Saturday, April 19, 2014

A633.4.3.RB - Changing Dynamics of Leadership

Leadership is becoming more and more dynamic every day. In today’s workforce the role of a leader is much different than it was a few decades ago, mainly because of the changes organizations are going through to stay competitive and keep employees performing at a very high level. I believe the three biggest contributors of this revolve around change: change in organizational culture, change in industry competition, and change in the workforce.

Employees expect organizations to support them in different capacities today, and different motivational factors have to be used to keep employees performing. The change in the makeup and structure of the workforce, along with the need to support a healthy culture are helping to drive this change in leadership. Organizations are becoming diverse enough that leaders have to formulate strategies to satisfy the needs and wants of their employees while meeting the goals of the company. In addition, several industries are becoming competitive, forcing additional responsibilities and unique roles on leaders today. This places leaders in positions of constant change within their organizations. My organization is certainly going through changes like these right now. The retail industry is highly competitive, so leaders are being tasked to take on larger, more integrated teams, along with the entire organization going through constant change in processes and practices.

Leadership dynamics have to be altered to help facilitate and promote change within organizations. This change could come in the form of structure and leadership responsibilities, or it could be in the form of compliance practices for the USDA. Either way, leaders in any capacity will be tasked to help lead employees through this change, from the bottom up. In addition, the ideas generated to drive the strategies needed to help organizations stay competitive will come from lower level employees. This is because they have the continuity, consistency, and knowledge to drive the business forward, and do it in a time frame that the organization needs.

Strategy is going to be absolutely necessary for this change. For example, a change within an organization could represent something significant for employees, so the strategy needed for communication, processes, involvement, etc., could be different than what is was in the past, based on employee culture, tenure, and acceptance level. The ideas could be generated from the bottom level of the organizations, but the strategy behind the ideas has to come from the leadership level to be successful.




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