Effective Leadership Online Tutoring

Question 1

International Institute for Education Excellence (IIEE) being a joint venture of three leading educational organizations started off well and got good responses from the market and earned a good contract, which it received repeatedly for 7 years continuously. But the organization lacked effective leadership and strategy planning since the organization depended only on one client and never applied effective strategies to attract more clients. Janet Stone when joined as the Institute Director in 2012 brought extensive experience in executive education and training as well as experience of the management consultant wherein she specialised in strategy and facilitation. IIEE lacked an effective leadership and the organization did not have any effective leader to identify the opportunities and threats in the organization, which is essential for organizational development. Janet identified financial losses and no business growth, which was a result of lack of organizational efforts to bring changes in its strategy. Francis & Bessant (2005) states that organizations constantly need to innovate, which can be carried out in four dimensions, which are product, process, position and paradigm (Anderson, 2014). Janet recognized that the organization lacked innovation in all these dimensions and was able to continue its business based only on the relationship it had build with one client, which could affect the sustainability of the organization in the long run.

Effective leadership is considered as the essential element to identify opportunities and bring required changes in the organization (Beitler, 2013). Janet Stone is a dynamic leader and has few of the traits of transformational leadership. Transformational leadership according to Drucker involves innovation, entrepreneurship and change, which is believed to be on-going learning and developing process. He further states that it involves systematic approach of organized and purposeful search for changes in various internal elements of the organization and capacity of organization and transforms the available resources in a way that they are of greater use. Transformational leaders have a compelling vision and have a clear idea of the situation they are to deal with (Riggio & Tan, 2013). Some of the transformational leaders have the qualities of being a visionary, honest, passionate, innovative, continuous learner, effective communicator etc. (Kotter, 2012). Transformational leaders are interpreters of organizational purposes and pathfinders (Riggio & Tan, 2013). Such leaders are intelligent, forward-looking and learn from their experiences and failures and innovate new approaches, ideas, products or services. Janet had some skills and qualities of transformational leadership. Janet had the qualities of being honest, visionary, and innovative and most importantly was an effective communicator. As soon as she joined as the Institute Director, she decided to speak to all the three board members and went through the annual report of the company to analyze the company’s performance, weaknesses and strengths and tried finding new opportunities.

She is a good communicator, which enabled her to easily communicate her vision of further enhancing the organizational performance since it had the potential of depending on more than one client, which it was currently doing. Janet’s quality of being forward-thinking, intelligence and innovativeness led to her immediately identifying the financial loss organization is facing and led to her bringing certain changes in the curriculum, which could further improve the training services, which the company provided. Her skill of being effective communicator helped her to quickly collect all the relevant information and identify the areas, which need improvement. Janet’s exceptional communication skills, her ability to connect and influence people enabled her to gain new contract just by discussing it with a client over a coffee. Janet has the ability to transform people’s beliefs, approaches and ideas, which made her, convince the board members and also prepare a team to execute the new contract, which she acquired from an ex-client. Janet had increased management skills, which enabled her to negotiate, discuss the project and find solution to the client’s issues and also build a team, which would complete the project. Janet was also successful in acquiring another project from the existing client who was stuck in another project and was looking for effective solution for the same. Janet learnt the skills of building networks when she worked as management consultant, which enabled her to try finding opportunities with her existing and new clients and offer them differentiated services and influenced them to sign up with the organization and she got two new projects from a new client and one from existing client within few months of her joining as the Director.

Question 2

According to Yukl, positional power can be exercised effectively by making a polite request verbally or in writing (Bhattacharya, 2011). If the leader is polite and has ability communicate effectively there would be less resistance from others (Bhattacharya, 2011). The lack of positional power at times does not enable individuals to implement certain strategies and make certain decisions.  In my previous job I was required to enhance one of the processes but did not have access to certain resources, which were required to bring the changes. I did not have the required positional power to access the resources and overcome the delays in the processes, which made it difficult for me to bring the necessary change. I decided to speak to all the team members and raise a concern to the team leader collectively and explain the need for the access of resources and how it can bring positive outcome to our processes. Since my team collectively put forth this concern the team leader agreed to the request and appreciated for my initiative.

Question 3

IIEE should continue to create more leaders and adopt incremental approach in bringing changes in the internal elements and enhance the competencies of the organization. IIEE using the Kotter’s 8 step model should create a need for change and bring together people who understand the significance of the changes in different areas. IIEE should create leaders who can influence the others to willingly participate in the process of bringing change rather than leaving the responsibility to the leaders and take inputs from employees at all the levels, which could help the organization bring increased changes in all aspects of the business. As suggested in Kotter’s 8 step model the organization should reward employees for short wins through which it can encourage them to continue their approach of continuous improvement and always look for new opportunities. IIEE would have been able to bring changes faster by involving all the employees in the organization.

Question 4

Organizational development involves effective participation of the employees at all levels, which enables the employees and the leaders to work effectively towards achieving business goals. Effective strategies enable organization to sustain in the competitive environment. Currently the organization lacks effective leadership approach and strategy planning, which Janet should address to continue to manage the organization effectively. Through her transformational leadership approach she should create more leaders within the organization, which will help in sharing the responsibilities and allowing other employees to take the lead in certain areas. Janet should create intrinsic motivation among the board members and the employees, which would influence every employee to carry out their tasks effectively. Intrinsic motivation refers to the action that an individual carries out with his/her own interest rather than from any external rewards (Riggio & Tan, 2013). Janet would be able to manage the changes in the activities of the organization by motivating the board members and employees to identify their potentials and work in certain area, which is of great interest to them. She should encourage employee engagement and empowerment, which will enable the interaction between board members and enable the organization to develop and implement strategies collaboratively. This will also allow effective decision making, which will help the organization to identify new opportunities for the organization, which was ignored earlier. Janet should encourage employees at all levels to a be a leader who would take the responsibility and be committed towards the shared objectives.

Question 5

Transformational leaders are the leaders who are most successful in establishing employee motivation and focus to carry on the tasks despite change and adversity (Riggio & Tan, 2013). Transformational leaders are known for working effectively in complex situations and uncertain environment and the followers are challenged and empowered, which influences them to be high performers and loyal. One of the four components of transformational leaders identified by Bass and Riggio (2005) is idealized influence (Kotter, 2012). Idealized influence refers to the leader serving as ideal role model for the followers and is admired for the same and followers are motivated to follow the path laid down by the leader (Lewis, 2011). Janet being an effective communicator had increased influencing skills, which led to her easily acquiring two new projects within a week. Janet influenced the employees in the organization in a positive way by proactively analyzing the different internal elements to identify the scope for improvement, which can bring new business opportunities. Due to her influencing skills she possessed the component of idealized influence and influenced the employees and board members by getting two new projects and working on the business development plan, analyzed the risks, strategic gaps and a strategic planning session was arranged by her, which motivated the board members to participate in bringing changes to the organization. She worked for long hours and tried to engage herself in all the areas instead of directing the employees.

She participated in strategic planning, business development plan along with her task of network and relationship building, which according to her was very essential for sustainability and growth. The other approaches, which enabled her to influence the board members and employees was of documenting and creating a report of her successes in the Institute and barriers. She highlighted all the aspects, which include risk, budgets, governance and other areas, which influenced the business growth. This influenced the board members since Janet herself made efforts to look in to each detail rather than asking other’s to gather the information, which highlights the quality of idealized influence and created interest and enthusiasm among the board members to look at the areas where they can contribute and get involved in plans for change and improvement. The board members started supporting Janet by providing her the resources and allowed her to bring changes and build competencies of the organization.

Question 6

Social capital is considered as valuable asset and the assets gain value from the access to resources that it acquires through an actor’s social relationship (Argyris, 2012).  According to Walker (1998), social capital is closely associated with organizational development and strategy of the firm (Argyris, 2012). The two aspects of social capital are structural and relational, which enable the individual in an organization to apply effective strategies and contribute towards organizational development (Burke, 2013). I maintained the structural and relational social capital by being in touch with the clients on regular basis and introducing the new product offers or to get the feedback of the products and services provided. I maintained the relationship by addressing the client’s concerns and offering products and services if they understand the value of the product and not compel them to make any purchases. I built the structural social capital by connecting with other people whom their existing clients know and puts increased efforts to address their concerns and offer them products, which suit them the best.

Question 7

Change is evident in every organization for sustained growth.  Organizational changes are influenced by various factors, which include external and/or internal and influence the organizational processes and the degree of its impact differs based on the factor influencing the organizational activities (Gilley et al., 2009). The external factors include competition, changes in political, economic and social conditions, change in consumer preferences etc. (Kotter, 2012). The internal factors include poor strategy, lack of leadership and effective systems, structure etc. (Kotter, 2012). Organizational changes are incremental or radical depending on the situation and the competencies of the organization (Argyris, 2012). Radical changes are brought when the organization is under crisis and need to bring some improvements to sustain whereas incremental changes are the one which are brought by the organization continuously to maintain their strategic position (Gardner, 2011). IIEE had not brought any changes to its strategy and had a poor leadership approach till Janet was appointed as the Institute Director. Janet took a radical approach to bring changes in the organization since it had not brought any changes in the system for years. Janet’s approach to create a need for change by providing the candid report of her success and concerns was effective in influencing the board members to initiate changes.

But she could have used some of the Kotter’s 8 step model by creating urgency by involving the employees at all levels to identify threats and opportunities in their respective areas instead of finding it herself. She should have formed a powerful coalition and influenced employees at all levels including board of members to work collaboratively on how the change has to be implemented. She should have influenced the organizational members to create a vision for change and ensure everyone has clear understanding of the same and believe in it, which would have enabled the organization to reduce resistance to change and work on implementing the change in the respective areas. This would have enabled Janet to focus on getting more business through her networking approach rather than chalking out the various areas, which required changes on her own.

Question 8

Janet successfully created the need for change and was able to influence the board members to effectively participate in the process of change implementation. But the changes, which is desired required the employees at all levels to contribute effectively by understanding the need for change and realizing their potential contribute effectively towards achieving the created vision. The board members realized that they and others in the organization should share the responsibilities with Janet so that she can focus on building the business network and the design and delivery tasks could be taken over by other members of the organization. In the end it can be seen that the board members along with Janet realized that organizational development is a team work and requires contribution from every member in the organization. Janet realized that the organization needs more than one leader to achieve the desired objectives. As discussed in transformational leadership the leaders encourage the followers to recognize their potential and challenge their skills and knowledge, which would enable them to emerge as leader (Kotter, 2012). This will further enable the follower to lead some tasks, which would enable the follower to contribute equal to the leader. By building a team of excellent and loyal presenters the increased expertise Janet created more than one leader and shared her responsibility with them, which enabled her to focus on the area in which she was good at.

 

References

Anderson, D (2014), Organization Development: The Process of Leading Organizational Change, SAGE Publications, Inc.

Argyris, C (2012), Organizational Traps: Leadership, Culture, Organizational Design, Oxford University Press; 1 edition

Beitler, M (2013), Strategic Organizational Change, Practitioner Press International; 3 edition

Bhattacharya, D (2011), Organizational Change and Development, OUP India

Burke, W (2013), Organization Change: Theory and Practice, SAGE Publications, Inc; Fourth Edition

Gardner, H (2011), Leading Minds: An Anatomy Of Leadership, Basic Books; Reprint edition

Gilley, A, Gilley, J, McMillan, H (2009), Organizational change: Motivation, communication, and leadership effectiveness, Performance Improvement Quarterly, Vol. 21, Iss. 4, pp. 75–94

Kotter, J (2012), Leading Change, Harvard Business Review Press; 1 edition

Lewis, L (2011), Organizational Change: Creating Change Through Strategic Communication

Riggio, R & Tan, S (2013), Leader Interpersonal and Influence Skills: The Soft Skills of Leadership, Routledge