For change to be effective Organizations needs a management team that is supportive and directive. Effective leadership in the change management process is important because of all the factors involved in organizational change. According to McShane and VonGlinow (2004), a leader must be able to “influence, motivate and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization. ” As situations shift, leaders must be able to adapt and motivate employees to reduce fear, uncertainty and loss of employee morale.
When an organization goes through major changes, using the most effective leadership style can directly impact the success of the change and impact to the organization. Supportive leadership style is more transformational, emphasizing effectiveness. It is a naturally organic and emotionally sensitive style and is especially useful in circumstances such as change. This form of leadership style helps to build and maintain effective interpersonal relationships.
A manager is not mainly interested in giving orders and managing every detail as in giving employees the tools they need to work themselves. While delegation is a vital part of supportive leadership, managers do not simply assign tasks and then receive the results. Instead, they work through the tasks with employees to improve skills and talent until the manager does not need to worry about a task being done correctly and the employee is fully empowered in a particular area.
A manager who is considerate and friendly towards employees is more likely to win their friendship and loyalty. The emotional ties that are formed make it easier to gain cooperation and support from people on whom the manager must rely to get the work done. It is more satisfying to work with someone who is friendly, cooperative, and supportive than with someone who is cold and impersonal, or worse, hostile and uncooperative. Supportive leaders constantly checks with every group and make sure everybody is on the same page and the team as a whole is going toward the ultimate goal.
Employees will look towards the leaders for a number of things. During drastic change times, they will expect effective and sensible planning, confident and effective decision-making, and regular, complete communication that are timely. They will perceive leadership as supportive, Behaviours of supportive leaders (Yukl, 2010) as stated in Simmons. B, (2009) includes; Showing acceptance and positive regard for others, being polite and onsiderate, not arrogant and rude, being patient and helpful when giving instructions or explanations, provide sympathy and support when the person is anxious or upset and express confidence in the person when there is a difficult task, while at the same time recognizing that tough decisions need to be made. There is a climate of trust between leader and the rest of the team. The existence of this trust brings hope for better times in the future, and that makes coping with drastic change much easier.
