What Leadership Style Reduces Resistance?

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What Leadership Style Reduces Resistance?
The importance of employees being committed to change cannot be underestimated nowadays, since more and more organizations are operating in a dynamic environment, both internally and externally.
How should leaders behave so as to maximize commitment to change? What type of leadership meets the conditions for maximized commitment to change?

According to Kool and Van Dierendonck (2012), followers are most likely to be committed to change if leaders consider the feelings of the followers and are clear about the tasks to be done at the same time.
In other words, followers are most likely to be committed to change if leaders act in both a people and task oriented way.

Because servant leaders combine attention to the desires of their followers with being clear about the tasks of these followers, this leadership style is very effective.
Source: Kool, M. and D.V. Dierendonck (2012) “Servant Leadership and Commitment to Change, the Mediating Role of Justice and Optimism” Journal of Organizational Change Management Vol. 25 Iss. 3 pp. 422-433

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		Groga Mkandawire, Malawi
	0 Servant Leadership Effective for Change I agree servant leadership is an effective way of ensuring that followers are committed to change. As compared to other styles of leadership, in which followers are not given a chance to give out their views.

		Tan Poh Lip, Malaysia
	1 Situational Leadership Style Builds Highly Effective People I believe the Situational Leadership style is the best way to maximize commitment to change. However, The 7 Habits are the key success factors to build a highly effective and good leader.

		De Monte Canada
	1 Nothing New About Change We are talking about continuous improvement = change. Individuals, organizations, teams/groups identify and communicate change. Humans, like the machines we create, require control behaviour, when needing/desiring something or not. I identify myself as a servant-leader to demand clear tasks/activities and services to perform from my organization and sensitive to the needs/wants/desires of my colleagues for written procedures/tools, policies and systems to use, improve and share. I am open to any good idea from anyone, as I am not set in stone, to welcome and assess the needwant/desire of a change in me, in thought, word and deed. I am social and welcoming as opposed to anti-social and unwelcoming that I often see around me. As I am not at the top, I challenge the management for positive change if it is spoken, but not necessarily delivered. I detect and identify trouble to communicate before it happens. Whether it's is heard or not is another matter.

		Vincent Dabney Management Consultant, United States
	1 Leadership Style Reducing Resistance to Change is All About Context In concept, a leadership style that balances desired organizational change and employee self-interest should result in less resistance; i.e., alignment and buy-in. However, I have not seen that there is a singular or universal style that facilitates cooperation and buy-in in all situations, in all organizations and in all contexts. Different circumstances are likely to dictate not only the most effective leadership style, but also the need to adapt the leadership style as the internal environment evolves.

		Ologunebi Oludotun, United Kingdom
	3 Leadership and Change Management Commitment to change depends on a lot of factors ranging from the leadership style to timely dissemination of information. It is common knowledge that employees regard change and its agents with suspicion. Employees are most likely to adapt or accept a change when they can see the selflessness of leaders involved. Trust is the basis of acceptance and of the expectation that their needs will be met, if not wholly at least partly through the introduction of the change. The information on the change can give room for recognition of achievement and opportunity for career advancement which will help support employees to meet their needs and that of the organisation. All these can indeed be made possible through the servant leadership style.

		nora a. ghaffar Professor, Saudi Arabia
	1 Commitment and Leadership, Ethic and Values Ethica of the leader is very important to maximize commitment, understanding and knowing of the followers to accept changing.

		Gary Stead Director, United Kingdom
	1 Team Commitment Hi Anneke, you have offered some key points to move our debate along. Thank you for your insight. My company, Unipart, is famed for employee engagement and we have not only a suite of tools - but also a end-to-end reality of self motivated and exceptionally curious people. I feel this stands the traditional model of leadership on its head - such that our teams challenge our leaders everyday - for the benefit of our customers across the globe. Discuss!

		Victor MAcGill Student (University), New Zealand
	1 So what is a Leader Our whole picture of leadership as someone out front who guides and controls is so outdated. A servant leader talks about relationship rather than a person or people and leadership is something that emerges out of the relationship and does not belong to the leader. Once the "follower" recognises that their role is about relationship and is just as important to leadership they can feel more valued.

		AG Mariano Interim Manager, Philippines
	5 Transform Good Followers into Good Leaders Following blindly is difficult. You don't see what's ahead, you don't know which way to turn because you are not clear about the target. So as a leader, if you give all of these information to your team this will not only encourage them to commit, they will also give you ideas on how to solve problems along the way. Delegating minor tasks to would-be leaders would lend them the upper hand on some decision making, and will help you double up on time saved. With this you get two birds with one stone. New leaders and committed teams.

		Oula denis Ignatius Accountant, Uganda
	3 Leadership Styles to Reduce Resistance For an organization to achieve its goals, the leaders must understand the composition of their teams. Many followers today are quite knowledgeable and prefer to be consulted before a change is proposed. Where all the team members are involved in designing the change approach, there is likely going to be minimal resistance, accompanied by high level of motivation. Good ideas are not exclusive to leaders only. Allow subordinates to participate in initiating change in an organization and you will fly to the next level.