“What is Quantum Leadership?”;
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Assignment 01: Leadership IV Page
Question 1
1.1 Introduction 2
1.2 What is quantum Leadership? 2-3
Question 3
3. Aspects on which successful leader concentrate 4
3.1 Achieving goals 4
3.2 Effective management 4
3.3 Working with groups 4
3.4 Working with individuals 5
Question 4
4.1 Leaders who accomplish change 6
4.2 Leading major change 6-7
4.3. Strategies for everyday change 7
4.4 Dealing with resistance 8
Question 5
5.1 Introduction 9
5.2 Awareness paradoxes 9
5.3 Awareness of self and others 9
5.4 Awareness of our vision 10
5.5 Awareness power and group dynamics 10
6. List of References 11
Question 1
1. Introduction
Good leadership ability coupled with solid management skills can have a significant impact on a workplace effectiveness and consequent career progression. Without these core competencies under control, the workplace can be an extremely harsh environment. Fortunately, leadership and management skills can be acquired to assist managers with achieving their ultimate potential and be more effective and productive to their organization.
2. What is Quantum Leadership?
Quantum leadership is the process of leading from the future. It is based upon the achievement of a Future Perfect Organization, which is the prototype high-performance organization of the 21st century. In addition Quantum leadership occurs by projecting one’s mind-set and behaviors into the FuturePerfect paradigm and literally “pulling” the organization into that future state. A FuturePerfect Organization is defined as exceptional in terms of productivity, performance, and profitability, one to three years into the future.
As claimed by Quigley cited in April et al. (2008: 64-66) that future organizations wanting to be successful in an environment of change and uncertainty, will require quantum leaders at all levels of the organization. Quigley (1997) and others further claimed that for leaders to be effective they need to be recognised by certain characteristics and they are mention below:
assumptions of leadership ignores individual and group values.
Having mentioned all these characteristics at this point, we have to remind again that quantum leadership both describes the process and the actions in the process. It helps people who are ready to act, by offering them necessary trust to walk towards future
Question 3
Aspects on which successful leaders concentrate
3.1 Achieving goals
According to Van Zyl (2009:7), leaders look into the future. In addition they can create a vision, identify goals or provide solutions to the problems. They also provide a focus which unites various individuals and groups in action.
3.2 Effective management
Daniels and Daniels (2007:8), maintain that the durability of the leader’s vision is dependent on the quality of management. They further state that a leader must be involved in management to the extent necessary to ensure that systems and process are in place that will outlive personalities, so that the leader’s legacy survives successive management changes. In effective organizations, leadership and management are complementary.
3.3 Working with groups
According to Sohmen (2013), a team can be defined simply as a group of individuals united in pursuit of a common mission or goal, often sacrificing personal agendas for the sake of team accomplishment. Thus, teams have several characteristics: diverse individuals, a common goal, a sense of community, knowledge-sharing, and, concerted effort. The best teams are those composed of individuals who are keen opportunity-seekers, indefatigable problem-solvers, and incorrigible optimists. Such teams develop high team dynamics and a strong track record, while enhancing their own professional development. Effective leadership is needed to accomplish these laudable goals. Therefore, the leader should strive to understand the culture of each team and find ways to strengthen the natural dynamics of that team and each of its members. A creative approach needs to be taken to drive the strategic vision of the organization through effective leadership.
3.4 Working with individuals
Goodman and Page (2008), are of the opinion that leaders understand how change can damage a person’s ego, identity and life-support system. They know the logic of emotion and make themselves aware of what people are feeling. They engage people through their behaviour, they share vital information about why change is happening, this brings people a harsh dose of reality. They ask useful question then shuts up and listens to the words and feelings coming back.
Question 4
4.1 Key characteristics of leaders who accomplish change
As stated in the study Guide of Leadership IV (2016:100), for leaders who accomplish change, they define themselves a change leaders; they demonstrate courage; they believe employees can assume responsibility; they can assimilate and articulate values that promote adaptability; they also recognize and learn from their mistakes; similarly, they can manage complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity and lastly they have vision and can describe it in vivid terms.
4.2 Leading major change
As stated by Sharma (2007:119), change leaders are responding positively and vigorously by taking initiatives and adopting strategies like business process reengineering, merges and acquisitions, quality initiatives that match the requirements of the turbulent times.
Kotter (2007) is of the belief that, to give your transformation effort the best chance of succeeding, it is imperative to take the right actions at each stage.
Stage .Action
Establish a sense of urgency
Examine market and competitive realities
for potential crises and untapped
opportunities.
Form a powerful guiding coalition
outside the normal hierarchy.
Create a vision Create a vision to direct the change effort. Develop strategies for realizing that vision.
Communicate the vision Use every vehicle possible to communicate the new vision and strategies for achieving it.
the guiding coalition.
Empower others to act on the vision
Remove or alter systems or structures
undermining the vision.
Plan for and create short-term wins
Consolidate improvements and
Produce more change Use increased credibility from early
wins to change systems, structures, and
policies undermining the vision.
who can implement the vision.
new projects and change agents.
Institutionalize new approaches
behaviors and corporate success.
succession plans consistent with the
new approach.
Source: Kotter, (2007:1)
4.3 Strategies for everyday change
As observed by Daft (2008:414), good leaders work daily to gradually shift attitudes, assumptions and behaviour toward a desired future. Similarly, leaders use tools of appreciative inquiry for a variety of everyday change initiatives such as developing followers, strengthening teamwork, solving work issues and resolving conflicts.
There are four incremental changes as mentioned in the Leadership IV Study Guide, which range from the leader working alone, to working directly with others in a more directed and extensive change effort and they are as follows:
4.4 Dealing with resistance
According to Edmond (2011), fear is often one of the most common reasons for resisting change – fear of the unknown, of failure, loss or leaving a comfort zone. The risk of change is seen as greater than the risk of standing still and requires a leap of faith. People will only take positive steps towards the unknown if they genuinely believe that the risk of standing still is greater than that of moving forward in a new direction. Change is bound to bring about different levels of energy and commitment as well as tensions and conflicts, but all these reactions are important sources of healthy change. Sharma (2007), is of the view that in order to deal with change, it is imperative to discover precisely ‘who’ and the ‘why’ of resistance; to get people involve to participate in making change; a healthy communication system that ensures accurate information and readiness to listen to feedback must exist within the organisation; it is also imperative of leaders to provide clearly defined goals, which may not lead to revision of goal statements; lastly, there is also need for training to acquire skills for their role in the change process or their new role.
In Conclusion, in today’s uncertain economic climate, many organisations are forced to make changes in order to survive. They need to react quickly to the global revolution while at a local and national level have to keep up with new technology and competition if they want to stay ahead of the game (Edmond:2011:349).
Question 5
5.1 Introduction
April et al. (2008:3), define the metaskills of a leader as the “skills needed to step back and look at ourselves in the contexts of family, work, community, the world and the universe in order to raise our awareness, consciousness and understanding of who we are, why we are here, how we operate and how that affects others and our environment”.
The authors further went on to say that, as a leader it is, and will be, critical to be aware on a number of fronts, not only of yourself, but of others as well as of the context in which you operate. As a way of developing this awareness, they offer four metaskills to assist in this process.
5.2 Awareness of paradoxes
The first metaskill deals with an awareness of paradox and that there may be a need to let go of having always to be certain of choices and outcomes. This is becoming less possible in our complex world. In order to cope, we are faced with the urgency to do more, quickly, while at the same time needing to reflect ('being') in order for our 'doing' to be more effective.
5.3 Awareness of self and others
In order to operate more effectively in this world of paradox, it is suggest that the second metaskill required is that of knowing yourself. You need to understand from which mental models you operate, how you respond in certain situations, what assumptions you and others make. We introduce the notion of 'self-doubt' as a quality which is an inherent part of knowing yourself.
5.4 Awareness of our vision
The third metaskill is to know where you want to go, or where you think you want to go.
5.5 Awareness power and group dynamics
The fourth and final metaskill is that of understanding power and group dynamics. A key to this skill is self-awareness, because we look at how group dynamics operate at a primary (or work-group) level, as well as at a secondary (or basic assumptions) level, where much that happens is below the surface. Without self-awareness, we are unable to tap into the secondary processes that are happening all around us, but which are not necessarily obvious to us on a surface level (April et al., 2008: xv).
6. List of References
April, K., Macdonald, R. and Vriesendorp, S. 2008. Rethinking Leadership. Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press.
Daniels, A.C. and Daniels, J.E. 2007. Measure of a Leader. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing.
Edmonds, J. 2011. "Managing successful change", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 43 Iss 6 pp. 349 – 353 Permanent link to this document: Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00197851111160478 . Date of access: 16 April 2016.
Goodman, P. and Page, T. 2008. From Hippos to Gazelles: How leaders creates leaders. London: British Council.
Innovation International: the power to transform your world. Available from http://www.innovint.com/services/leadership_1.php. Date of access: 7April 2016.
Kotter, J.P. 2007. Leading Change: Why transformation fails. Harvard Business Review .
Quigley, M.E. 1997. Quantum Organizations. Executive Excellence, 14 (5), pp. 14-15.
Sharma, R.R. 2007. Change Management: Concepts and Applications. Tata McGraw-Hill publishing Company: New Delhi.
Sohmen, 2013. Leadership and Teamwork: Two Sides of the Same Coin. Journal of IT and Economic Development 4(2), 1-18
Leadership IV: Study Guide. 2016. Krugersdorp: Southern Business School.
Van Zyl, E. 2009. Leadership in the African Context. Cape Town: Juta & Co Ltd.