Transformational leadership and organizational change at Intersect Investment Services

Transformational Leadership Analysis

Leadership and Change Management Research

Transformational Leadership Traits

Situation Analysis

Whitman Model

Jobs Model

Leadership and Change Management Research

The following analysis has been conducted with perspective of transformational leadership and change management in mind. Furthermore, benchmarks were gathered for the situation faced by Janet Angelo as the Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Intersect Investment Services. Janet was originally selected for her expertise in executing a "Customer Intimacy" model at two other companies; most recently at a financial institution. Janet was able to improve customer loyalty and increase sales in all of the previous positions she held. Moving from a traditional customer service relationship to a more modern customer intimacy model often requires major organizational reorganization; however Janet had the opportunity to implement these changes over a three-year period. The position at Intersect has only allotted twelve months. This will require that Janet practice transformational leadership practices in order to ensure that the organization will adapt to the new model.

Transformational Leadership Traits

With the changing business environment, the role of transformational leadership is increasingly important for organizations to be successful. Transformational leadership particularly is considered to be the most effective among the numerous leadership theories (Judge & Bono, 2000). A transformational leader will try to motivate their followers to reach their full potential by setting more challenging expectations and thus achieving higher group performances. Because transformational leadership is correlated with success, many researchers have tried to determine the basis of transformational leadership, and found that some personality traits are helpful in predicting transformational leadership.

Transformational leadership demands to the moral values of followers, transforming their goals into organizational goals and mustering their energy and resources to reform organizational processes. Some have defined transformational leadership as a leader's ability to push followers beyond their immediate self-interests. Others have claimed that it uplifts the follower's level of maturity, his or her ideals, as well as his or her concern for the achievement, self-actualization, and well-being of others, of organizations, and of society generally. Of the three theories of leadership that are common, this one conceivably has the most relevance to the ideals associated with the situation that Janet faces.

Bass (1988) proposed four components of transformational leadership: First, Idealized influence refers to a leader's abilities such as dedication, a strong sense of purpose and perseverance, and a confidence in the purpose and actions of the group, that helps to ensure the success of the group and gives followers a sense of empowerment and ownership. Followers respect, admire, and trust such a leader. They view the leader as more charismatic and more of a role model with extraordinary capabilities, consistent, and demonstrating high standards of ethical and moral conduct. Second, Inspirational Motivation refers to a leader's ability to articulate to followers a clear, appealing, and inspiring vision.

A leader who provides such motivation displays enthusiasm, optimism, and commitment to goals can motivate an organization. Third, Intellectual Stimulation refers to a leader's ability to embolden followers to question assumptions, challenge the status quo, view problems from new perspectives, and develop novel approaches. Finally, the fourth, Individualized Consideration focuses on a leader's ability to advance follower development by providing support, encouragement, and coaching. All of these skills should be of great interest to Janet.

Situation Analysis

Intersect recently hired Janet Angelo for the position of Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales specifically to implement a Customer Intimacy model in her department. Janet has been successful in implementing the customer intimacy model in other companies; however, Janet seems to lack in charismatic leadership skills which are needed to motivate employees. Janet may find it informative to study and benchmark known transformational leaders such as Steve Jobs or Meg Whitman. Steve Jobs is often accredited with transforming the culture at Apple Computers on several instances to save it from eminent doom. Whitman, on the other hand, was known for her ability to motivate her employees on an unparalleled level to inspire them to perform at higher levels at EBay. Each of these individuals could provide insights into how Janet could facilitate organizational change through transformational leadership styles.

Jobs Model

Steve Jobs is another great example of a transformational leader. He was known for his ability to direct his people and make them do things which they have never done before. He is seen as egotist, but this is not too uncommon for successful leaders (Davies, 2011). Egoism often appears to be an assertive force for motivated to success in business. Steve Jobs is definitely egoistical regarding himself, but he is also egoistic towards his workers in making them achieve what seemed to be unachievable before. It is essential to understand this since this egotist characteristic has also been known as a part of Jobs's successful management style.

The success of his team work is partially egotism and the resulting high standards, but also the idea that the strategy through which this product will be brought to life should be based solely on innovative products and business processes. Jobs perfectionism is seen through his vision of the company being not only a fierce competitor, but the company which brings the most innovations to consumers. Apple concentrated on few products and utilized a strategy that focused on revolutionary technology as well as quality.

In order to facilitate the creation of these breakthrough products, Jobs recruited much of the industry's top talent. Once his teams were assembled, he shared his vision with the team and pushed them hard to make things happen. Steve Jobs vision of leadership also takes as fact that small teams with talents are much more productive than masses of people with less talented individuals.

Conclusion

If Intersect's CEO wants to transform their customer service model in twelve months, then it will take an individual with transformational leadership skill set. The case mentioned that Janet, the lead of this project, doesn't have a significant amount of charisma. However, she does have experience that will prove to be an incredibly invaluable asset in this situation. She needs to combined the best practices she learned from working on the previous projects as well as learn a few new tricks if she is going to motivate the organization to complete the project with such a short duration.

The techniques and strategies were benchmarked from a couple successful transformational leaders that can provide some insight for Janet to meet the deadlines requested by Intersect's management to make a rapid transition to the "Customer Intimacy" model of customer service. Janet Angelo's task is significant but should be executed more efficiently in light of the experience behind their development if she can learn to motivate her teams. She will have to move from being a transactional type of leader to one that has the skill set to literally transform an organization.