At the start of this course, we were tasked with looking at what characteristics made for effective leadership in digital learning. What I discovered and have maintained is that the characteristics that make for an effective leader do not change based on the context in which they were leading. Capable and inspiring leadership is driven by motivating others to achieve their best performance. This is echoed by Workman & Cleveland-Innes (2012), “true leadership is best defined in the outcomes that are achieved rather than the inputs applied” (p. 314).
In looking more closely into leadership styles, I realized that true leadership does not need to come from hierarchal structures and a person at any level of an organization can demonstrate effective leadership as they model the behaviours that we wish to see from others.
This idea of leading from all levels in an organization is especially important when looking at change. Change is inevitable in any field of practice. The largest factor of a change being successful is the human-element. Al-Haddad & Kotnour (2015) contest that leadership in change is in essence the values and methods that change leaders apply to the human aspects of change to motivate others to want to be part of the change while mitigating resistance.
An effective way to achieve this motivation in others is through well laid-out change management and project plans. This planning helps to uncover barriers while building confidence in others of the impending change. There are many models used as part of project and change management, and these models can also be combined to best suit the needs of the specific change required, but in whatever model is used, one of the most important factors in creating successful change is to focus time and energy on the people that will carry out the change.
“The people must have ownership in the vision. They need to be enabled to accomplish it. If there is one investment you should make, it is in people.” – Modesta Lilian Mbughuni (Endicott, n.d)
References
Al-Haddad, S., & Kotnour, T. (2015). Integrating the organizational change literature: a model for successful change. Journal of Organizational Change Management 28(2), 234-262. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-11-2013-0215
Endicott, B. (n.d.) 4 change management hacks talent development pros should be using today. Simply Strategic Talen Solutions. https://www.simplystrategictalent.com/post/change-management-hacks
Workman, T., Cleveland-Innes, M. (2012). Leadership, personal transformation, and management. The international review of research in open and distributed learning, 13(4), 313-323. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v13i4.1383
03/27/2023 at 9:14 pm
Hello Rebecca,
I love your quote from Modesta Lilian Mbughuni, and very good advice. I appreciate your reflection and this resonates well with what I have been reading about psychological safety in the workplace, very interesting and relevant to so many contexts. I wonder how the way we communicate and collaborate with each other will change in the next decade, I never would’ve imagined such as huge leap into relying on and utilizing virtual meetings for practically everything and to the degree we currently are. Congratulations on completing 525!!
Nicole
03/28/2023 at 5:04 am
Hi Nicole,
Thanks for the comment. I am very interested, both personally and professionally, in psychological safety in the workplace and would love to hear more about your learnings in that subject!
I agree with never before having imaging such a reliance on virtual meeting spaces for communication. They have been invaluable throughout this program, and of course, throughout the pandemic, but I do still maintain that there is a time and place for their appropriate use. Perhaps this is because of my work in health care where I can clearly see that communication is only a small percentage of the words that are said. Even with the use of masks at our hospital, we can see such a large part of our communication with patients is lost. By not being able to accurately read facial expressions, it is hard to be sure if the message is being understood by patients, or if a doctor is explaining to a patient with true compassion. Body language is such a huge part of communication and virtual meeting tools do still have us losing some of that piece. For example, prior to the pandemic, during in-person presentations I gave, I would be able to see everyone easily in the same space and look for clues of engagement or understanding, but now with digital presentations, looking for and assessing those clues becomes more difficult with not being able to see everyone at one when I am speaking or cameras being turned off and not being able to see some people at all. I know that it is not always possible to meet in person, but I think we should still endeavor to do so when it is possible and not be overly reliant on these digital communication tools, so that we lose the human connection in our communications.
03/28/2023 at 10:29 am
Hi Rebecca,
Thanks for sharing your reflections. I appreciate you mentioned “the largest factor of a change being successful is the human-element”, and that we need well structured change management and project plans to achieve the motivation of change. Have you ever encountered leaders who are resistant to change in your organization? And how do you or others motivate them to be part of the change?
Thanks, and echoing Nicole, congratulations on completing the midpoint of our program!!!
Megan