Leadership: Leading Change
Dr. Richard Dawe
Ozarka College President
Overview
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Leadership Defined
Styles of Leadership
Transformational vs. Transactional Leaders
Organizational Culture
Communication
Leading Change
Changing Culture
Defining Leadership
• Distinguishing Leadership from Management
• Managers ‘do the right things’ -- leaders ‘do
things right’
• Leaders influence; empower; communicate
the vision; gain others ‘willing to follow’
• Are leaders born, or developed?
Leadership Styles
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Charismatic
Positional
Servant
Authoritative
Team Builder
Collaborative/Facilitative
Transformational vs. Transactional
• Costs and benefits to consider
• Different organizational cultures and
situations may require different approaches
• Readiness and need for change
Organizational Culture
• Defined as: The way we do things around here
• Examples: Family; Team; Strong; Weak; etc.
• Must assess if an existing culture fits the
needs of the organization…often takes many
years to change
Communication
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Must be appropriate to the task at hand
Two way communication means is critical
Do not leave anyone ‘out of the loop’
Don’t assume the process or system in use is
effective
• Be a good listener and respond
Leading Change
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Assessing the need for change
Is the expected cost worth the desired outcome?
Creating a sense of need or urgency
Find supporters at all levels
Look for possible ‘blockers’ inconsistent with your
agenda
• And…short term organizational pressure is often
useful (otherwise the outcomes are often
transactional/marginal)
Leading Culture Change
• Common errors in leading change (Kotter, 1996):
– Failure to create a significantly powerful guiding
coalition
– Under-communicating the vision
– Permitting obstacles (or persons) to block
– Failure to create short term wins
Leading Culture Change, cont.
• May take as long as 7-8 years to change
• Must first justify the need and urgency
• May be unintended outcomes to a major
change initiative
• Assess; Unfreeze; implement the change; refreeze; assess outcomes
• A case study example: Ozarka in recent years
Words of Wisdom
“The most dangerous leadership myth is
that leaders are born – that there is a
genetic factor to leadership. That’s
nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true.
Leaders are made rather than born.
Warren Bennis