How Transformation Take Place ?

Leaders often encounter the need to transform organizations from low performance to acceptable performance, or from acceptable performance to high performance. At other times, a leader is expected to move a form from a crisis mode to high ground. To accomplish these lofty purposes, the transformational leader attempts to overhaul the organizational culture or subculture. His or her task can thus be as immense as the process of organizational change.

Raising People’s Awareness

The transformational leader makes group members aware of the importance and values of certain rewards and how to achieve them. He or she might point to the pride workers would experience should the firm become number one in its field. An example of this aspiration is the entrepreneur and leader Matsushita, the founder of Japan’s equivalent of General Electric, the US$65 billion a year Matsushita Electric Corporation. In 1932 he told employees:-

The mission of a manufacturer is to overcome poverty, to relive society as a whole from the misery of poverty and bring it wealth. Business and production are not meant to enrich only the shops or the factories of the enterprise concerned, but all the rest of society as well



Helping People look beyond self interest

The transformational leader helps group members look to the “ big picture “ for the sake of the team and the organization or community. David Bussau from Opportunity International used his entrepreneurial skills to engage people to help others.



Helping people search for self fulfillment

The transformational leader helps people go beyond a focus on minor satisfactions to a quest for self fulfillment. The leader might explain. “ I know that you have all worked very hard already. Yet if we get this proposal out on time, we might land a contract that will enable us to grow and be the best providers in the country. “


Helping people understand the need for change

The transformational leader must help group members understand the need for change both emotionally and intellectually. The problem is that change involves dislocation and discomfort. An effective transformational leader recognizes the emotional component to resisting change and deals with it openly. Organizational change is much like a life transition. Endings must be successfully worked through before new beginnings. Endings must be successfully worked through before new beginnings are possible. People must become unhooked from their pasts

Dealing with the emotional conflicts of large numbers of staffers is obviously in immense task. One approach taken by successful leaders is to conduct discussion groups, in which managers and workers are free to discuss their feelings about the changes. This approach has been used quite effectively when forms are downsized. Many of the ‘ survivors ‘ co-workers have lost their jobs. Clearly conducting these sessions requires considerable listening on the manager’s part.


Investing managers with a sense of urgency

To create the transformation, the leader assembles a critical mass of managers and imbues in them the urgency of change. The managers must also share the top leader’s vision of what is both necessary and achievable. To sell this vision of an improved organization, the transformational leader must capitalize on available opportunities.

Committing to greatness

Peter Koestenbaum argues that business can be an opportunity for individual and organizational greatness. By adopting this greatness attitude, leaders can ennoble human nature and strengthen societies. Greatness encompasses striving for business effectiveness such as profits and high stock value, as well as impeccable ethics. As emphasis on ethical leadership instills a desire for customer service and quality and fosters feelings of proprietorship and involvement.

Nelson Mandela in his inaugural speech as President of South Africa asked the people to put the past behind them and build a better future for everyone:- “ the time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us. We have at last, achieved our political emancipation. We pledge ourselves to liberalize all our people… We enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity – a rainbow nation at peace witgh itself and the world.


Adopting a long range perspective and at the same time observing organizational issues from a broad rather than a narrow perspective

Such thinking on the part of the transformational leader