Leadership & Motivation – A Key To Cope Change

[ajay.surana]

In today's society the business sector is growing rapidly, and with this increase there is a need for more people to manage and lead these growing companies. Managing a business today is no guarantee that it will change and renew itself in future. An organisation is considered to be an open system of management with a close interaction with the environmental change both external and internal. Coping with this change needs to know your present business better before your future business. Performance management is a part of it, which gives its final shape to both the present, and the future business plans of the organisation. Pygmalion effect and the Galatea effect are the compelling factors in employee performance. The manager who assists employees to believe in themselves and in their efficacy, has harnessed a powerful performance improvement tool.

We have come a long way from the 'scientific management' theory, which states that organisations could be endlessly managed, replicating proven practices to achieve success. Change can never be optional and hence managing change has become one of the most important entities of a good "change manager." It is important to view change as an opportunity for growth. Locus of Control (LOC) is one such concept, which brings the level of performance with a focus on Internal LOC, which motivates for change to happen as an essential parameter of performance. The question then arise as why don't organisation's just go for it? The Nike advertisement "Just do it" speaks for the same but on the contrary human beings are a complex entity in terms of behavioural decision-making. They have a central tendency to resist change. Managers need to be leaders under such circumstances because good managers tend to be good leaders since they focus on getting tasks done efficiently and also do it right at the same time. This phasing of change process as a result of leadership and motivation is referred to as "Transition" which is accomplished under three steps of shedding the old method (first) to a neutral state (second) in order to welcome the new method (third). The L.E.A.D.E.R is a model to elucidate the steps in leading a successful change program. It can be represented as:

L : Leading
E : Empowering vision
A : Adaptive change
D : Developing people
E : Evaluating the system
R : Recharge

The Leaders should not 'walk the talk'. They should be a learning model to the organisation and encourage the staff to be life learners with the process of unlearning to learning. A change programme requires a "change of vision". A good leader, therefore, must be capable of regulating the distress by sequencing and prioritising the work required for the change process. Unfortunately, this is not the case in most change programme. Most leaders start new initiatives without stopping other activities or they start too many initiatives at the same time. They overwhelm and disorient the very people (core people) who need to take responsibility for the work. An effective evaluation system would allow a change management to run smoothly in an organisation. To be more specific, an effective change leader would spell out what are the short and long-term desired results of the programme and base the evaluations on such targets. The evaluative process must be realistic and fair by including appropriate time frames for achieving them. It could include brainstorming, observation on the thinking tool and the feedback from those who are involved in the process. An effective evaluation system would also be used to ensure the continuing momentum of a change programme. Most change programmes may start out enthusiastically but they usually lose steam at the end.

So it is the final motivation, the leadership capabilities coupled with the evaluation tools which makes a smooth change transition. The Pygmalion and the Galatea effect contribute to the performance in the organistaion i.e. performance compatibility towards coping with change. Sustaining this change programme is the ideal and the foremost skill for a successful manager.