Change Lessons from the CEO
On Wednesday 9 October, Patrick Flood, Professor of HRM and Organisational Psychology in DCU Business School, and Professor Johan Coetsee, University of Northumbria, launched their new book, ‘Change Lessons from the CEO. Real People, Real Change’.
The event was attended by colleagues and students from DCU Business School.
The book offers real-world insight from CEOs and leaders, and is ideal for CEOs, managers, leaders of non-profit organizations, consultants,and students in business programs. It includes case studies and first-hand accounts of successful change initiatives in a wide range of businesses and organizations of all sizes, where change is inevitable.
The book uses a wealth of real stories from real CEOs on how they managed major change initiatives and the lessons they learned along the way. It gives professionals and business students powerful and effective guidanceon successfully managing change initiatives in any organization.
Speaking at the launch, Patrick Flood and Johan Coetsee expressed their gratitude to the Dean of DCUBS, Dr Anne Sinnott, for supporting their work and also thanked the many CEOs in Ireland and the UK for sharing their stories of the lived experience of change in their organisations.
Professor Michael Beer, Harvard Business School, endorsed the book, saying, ‘If you would like to learn about how CEOs think and feel about change and their role in leading change, this is the book to read'.
Further details on 'Change Lessons from the CEO':
Leaders need to gain a deeper understanding of themselves and their impact on others if they are to succeed at managing organisational change, says a DCU Business School academic.
Professor Patrick Flood, Professor of Organizational Behaviour at DCU and Dr Johan Coetsee, Senior Lecturer in Organisation and Human Resource Management at Northumbria University, Newcastle, interviewed 27 successful CEOs of multinational companies and public sector organisations in the UK and Ireland to find out how they managed institutional change effectively.
Following wide-ranging interviews with business leaders, they discovered that the authenticity and attitude of the leader was the crucial factor in winning the hearts and minds of employees in order to create successful change in an organisation, rather than the use of an existing change management model. Their research revealed the importance of leaders understanding their own mental models and personal beliefs about their organisation and employees in order to see how they impact their organisation and how they can influence people’s ‘readiness for change’.
“Although we have a lot of models of change management, over 60% of leaders efforts fail or fail to reach the intended objective,” say the authors. “Our book is unique as we don’t suggest a specific model for business leaders to implement. Instead, we extracted real change lessons from practice and provide leaders with tools to develop their own change model that’s specific to the particular organisation, conditions and circumstances’’
“Change is inevitable. Managing change initiatives successfully can be the difference between organizations and teams that thrive and those that come apart at the seams. For business leaders and students, our book offers practical and proven guidance for doing change right.”
Change Lessons from the CEO gives professionals and business students a unique guide to managing institutional change successfully. Endorsed by leading business people and company directors such as Niall Saul and Dean Royles, NHS UK and academics from prestigious institutions including Harvard Business School, London Business School and Boston University School of Management, the book is particularly relevant in the current economic and social climate that has seen many organisations and companies embark on significant structural changes.
Professor Michael Beer at Harvard Business School said: ‘’ If you would like to learn about how CEOs think and feel about change and their role in leading change, this is the book to read’’.
Niall Saul, Chairman of Symbio Business Solutions said ‘’I intend to recommend this book to senior leaders and CEOs who I coach.’’
The book offers solutions far removed from the standard one-size-fits-all business models instead emphasising the importance of a manager or CEO gaining a true understanding of themselves, their organisation and their employees in order to create their own tailor-made model for change that will succeed. The authors aim to close the gap between change management theory and practice.
Many managers are very good in terms of the technical aspects of change. They are able to identify the change to structure or implementation but they forget the softer side of change management – the employees. If a leader wants to create alignment between their vision and their people they need to ask themselves how they feel about change on a personal level.
Successful CEOs place a high emphasis on being authentic, being themselves. People need to be able to trust you. If you’re not a charismatic leader there is no point faking it as you will lack authenticity, instead you need to understand who you are and what your values are. Your attitude to change will influence how the change occurs and whether it will be successful.
Through a mixture of theory, case studies and lessons learned from real-life experiences, ‘Change Lessons from the CEO’ advises leaders to realise how people experience them as a manager. Despite the tendency for leaders to have a forceful, assertive, mentally tough nature, it is important that they temper ego and demonstrate humility in order to communicate their vision clearly and translate it into language that their employees will understand and connect with.
The authors recommend leaders adopt a flexible and agile leadership that empowers their employees to implement the change effectively.
Professor Flood added: “If you want people to embrace change you must be a role model for the change and you must ‘’walk the talk’’ in all of your actions. Then employees will see your integrity and determination and respond positively. You must always be ready to listen and debate-employees have a right to be heard and to be consulted but as a leader you must never lost sight of the fact that your job is to create a winning vision and plan and give confidence embodied in clear communication which has a definite sense of purpose.’’
‘Change Lessons from the CEO: Real People, Real Change’ by Johan Coetsee and Patrick Flood (2013), Jossey Bass-Wiley, ISBN 978-1-1-119-94314-3
A sample chapter can be read at www.wiley.com/go/changelessons