In this article (2013), John Kotter discusses the topic, which is enormously relevant nowadays. The author believes that successful companies must be able to address corporate change (Kotter, 2013). He draws a clear distinction between management and leadership. In addition, he highlights the primary functions carried out by each one of these corporate structural units. In this essay, I will discuss the impact that both leadership and management have on the change leadership.
According to the author (Kotter, 2013), “management is about coping with complexity” (p.6). In addition, John Kotter believes that the role of good management is to bring “order and consistency to key dimensions like the quality and profitability of product” (Kotter, 2013, p.6). It is why one could suggest that management is associated with stability. Successful management makes sure that each one of corporate operational units works efficiently and makes profits.
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On the other hand, “leadership creates the systems that managers manage and changes them in basic ways to take advantage of opportunities and to avoid hazards” (Kotter, 2013, p.6). It is responsible for facing changes effectively. Today, the global market is constantly evolving: countries are becoming more interconnected, new ventures constantly enter the market, and it is enormously hard to retain one’s market share. Effective leaders with a great vision have become one of the company’s greatest assets since they help organizations to navigate the risky and unstable waters of the global market.
Thus, as proposed by John Kotter in “Change Leadership, to become great, businesses need both management and leadership. This mix is a good way to ensure that an organization can both meet its present and future demands. Companies that have strong management, but no leadership, are incapable of changing. On the other hand, businesses with effective leadership and no management are “only as strong as [their] charismatic leader” (Kotter, 2013, p.6).
“Leadership 4.0” by Jim Boneau and Gregg Thompson
In their article (2013), Jim Boeau and Gregg Thompson discuss the nature of leadership and demands of the future business environment. They provide a short overview of the three leadership stages and propose that a completely new, leadership 4.0 stage has just begun. In this essay, I would like to discuss the “Leadership 4.0” by Boneau and Thompson and share my thoughts on the future of leadership.
The authors (Boneau & Thompson, 2013) suggest that the future business environment will be driven by leadership’s ability to face four primary challenges. First, ability to acquire and develop talents. According to the article (Boneau & Thompson, 2013), this skill will become one of the main sources of competitive advantage. Thus, they suggest that human capital will differentiate top performers from the rest. Second, communication will become a part of leadership. Leaders will have to articulate and provide purpose to motivate workers to act differently (Boneau & Thompson, 2013). Third, innovation will become enormously important for businesses to survive and retain the market share. Fourth, successful leaders will have to learn how to lead and embrace change.
I strongly agree with Boneau & Thompson. However, I would also like to propose several extensions to their vision of the future leadership. First, besides acquiring and developing talents, managers will have to learn how to keep successful workers. Since human capital is likely to become the primary source of corporate competitive advantage, organizations will compete for the best candidates. Thus, I think that the future business environment might become more focused on the employee’s needs. It is an approach that some successful businesses have already embraced. Second, successful managers will have to develop strong risk-management skills. Change is necessary to survive, but it usually comes with an enormous risk. Thus, leadership’s ability to monitor and analyze risk-management strategies to learn from own mistakes will become a necessary skill in the future marketplace.
- Boneau, J., & Thompson, G. (2013). Leadership 4.0. It’s a brave new approach.
- Kotter, J. (2013). Change Leadership. How can you accelerate results?.
