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leadership styles, qualities and skills; • different leadership for different phases of change; • the importance of self-knowledge and inner resources; and • summary and conclusions.

It is important to first make the point that good leadership is well-rounded leadership. We believe that all four metaphors of organizations give rise to useful notions of leadership. Leaders go wrong when they become stuck in one metaphor, or in one way of doing things, and therefore appear one- dimensional in their range of styles and approaches.

To begin, we link leadership to the ideas presented in Chapter 3 on organizational change by looking at the type of leadership that follows from approaching organizational change using each of the four key metaphors (see Table 4.1):

1. the machine metaphor; 2. the political system metaphor; 3. the organism metaphor; and 4. the flux and transformation metaphor.

Table 4.1 Leadership linked to organizational metaphors

Metaphor Nature of change Leader’s role Type of leadership required

Typical pitfalls for the leader

Machine The designed end state can be worked towards. Resistance must be managed. Change needs to be planned and controlled.

Chief designer and implementer of the changes.

Project management. Goal setting. Monitoring and controlling.

Micro-management by leader means activity focuses on measuring, rather than experimenting or taking risks.

Changes must be supported by a powerful person. Change needs a powerful coalition behind it. Winners and losers are important.

Politician – powerful speaker and behind the scenes negotiator.

Visionary. Building a powerful coalition. Connecting agendas.

Change leaders are seen as Machiavellian manipulators. Leaders cannot be trusted, so people comply rather than commit. People do the minimum. Leaders begin to follow their own agenda (cover their backs), rather than some higher purpose.

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Metaphor Nature of change Leader’s role Type of leadership required

Typical pitfalls for the leader

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Political system

Organism Change is adaptive. Individuals and groups need to be psychologically aware of the ‘felt need’ for change. End state can be defined and worked towards.

Coach, counsellor and consultant, holding up the mirror.

Coaching and supporting.

The metaphor becomes an ideology. The change process becomes self-serving and achieves very little. There is a focus on reacting rather than initiating. Change happens, but too little too late.

Flux and transformation Change cannot be managed, it emerges. Managers are part of the system, not outside the system. Conflict is useful. Managers enable good connections between people.

Facilitator of emergent change.

Getting the governing principles right. Enabling connectivity. Amplifying issues.

Leaders and others involved become confused and frustrated. There is chaos. The change effort becomes vague and directionless. There is no sense of progress to motivate future effort. Contradictions become sticking points.

Table 4.1 illustrates that the use of each metaphor brings both advantages and disadvantages for those wishing to be successful leaders of change.

The machine metaphor draws attention to clear goals and the need for structure, but overuse of this metaphor results in micromanagement of

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outcomes and too little risk taking. The political system metaphor adds the harsh reality of organizational life, and reminds us of the necessity of involving influential people when change is desired, but overuse can be seen as manipulation. The organism metaphor highlights the need for people to be involved, and to feel the need for change, but runs the risk of moving too slowly and too late. Finally, the flux and transformation model is useful as a reminder that organizations and their people cannot be wholly controlled unless we rule by fear! Leaders must encourage discussion of conflicts and tensions to enable change to emerge, while avoiding the trap of being too vague and lacking direction.

We believe that successful change leadership is achieved by combining aspects of all four metaphors. This is evidenced by the models and approaches introduced in Chapter 3, Table 3.2, which combine different metaphors to some degree.

COMBINING THE METAPHORS: REFLECTIVE COACHING SESSION

Once I realized that my boss was using a completely different organizational metaphor from myself, I began to see how we were clashing in our discussions about how to run projects and how to improve processes.

I prefer the machine metaphor. I like things to be pretty clear. In my area we have a well-defined structure with clear roles and objectives set for each person. The team runs like a well-oiled machine, with me in the engine room pulling levers and thinking about plans and processes.

On the other hand, my boss prefers a more fluid style of working. Objectives are flexible and revised daily, and the hierarchy means very little to him. If someone shows initiative and promise, he will go directly to that person and have a quite intense conversation to convey the importance of a particular initiative. It used to drive me crazy. I couldn’t keep control.

One day we had a chat about this using metaphor to discuss our differences. It was most illuminating, and we started to see the pros and cons of each approach. As a result I agreed to incorporate more flexibility in certain projects, and he agreed to stick with the plan rather than review and change other, more stable processes. We still clash from time to time, but it doesn’t cause quite so much irritation!

Global Services Manager, Oil Company – on use of metaphor to enhance understanding of other people’s viewpoints

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Table 4.1 is also useful because it reveals a wide range of styles and skills required of leaders, depending on the metaphor in use:

• goal setting; • monitoring and controlling; • coaching and supporting; • building vision; • communicating vision; • building coalitions; • networking; • negotiating; • facilitating; • dealing with conflict.

The difficulty with a list of skills this long is that is seems unattainable. In this chapter we try to help leaders to find a way through the various requirements of a leader to pinpoint the most important roles, skills, styles and areas of focus needed to make change happen.

VISIONARY LEADERSHIP The first basic ingredient of leadership is a guiding vision. The leader has a clear idea of what he wants to do – professionally and personally – and the strength to persist in the face of setbacks, even failures. Unless you know where you are going, and why, you cannot possibly get there.

Warren Bennis (1994)

Visionary leadership has become something of a holy grail. It seems to be a rare commodity which is greatly sought after. Our recent research (see box) indicates that today’s business leaders place considerable value on visionary leadership as a tool for organizational change. But is visionary leadership really the answer?

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In our change leadership sessions with private sector senior and middle managers in the UK we ask people to name significant leaders of change. The top four names mentioned over the period 1997–2002 were:

1. Winston Churchill; 2. Margaret Thatcher; 3. Nelson Mandela; 4. Adolf Hitler.

The top five characteristics that emerged through a typical discussion of these significant leaders were:

1. clear vision; 2. determination; 3. great speaker, great presence; 4. tough when needed; and 5. able to stand alone.

Cameron Change Consultancy data, 2002

Here we explore the views of the supporters of visionary leadership, and those who make the case against it.

Bennis on the characteristics of visionary leaders

Warren Bennis identified three basic ingredients of leadership:

1. a guiding vision; 2. passion; and 3. integrity.

He also developed a useful comparison of the differences between management and leadership (see Table 4.2), which unpacks some of the different qualities of a visionary leader.

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Table 4.2 Managers and leaders

A manager A leader

Administers Innovates Is a copy Is an original Maintains Develops Focuses on systems and structure Focuses on people Relies on control Inspires trust Has a short-range view Has a long-range perspective Asks how and when Asks why Has his eye on the bottom line Has his eye on the horizon Imitates Originates Accepts the status quo Challenges the status quo Classic good soldier His own person Does things right Does the right thing

Source: Bennis (1994)

This comparison exercise separates management from leadership in a very clear way. This is useful for those wishing to take on more of a leadership role, although it is sometimes interpreted as slightly downplaying the important role of a good manager in organizational life. Most managers have to do both roles.

Kotter on what leaders really do

Kotter (1996) echoes the ideas of Bennis. He says: ‘we have raised a generation of very talented people to be managers, not leader/managers, and vision is not a component of effective management. The management equivalent to vision creation is planning.’ He says that leaders are different from managers: ‘They don’t make plans; they don’t solve problems; they don’t even organize people. What leaders really do is prepare organizations for change and help them cope as they struggle through it.’ He identifies three areas of focus for leaders and contrasts these with the typical focus of a manager:

1. setting direction versus planning and budgeting; 2. aligning people versus organizing and staffing; and 3. motivating people versus controlling and problem solving.

VISIONARY LEADERSHIP We go to liberate, not to conquer.

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We will not fly our flags in their country. We are entering Iraq to free a people and the only flag which will be flown in that ancient land is their

own. Show respect for them.

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There are some who are alive at this moment who will not be alive shortly.

Those who do not wish to go on that journey, we will not send. As for the others, I expect you to rock their world. Wipe them out if that is what they choose. But if you are ferocious in battle remember to be magnanimous in victory. Iraq is steeped in history. It is the site of the Garden of Eden, of the Great Flood and the birthplace of Abraham.

Tread lightly there.

You will see things that no man could pay to see – and you will have to go a long way to find a more decent, generous and upright people than the

Iraqis. You will be embarrassed by their hospitality even though they have nothing.

Don’t treat them as refugees for they are in their own country. Their children will be poor; in years to come they will know that the light of liberation in their lives was brought by you.

Extract from speech widely hailed in the UK press at the time as visionary. It was given by Lieutenant Colonel Tim Collins to around 800 men of the battle group of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment, at their Fort Blair Mayne camp in the Kuwaiti desert about 20 miles from the Iraqi border on Wednesday 19 March 2003. His intention was to prepare the men for the battle that lay ahead. Many of the men were young and the support from people back in the UK was patchy.

Since 2003 Tim Collins has had cause to reflect on his celebrated visionary call to action. He says he made assumptions about the motives at higher levels of the army and government, and is quoted as saying:

What I had not realized is that there was no plan at the higher levels to replace anything, indeed a simplistic and unimaginative overreliance in some quarters on the power of destruction and crude military might… If freedom and a chance to live a dignified and stable life free from terror was the motive, then I can think of more than 170 families in Iraq last week who would have settled for what they had under Saddam.

The Observer, 18 September 2005

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I HAVE A DREAM

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his

lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low,

the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

Extract from speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a driving force in the non-violent push for racial equality in the 1950s and the 1960s. This speech was given on 28 August 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. It mobilized supporters and acted as the catalyst for the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Bass: proof that visionary leadership works!

Bass (in Bryman, 1992) developed the notion of transformation leadership, which many managers find meaningful and helpful. He distinguished between transactional leadership and transformational leadership (see box), and identified through extensive research that charismatic and

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inspirational leadership were the components most likely to be associated with leadership success.

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP Transformational leadership involves the leader raising the followers’ sense of purpose and levels of motivation. The aims of the leader and the followers combine into one purpose, and the leader raises the followers’ confidence and expectations of themselves. Transformational leadership comprises:

• charisma; • inspiration; • intellectual stimulation; • individualized consideration.

Transactional leadership is simply an exchange in which the leaders hand over rewards when followers meet expectations.

• contingent reward; • management by exception.

Source: Bryman (1992)

Gardner: the need for leaders to embody a story

Howard Gardner’s (1996) influential research into the nature of successful leaders gave rise to some interesting lessons about visionary leadership. He chose 11 20th-century leaders who have really

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made a difference, and researched their lives and their work by reading their biographies and tracking down any speeches, letters, audiotapes and videotapes that were available.

He chose a mixture of different types of leader, combining business leaders, political leaders and those who influenced our thinking and behaviours without being in a position to lead directly. The list included, among others, Alfred Sloan, head of General Motors, Pope John XXIII, one of the most influential and popular popes of modern times, Martin Luther King, the advocate of African

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Americans, and Margaret Mead, a cultural anthropologist who deeply influenced our ideas about childhood, family life and society. (There have been attempts made to discredit her research, but she is still supported by many as being highly innovative and influential.)

Gardner’s findings indicated that those leaders who had really made a difference to the way others thought, felt and acted all appeared to have a central story or message. Stories not only provide background but also help the followers to picture the future. The story must connect with the audience’s needs and be embodied in the leader him- or herself. Gardner makes the point that phonies are never in short supply, and the individual who does not embody or act out his or her messages will eventually be found out.

LEADERS’ STORIES Margaret Thatcher ‘Britain has lost its way in defeatism and socialism. We must reclaim the leadership from “them” (socialists, union trouble makers and the “wets”) and restore earlier grandeur.’

Margaret Mead ‘As human beings we can make wise decisions about our own lives by studying options that many other cultures pursue.’

Mahatma Gandhi ‘We in India are equal in status and worth to all other human beings. We should work cooperatively with our antagonists if possible, but be prepared to be confrontational if necessary.’

Leadership stories from Gardner (1996)

Heifetz and Laurie: vision is not the answer

Heifetz and Laurie (1997) say that vision is not the answer. They say that the senior executive needs to alter his or her approach to match the needs of 21st-century organizations. They say that what is needed is adaptive leadership. This is about challenging people, taking them out of their comfort zones, letting people feel external pressure and exposing conflict.

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