Leading Change by John P Kotter - Essay Example

Leading Change The book ‘Leading Change’ by John P Kotter analyses leadership from many angles. The of the book has examined the efforts that over 100 companies have put in place so that they are competitive in the market segment. In summary, the author has identified mistakes and wrong decisions that leaders of organizations make in their quest to bring about change. He offers countermeasures to these mistakes by describing eight key steps that are necessary to fight obstacles that these leaders face, and from this, they will be able to carry forward the agenda of the company. The steps that the author advocates for are; establishment of a sense of urgency in the organization, creation of a guiding coalition, development of a company vision and strategy, communicating about the company’s change vision to stakeholders, empowering and encouraging of others to work and act effectively, creating of noteworthy short-term goals and wins, consolidating gains, producing more change and coming up with new approaches in times of the future (Kotter 10). The author introduces the book by asserting that change has tremendously grown in various organizations especially in the past twenty years. Many macroeconomic forces have conspired to bring about these organizational changes. The author further outlines that, in the process of transforming organizations, many errors are experienced, some of which are; being complacent; failure to create guiding coalitions that are sufficiently powerful; not communicating about the company’s vision; allowing obstacles to hinder the company progress; declaration of visions very soon, and failure to anchor the organization in the corporate culture. However, the author asserts that these errors are avoidable in organizational management. Next the author outlines factors that necessitate organizational change, thereby creating opportunities and hazards for organizations. These factors are; technological factors, opening marketing forces and internal economic factors. However, it is important to note that organizational change is a multi-step process that is necessary for fighting inertia in organizations and driving the company to excellent heights. The author then breaks down organization change into 8 steps. This 8 step process needs to be followed in a sequence if at all an organization is to realize success, however, most of these steps can be combined in enhancing success. In chapter 3 of his book, Kotter has explained in detail about the first stage of bringing about organizational change; establishment of a sense of urgency. He outlines that any company wishing to complete this important stage will need to cultivate cooperation, initiative and the ability to make sacrifices (Kotter 46). The greatest impediments to change, according to Kotter, are low-grade urgency in management and complacency in leadership. Despite companies have intelligent leaders and well-intentioned people; complacency is a common setback in organizational leadership. In order to fight complacency, Kotter gives 9 reasons that drive organizational leaders to be complacent in their operations. One, many companies lack noteworthy crises, hence, leaders of these companies are not compelled to address problems that may be existent in the company. Secondly, companies tend to have a false sense of security. This is meant to enable employees have a sense of success. Thirdly, managers of organizations tend to measure themselves with low and attainable standards. As a result of this, employees of these companies are deceived that their results are measurable with other companies. This in many cases is false judgment since companies set low standards for themselves. Fourth, companies are structured in such a way that every employee works so as to bring success to his/her respective department. Therefore, employees do not work towards bringing about overall success to the company. As a result of this, an employee may feel successful in her/her particular filed while another field in the company is at an all-time low. Such employees may not even realize that their companies are in decline. The author explains that, company operations should be a form of collective responsibility. The author also asserts that another cause of complacency is an organization is the internal feedbacks that are meant to grade employees of companies. These internal feedbacks may grade employees 100%, but this may not be representative of the reality. Hence, it is necessary that companies embrace external feedbacks as a way of grading its employees. Normally, internal feedbacks may favor employees, but the feedback of external stakeholders is normally not biased, hence, it is a perfect index for determining employee efficiency. Finally, Kotter, says that the common ‘happy talk’ by managers of companies in meant to create the impression that all is well within the company. What this does is that is downplays potential problems in the company and embellishes success. What this causes is that it instills a sense of security in the company, and this is normally a recipe for failure (Kotter 89). From this, Kotter has outlined 9 countermeasures to organizational complacency. He also explains that an able leader is required to facilitate these countermeasures so as to cultivate the seed of success in the company. For one, a leader is expected to establish any crisis in the company so that employees are kept at their toes. This will destroy all forms of false security in the company and set the highest standards of achievement instead of setting low standards in comparison with other companies. The author also advocates for broadening of company goals so that employees are always kept on top of their goals. Employees also need to interact extensively with the customer and external consultants need to be hired for purposes of feedback, so as to avoid the bias that comes up as a result of using internal consultants. Mangers also need to eliminate the ‘happy talk’ that is classic in modern organizations. Chapter four of the book analyses with his second stage that advocates for the creation of potent coalitions. It is important to create potent coalitions in a business since a strong team is vital in bringing about organizational change. Kotter explains four key steps that should guide managers in coming up with potent coalitions. Next he explains the characteristics of a successful team by outlining that trust and commitment are important aspects of a successful company. Kotter also explains that, in order for a company to succeed, there needs to be a sense of desirable future that needs to be shared among members. In order to ensure that this is effected, companies need to desist from communicating inconsistently to customers and ensure that customers get consistent messages that are in tandem with the organization’s mission and objectives (Kotter 124). In chapter 8, Kotter explains the principle of employee empowerment. Employees of any organization need to be empowered so that they feel as part of the team. Failure to do this will lead to their lack of motivation, and this is detrimental to the organization’s success. Another factor that is also necessary for empowering employees is education. Through education, employees get intellectually empowered. In the next chapter, the author explains the importance of creating short term wins. Short term wins are necessary since all employees will always be working towards ensuring that success is realized. The author finally discusses the principle of cultural change as a recipe of success. Cultural change is vital in any organization since it will be the culture of all employees to ensure that hard work, excellence and industry are practiced in the workplace setting. Therefore, Kotter’s ‘Leading Change’ is a noteworthy piece of genius that highlights problems that modern companies face in the present challenging business times, reasons why this problems and challenges are faced, and the manner in which organizational leaders need to work in order to ensure that these challenges are not faced. Any organizational leader who wants to bring about success in his/her organization needs to read this book. Works Cited Kotter, John P. Leading Change. Masachusetts: Harvard Educational Press, 2010. Print Read More