Leadership and Change

Thanks to Kristin Clarke on Acronym for pointing to a good ChangeThis manifesto: People Don't Hate Change, They Hate How You Are Trying to Change Them. This is a free download, by the way (if you don't know about ChangeThis, go check them out). I read the whole thing--the title reminded me of the piece that I wrote for We Have Always Done It That Way that suggested change management programs should more aptly be called "change enforcement." There are several concepts worth repeating.

More on Less
Kanazawa hates the phrase "doing more with less" because he feels it unfairly punishes workers for the leaders' inability to prioritize. He suggests doing more ON less. That is, put more money, time, and attention on fewer strategic initiatives. This is a big one, particularly in associations. In general, I think associations try to do to much, and they are afraid to make bold strategic moves. Pithy quote: "is your goal to get the most out of your people or the best out of your people? You typically can't get both."

Leadership--It's Not About You
I also liked the systems approach to Kanazawa's view of leadership and change. He mocked the phrase "buy in." You don't need buy in when you actually engage the employees in creating the change. But most leaders don't like to do that because it means giving up control (a favorite theme of mine!). It connects with the definition of leadership that I like the most: leadership is effectively a capacity within the entire system. People with authority (those we typically call leaders) certainly have a unique role and responsibility, but leadership is not really "about" them. From the manifesto:

Leadership development often focuses on what we can do individually to be better leaders, such as being authentic, serving as a visionary, practicing good judgment, and holding others accountable. Those are all important skills and qualities, but not the best measure of leader- ship or how to unleash power in an organization for transformation or strategic change. ...

Leadership impact is not about how aggressive, decisive, and visionary you are, it is about 
how you bring that out in others.... If the leaders focus  on their own power only, the organization becomes underpowered. If leaders focus on growing leadership capabilities of those  around them, the organizational power grows and the leader’s power scales. The higher you move in your leadership levels, the more important it becomes to understand the  sharing of power.

Comments

[Lindy Dreyer]

"Leadership impact is not about how aggressive, decisive, and visionary you are, it is about how you bring that out in others."

Yes! Maddie and I were having this discussion about YAP yesterday. We're now at a very delicate point. We've done all of this work to get YAP to where it is, and now the most important thing we can do is empower YAPers to take over the group. We're not abandoning the leadership role, but rather giving out the keys to the kingdom so new leaders can emerge and thrive.

Today, I was so proud and excited when the weekly activity report came out and my name was not on it. YAP lives...and it doesn't need me and Maddie to drive it.

[Mike Kanazawa]

Jamie,

Thank you for mentioning the manifesto. Seems like you've focused on very similar challenges."Change enforcement" is a great way to put how some programs are rolled out. I had not seen your blog before, I'll need to add it to my blogroll on our blog.

Thanks,

Mike