Outline
This is a journal project on leadership focusing on the situation and its change, interaction by the leader with others, and behavior of the leaders, and the need for changing the behavior as and when required. To deal with different managerial situations where crucial decisions are required, the leaders have to change their attitude, personality, and behavior.
Week 6 in general
The leaders are supposed to have the quality of good interaction skills. The position of a leader requires continuous interaction with his followers as well as with others. The organization and the society will always be watching the decision and acts of the leaders. Different management tools are used for supporting the healthcare service. “Healthcare organizations are searching for ways to improve the quality of care they deliver while simultaneously attempting to reduce costs and improve levels of service.” (Sittig 2001).
Managers must be good leaders and they should be flexible enough to change according to the situation. If they do not act according to the situation that may sometimes result in the collapse of the organization.
Changes in leader and changes in the organization
The leaders and the organization have to be subjected to and adjust to changes. For example, if a company acquires some other companies which were the competitors of the first company, there arise lots of problems. Because operating procedure, employee behavior, business techniques…etc will be different from each company. (Chapter 13: Change in the waste industry, p. 612). So the leaders should be ready to take up the challenges and also they are supposed to act wisely. In order to make the organizational change effective, it should cover the employees and the organization should make aware of the employees about the need for changes. The leaders have many things to do in the organizational change. They have to lead the process along with changing themselves. “Transforming organizations requires investment. Many leaders talk transformation, yet invest the organization’s time and money in the same old ways. By contrast, leaders serious about transformation are willing to invest in change.” (Babak 2009).
For effective implementation of change, it requires full dedication on the part of leaders. “Leaders cannot effectively initiate or implement change unless they are fully involved.” (Edwin Kee & Kathryn 2009). Studies have proved that most healthcare organizations collapsed due to a lack of proper leadership. (Pexton 2009).
Personal experience
As a member of the local club in my native place, I clearly understood the concept of change according to the situation. As a member of the team of club, I used to play both football and cricket. The captain of the team was the same person in both games. I was surprised by seeing the performance of the captain as a leader in football as well as in cricket because the situations are different in these two games. Our captain clearly handled the changed situation. He was having different sets of ideas for football matches and cricket matches. He implemented them properly which helped our team win matches.
And another quality that I saw in our team captain was that he was an expert in interacting with his followers (other team members). He always listened to the team members. As he was a friendly person, he implemented new ideas in the team which greatly helped our team to reach the top position.
Management and Leadership
Management and leadership are related to each other. It is a commonly known fact that all managers are leaders but all leaders are not managers. Therefore, it is clear that leadership is an inevitable part of management. To be a good manager one must have good leadership qualities. The manager must be able to properly communicate and interact with his followers as well as outsiders. One of the differences between manager and leader is that leader focuses on the future, that is, he has good vision, but manager mainly focuses on the present conditions and problems. In challenging fields like healthcare services, the principles of management are wisely used. Like leaders, managers are also expected to change according to the situations. A manager without leadership qualities cannot perform well in his role.
Barriers to change
There are so many barriers to the implementation of changes. One barrier is that the followers may not be ready to accept changes. If the leader does not get any support from his followers it will be very difficult to change the situation and change according to the situation. In order to overcome this, one better solution is to implement the change on a slow and steady basis. “Smart leaders understand that people need both information and time to accept a change. They also realize that they can’t wait forever to get everyone on board. So, they break big changes into small pieces that people are willing to accept more quickly.” (Five things smart leaders do to lower the barriers to change 2006).
Lack of technology may be considered as another barrier. In today’s world, in which everything makes use and helps of technology if the leaders do not get enough technological support, it will be difficult to implement their change plans. For overcoming this barrier, it requires support from the part of the organization by providing all the technology helps to the leaders.
Reference
Babak, Armajani 2009, What transformational leaders do: leading a public organization through change requires the executive to find a way to invest significant time, energy, and political capital in the change process, Entrepreneur, Web.
Chapter 13: Change in the waste industry (provided by the student).
Edwin Kee, James & Kathryn, E 2009, Business Publications: why do change efforts fail? What can leaders do about it? A recent study of large scale transformations in public and nonprofit organizations show how leader can make change efforts work, BNET, Web.
Five things smart leaders do to lower the barriers to change: 4. They break the change into “bite-sized” pieces 2006, Leadership Information, Web.
Pexton, Carolyn 2009, Overcoming organizational barriers to change in healthcare, Ft Press: Financial Times, Web.
Sittig, Dean. F 2001, The importance of leadership in the clinical information system implementation process: introduction, Informatics-Review, Web.