You are the director of a department in an organization and have been chosen to implement a change initiative. As part of creating a plan to implement the change, you want a strategy to ensure that your followers perceive you as a leader rather than as a manager. Describe your strategy and why you believe this strategy will be effective.

I am of the understanding that all changes are not of equal magnitude. Effective leaders create unique communication strategies based on the degree of change. Changes can be described on a continuum from routine to non routine. For instance, financial institution routinely change their interest rates and airline regularly changes their rates. On the other hand of the continuum are changes such as major reorganization, mergers, new product lines, plant closings, or new corporate strategies.

Effective leaders avoid focusing exclusively on who champions the change. Instead I believe they determine if the situation warrants a top down approach, bottom up approach, or some combination of the two. According to Barker (2001) report on the differences between leadership and management. Leadership is primarily concerned with bringing about transformational change and management is essentially concerned with compliance to the organization governing rules and regulation (Baker, 2001). There is no one best strategy for coping with change. Kotter and Schlesinger (2008) highlight 5 strategies for change, education, participation, facilitation, negotiation and coercion (Kotter & Schlesinger, 2008). I believe the most effective strategy is education and communication. All the other strategies are used whenever there is failure to timely implement change. I believe that explaining the rationale for change and equating the benefits both for the department and each employee will bring out cooperation and less resistance. How will I educate and communicate my change? I will have ongoing departmental meetings and provide memos on the upcoming change and how it will affect the department and each employee. I will also ensure that the change is timely implemented and as much as possible eliminate the anxiety of rushing to make changes. As the director, my assessment of every manager is critical for successful change. I will carry out a thorough assessment of my managers and continue to train them so that they remain 100% committed to the effort of carrying out the new polices and the changes implemented. Once this strategy is successful, employees who are persuaded often times help implement the change as well (Kotter & Schlesinger, 2008).

ReferencesBarker, R. A. (2001). The nature of leadership. Human Relations, 54(4), 469–494.Kotter, J. P., & Schlesinger, L. A. (2008). Choosing Strategies for Change. Harvard Business Review, 86(7/8), 130-139.