A633.4.3.RB - Changing Dynamics of Leadership

Why do you think the shift in leadership is occurring and do you think this is indicative of what is happening in your organization? List three reasons that support or refute this position. If so, how would leadership dynamics have to be altered to accommodate and promote these types of changes? What are the implications on strategy?

            It's pretty clear that many organizations understand a shift in strategic planning is imminent, but don't agree that business in general has made or is currently shifting. I would say that there is definitely a lot of "talk" about the necessity for change, but so many work dynamics are changing right now, it's hard to stay current. I do have to acknowledge the successes at Zappos, Valve, and Morning Star. Their holacratic approach to managing business has gained a lot of attention, by providing a lack of management. Stewart (2018) raises a few good questions "do your managers enhance your work and enable your people? If so, great. Or do they take up huge amount of time and resources doing that management thing?" Holacracy certainly won't work for all organizations, but this practice has certainly brought light to an innovative way to strategize leadership structures.

            Anthony (2005) claims that "Conclusive, concrete evidence pointing to the need for a strategy shift rarely arrives early enough for the information to be acted on effectively." For me it's pretty clear that you really have to invest a full understanding of your company, know your competitive advantage, and constantly evaluate the market. Market demands are constantly changing, especially when economic pressures are so prevalent. This doesn't necessarily mean that leadership styles are shifting one way or the other. I think that leadership in a general sense will have certain attributes that are similar to what our culture is like at a given point in time. As our culture dynamics shift, then it's only natural to have morals and ethics align with them as well. These external pressures drive internal reflections that spark the need change.

            Losing your competitive advantage through product innovation is certainly a reality for many companies as they start to peak, so how do you find your next niche. Denning (2013) states that "competitive advantage is transient, not sustainable. To operate, we need a new set of assumptions about how the world works and “a new playbook to compete and win when competitive advantages are transient.” This is where I do in-fact see a good number of organizations taking heed and finding new advantage through restructuring their strategy process. The need is real, and for many legacy companies who won't restructure their strategy, they'll ultimately be at the demise of their own success.

            When it comes to strategy, fluid dynamics comes to mind. Establishing a playbook that allows a company to deal with change seamlessly supports this principle. Keeping complexity from becoming chaotic in practice, all while staying on the verge of innovation is such a key factor in today's economy. This is certainly not something that is going to be easy for a company. In fact, it will probably be almost as painful as taking on a new information system. For the transition to work, leadership from the top really has to admit the change needs to happen, and then really sell it. Only after buy-in has occurred, and the strategy has been practice many times is when the culture starts to catch up and allows harmony to set back in.

References

Anthony, S. (2005). Is it time to shift strategy. Retrieved from https://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/is-it-time-to-shift-strategy

Denning, S. (2013). It's official! the end of competitive advantage. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2013/06/02/its-official-the-end-of-competitive-advantage/#573a05b61565

Obolensky, M. N. (2014). Complex Adaptive Leadership, 2nd Edition. [Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781472447937/

Stewart, H. (2018). 8 companies that don't have managers. Retrieved from             https://www.happy.co.uk/5-companies-that-dont-have-managers/