John McGuire from the Center for Creative Leadership, who is currently in attendance at the NG HR US Summit, spoke about ‘transforming your leadership culture’. He believes that too many changes with management initiatives can prove detrimental to morale.
“Our work with clients around the world has shown that there is a hierarchy of organisational cultures. Each advancing culture is more capable of dealing with the kind of complexity and ambiguity that typify our world today. But if an organisation’s current leaders have not developed the right beliefs and practices – in other words, the right culture – to work across divisional boundaries, they’ll rarely change successfully. When they get it right, however, every dollar invested in leadership development yields results and organisational impact that far exceeds expectations,” he said.
John was also joined by Hard Rock International – Kim Creighton, VP HR, Madison Square Garden – Dwight Tierney, SVP HR and Administration, Time Warner Inc – Maggie Ruby Lynch, SVP Worldwide Recruitment and Virgin Atlantic Airways LTD, Frances Fiorillo, SVP People. Although talks are still in progress at the NG HR US summit, it seems that all are in agreement that although change is on the horizon it will be managing it that proves who will be successful and who will be creating organised chaos.
A common fault by many companies is to organise change when implementing a new strategy, even though today’s volatile economy leaves little room for error. The NG HR committee feels there are clear reasons for these struggles; for most companies a change in management means altering organisational structures and processes. They rarely ask staff about how willing they are to make changes, which, the majority of the time, they are not.
John added: “[CEOs and managers] must realise that by nature people are wary of change. They must be careful about making difficult decisions and pace the changes. When implementing a new structure there is a need for a gradual process to shape the system.”
Recent reports show that unemployment within the United States has improved very little over the last quarter: figures show that unemployment is hovering around 14.9 million, which equates to an unemployment rate of just under 10%. The large number is indicative of the current global economic climate which has shrunk working opportunities and left one in 10 of the working age population out of work.
