Introduction
A good leader should be able to persuade, inspire and enable others to participate towards the success of an organization. Good leadership in organizational change calls for leaders with certain skills and qualifications such as self-assurance, emotional acumen, and intelligence among others. Various leadership styles apply in bringing change in an organization.
Some of the leadership styles include task-focused leadership, situational leadership, visionary leadership and authoritative leadership. The change process involves developing urgency of change, empowering change groups, developing a vision, frequent and powerful communication of the vision, eliminating change obstacles, creating short-term goals, building on change and incorporating change in the organization processes.
Why Richard Kelly failed in first attempt
To bring effective change in an organization, hard work is required. Richard did not plan his change strategy carefully. Richard was impatient and expected instant results too soon. Richard should have developed an open and persuasive discourse about order processing with employees and customers to support his argument. It was important for Richard to ensure that at least three quarters of the organization management supported his change idea.
Richard did not spend enough time and energy in creating the order processing urgency. Richard experienced panic and moved too fast to other steps that resulted in short-term monetary losses due to purchases. Richard was successful in convincing the management of the need to change the order process.
However, he did not consider fragile components of his change strategy that required commitment and involvement of managers from other departments. Richard failed to identify possible obstacles that affected his strategy. Richard also failed to identify equals opposed to change and assisted them in understanding the need for change.
Effective subsequent actions by Richard
In his second attempt to improve the organization’s order process, Richard took some effective actions that delivered the desired change. The first action was gathering information on the reasons for the delay while processing and filling orders. This was pivotal in creating urgency that is a key step in bringing change in an organization.
The second action was meeting with various department managers. This was necessary in forming task forces that ensured commitment. This helped convince the management of the need for change. The next effective action was securing the services of an external consultant.
Various examinations of the problem done by the various task forces were highly effective too. They helped in establishing what they were doing wrong as well as what needed some improvement. The other effective action by Richard was getting the support of the Chief Executive Officer that was evident in the meetings he attended.
Evaluation of leadership
From the case study, the change leadership provided by the Chief Executive Officer is very effective. The Chief Executive Officer allows other employees to participate fully in the success of the organization. The Chief Executive Officer’s trust in employees’ to deliver desired results is also a feature of effective leadership.
In change leadership, trusting and believing in employees’ abilities as well as supporting their ideas deliver positive results. A good leader should be intelligent, self-assured, influential and inspiring. All these features are well manifested by the Chief Executive Officer.
Conclusion
In bringing effective change in an organization, ethical leadership is very important. The choice of leadership style used should take into consideration the organization’s culture, goals and vision. The steps used in effecting change are important and require enough time to ensure that unprecedented losses and expenditures are not experienced.
When making change to a process that people are used to, it is important to make consultations on any desired changes to the process. Enough and thorough research should be carried out before effecting any change.