For me therefore leadership must always mean being the first to take new and
innovative steps, providing an example and giving others courage to do the same.
This makes it easier for employees to actively be involved in changes. As a manager
I must offer my team a vision that moves our company forward and develops the
employees at the same time, each of the two goals benefiting the other.
3.2.7 Leading Means Managing Change
“Change management” is now on the agenda of most managers, whether by choice
or not. It is a process in which companies and employees acquire the ability to adapt
to both foreseeable and unforeseeable change. Ideally, this process will take place
continuously; however, in real life it happens only when stimuli, such as an acute
market weakness or a merger come from the outside.
We know now that mergers often do not achieve the desired effect. Very often
mergers have failed because the staff did not believe in them. This confirms the
results of a survey conducted by the Academy, in which interviewed executives
(see Akademie-Studie 1999). Changes often fail because many people feel
overwhelmed and are not sufficiently informed about the meaning and purpose of
the change. Only if the leader succeeds in providing the employees with a positive
attitude towards the new situation can the business develop positively.
A survey by the consulting firm Arthur D. Little among members of the Bavarian
Board of German Machinery and Plant Construction shows what change manage-
ment looks like in practice: according to 88% of the respondents the greatest
obstacle to successful change management is the lack of leadership skills, followed
closely by the lack of willingness on the part of employees (87%). The main starting
points for change were considered to be the organization and its corporate culture
(35%), the strategy (31%) and the processes (18%). The main objectives of change
management were considered to be saving and strengthening the company’s com-
petitive position (88%), permanently higher income (77%) and better customer
focus (61%). However, the measurement of the success of change processes is
flawed in most cases (seeFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, July 27, 2004). It’s little
wonder then that for some companies a more appropriate catchphrase would be:
“Change the management.”
3.2.7.1 Being the Catalyst
A leader must have a positive attitude towards change in order to accept, initiate and
institutionalize it. This has also been understood by Hewlett-Packard, which
advertised a new product with the slogan “HP helps companies worldwide to
manage and love the process of change.”
Peter F. Drucker sees managers as pioneers of change processes: “In the 21st
century, each manager must take the central challenge and stand at the forefront of
164 3 Systemic Leadership or: Designing a World That Others Want to Be Part Of