Leading Change and Communication for Professionals Organizational Change Forum
People in different fields and industries have their definition of leadership. For Linda Hill, the basic definitions of leadership, where the leader establishes organizational goals and vision, does not appear suitable. Instead, she believes leading is allowing others to perfect in their objective roles; she believes leading is enabling a community of minorities within a given organization to conduct themselves in their motivated fields autonomously. According to Linda, the hierarchy of leadership where the leader offers directives and finds solutions is not effective in leading collective creativity.
Nevertheless, some tend to oppose the Linda version of organizational leadership. For instance, John Kotter understands that leadership is all about setting and establishing directions for others to follow. John Kotter believes that leaders should first be able to develop a great sense of agency within their organization. He likewise understands that leaders must be able to create suitable visions that others must follow. According to Kotter, organizational transformation starts when an organization has a leader who is good at leading and who envision the need for a significant change. Also, if an organization targets to change its entire operations or their entire company, then the CEO is the key.
The two leadership styles, in this case, clash significantly. One is autocratic or one-person leadership, and the other one is democratic, where everyone has a voice. Linda’s is the latter. In her leadership style, the key players are the people, while in Kotter’s, the key player is the leader. In Linda’s view, it is the people or the employees who develop organizational solutions; the employees, in this case, are viewed as a community of different leaders.