How Transformational Leadership Can Accelerate Organizational Change

For any change management project to be successful, whether its transformational leadership in nursing or any other field, there needs to be a complete overhaul of a company’s management style. This is especially true irrespective of the size of an enterprise or its area of expertise.

The primary goal of a credible manager is to improve the management of employees to accompany the transformational leadership process. For this to be fruitful, a leader must leverage new tools and practices. However, many people still ask this burning question, “What is the right managerial posture to consider?”

But firstly, we must understand what managerial posture is.

It is the approach managers take in executing company strengths to the company’s short term and long-term needs and the marketplace. Creating a sound strategic posture is part of the more extensive strategic planning process when company leaders use collective intelligence to develop goals, vision and models for a business in the near future.

When a manager recognizes the advantages of transformational leadership, they can easily lead a company toward a successful change.

The Effects of Change: Resistance, Mistrust, and Stress

Changes are common to a company’s life. And regardless of whether or not these changes are progressive and brutal, they can harm employees. A recent study-research by QualiSocial found that 9 out of 10 employees do not desire change at all.

Keep in mind, this is not because of conservatism but rather fear. Typically, creating a new activity, a merger or a new working model may result in insecurity. These uncertainties in the future cause conflicts among employees, stress, isolation, loss of meaning, resistance and even depression.

This is true for the managers and operation workers. Yet still, as aforementioned, managers not only play a central role in successful conflict management and business change, but also growth of employees and the company at large.

Therefore, can an organization make sure that local managers are well-equipped to meet the challenges that are bound to come by in the future? How can leaders be lured into embracing a new managerial posture? What are the top transformational leadership characteristics that would help them navigate through change seamlessly?

The Managerial Posture to Leverage

Declaring an Individual’s Leadership, More or Less

Usually, change results in loss of reference points, which comes with psychosocial risks, as we witnessed before. So, to discourage any disengagement or rebellion, managers should improve their transactional leadership prowess more than ever before.

How can a manager lead a team well and encourage them to commit the organizational transformation if they do not have the right resources and tools to influence, direct, and offer inspirational motivation? Different types of transformational leadership skills can help managers make informed decisions for the organization and employees.

A strong leader makes the right choices and takes responsibility when they make mistakes. Interpersonal skills, power vulnerability, assertiveness, emotional intelligence, and self-confidence. All these things can be learned through management coaching, thus the importance of the continuous learning process of effective leadership style.

Take On a Managerial Posture of an Orator to Succeed in The Transformation

When an organization goes through significant changes, communication becomes one of the critical traits of a successful manager. It is the job of the leader to share its vision and give life to the action plan.

For this to be possible, the manager should clearly show pedagogy by vividly explaining to their followers the reasons for the change and the benefits that are to be expected. To conduct his operations seamlessly, the manager ought to master suitable communication methods and management skills.

Crisis management, hosting and directing a meeting, speaking in public and managing emotions are all managerial skills that managers need to possess to drive a successful business transformation.

In addition to that, what a manager says should be in line with their actions. That being said, transparent discourse on the change is still crucial to maintain the employees in a razor-sharp focus on overall performance.

This ideology is in fact highly effective within the project management department and the members of the management team. Leadership experts should deliver messages that have a common ground amongst everyone.

When we talk about “communication”, we also mean “mastering how to listen to others.” A company manager accompanies others more than they lead. And what better way to do this than to listen first before being heard.

It is extremely important to listen to other peoples’ fear, misunderstandings, disagreements, and doubts that every member of the company has, and thus a fundamental virtue. Welcome other people and empathize with their problems and concerns.

Support People During The Process of Company Transformation

During this period of change, worries and fears can quickly crop up into any individual’s mind, in the company. As such, managers must offer a solid support system to the employees as best as possible.

Managers need to do more than just organizing monthly meetings to check performance and stocks. But leaders should instead go out in the field. There are several ways through which managers can offer support to their employees, for example the following :

Operational Support

Helping employees to complete their daily tasks and offer guidance on the best way to manage their tasks to be more efficient.

Emotional Support

Encourage the employees and boost morale when individuals are demotivated or in doubt due to work or personal reasons.

Be a Role Model and Source of Inspiration

Managers should act as role models for well-being improvement by disseminating their well-being priorities to the team. Employees want to hear about managers’ goals and the steps taken to communicate with them.

Adopt Positive Intent

Managers should at least presume positive intent to their team and allow them to exercise some level of freedom over their schedule. Great leaders should trust their employees to have their work done and a plan that works well for them.

Listen

Managers need to listen to their employees. Understand insights and ideas into the ways and culture to improve the business. Take note of any threats and red flags to the company.

Then get rid of any obstacles, help to offer sustainable solutions, clarify challenges, and remove negative baggage that may come up. A good leader encourages excellent talent and energy.

Encourage Employees to Be Their Leaders

A true leader will allow his team to do their job, step back and not stand over their shoulders. Each employee should be assigned personal responsibilities and encouraged to succeed in their endeavors. Allow them to make decisions independently.

Informational Support

Managers should be able to clarify issues and questions that employees are facing. They should do this with honesty and empathy. Also, this may be the perfect time to confirm that every individual in the company has understood the manager’s objectives.

The main goal here is to ensure a supportive and solid managerial posture and confirm that they can have trust in management. Apart from supporting the team, it is equally important to assure them, too.

One way to do this is to always share positive messages. However, keep in mind that being optimistic does not mean being utopian or naïve, but instead, means analyzing situations and figuring out the best approach to solving them.

Transformational leadership examples include, sharing to employees what they stand to gain from the transformation. Focusing on the expected advantages hence encourages desires and discourages anticipatory anxiety.

Moreover, the line manager must reassure the team while remaining transparent and honest about the uncertainty associated with the transformation of companies. His main goal is to ensure his team’s confidence and maintain a decent level of performance and dedication.

Are Managers Well Prepared For Change?

Lack of Preparation is one of The Key Deterrence to Change

In 2019, in partnership with OpinionWay, CoachHub carried out a research study on the role of local managers during company change. They surveyed 102 executives and 310 local managers.

Based on the findings from the study, company transformations is a top consideration for over 70% of the respondents. Even though managers are at the center of the transformation, nearly 15 percent of local managers are well-equipped to support the change.

The reason for these low numbers is a lack of preparation. Twenty-one percent of the managers are subjected to change rather than supporting them.

Yannis Niebelschuetz, CoachHub Managing Director said, “We are faced with a paradox: companies are relying more than ever on managers to drive their transformation, but often forget that the first thing to be transformed is the managers themselves. We know that competent managers directly impact team members commitment, collaboration, and ultimately on the company’s overall performance. This is why it is essential to support managers and give them the means to be up to the task.”

The Use of Managerial Coaching to Better Prepare Managers

As far as this topic is concerned, it is essential to awaken the individual potential of each manager. And this is possible through customized professional coaching that allows them to grow and adopt new soft skills.

As a result, the managers will be well prepared to lead and steer their teams and become ambassadors and actors of organizational transformation. Thanks to professional business coaching, changes in progress and traits can be measured as they take place quite fast.

The perfect relationship developed by the coach and the result orientation enables every person to progress in several coaching sessions. Thanks to this generous and active team members management, managers can learn and adopt the ideal managerial posture to drive company transformation. This as a result, boosts company productivity and performance, increasing profits.