So You Want Transformation Leadership: Remember these Five Reality Checks
Article by Dr. John E. Kello
For many years, organization effectiveness interventions focused mainly on incremental, localized adjustments, tweaks to the functioning of the organization. Team building with a new leadership group, redesign of a performance appraisal system, or reorganization of a department, were typical “small scale” interventions aimed at fine-tuning parts of an organizational system. Wholesale, fundamental transformation of organizations was rare.
The catastrophic near-collapse of the economy in late 2008 inspired a sudden willingness on the part of corporate leaders to get out of the “business-as-usual” mode and rethink everything! Abetted by the popularization of the concept of “transformational leadership” in the pop-management literature, and an explosion of research into the dos and don’ts of successful transformations, more and more organizations continue to take fundamental, strategic, system-wide transformation more than a decade later. As I reflect on my own consulting work, I observe that I have been engaged in just such large-scale culture-shift work with my clients, much more than ever before. And, not surprisingly, the pandemic which is still raging as I edit and update these essays is calling for even more fundamental organizational transformation, and fast!
First let’s define the transformational leadership style. Transformational leaders encourage, inspire, and motivate to innovate and create change in order for the organization to grow and achieve future success. This is not the old “command and control” transactional leadership style, where orders are issued and followed. Transformational leaders are sometimes called quiet leaders. They are the ones who lead by example. Their style tends to use rapport, inspiration, or empathy to engage followers. They are known to possess courage, confidence, and the willingness to make sacrifices for the greater good. This style resonates with the post baby-boomer generations of leaders who value collaboration and are more inclined to challenge the organizational hierarchy than use it to dictate goals, plans and policies.
I think a few reality checks about achieving “real transformation” are in order:
• First, it has to be driven from the top of the organization. That doesn’t mean it must be dictated without any input from or other consideration of those out there in the organization. It also doesn’t mean that the folks working lower in the hierarchy don’t see the need for fundamental change. It only means that top leadership commitment, tangible support, courage, patience and perseverance are critical, non-negotiable, essential foundation pieces for large-scale organization change. Top leaders, who control the resources needed to make such change must make the case, over-communicate the message, and behave in ways consistent with it (i.e., walk the talk). And note, it cannot be just one top leader who has the fire in the belly; it has to be a leadership team commitment, a so-called guiding coalition.
• Second, it must be evidence-based if it is to be successful. The change can’t be according to some current fad, or someone’s hopeful best guess about “what we probably should be doing.” A critical advantage of a behavioral science focus is that it positions you to look first and foremost to the data, regardless of how you might like things to be. What are your customers actually saying about your organization? What is the “voice of the employee”? What does the research show about what makes reward systems effective? On what real evidence will you and your leadership base your actions? Always, always look to the data.
• Third, significant transformation will take time. In most organizations, employees with any tenure with the company have “seen and heard it all before.” They are used to flavor-of-the-month programs which come and go. It is not surprising that any change effort, much less a system-wide transformation effort, would be met with a measure of caution and skepticism. A “wait and see” attitude has been cultivated in many, probably most, organizations. I have seen exceptions to this principle. In some rare cases the transformation plan suddenly releases employees’ pent-up desire for excellence, more than starting a new growth process. But in the vast majority of cases, real transformation is a planned developmental process that just takes the time that it takes.
• Fourth, the transformation plan must be the filter for all relevant decisions. Unanticipated business conditions must not cause leaders to “set aside” the transformation strategy and revert to old ways of doing business. There will be challenges to the plan somewhere along the way. Sales are not what was expected. New competition has come into your market. There is pressure to cut back on the promised training. During these “moment of truth” situations, employees will be watching very closely. In my experience, if the strategy is right, it can and must be followed, even to get through short-term challenges. Failure to do so supports the skeptical view that “they didn’t really mean it,” and sets the whole effort back, or even undercuts it altogether.
• Finally, while driven from the top and enacted at the bottom, transformation absolutely must engage middle managers as active and visible champions of the change. I have often argued that first-line supervisors (and the level or two above them) are critical linchpins in the organization. For the folks who report to them, they are the company. About half the questions in the popular Gallup Employee Engagement survey touch more or less directly on the relationship with the immediate leader, the supervisor. Research going back several decades found that first-line supervisors had the most impact on the effectiveness of employee engagement programs, and (paradoxically) were most likely to be left out of the planning and implementation of such programs. The short and direct message is, involve middle managers to the max. Inform them, put them at the head of the parade, celebrate the exemplars among them.
Transforming organizational culture is a challenging business, to be sure. But when conditions change and there are new threats and/or opportunities, organizations must adapt if they are to survive, much less thrive. Many such transformation efforts have not achieved their goals. Again, it’s not a simple, quick, shake-and-bake process. But leaders who understand and follow the principles I have outlined here increase the odds that they can achieve sustainable positive change as needed in the culture of their organization, for sustained excellence.
