands and skills

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Organisational factors for and against change - 2

• changing workforce (for example, more educated,
  more women) with different demands and skills
• more technically trained management who
  appreciate the possibilities of, and for, the new
  technology
• organisational crisis (for example, impending
  bankruptcy, purchase) that requires change of
  necessity
• reduced productivity, product quality that leads
  to a change
• reduced satisfaction, commitment by staff which
  forces ultimately a crisis of morale and reduced
  productivity
• increased turnover, absenteeism and other signs
  of organisational stress

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Organisational change when will it occur?

• Amount of dissatisfaction with current conditions
• X
• Availability of a desirable alternative
• X
• Exercise of a plan for achieving a desirable
  alternative

Change is made
If benefits exceed costs
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Transition Process
Achievement
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Hard Tangible Situations to Change

• Tend to be smaller scale
• Originate internally
• Are less serious in their implications
• Can be considered in relative isolation from
  their organizational context
• Have clear priorities as to what might need to be
  done
• Generally have quantifiable objectives and
  performance indicators
• Have a systems/technical orientation

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Hard Tangible Situations to Change

• Generally, involve relatively few people
• Have facts which are known and which can
  contribute to the solution
• Have agreement by the people involved on what
  constitutes the problem
• Tend to have solutions of which the type at least
  is known
• Have known timescales
• Are bounded in that they can be considered
  separately from the wider organizational context
  and have minimal interactions with the
  environment.

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Soft Situations or Messes

• Tend to be larger scale
• Originate externally
• Have serious and worrying implications for all
  concerned
• Are an interrelated complex of problems which
  cannot be separated from their context
• Have many people of different persuasions and
  attitudes involved in the problem
• Have subjective and at best semi-quantifiable
  objectives
• Senior, 2002

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Soft Situations or Messes

• Not everything is known and it is not clear what
  need to be known
• Have little agreement on what constitutes the
  problem let alone what might me possible
  solutions
• Have usually been around for some time and will
  not be solved quickly, if at all, bringing about
  an improvement may be all that can be hoped for
• Fuzzy timescales
• Are bounded in that they spread throughout
  organizational and, sometimes, beyond.
• Senior, 2002

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ChangeStrategies
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Fellowship strategy

• Seminars, dinners, discussions warm fuzzy
• Everyone can and should have a say
• Conflict averse
• Time wasting
• People get frustrated and leave

BUT. . .
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Political strategy

• Identify targets influence official leaders
• Flatter, bargain compromise with those with
  large constituencies
• This strategy can destabilize the organisation
• The strategy is devious and often precisely the
  opposite of the values espoused for the new
  culture

BUT. . .
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Economic strategy

• Home Economicus buy people out, use money to
  induce
• Can be costly with only short term effects
• Strategy ignores emotional issues
• Strategy at odds with new, desirable cultural
  values

BUT. . .
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Academic strategy

• People are rational present the evidence and
  they will change
• Commission studies from consultancy experts and
  employees
• Analysis paralysis and difficult to get mobilized
• Many people feel left out of the process
• Reports rarely specify who should do what, when
  and how

BUT. . .
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Engineering strategy

• Change how people do their jobs place, time,
  technology
• Reengineering the whole process
• Many people feel uncommitted and do not
  understand how and why new methods work
• It breaks up happy and efficient teams

BUT. . .
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Military/confrontational strategy

• Use of brute force and mobilization of anger
• Forces people to confront things they would
  rather not
• Anger and conflict polarize people and may cause
  a backlash
• Change enforcers cannot relax
• Often too much attention is on the problem not
  the solution

BUT. . .
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What we know

• Great leaders tend to be (in order)
• Apart from personality they need to be
  intelligent (openness as proxy measure) and have
  integrity (conscientiousness as proxy measure)
• For individual differences we need optimal rather
  than maximal amounts

Open
Conscientious
Extraverted
Stable
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REG Theory
Reading the signals
Read markets, demographic trends Read staff at
all levels
Engaging people
Build and sustain a healthy team climate Give
people a vision Build self-confidence and morale
Getting things done
Sustain sense of energy/purpose Set clear goals
and expectations Challenge and support
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REG Theory
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Challenge
Low
High
Low
Support
High
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Growing leadership capability
Signs of success early identification of talent

• Seeks out the opportunity to learn
• proactive, enjoys skill/knowledge acquisition
• Acts with integrity
• honest, takes responsibility for actions
• Adapts to cultural differences
• enjoys sensitive to cultural variation
• Genuinely committed to making a difference
• willing to make personal sacrifices, wants impact
  on the business as a whole

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Growing leadership capability
Signs of success early identification of talent

• Seeks broad business knowledge
• interested in the whole business goes beyond
  area of professional expertise
• Brings out the best in people (particularly
  reports)
• talent to create effective team, working
  environment, understands individual differences,
  develops others
• Is insightful even intuitive
• sees things from new angles, quick to see trends,
  good at taking the perspective of the other

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Growing leadership capability
Signs of success early identification of talent

• Courageous and willing to take risks
• not afraid to go against the grain, will
  persevere in the face of opposition, can confront
  poor performers
• Seeks and uses feedback
• actively pursues, responds to and uses feedback
  to learn
• Learns from mistakes
• changes direction when necessary, starts again
  after setbacks, not defensive to negative
  feedback
• Is open to criticism
• handles criticism well. Understands difference
  between criticism of self versus ideas

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Growing Leadership Capability
The transformational charismatic leader

• They challenge the process
• pioneers, innovators, experimenters
• They inspire a shared vision
• expressive, committed, visionaries
• They enable others to act
• collaborative, nurturing, enabling
• They model the way
• encourage the heart, celebrate success

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Growing Leadership Capability
The transformational charismatic leader

• They include others in their success
• share the limelight, bring others along
• They help others overcome setbacks
• cope with failure, optimistic
• They believe in learning
• stimulate self and others to gain new competencies

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Typical, personality disorder problems

• Arrogance Theyre right and everybody is wrong.
• Melodrama They want to be the centre of
  attention.
• Volatility Their mood swings create business
  swings.
• Excessive caution They cant make important
  decisions.
• Habitual distrust They focus on the negatives
  all the time.
• Aloofness They disengage and disconnect with
  staff.
• Eccentricity They think its fun to be different
  just for the sake of it.
• Passive resistance Their silence is
  misinterpreted as agreement.
• Perfectionism They seem to get the little things
  right even if the big things go wrong.
• Eagerness to please The stress being popular
  matters most.

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Graduates of Corporate Business Units as
Schools
Division/Function
Division A(market driven)
Division B(operations-driven)
Division C(growth-oriented)

• Competition
• Getting results
• Working hard
• Flexibility, changing quickly

• Resourcefulness
• Entrepreneurialism
• Risk taking
• Getting things done

• Execution
• Using systems superbly
• Efficiency
• Teamwork

What they are likely to be good at

• Responding to customers
• Change
• Seeing the big picture

• Taking a longer-term perspective
• Balancing life and work
• Sensitivity to people

• Consistency
• Disciplined action
• Using corporate systems
• Teamwork

What they are not likely to be good at
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Graduates of Corporate Business Units as
Schools
(human resources)Function 2
(finance)Function 1
What they are likely to be good at

• Analysis
• Strategic thinking
• Detail

• Resourcefulness
• Technical issues
• Persuasion
• Teamwork

What they are not likely to be good at

• Getting results
• Turning ideas into action
• Influencing line managers

• Leading others
• Risk taking

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Derailment Patterns of High Potentials

• Impressive results
• Action-oriented
• Strong track record

Demonstrated Strength

• Intelligent
• Technically superb

Both
Move rapidly within narrow channels
Focus on immediate objectives
Forgive flaws if results produced
Organisational Complicity
Bogged down in thought. Mired in
process at expense of action
Unable to develop effective relationships
Ineffective response to change or feedback
Success led to arrogance
Overwhelmed by complexity Lack of
strategic perspective
Derailing Flaw
Performance Decline Unforgiving Culture
DERAILMENT
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Competencies and Their Dark Sides
Competency
Potential Dark Side
Team Player
Not a risk taker, indecisive, lacks independent
judgment
Customer-Focused
Cant create breakthroughs, cant control costs,
unrealistic, too conservative
Biased toward Action
Reckless, dictorial
Analytic Thinker
Analysis paralysis, afraid to act, inclined to
createlarge staffs
Has Integrity
Holier than thou attitude, rigid, imposes
personal standards on others, zealot
Innovative
Unrealistic, impractical, wastes time and money

Has Global Vision
Misses local markets, over-extended, unfocused
Good with People
Soft, cant make tough decisions, too easy on
people
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Managerial courage
Courage to fail
1
Interpersonal courage
2
Moral/ethical courage
3

General courage
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