Response to Stella’s Strategic Competencies || Blog 8.1

This is a response to Stella Peter’s To Implement or not to Implement, that is the Question….

https://create.twu.ca/stellapetersldrs501/2018/11/22/stellas-strategic-competencies-blog-8-1/

Thanks for the post, Stella!

I believe your staff must be appreciative of your desire to keep the school moving forward and also appreciative of your desire to make changes with each of them on board. By posing one question per meeting, you are in no way overwhelming them or implementing the changes too fast. Lepsinger (2010) discusses a leader’s role in facilitating change readiness (p.99). Lepsinger tells us that one of the reasons change may be difficult to manage is “ change happens too quickly to be easily accommodated by employees” (Lepsinger, 2010, p. 99). It sounds to me like your employees will be ready for change through your guidance and leadership!

Ungerer, Ungerer, & Herholdt (2016), discuss “seven common characteristics associated with spectacularly unsuccessful leaders” (p. 32). One of the characteristics of an unsuccessful leader according to Ungerer et al., is “they think they have all the answers” (p. 33). The encouragement from James 1:9 to listen is the perfect inspiration for a leader. My journey in leadership is not a journey of having and giving all of the answers, but a journey of learning through experience and listening. I can see you agree with this through the questions you are asking on the SLT in your organization. Hughes et al., (2014) tell us, “strategic leadership is not about who knows best. Rather, it involves ongoing, collaborative learning, and that means strategic leaders must create a climate where they not only exert strategic leadership themselves but also encourage strategic leadership from others” (p.130).

I agree with your feelings on Gailbraith (2014) and Ungerer et al. (2014). Although I did find some inspiration and a few things that provided inspiration and insight, I too found it difficult to make connections with the content in these two books and my personal and professional life. Interesting that many of the education stream said the same thing.

Thanks for the thoughts and posts throughout the course, Stella Peters! I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts and have learned many things from you! Thank you and I hope to run into you in another course!!!

Sadie

References

Galbraith, J. R. (2014) Designing Organizations: strategy, structure, and process at the business unit and enterprise levels. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Hughes R., Colarelli-Beatty K. & Dinwoodie  D. (2014) Becoming a strategic leader. (2nd ed.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Lepsinger  R. (2010) Closing the Execution Gap. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J. (2016). Navigating strategic possibilities: strategy formulation and execution practices to flourish. Randburg: KR Publishing.