Leadership and change management is responsible for managing the changes associated with the human resources of an organization. It is a process of systematically managing employee engagement and adoption of changes in order to achieve desired outcomes. In simple terms, it emphasizes on how to help employees embrace, adapt, and efficiently implement changes in their day-to-day operations.

Change Management – How It All Began?

Over the course of years, change management has witnessed various significant transformations. The evolution of this discipline can be understood in four distinct eras including:-

Pre-1990s: Foundations
This is the era where academics started to understand how humans experience change. It provided valuable insights, research and frameworks for understanding changes.

1990-2000: On the Radar
In the second era, change management set foot in the business vernacular. Concepts and guiding principles began to form around the discipline of change management.

The 2000s: Present- Formalization
This era primarily involved providing formal structuring to the disciplines of change management. In 2003, the first integrated approach towards change management was introduced that harnessed organizational and individual change management processes and tools.

Going Forward
It involves professional development and enhanced growth of organizational transitions. The present time is marked as a pivotal point that indicates many changes will continue to emerge on various fronts.

Future Scope of Change Management:

In the present fast-paced business domain, the ability to adapt to changes is a strong quality that can drive an organization towards success. The requirements of industries are constantly changing and in order to be successful, businesses must be adaptable. This is why change management is considered to be a prominent concept for any organization, notwithstanding size and operational nature.

Often when new changes are introduced in an organization, there are possibilities of resistance from employees towards embracing those changes. Change management strategies can help employees become more open-minded and acceptable to changes. It is a formal way of communicating with personnel. It informs them why certain changes are occurring and how they will eventually benefit them. Keeping employees well-informed from the outset ensures a smooth and quick transition, thereby saving time and resources of a company.

Additionally, by ensuring open communication, companies set a standard. This helps in boosting the trust of employees in the decisions made by the top management. People are apprehensive of the unknown, therefore it is important to build a strategy to eliminate or at least lessen that fear within them. Ensuring a standard for change in the early stages and maintaining consistency can help in creating a more adaptable and innovative working environment.

Evidently, change management plays a critical role in efficient and successful organizational transitions. However, many managers find it challenging to implement change management strategies. Gaining formal knowledge through leadership and change management courses can help them understand the prominent aspects associated with change management in detail and generate the right strategies to ensure seamless transitions.

An efficient leader is the first condition of a successful business. Successful leaders combine a plethora of leadership styles or just follow one unique style. Leadership styles are constantly evolving and play a vital role in organizational improvement.

Leadership development executive courses help accelerate the careers of talented leaders and mould them to be exceptional influencers on corporate success. Online certification in advanced leadership IIM Lucknow improves cross-functional skills and decision making among aspiring leaders by inculcating broader business knowledge, leadership insights, and global perspectives.

Following are the eight most potent leadership practices for organizational success:-

• Transformational Leadership

Transformational leaders motivate their staff through effectual communication and compelling collaborative techniques, thus paving the path for success. Transformational leaders set challenging goals and expect top results from each employee intending to generate optimum results. Leadership development executive course inculcates potential leaders with ‘Blue sky thinking’ which refers to brainstorming without limitations.

• Democratic Leadership

Also known as participative leadership, this style involves leaders asking inputs and expecting collaboration from their subordinates. Individualistic creativity takes the pedestal and leads to increased levels of employee job satisfaction, thus achieving organizational goals.

• Laissez-faire Leadership

Laissez-faire” translates to ‘let them do’. In this leadership style, the leaders employ a hands-off approach and enable employees to make decisions. This leadership method is useful for achieving targets in creative work environments with experienced staff.

• Transactional Leadership

This style concentrates on creating an unambiguous chain of command and enforcing a carrot and stick technique to management activities. With a focus on group organization, transactional leadership encompasses: clarifying the expected performance results from employees; elucidating how to meet such expectations; and reward allocation on meeting objectives. Leadership development executive courses enable capable leaders to learn how to lower training costs, deploy powerful motivators like tangible perks, and establish clear order regarding rules and authority, which will ultimately lead to an increase in productivity.

• Autocratic Leadership

As the name suggests, this style lies on the extreme end of the spectrum of transactional leadership. Autocratic leaders assume total staff control and rarely consider or accept the views and suggestions of employees.

• Strategic Leadership

This is seen as a highly competent leadership style which involves the leaders taking strategic initiatives to reach a wider audience at all levels to create a high-performance setting for the team and the organization.

• Bureaucratic Leadership

This leadership model is most suitable for a highly regulated work environment where adherence to rules is vital to maintain the administrative hierarchy. Leaders follow a strict set of rules precisely, and the same is expected from the team members.

• Charismatic Leadership

A tinge of similarity is apparent in both charismatic and transformational leadership in the sense that both are heavily dependent on the personality and positive charm of the leader.

Final Thoughts

The vision and culture of an organization ascertain which leadership style is the most suitable. Online certification in advance leadership IIM Lucknow is conceptualized to handle the critical needs of leaders in meeting the challenge of making the organization survive the highly competitive business environment.