Leadership and Change: Personal Effectiveness and Development Report

This report examines the multifaceted aspects of leadership and change, with a specific focus on personal leadership development and effectiveness within an organizational context. The author reflects on their personal leadership capabilities, highlighting the significance of skills in achieving business objectives and fostering a positive work environment. The report emphasizes the importance of emotional intelligence, transparency, and team building in effective leadership. Furthermore, it explores the author's approach to conflict and change management, recognizing the need for continuous learning and development in these areas. A case study of HSBC's change management strategies is included, illustrating how organizations adapt to and manage change through proactive planning, employee engagement, and clear communication. The report concludes by underscoring the need for leaders to cultivate adaptability, listening skills, and situational awareness to navigate complex organizational challenges and drive positive outcomes.

Running head: LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE
LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Element 010
Introduction
The process of directing, guiding and influencing the behavior of others for the
achievement of the common or specialized goal in a specific situation is known as leadership.
Leadership incorporates the capability and confidence amongst the members of a team.
Leaders construct a vision for motivating organizational members for accomplishing
objectives in a workplace (Antonakis and Day 2017). Changes are the prime challenge, a
leader experiences while managing a team and organizational objectives. The purpose of the
paper is to reflect upon personal effectiveness in the role and responsibility of a leader. The
paper will also present recommendations concerning personal leadership development.
Significance of Leadership Skills
Leaders play a significant role in accomplishing the business objectives of an
organization. Through my course discussion, I have learned the significance of leadership
skills and contributions. I have experienced the significance of leadership skills as the
contribution can be witnessed not only in managing teams but in reducing the costs
associated with the conduction of business activities. Effective leadership skills are crucial
for an overall positive environment and collaborative approach. Leadership skills
significantly contribute towards the assistance for prioritizing tasks based on the significance
and influence over the complete performance (Orellana 2016). Leadership skills can
accommodate various opportunities in every field possible. Staff motivation is crucial for
offering effective products and services to the end consumers by directing the contributions
in the right direction. In the world of competitive environment and limitation of resources,
leadership skills help to contribute majorly to the growing culture of productiveness and high
effectiveness.

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Effectiveness of personal leadership capabilities
Several people measure the effectiveness of leadership only based on financial results.
It is true that most effective leaders dominate the markets, maximize shareholder values and
increases the revenue of the organization. Given this situation, it suggests that leadership can
be measured only through financial data. But I have learned in the past few years and through
my courses and curriculum that effective leadership is more than that. It is more than just
about financial performances. I have learned that effective leadership also depends on the
way of executing things in the workplace, core-value, and engagement with employees. I
have learned the vast scope of leadership capability in managing the functions and
capabilities of the workforce. My personal course learnings and experiences in practicing
leadership exercises have been significantly relevant in growing business abilities.
Leadership skills create a significant contribution. It is important as a leader to make the
workplace a better place to work for the employees (Ibarra 2015). I have tried my best to
create a cooperative and healthy environment within my team that will help my colleagues to
connect with each other and seniors effectively. It will enable them to share information and
ideas without hesitation. As a leader, I have learned to stay positive and create courage and
confidence in the workplace through transparent communication systems and active
encouragement. This has helped in inspiring others in exploring their maximum abilities and
explores their hidden capabilities as well. I have put my best effort to provide freedom and
flexibility to the others so that decision making can be faster and the co-workers and
members can feel involved within the organization. Inspiring the team members and having a
“can-do” attitude is essential for achieving challenges even at the crisis time. I always try to
highlight my positivity in the workplace and do work myself when the situation becomes
tough. There has been a situation where I pulled off a particular crisis and tried inspiring
others as well that any situation is manageable if we try. I try my best to become a role model
by doing difficult tasks and solving critical blockages in the workplace. I have tried to

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achieve organizational goals faster every time by implementing several ways of work and by
trying out different techniques. My experiences suggest that delegation of authority and
responsibilities help in making the workforce more responsible and involved. Team members
and workers can take part in decision making that helps them in staying motivated. As a
leader, I focus on increasing the team engagement, creation of more humane workplace
culture, training and development of the members, understanding their problems and
grievances, more attention to career management and development, acceleration of
performances, unleashing of talents and leading with confidence. As a leader, I try in
accelerating performances through network and connection building and increasing the
organizational capacity. Measuring the effectiveness of the results are not as black and white
as a balance sheet, rather it is a complex process. Emotional intelligence is another important
factor of leadership (Baker, Jensen and Kolb 2005). As a leader, there should be a
combination of self-awareness, social awareness, self-management and relationship
management. I have got a hold on my emotional self-awareness and I am self-confident. I try
to maintain transparency and adapt to any kind of situation. I believe in optimism and try to
encourage positive behavior within the workplace by interacting and socializing with the
team members. I empathize and respond to what the people say so that the grievances and the
problems are properly evolved within the organization. Team building and teamwork are
encouraged.
When I entered as a leader on a management project, I saw that cross-training was a
major issue in my team. One of my teammates left the team for a better opportunity and the
team was unaware of the activity he performed. The activity became a crisis in the team. I
took the crisis as an opportunity to encourage them that it is nothing to be ashamed or afraid
of and just do it. I took up the activity myself and referred to some old reports. I completed
the activity and took all the pressure. The project was delivered successfully and the
presentation of the work was appreciated. I prepared an SOP and shared it with the team. The

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team felt motivated and encouraged. They also appreciated the same and they started to
cross-train each other as well. I tried to set an example that anything can be done if the best
effort is given.
Personal Leadership Development
New patterns of thoughts are created by leadership. We not only learn from our own
mistakes but also learn from several other examples of people, owners, companies and the
mistakes made by them. The essence of leadership is that there is always an opportunity to
learn and one is never the best. There will always be opportunities and situations to be better
than the best. One can constantly learn from the situations and keep on developing their
skills. We can always learn from the mistake of our own and the mistakes of the others as
well. So in terms of personal leadership development, there are enough opportunities to learn.
Conflict management and change management are two broad issues that always require
development. A leader must know to delegate, support, coach and direct. Conflict and change
can be managed through socialization and support. I need to develop more skills in managing
conflicts and change. Change is inevitable and it will always take place. Similarly, conflict is
also a part of any team. It is not easy to determine the source of change and conflict and
resolve it in a single day. The Iceberg of importance must be understood. Most of the
executives see only 4% of the problems whereas the staff can see 100% of the problems. So it
is required from my end to interact more at the base level and recognize the root of the
problems at the base level. Recognizing the problem and measuring its authenticity is a
difficult task and it requires a lot of experience and development. I am not an exception in it.
Although my change management skills are improving yet it needs a lot more understanding.
The identification of change agent needs psychological development. I also need to develop
my skills in understanding the nature of the people so that a good and strong team of change
and conflict management can be developed for the betterment of the team members. I require

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developing situational awareness and keep on learning new things. Most of all I need to
improve more on my listening skills before I make any decisions.

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Element 011
Introduction
There are a number of organizations that I know have adapted to change management
situations effectively. Many examples can be given from retail stores and IT companies.
Companies like GE, Toyota, Amazon, Samsung, Nokia, Coca-Cola and more are great
examples of managing change. In terms of financial companies JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs,
HSBC and more are some examples of change management. Before I proceed with the
change management scenario of any selected organization it is essential to know about
change management.
The term change is very crucial for any organization. There can be many sides of
change management like the soft side of change management, the technical side of change
management, the operational aspect of change management and so on. Change management
takes place when the organization undertakes the initiative of improving the performance,
take advantage of opportunities and requires a change in job roles, processes, structures and
technology. However, it must be understood that it is the employees at the end who have to
change and adapt themselves to a new situation (Hayes 2018). Although it is often called as
the soft side of change management, yet it is one of the most complex and critical
components that helps in organizational transformation and success. Efficient change
management depends on an efficient leader. As a leader one needs to prepare for change,
manage it and then reinforce it across the organization (Cameron and Green 2019).
Reflection on recent changes
In the given report I have considered HSBC as an example of change. HSBC is
among those companies that have proactively identified all the growth opportunities and
embraced new possibilities every moment. The company has always tried to gain competitive
advantages by utilizing the change management process efficiently. HSBC is one of the

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largest banking and financial services companies that have its presence in 64 countries and
territories. They have been operating since 1865 and have an employee base of 235000
(HSBC 2020). This tells about the criticality of human resource management, change
management and leadership within this organization. It was opened for a simple purpose of
financing trade between Europe and Asia and this purpose kept on evolving with time. The
bank faced changes in many forms. It has gone through an economic crisis, revolutions,
technological changes yet it has adapted to survive. Even in today’s crisis of the global
pandemic the bank has maintained its client centricity and is delivering services to its client
on a timely basis. The company has successfully embraced and managed change. The change
management cycle of the organization flows from idea to implementation. The process is as
follows –
1. It identifies the needs for the change at an early stage and plans for the future. The
company thinks about where it wants to be in the next five years and implement the
plan of action from the current situation.
2. It prioritizes the actions and focuses on potential benefits and aims at creating a
positive change culture within the organization.
3. It prepares for the change by collecting performance data and comparing it with the
goals and business implications. It takes advice on the same from the business experts
and organizes a project accordingly and creates a time table for the same.
4. The company engages with all its clients, employees and suppliers for the proper
communication of mission, vision, and message.
5. They promote the importance of the change to the employees efficiently.
6. They try to prepare a clear set of roles and responsibilities for all the people and
monitor the same. The necessary support is thereafter provided wherever needed.
7. Last but not least the company tries to create a culture of change.

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Recently there has been a change in the process of the organization. The traditional
process was streamlined whereas the current process is client-centric. The change in this
process has made it very difficult for all the employees to meet with the client deliverables
and people were afraid of quality issues. The previous process was structured and few steps
were set. All the people were trained based on those procedures and some additional training
were also given on their products. The additional pieces of training turned out to be very
helpful during this change process in HSBC. While the company was following the
traditional process, they prepared another learning module for all the employees to prepare
them for change from beforehand. The learning and development team of the organization
trained all the people with several other course materials and practical methods. The change
in the process thereafter did not let the employees face much trouble. However, apart from
the knowledge process perspective, the client-centricity impacted the delivery schedule and
the timelines. This required a lot of trial and errors and issues were expected. Technological
changes and changes in the software was also a major issue. People were not updated with
current technology and software. The learning team themselves had to make guidelines on
software and the management was also not hands-on. HSBC dealt with this situation easily.
The learning team and the top management gave training to the employees through web
conferences and made trial software. The works were done on the trial software and results
were recorded. The procedures were made through observation and then a final circulation
was sent to all the employees. All the employees were asked to work on the software for once
and each employee was given the opportunity to raise queries. All the queries were efficiently
answered and help from the developers was taken as well. The people who grabbed the
training properly were asked to train their colleagues and were rewarded. This made the
culture positive and things turned out positive. Even in today’s pandemic situation the
organization has provided work from home to all the employees and concentrated on
strengthening its IT facilities to minimize the effect on deliverables. They have started tested

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the mechanism long before the condition became vulnerable and managed effectively to
deliver to the client at their best.
Learning from the Change Management Procedure
The change management procedure of HSBC has helped me in many ways. The first
lesson that I learned is to foresee the future by utilizing the present data. HSBC has always
been very good at forecasting the future because of its strong analytics team and the
experience in the market. The learning environment is helpful and the communication system
is very strong. The organization has helped me in understanding the way of communicating at
each level so that the message gets transmitted clearly and there are no misunderstandings
and at the same time engaging the people with the change process so effectively. It has
helped me in understanding the few principles that I can be able to use in the future. The
principles I adopted from the case of this organization are –
1. Leading with culture and building from the existing strengths of the organization.
2. The change should be started from the top. It is not only about the lower levels but
also about the top levels. Strong, approachable and knowledgeable top level
management ensures strong communication.
3. Inputs and involvement should be present in all the layers of the organization.
4. Both “What” and “Why” are to be presented and the approach should be healthy and
friendly.
5. Starting to prioritize the critical initiatives and starting to act upon them from
beforehand.
6. Engage with everyone, every time and listen to the feedbacks with proper attention.
7. The new goals of change management should be supported by a proper structure of
training, rewards system operations, and other opportunities.
8. Being an informal leader and look for more leaders within the organization.
Thereafter we need to involve those leaders actively in team management.

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9. Encouraging active participation in the change process and informal solutions to be
provided to everyone.
10. Last but not the lease the results are to be assessed and compared with the goal.
These above principles are very clear to me and will help me in bringing out success in any
change management effectively.

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References
Antonakis, J. and Day, D.V. eds., 2017. The nature of leadership. Sage publications.
Baker, A.C., Jensen, P.J. and Kolb, D.A., 2005. Conversation as experiential learning.
Management learning, 36(4), pp.411-427.
Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2019. Making sense of change management: A complete guide to
the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Hayes, J., 2018. The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave.
HSBC, 2020. Our History | HSBC Holdings Plc. [online] HSBC. Available at:
<https://www.hsbc.com/who-we-are/our-history> [Accessed 26 March 2020].
Ibarra, H., 2015. Act like a leader, think like a leader. Harvard Business Review Press.
Orellana, S., 2016. Act like a Leader, Think like a Leader. Research-Technology
Management, 59(2), p.64.