As a systems architect, leaders
create cross-functional
linkages in the organisation,
align policies, procedures and
remove structural impediments
to performance and change,
and create new routines for
continuous improvement.








 

organisation, align policies, procedures and remove structural impediments to performance and change, and create new routines for continuous improvement. Apart from the emphasis on structure, leaders also pay attention to creating a climate of hope and optimism by clarifying purpose, enhancing preparedness and providing psychological safety.

Leader as Effi cacy Builder
For a company that is almost 100 years old, Tata Steel has shown remarkable agility since the early 1990’s. When the forces of liberalisation were set in motion, the leadership put in place myriad processes to prepare the company for global competition. Over a hundred teams were mobilised to bring about improvements in different areas. Cumulatively, over 5,000 people were entrusted the challenge of carrying out various initiatives for modernising mindsets of the company’s 40,000 employees, enhancing quality, bringing about radical performance improvements through ‘Total Operational Performance’ (TOP), creating a market-oriented organisation, de- bottlenecking facilities, phasing out technologically obsolete plants, adding new facilities for manufacturing value-added products, capacity expansion and so on. The entire workforce of 40,000 people was trained in certain improvement techniques to change patterns of thinking. A major change initiative called ASPIRE (Aspirational Initiatives to Retain Excellence) was launched to use teams as an instrument and source of innovation in the company. The idea was to get people to look at existing operations with new eyes, be innovative and translate the ideas into effective ground- evel implementation. Not surprisingly, the company has been rated among the top five steel producers in the world for the last four years by the World Steel Dynamics, and was ranked the best steel company in the world in 2005.

Though   the    company   changed   all   the

components of capability – its skills, systems, structure, strategy and culture, the heart of the leadership lies in building self- efficacy. Self-efficacy refers to the confidence an individual has in his or her ability to achieve challenging goals. A high level of self-efficacy makes it easy for individuals to learn new things because they experience less learning anxiety. As we have noted, the subjective world and mindsets of organisational members determine what they see and how they would think and act. This leadership role of fostering a positive belief in people that they can face the challenges of change and overcome them has been termed as ‘efficacy builder’ role.

To build self-efficacy, leaders enhance the aspirations of people to face challenging tasks. They create positive role models for others to emulate; design incentives that induce people to set high goals for themselves; ensure that there are support mechanisms to help people achieve their stretch goals; and promote learning as a desirable goal in the organisation. In short, they structure opportunities for people to set challenging goals and achieve them.

Finally, it is important to note that a single leader need not necessarily address all the four sets of challenges by himself/herself. An effective leader understands his or her strengths and limitations and teams up with other leaders having complementary strengths so that the leadership team can perform all four roles to be able to navigate through the complex challenge of altering mindsets. Managing organisations in the current global environment is a complex challenge that requires sophisticated solutions. Our organisations can effectively meet this challenge by viewing leadership as a multifaceted task of cognitive tuning, people catalysing, architecting effective systems and building efficacy of the people in the organisation.