The role of leadership

There is marked difference in the

orientation between management and
leadership.
Both involve:
• deciding what needs to be done
• developing the capacity to do it
• ensuring that it is done

However, while management is

concerned with order and consistency,
leadership is concerned with change.

© John Hayes (2018)

 Management Leadership
Deciding what needs to be done
Planning and budgeting Creating a vision
Planning and goal setting, formulating steps for Creating a vision and developing strategies that
achieving goals and identifying the resources that will deliver the changes required to achieve the
will be required. vision.

Developing the capacity to achieve it

Organizing and staffing Communicating the new direction
Creating organizational structures and work roles Communicating the new direction in a way that
that will facilitate the achievement of goals, enables people to understand what needs to
appointing qualified people, communicating plans happen if the vision is to be achieved and
and delegating appropriate levels of creating the conditions necessary to align their
responsibility. efforts to deliver the vision.
Ensuring that it is done
Controlling and problem solving Motivating and inspiring
Monitoring performance, identifying deviations Motivating and inspiring people to achieve
from plans and taking corrective action. the vision.
Managerial work, in times of change, is
increasingly a leadership task.
© John Hayes (2018)
Management and
leadership
In times of change leadership and
the provision of a sense of
direction becomes a more
important part of managerial
work.

“A peacetime army can usually

survive with good administration
and management up and down
the hierarchy, coupled with good
leadership concentrated at the
top. A wartime army, however,
needs competent leadership at all
levels.”
Kotter (1990)

© John Hayes (2018)

 ©ImageSource
The role of leadership
Sense making
Visioning
Sense giving
Aligning
Enabling
Supporting
Maintaining momentum and sustaining
the change

© John Hayes (2018)

1. Sense making.
Making sense of the world and identifying the
opportunities and threats that require attention
Some leaders have a tendency to interpret what
is going on in terms of what has gone on in the
past.
When CIA officials received a report headed Terrorists learn to
fly before the bombing of the Twin Towers they dismissed it
because it didn’t fit their pre-existing frames regarding what
terrorists did.
Leaders can improve their sense making by
seeking data from multiple sources, checking
whether different people have different
perspectives and using early observations to
design small experiments to test ideas.
However, sometimes this does not happen
because leaders become too committed to a
belief and only attend to information that
supports their own position.
© John Hayes (2018)
2. Visioning
Identifying a vision of what a more desirable
state of affairs might look like and what needs to
be done to move towards this.
According to Kotter a good vision needs to be:

imaginable
desirable
feasible
focused
flexible
communicable

© John Hayes (2018)

3. Sense giving
Communicating the vision to a wider audience
and responding to feedback as required to win
commitment to the change.

Shaping the vision is a reciprocal cycle of sense

making and sense giving.
• Problems can arise if stakeholders are reluctant
to challenge the leader’s vision.

Translating the vision into a desire for change

can be facilitated by:
• highlighting benefits
• demonstrating that the status quo is
unsustainable.

© John Hayes (2018)

4. Aligning
Promoting a shared sense of
direction so that people can work
together to achieve the vision

Leaders need to create a shared

understanding of what needs to be
done and work with others to win
their support for the change.

When there is a clear, and shared,

sense of direction, stakeholders are
more likely to feel able to take
action without encountering undue
conflict or being reprimanded by
superiors (Kühl et al).

© John Hayes (2018)

5. Enabling
Removing obstacles and creating the conditions
that empower others to implement the change
Ensuring that everybody is clear about what
needs to be done
Creating clear structures and frameworks that
enable people to work together.
Designing and delegating tasks that are aligned
with people’s values and provide sufficient
challenge to make their work meaningful.
Providing access to information.
Developing feedback mechanisms that people can
use to monitor their own progress.
Creating alignment at the top so that senior
managers communicate consistent messages to
others.

© John Hayes (2018)

6. Supporting
Recognizing and responding to the concerns
of those affected by the change

Often it is easier for leaders to identify and

communicate benefits for the organization
than it is to communicate benefits for the
individual.

But those affected by a change have a

pressing need to understand how the change
will affect them personally.

It is important to recognize and respond to

these concerns.

© John Hayes (2018)

7. Maintaining momentum
and sustaining the change
Showing commitment and “walking the
talk” to keep people focused on the
change
When employees are under pressure to
maintain output, immediate demands
can squeeze out the change agenda.

But when people can observe their

leaders’ active commitment to the change
there is every chance that they will be
motivated to persist with the change.

© John Hayes (2018)

Distributed leadership

• Leadership is not the

exclusive preserve of senior
managers.
• Managers, throughout the
system, have to accept that
they have a leadership role to
play.
• The network of leaders need
to share a common vision
that is clear, consistent and
inspiring.

© John Hayes (2018)

The collective nature of
leadership
Collective leadership can be especially
important in those circumstances where a
single individual is unable to formulate and
implement a vision that is acceptable to a
sufficient body of powerful stakeholders.

Coherence - the unity in the leadership group

Fragility - the stability of the leadership group

Fragility is a consequence of three types of

‘coupling’:
• Strategic
• Organizational
• Environmental

© John Hayes (2018)

Strategic coupling
The internal harmony between
members of the leadership group

© John Hayes (2018)

Organizational
coupling
The relationship between members
of the leadership group and their
organisational constituencies

© John Hayes (2018)

Environmental coupling
The degree of coherence between the
leadership group’s vision and
aspirations, and the demands and
constraints imposed by powerful
external stakeholders

© John Hayes (2018)

 It can be difficult to maintain
harmony at all three levels
• Accommodating different interests is
easier when there is organisational
slack.
• The interpersonal skills of members
can affect the stability of leadership
constellations.
Source: GETTY

© John Hayes (2018)

Summary
Seven tasks that leaders need to perform
• Sense making
• Visioning
• Sense giving
• Aligning
• Enabling
• Supporting
• Maintaining momentum and sustaining the change

Distributed and collective leadership

In situations where power is diffused and where there
are divergent objectives, change initiatives can be more
successful when led by a collective leadership group
rather than a single individual

Factors that can affect the performance of

collective leadership groups

© John Hayes (2018)