Leadership and change management efforts to sustain innovation and competitive advantage of Sarvodaya-Fusion
Should managers be leaders? I cant help drawing from my Sarvodaya experiences.
We at Sarvodaya believe that everybody should be a leader. But isn’t that confusing?
I have seen enough examples in my time at Sarvodaya (1994 – 2004) where people face extreme challenges in their personal experiments between these two roles. Sarvodaya’s practices are powerfully directed to bring out hidden leadership characteristics. Then, over time, the quiet, insecure, behind–the-scenes individual becomes confident and commanding: an accepted leader in the village, community group or office.
Then comes the opinion clash: ambitions and ego clash. Sometimes such circumstances result in an unhealthy outcome.
Is this a problem of our leadership model, or a problem of perspective within the leadership?
Leadership literature illustrates two prominent models (among many); transformational leaders and transactional leader. Transformational leader are charismatic and inspire followers, offer excitement, vision, intellectual stimulation and personal satisfaction (Haberberg & Rieple, 2008). The immediate example that comes to my mind is Dr A. T. Ariyratne of Sarvodaya, who had been an inspiration to me. And in much larger context Mahathma Gandhi!
Transactional leaders, in contrast, offer something in exchange for loyalty to the leader, improving current practices. They build on existing culture; i.e. they do not try to change the culture. Do executive directors and managers fall into this category?
But these two leadership models are mutually inter-dependant. As far as they recognize these mutual differences, recognize the boundaries and practice mutual respect, such combinations may build a powerful synergy for the organisational growth. Yet such a healthy environment cannot last in a dynamic organisation.
Organisations must adapt to changing external and internal environments. Macro-environments change from consistent ethnic conflict to post-conflict. Micro-environments change as the aspirations of the staff change to modern demands from personal-networking to social-networking via the internet.
When the transformational leader fails to respond to such changes, and transactional leaders strongly understand the need for change (as s/he interacts more closer to the ground), clashes are inevitable.
So, how can we avoid such clashes?
Participation, discussion and empathetic listening are common solutions. But, I have found at many occasions that they are not always sufficient. There are occasions when silence and observation provide additional medicine. But more than that- spirituality provides another practical path.
Meditation? Yes and no. Meditation is a tool, but without appropriate skill and selection of meditation type, this can create more problems than answers.
Following piece of literature I found in the book is very helpful.
Philip Slater – evaluating internal leadership in his paper Leading Yourself (Slater, 2001) – emphasizes the importance of flexible ego functions. He ponders whether your ego allows your body, your impulses, and your intuition to function as they were designed to do, or whether it attempts to limit and constrain them. Is it only comfortable when it feels that everything the organism does is a result of its own conscious control? He continues ‘does your ego respond to feedback? Does it listen to your intuition – that is, to right-brain, holistic insights? Or does it shoot the messenger? Does it respond to pain, fatigue and other physical symptoms with attention, care and concern for the afflicted area, or does it shout down these messages with painkiller, stimulants and other forms of symptomatic relief?’ At the end he recommends one should ‘democratize ego’ as a way to respond to fast changing today’s world.
Ref:
Haberberg, A., & Rieple, A. (2008). Strategic management; theory and application. London: Oxford.
Philip Slater, “Leading Yourself” in The Future of Leadership, Warren Bennis, Gretchen M. Spreitzer and Thomas G. Cummings, eds. (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2001)
