Change Lessons from the CEO

Real People, Real Change

Patrick C. Flood, Johan Coetsee

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781119943143
• eBook ISBN: 9781118741771
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Organisational Behaviour
• Index: Business

"5 stars: Exceptional, a must read for any manager or leader"
—Sarah Stocks, Chartered Management Institute (CMI)

"This book is a highly effective, meaningful and user-friendly guide for anyone trying to manage change in a modern organisation today"
—inManagement magazine

"If you are looking for a book to give you some hints and tips as to how to manage change better, this will be able to do this. [...] There are some great insights for anyone who is responsible for leading change"
—Kyomi Wade, Dialogue Review

Real stories from real CEOs on implementing successful change initiatives in any organization

Change is difficult. In large organizations with established cultures, managing change can be one of the biggest challenges for business leaders and managers. Using a wealth of real stories from real CEOs on how they managed major change initiatives—and the lessons they learned along the way—Change Lessons from a CEO gives professionals and business students powerful and effective guidance on successfully managing change initiatives in any organization. The book's uniquely flexible approach lets readers build their own models for change based on their unique organizational structure, culture, and situation. Throughout, the book emphasizes the importance of authenticity in the change leader's role and how to manifest that authenticity throughout a change initiative. With examples and case studies from multinational corporations, non-governmental organizations, and small and medium-size businesses, this book is a valuable tool for leaders of any organization of any size.

• Offers real-world insight from CEOs and leaders
• Ideal for CEOs, managers, leaders of non-profit organizations, consultants, and students in business programs
• Includes case studies and first-hand accounts of successful change initiatives in a wide range of businesses and organizations of all sizes

Change is inevitable. Managing change initiatives successfully can be the difference between organizations and teams that thrive and those that come apart at the seams. For business leaders and students, this book offers practical and proven guidance for doing change right.

CHAPTER 1

Your Journey to Leading Change Authentically

Chapter at a Glance

In this chapter you will learn the fundamentals of leading change in an authentic manner together with some self-assessments to enable you to gauge your capacity to do this right now. It further aims to give you an understanding of what does it mean to be an authentic leader and leading change in an authentic manner? This chapter, based on the real experiences of CEOs we interviewed, will illustrate the importance of aligning your values and beliefs with your actions when leading change. Real change starts with you – it stems from your willingness to own your weaknesses, confess your failures, and recognize that many life stories do not have a happy ending (Block, 1997). However, while many of our life stories are turbulent, we do not have to remain prisoners of our past. We have the power to influence our future and therefore can still create a bright and optimistic future for the people we lead through difficult times. Being authentic is a choice you have to make; nobody can do it for you. Leadership which is authentic is central to effective change leadership and the chapter consists of two major components. In the first part, authentic leadership is discussed and an opportunity is provided for you, the leader, to explore the influence of personal life events on your authenticity. In the second part of the chapter, authenticity is linked to leading change. Complete the various exercises in the chapter, as this will provide you with powerful personal insights that are needed for leading change in an authentic manner.

Beginning Cases: Preparation

What does it mean to be authentic? The following quotations provide some perspectives of authenticity in practice. It seems an understanding of who you are and the willingness to be true to yourself, irrespective of the context, manifests in behaviour that is experienced by others as genuine and worth emulating.

‘Well when you're running a big business, there are times when you cannot be nice, there's times when you have to make very tough decisions, there's times when you have to be very hard and tough and that is all part of one's character. But you also know when to smile and you also need to have a little twinkle in your eye, you need to know how to manage people. But it's only when you're really your own man can you really be yourself because the moment you're having to please other people and think, am I going to get the promotion, am I now going to be able to move from this company to that company because I want them to recommend me, think I'm a nice person – no different than in your activity in a university, you don't want to go around being right or being confrontational by saying well that's not right and this and that … they'll say, well he's a difficult bloke we don't want to work with him. People used to think I was difficult – not difficult – people used to think I was very aggressive when I was younger – I was, so what?’

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Be true to yourself

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‘Well the way I've always thought about authentic leadership is exactly what it says in the description, it's the authenticity of an individual and whether people really believe that what they see versus what they hear a leader saying they believe in and what they're going to do and how closely those two correlate.’

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Be authentic

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‘My mum probably is very important in that. She's not the only one but she's important at two different bits of my life because she and I had a very feisty, very argumentative relationship, not very comfortable, not very happy when I was very small, not very happy at all and she asked a lot of me, she asked me to be very adult very early on and the older I got the more I resented that. We were rather alike temperamentally, so quick to temper and yet like my father, I don't like being angry but my mum rather relished it. So I got caught between these two personality types that I wanted – what my father seemed to be able to model which was a rather calm existence, a patient existence but in fact I was very easily wound up. And I think that battle has been very instructive in how I try to conduct myself and the sort of places that I've wanted to work in, the sort of roles I've wanted to take on. But also she and my father were ambitious for me and there was certainly a sense that nothing was quite good enough which again, when I was much younger I resented hugely – I don't anymore. But I listened none-the-less, the sense that praise didn't come very easily. The interesting question was why you didn't do better – always. So that drives me too, it also can be debilitating sometimes but it drives me for sure, always asking could it have been done better, could I have done it better? And the reason I say – there's a lot in between of course – but my mum passed away when I was 33 which is nearly eight years ago and that time in my life was quite a difficult one professionally which I might say a bit more about in a second, but having actually a very powerful experience (she was ill for a year, very ill) and so I had this extraordinary – I think in a way almost fortunate experience of having a very close relationship with her in that time which wasn't something that I think my mum and I thought we would have in our lifetimes and whilst I wouldn't have wished it on her, I think I have a much happier memory of her than perhaps I would've had if things had been different. And so it was very powerful – in a way, getting to know her, I think that's what I'm saying – getting to know her and getting to know myself through that relationship at a time when I was having quite a complex professional struggle. And then a great loss which is very – “levelling” might be the word I'd use, that although it's a bit of a cliché, it does actually put things in perspective and I think I am a happier, calmer (?) more strategic leader now and I think some of that is about losing my mum; that moment of crisis. The professional struggle at that time which I do think has shaped me before.’

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Understand who you are and why

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Chapter Introduction

Some 500 years ago Machiavelli, in his book The Prince, highlighted problems we can expect when implementing change. He stated

… there is no more delicate matter to take in hand, nor more dangerous to conduct, nor more doubtful in success, than to set up as a leader in the introduction of changes. For he who innovates will have for his enemies all those who are well off under the existing order of things, and only lukewarm supporters in those who might be better off under the new (Machiavelli, 1992).

This is still true today. It is estimated that between 70–80% of all change initiatives fail to reach their objectives or achieve only partial success, or in the worst-case scenario, make the situation worse. In fact, some managers are actually surprised that so many change initiatives are successful! Either way, there is a great deal of opportunity for improvement. It seems that, despite the numerous change models, approaches and methodologies available in the literature, leaders do not fully appreciate what is required in guiding their organizations through change. Putting it differently, leaders continue to lack a clear understanding of change, its antecedents, its processes or the ability to engage employees in change initiatives (Armenakis and Harris, 2002).

Organizational leaders are responsible for developing the change strategy, strategy implementation and monitoring. They also act as change agents in the organization. While the execution of organizational change must be well-managed, fundamentally it requires effective leadership. There is growing evidence that leadership characteristics and behaviours influence the success or failure of organizational change. But change leadership is more than a skill, more than the knowledge of change theories and requires more than just the effective use of cognitive abilities. It is the ability to act with purpose and ethically while constantly adjusting as the change situation requires. A successful change leader requires moral character, a strong concern for self, others and ethical values. Why is this important? As change leader you need to influence employees and they will only follow you if they trust you. This means you need to lead and act in a specific manner. George et al. (2007, p. 2) argue in this regard that,

… the essence of leadership is not trying to emulate someone else, no matter how brilliant they are. Nor is it having the ideal leadership style, achieving competencies or fixing your weaknesses. In fact, you don't need power or titles to lead. You only have to be authentic.

This is also true for the leadership of change.

What is Authentic Leadership and What is it Not?

In order to understand ‘what does it mean to lead change in an authentic manner?’, the starting point is to understand what we mean by the term authentic. Authenticity, the idea of being oneself or being true to oneself has been described in many different ways and there is no agreed definition for authentic leadership. Indeed the terms vary across culture. In Israel the term mensch is used to describe a fully rounded ‘juicy’ person of integrity and goodness. Kernis (2003, p. 13) describes authenticity as ‘the unobstructed operation of one's true, or core self in one's daily enterprise’ consisting of four components: awareness, unbiased processing, authentic action and relational authenticity. Walumbwa et al. (2008, p. 94) building ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• About the Authors
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• CHAPTER 1: Your Journey to Leading Change Authentically
• CHAPTER 2: Change Readiness: Are You Ready for Leading Change?
• CHAPTER 3: Leading Change: Winning Hearts and Minds
• CHAPTER 4: Getting Employees Ready for Change
• CHAPTER 5: Understanding How People Change
• CHAPTER 6: Coaching for Change Success
• CHAPTER 7: Change Politics and Change Levers
• Conclusions
• Index