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CEO's Role in Leading Change

The CEO's Role in Leading Change

CEOs play a crucial role in managing change, but the precise dimensions of that role are seldom articulated.

Leaders can have an impact in four ways:
- Making the transformation program meaningful, often by making it personal;
- Inspiring others as a role model;
- Building a strong and committed top team; and
- Getting involved when significant financial and symbolic value is at stake.

A CEO who pays only lip service to a transformation will find everyone else doing the same.

The following artice from McKinsey's Quarterly looks at this further:

pdf ceos_leading_transformation_-_mckinsey_qtr 07/08/2007,12:55 115.75 Kb
 
The Decision to Trust

Key ideas from the Harvard Business Review article by Robert F. Hurley

The Idea

Half of all managers don't trust their leaders. And in organizations mired in mistrust, stress, divisiveness, and lackluster productivity prevail-prompting valued employees to flee to more motivating environments.

How to win your employees' trust? Understand that trust doesn't happen magically: According to Robert Hurley, your employees decide whether to trust you-by conducting mental calculations based on factors you can assess and influence. These factors include shared values (such as a strong work ethic) and employees' perceptions that you're competent.

To win employees' trust, identify which factors may cause them to mistrust you-then behave in ways that secure their confidence in you. For example, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey forfeited $46,000 of a larger bonus when he realized that his total compensation violated the company's policy that a CEO cannot make more than 14 times the average employee's salary. Mackey's action reinforced employees' belief that he served the best interests of the company, not just his own.

Related Article: Nobody Trusts the Boss Completely, Now What ? Fernando Bartolome

The Idea in Practice with KBA

The Trust Bond

Our Leadership Programme focuses on building open, trusting and respectful relationships. We help leaders develop a clear self concept. One of our tools examines the extent to which individuals trust, and are trustworthy. Nine factors critical for developing trusting relationships include:

Communication
Support
Respect
Fairness
Predictability
Competence
Doing what you say you'll do
Dealing with underperformance
Caring

Ask yourself, what's my reputation for each of these?

 

 
Becoming the Boss

In this Harvard Business Review article, Linda A.Hill captures the nature and sources of difficulties facing new managers. She describes the underlying misconceptions about life as a manager, and the reality.

Hill says learning to lead is a process of learning by doing and happens incrementally and gradually. Coaching and mentoring support from bosses of new managers is important to reshape misconceptions. Our experience is that two problems get in the way of this:

New managers are reluctant to express concerns to their bosses for fear of appearing a failure.

Whilst bosses of new managers are keen to support new managers, time is limited and pressure for results takes priority.

With more graduates taking up new manager posts with little experience of working life let alone management, a different approach is required.  

KBAs Becoming a Manager Programme helps new managers develop an accurate self and manager concept. In a safe environment with peers, new managers are presented with a range of client specific real situations which they will face in their daily work.  The result - new managers go back to work with confidence, clear concept and competence to deliver results.

 

 

5 Misconceptions
I will have authority and freedom to do what I think best.
My position in the organisation gives me power.
I must control my direct reports.
If I build good relationships with individuals I’ll have a good team.
I must make sure everything runs smoothly.
 
Here's a summary of the article and we've summarised the key ideas in the table at the end. 

Harvard Business Review article by Linda A. Hill, Jan 2007 

hbr_becoming_the_bossEven for the most gifted individuals, the process of becoming a leader is an arduous, albeit rewarding, journey of continuous learning and self-development. The initial test along the path is so fundamental that we often overlook it: becoming a boss for the first time. That's a shame, because the trials involved in this rite of passage have serious consequences for both the individual and the organization.

For a decade and a half, the author has studied people - particularly star performers - making major career transitions to management. As firms have become leaner and more dynamic, new managers have described a transition that gets more difficult all the time. But the transition is often harder than it need be because of managers' misconceptions about their role.  

Those who can acknowledge their misconceptions have a far greater chance of success. For example, new managers typically assume that their position will give them the authority and freedom to do what they think is best. Instead, they find themselves enmeshed in a web of relationships with subordinates, bosses, peers, and others, all of whom make relentless and often conflicting demands. "You really are not in control of anything," says one new manager.

Another misconception is that new managers are responsible only for making sure that their operations run smoothly. But new managers also need to realize they are responsible for recommending and initiating changes, some of them in areas outside their purview, that will enhance their groups' performance.

Many new managers are reluctant to ask for help from their bosses. But when they do ask (often because of a looming crisis), they are relieved to find their superiors more tolerant of their questions and mistakes than they had expected. 
Misconception Reality What New Managers Need to Learn
I will have authority and freedom to do what I think best. Relentless and conflicting demands from a wide range of people make daily life pressurised and fragmented. Realise the complex web of relationships and quickly build good relationships with the key people your team depends on.
My position in the organisation gives me power. It does, but more important is credibility, trust and respect otherwise talented subordinates won’t listen. Learn to be comfortable with yourself. Be competent but don’t expect to have all the answers or do everything yourself. Build influence by getting the right things done.
I must control my direct reports. Insecurity leads to seeking compliance. Compliance doesn’t mean commitment. Without commitment there’s no initiative. Without initiative you can’t delegate. Empower people without ordering them. Balance inquiry with advocacy. Set standards and reinforce them but allow people to use their talents to find the best way of achieving.
If I build good relationships with individuals I’ll have a good team. Too much focus on building individual relationships undermines the process of building a team and diminishes decision making effectiveness. Harness the collective power of the group by using effective team leadership skills.
I must make sure everything runs smoothly. Extremely difficult to do because of the complexity of maintaining the status quo. Change is constant. Take responsibility for recommending and initiating improvements. See yourself as a change agent not as a victim of change.

For further information about New Manager Programme, please contact us.

 
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